Napoleon - Appendix-II

Appendix-II

The family of Napoleon

The Bonaparte family were from minor Italian nobility who held most of their property in the hill town of San Miniato near Florence, Italy. The Bonapartes came from a Tuscan stock of Lombard origin. The name derives from Italian, bona (buona) "good" and parte "solution" or "match" (a name bestowed as an expression of satisfaction at a newborn's arrival).

A Francesco Bonaparte came to Corsica in 16th century when the island was in Genoese possession.

Napoleon I is the most prominent name associated with the Bonaparte family because he conquered much of the Western world during the early part of the 19th century. He became First Consul of France on 10 November 1799 with the help of his brother, Lucien Bonaparte, president of the Council of Five Hundred at Saint-Cloud. He was crowned Emperor of the French in 1804 and ruled from 1804-1814 and in 1815.

Following his conquest of most of Western Europe, Napoleon I made his elder brother Joseph (1768-1844) king first of Naples (1806-1808) and then of Spain (1808-1813), his third brother Louis (1778-1846) king of Holland (1806-1810) (subsequently forcing his abdication after his failure to subordinate Dutch inter­ests to those of France) and his youngest brother Jerome (1784­1860) king of Westphalia, the short-lived realm created from some of the states of north-western Germany (1807-1813).

Napoleon's son, Napoleon Fran~ois Charles Joseph (1811­

1832), was made king of Rome (1811-1814) and was later styled Napoleon II by loyalists of the dynasty. Charles Louis Napoleon (1808-1873), son of Louis Bonaparte, was president of France from 1848 to 1852 and emperor from 1852 to 1870, reigning as Napoleon III; his son, Eugene Bonaparte (1856-1879), styled the Prince Imperial, died fighting the Zulus in Natal, South Africa. With his death, the family lost much of its remaining political ap­peal, though claimants continue to assert their right to the impe­rial title.

Crowns held by the family

Emperors of the French
- Napoleon I (1804-1814,1815), also King of Italy (1805-1814) and Emperor of Elba (1814-1815)
-Napoleon III (1852-1870)

Kings of Holland
Louis I (1806-1810)
Louis II (1810), also Grand Duke of Berg (1809-1813)

King of Naples
- Joseph I (1806-1808)

King of Westphalia
- Jérôme I (1807-1813)

King of Spain
-Joseph I (1808-1813)

Grand Duchess of Tuscany
- Elisa Bonaparte (1809-1814)

Napoleon and his brothers