Are there any living descendants of Napoleon Bonaparte?
House of Bonaparte
There are, however, numerous descendants of Napoleon's illegitimate but recognized son, Alexandre Colonna-Walewski, from his union with Marie, Countess Walewski. A descendant of Napoleon's sister Caroline Bonaparte is the actor René Auberjonois. Recent DNA matches with living descendants of Jérôme and Count Walewski have confirmed the existence of descendants of Lucien Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother, namely the Clovis family.
French nobility
Napoléon Bonaparte established his own hereditary titles during the Empire, and these new aristocrats were confirmed in legal retention of their titles even after his overthrow. In all, about 2200 titles were created by Napoleon I:In 1975, there were 239 remaining families holding First Empire titles. Of those, perhaps 130–140 were titled. Only one title of prince and seven titles of duke remain.
Charlotte Bonaparte
Charlotte Napoléone Bonaparte (31 October 1802 – 2 March 1839) was the daughter of Joseph Bonaparte, the older brother of Emperor Napoleon I, and Julie Clary. Her mother was the sister of Désirée Clary, Napoleon's first love. Charlotte married her first cousin Napoleon Louis, the second son of Louis Bonaparte and Hortense de Beauharnais. She studied engraving and lithography in Paris with the artist Louis Léopold Robert, who is reputed to have fallen in love with her.
Roland Bonaparte
Prince Roland Napoléon Bonaparte (19 May 1858 – 14 April 1924) was a French prince and president of the Société de Géographie from 1910 until his death. He was the last direct descendant of Lucien Bonaparte, the genetically senior branch of the family since 1844.
Napoléon Louis Bonaparte
Napoléon Louis is buried at Saint-Leu-La-Foret, Île-de-France.
House of Bonaparte
Between 1852 and 1870, there was a Second French Empire, when a member of the Bonaparte dynasty again ruled France: Napoleon III, the youngest son of Louis Bonaparte. However, during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, the dynasty was again ousted from the Imperial Throne. Since that time, there has been a series of pretenders. Supporters of the Bonaparte family's claim to the throne of France are known as Bonapartists. Current head Jean-Christophe, Prince Napoléon, has a Bourbon mother.
Jérôme Bonaparte
Although Catharina was aware of Jérôme's womanising and affairs, she remained true to her husband. They had two sons, Prince Jérôme Napoléon Charles Bonaparte (1814–1847) and Prince Napoléon Bonaparte (1822–1891), also known as "Prince Napoleon" or "Plon-Plon." Their second child was a daughter, Princess Mathilde Bonaparte, who was a prominent hostess during and after the Second French Empire of Napoleon III (1852–70).
Napoleon Bonaparte Buford
He died in Chicago, Illinois, and is buried in Rock Island, Illinois.
Napoleon Bonaparte Buford
Napoleon Bonaparte Buford (January 13, 1807 – March 28, 1883) was an American soldier, Union general in the American Civil War, and railroad executive. He was the half-brother of the famous Gettysburg hero, John Buford, but never attained his sibling's military distinction.
Duchy of Berg
In 1809, one year after Murat's promotion from Grand Duke of Berg to King of Naples, Napoleon's young nephew, Prince Napoleon Louis Bonaparte (1804–1831, elder son of Napoleon's brother Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland) became the Grand Duke of Berg; French bureaucrats administered the territory in the name of the child. The Grand Duchy's short existence came to an end with Napoleon's defeat in 1813 and the peace settlements that followed.
Bonapartism
Today, an official "Mouvement Bonapartiste" exists, based in France, headed by Paul-Napoléon Pierre Calland with an unknown number of members around the world. Its official mission statement is as follows:
"[T]o defend, make known and to spread the principles and values of Bonapartism. [The movement] is based on popular support for a policy of recovery combining the efforts of individuals, associations and State services. The movement defends the Bonapartist principles on which it is founded, and which govern its internal organisation. It also defends the memory of Napoleon the Great, as well as those of Napoleon III and their sons, Napoleon II and Napoleon IV. It recognises Napoleon IV as having reigned without governing, by virtue of the plebiscite of May 1870. The movement recognises no emperor after 1879, because of the absence of a plebiscite. Republican, it gives priority to the happiness, interest and glory of peoples, and envisages the restoration of the Empire only if the foundations of the regime are republican and approved by referendum."
Charles, Prince Napoléon
Charles is the elder son of the late Louis, Prince Napoléon (1914–1997), and as such a great-great-grandson in the male line of Jérôme Bonaparte, King of Westphalia, Napoléon's youngest brother. As neither Napoléon I nor Napoléon III of France have surviving legitimate issue in the male line, Jérôme's descendants represent the only Imperial Bonapartes still living (the American Bonapartes were senior in descent from King Jérôme, but the last male of that line died in 1945, nor was this branch ever considered dynastic in France).
House of Bonaparte
Lucotte et al. published in October 2013 the extended Y-STR of Napoleon I based on descendant testing, and the descendants were E-M34, just like the emperor's beard hair tested a year before. The persons tested were the patrilineal descendants of Jérome Bonaparte, one of Napoleon's brothers, and of Alexandre Colonna-Walewski, Napoleon's illegitimate son with Marie Walewska. These three tests all yielded the same Y-STR haplotype (109 markers) confirming with 100% certainty that the first Emperor of the French belonged to the M34 branch of haplogroup E1b1b.
Charles Lucien Bonaparte
Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte, 2nd Prince of Canino and Musignano (24 May 1803 – 29 July 1857), was a French biologist and ornithologist. Lucien and his wife had twelve children, including Cardinal Lucien Bonaparte.
Succession to the French throne
At the time the law of succession was decreed Napoleon I had no legitimate sons, and it seemed unlikely he would have any due to the age of his wife, Josephine of Beauharnais. His eventual response was an unacceptable one, in the eyes of Catholic France, of engineering a dubious annulment, without papal approval, of his marriage to Josephine and undertaking a second marriage to the younger Mary Louise of Austria, with whom he had one son, Napoleon, King of Rome, also as Napoleon II and the Duke of Reichstadt. He was not married and had no children, thus leaving no further direct descendants of Napoleon I.
Line of succession to the French throne (Bonapartist)
At the time the law of succession was decreed, Napoleon I had no legitimate sons, and it seemed unlikely that he would have any due to the age of his wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais. His eventual response was to have his marriage to Josephine annulled and to undertake a second marriage with Roman Catholic rites to Archduchess Marie Louise, daughter of Emperor Francis I of Austria. Their only child was Napoleon, King of Rome, known in exile as "Napoleon II" and as the Duke of Reichstadt. He died unmarried, thereby extinguishing the legitimate descent of Napoleon I.
Joseph Lucien Bonaparte
Joseph Lucien Charles Napoléon Bonaparte, 3rd Prince of Canino and Musignano (12 February 1824 – 2 September 1865), was born in Philadelphia as the son of Charles Lucien Bonaparte and his wife (and cousin), Zénaïde Bonaparte.
Jérôme Bonaparte
Another grandson was Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte II, (1829–1893). In the early 1850s, he graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, was commissioned an officer in the United States Army, and served with the Mounted Rifles in Texas on the American southwestern frontier. He eventually resigned his commission and joined the forces of his cousin, the Emperor Napoleon III in his second French Empire.
Napoleon Bonaparte Buford
Buford was the son of John and Nancy Hickman Buford. He was born in Woodford County, Kentucky on his family's plantation, "Rose Hill." At the time of his birth his namesake, Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the French, was at the height of his power. Buford graduated from West Point in 1827 and served for eight years in the artillery and in 1835 resigned from the service to become an engineer. He thereafter engaged in iron manufacturing and banking at Rock Island, Illinois and became president of the Rock Island and Peoria Railroad, which went bankrupt when major Southern bonds were defaulted with the start of the Civil War.
Prince Jérôme Napoléon
Prince Jérôme was born on 14 January 1957 to Prince Louis Napoléon and Alix de Foresta. He is the paternal uncle of the current claimant to the headship of the Bonaparte family, Jean-Christophe, Prince Napoléon "(Napoléon VIII Jean-Christophe)". His godfather was Prince Xavier of Bourbon-Parma.
Caroline Bonaparte
Maria Annunziata Carolina Murat (French: "Marie Annonciade Caroline Murat"; "née" Bonaparte; 25 March 1782 – 18 May 1839), better known as Caroline Bonaparte, was the seventh surviving child and third surviving daughter of Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino, and a younger sister of Napoleon I of France. She was queen of Naples during the reign of her spouse there, and regent of Naples during his absence four times: in 1812-13, 1813, 1814 and 1815.
Louis, Prince Napoléon
Louis, Prince Napoléon ("Louis Jérôme Victor Emmanuel Léopold Marie"; 23 January 1914 – 3 May 1997) was a member of the Bonaparte dynasty. He was the pretender to the Imperial throne of France, as Napoléon VI, from 1926 until his death.
Ajaccio
Napoleon Bonaparte (born as Nabulione Buonaparte) was born at Ajaccio in the same year as the Battle of Ponte Novu, 1769. The Bonapartes at the time had a modest four-story home in town (now a museum known as Maison Bonaparte) and a rarely used country home in the hills north of the city (now site of the Arboretum des Milelli). The father of the family, attorney Charles-Marie Buonaparte, was secretary to Pasquale Paoli during the Corsican Republic.
After the defeat of Paoli, the Comte de Marbeuf began to meet with some leading Corsicans to outline the shape of the future and enlist their assistance. The Comte was among a delegation from Ajaccio in 1769, offered his loyalty and was appointed assessor.
Napoleon
Napoleon acknowledged one illegitimate son: Charles Léon (1806–1881) by Eléonore Denuelle de La Plaigne. Alexandre Colonna-Walewski (1810–1868), the son of his mistress Maria Walewska, although acknowledged by Walewska's husband, was also widely known to be his child, and the DNA of his direct male descendant has been used to help confirm Napoleon's Y-chromosome haplotype. He may have had further unacknowledged illegitimate offspring as well, such as Eugen Megerle von Mühlfeld by Emilie Victoria Kraus and Hélène Napoleone Bonaparte (1816–1907) by Albine de Montholon.
Bonapartism
Bonapartists continued to agitate for another member of the family to be placed on the throne. From 1871 forward, they competed with Monarchist groups that favoured the restoration of the family of Louis-Philippe, King of the French (1830–1848) (the Orléanists), and also with those who favoured the restoration of the House of Bourbon, the traditional French royal family (Legitimists). The strength of these three factions combined was powerful, but they did not unite on the choice of the new French monarch. Monarchist fervor eventually waned, and the French Republic became more or less a permanent facet of French life. Bonapartism was slowly relegated to being the civic faith of a few romantics as more of a hobby than a practical political philosophy. The death knell for Bonapartism was probably sounded when Eugène Bonaparte, the only son of Napoleon III, was killed in action while serving as a British Army officer in Zululand in 1879. Thereafter Bonapartism ceased to be a significant political force.
Charles, Prince Napoléon
In 2011, a study of DNA extracted from Napoleon I's beard and compared to that of Charles was found to match substantially, establishing that both were members of the male-line of the Imperial House of Bonaparte (In 2013, published scholarship comparing DNA haplotype evidence taken from Emperor Napoleon I, from Prince Charles and from a descendant of Napoleon's reputed son, Count Alexandre Colonna-Walewski, verified Walewski's descent in the genetic male-line from Napoleon I's patriline, however Walewski's mother was never married to the emperor and he was raised as the legal son of her husband.)
List of heirs to the French throne
This restored First Empire lasted until 22 June 1815, when Napoleon abdicated again, this time in favor of a regency on behalf of his son (who had been separated from his father in 1814 and was living in Vienna, Austria). The nominal reign of Napoleon II lasted no longer than until 7 July 1815, when an Allied army occupied Paris. Napoleon I was now exiled to the Atlantic island of St. Helena, where he died a prisoner 5 May 1821. Napoleon II continued to live under close observation in Vienna until he died of tuberculosis 22 July 1832. Neither Joseph nor Louis Bonaparte ever made any effort on behalf of the imperial claims that had descended to them.
Napoléon Louis Bonaparte
Napoléon Louis married his first cousin, Charlotte, who was the daughter of Joseph Bonaparte, eldest brother of Napoléon I. He and his younger brother Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte settled in Italy, where they espoused liberal politics and became involved with the Carbonari, an organization fighting Austria's domination of northern Italy.
Victor, Prince Napoléon
Victor, Prince Napoléon, titular 4th Prince of Montfort ("Napoléon Victor Jérôme Frédéric Bonaparte"; 18 July 1862 – 3 May 1926), was the Bonapartist pretender to the French throne from 1879 until his death in 1926. He was known as Napoléon V by his supporters.
House of Bonaparte
The House of Bonaparte formed the Imperial House of France during the French Empire, together with some non-Bonaparte family members. In addition to holding the title of Emperor of the French, the Bonaparte dynasty held various other titles and territories during the Napoleonic Wars, including the Kingdom of Italy, the Kingdom of Spain, the Kingdom of Westphalia, the Kingdom of Holland, and the Kingdom of Naples. The dynasty held power for around a decade until the Napoleonic Wars began to take their toll. Making very powerful enemies, such as Austria, Britain, Russia, and Prussia, as well as royalist (particularly Bourbon) restorational movements in France, Spain, the Two Sicilies, and Sardinia, the dynasty eventually collapsed due to the final defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo and the restoration of former dynasties by the Congress of Vienna.
Line of succession to the French throne (Bonapartist)
The disturbances of 1848 gave this group hope. Bonapartists were essential in the election of Napoleon I's nephew Louis Napoleon Bonaparte as president of the Second French Republic. They also gave him crucial political support for the 1852 "coup d'état", which overthrew the republican constitution and paved the way for the proclamation the following year of the Second French Empire, with Napoleon III as emperor.
Napoleon Bonaparte Charlton
Napoleon Bonaparte Charlton was a politician who served in the Texas House of Representatives and Texas Senate from early 1846 to late 1866.
Napoleon was born on May 13, 1813 in Sumner, Tennessee to James Charlton and Rachel Blackmore. He is one of 10 children. He also had 5 children, 3 boys and 2 girls. He died on June 17, 1896 in Tyler, Texas at the age of 83.
Line of succession to the French throne (Bonapartist)
This branch of claimants was established by Napoleon Joseph Charles Bonaparte, nicknamed "Plon-Plon". He was the only legitimate male descendant of Jérôme Bonaparte from his second marriage to Princess Catherine of Württemberg. He married Princess Clothilde of Savoy and died in 1891. His son, Victor, Prince Napoléon, the next claimant, wed Princess Clémentine of Belgium, and died in 1926.
Caroline Bonaparte
Caroline was born in Ajaccio, Corsica. She was a younger sister of Joseph Bonaparte, Napoléon Bonaparte, Lucien Bonaparte, Elisa Bonaparte, Louis Bonaparte and Pauline Bonaparte. She was an older sister of Jérôme Bonaparte.
Joseph Bonaparte
He married Marie Julie Clary daughter of François Clary on 1 August 1794 in Cuges-les-Pins, France. They had three daughters:
He claimed the two surviving daughters as his heirs. He also sired two children with Maria Giulia, the Countess of Atri:
Joseph had two American daughters born at Point Breeze, his estate in Bordentown, New Jersey, by his mistress, Annette Savage ("Madame de la Folie"):
House of Bonaparte
The current headship of the family is in dispute between Charles, Prince Napoléon (born 1950), great-great-grandson of Jérôme Bonaparte by his second marriage, and his son Jean-Christophe, Prince Napoléon (born 1986), who was appointed heir in the will of his grandfather Louis, Prince Napoléon. The only other male member of the family is Charles's recently married brother, Prince Jérôme Napoléon (born 1957). There are no other legitimate descendants in the male line from Napoleon I or his brothers.
Charles Joseph Bonaparte
Bonaparte was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on June 9, 1851, the son of Jerôme ("Bo") Napoleon Bonaparte, (1805–1870) and Susan May Williams (1812–1881), from whom the American line of the Bonaparte family descended, and a grandson of Jérôme Bonaparte, the youngest brother of French Emperor Napoleon I and King of Westphalia, 1807–1813. However, the American Bonapartes were not considered part of the dynasty and never used any titles.
Joseph Bonaparte
Joseph-Napoléon Bonaparte, born Giuseppe di Buonaparte (, ; 7 January 1768 – 28 July 1844) was a French diplomat and nobleman, the elder brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, who made him King of Naples and Sicily (1806–1808, as Giuseppe I), and later King of Spain (1808–1813, as José I). After the fall of Napoleon, Joseph styled himself "Comte de Survilliers".
Jérôme Napoléon Bonaparte
Jérôme Napoleon Bonaparte died in Baltimore, Maryland, and is buried in the Loudon Park Cemetery, Baltimore.
Napoleon III
He was busy in prison, but also unhappy and impatient. He was aware that the popularity of Napoleon Bonaparte was steadily increasing in France; the Emperor was the subject of heroic poems, books and plays. Huge crowds had gathered in Paris on 15 December 1840 when the remains of Napoleon Bonaparte were returned with great ceremony to Paris and handed over to Louis-Napoleon's old enemy, King Louis-Philippe, while Louis-Napoleon could only read about it in prison. On 25 May 1846, with the assistance of his doctor and other friends on the outside, he disguised himself as a laborer carrying lumber, and walked out of the prison. His enemies later derisively called him "Badinguet", the name of the laborer whose identity he had assumed. A carriage was waiting to take him to the coast and then by boat to England. A month after his escape, his father Louis died, making Louis-Napoleon the clear heir to the Bonaparte dynasty.
Charles, Prince Napoléon
Although officially recognized as heir apparent to the Bonapartist claim during the lifetime of his father Prince Louis Napoléon, when the latter's will was made public on 2 December 1997 (seven months after his death), it declared that Prince Charles was to be bypassed as dynastic heir in favour of his only son, Prince Jean-Christophe Napoléon, then 11 years old.
Napoleon
Napoléon Bonaparte (, ; ; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a French statesman and military leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars. He was Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814 and again briefly in 1815 during the Hundred Days. Napoleon dominated European and global affairs for more than a decade while leading France against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars. He won most of these wars and the vast majority of his battles, building a large empire that ruled over continental Europe before its final collapse in 1815. He is considered one of the greatest commanders in history, and his wars and campaigns are studied at military schools worldwide. Napoleon's political and cultural legacy has endured as one of the most celebrated and controversial leaders in human history.
House of Bonaparte
Louis-Napoléon (1808–1873), son of Louis, was President of France (1848–1852) and then Emperor of the French (1852–1870), reigning as Napoleon III. His son, Napoléon, Prince Imperial (1856–1879), died fighting the Zulus in Natal, today the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal. With his death, the family lost much of its remaining political appeal, though claimants continue to assert their right to the imperial title. A political movement for Corsican independence surfaced in the 1990s which included a Bonapartist restoration in its programme.
Succession to the French throne
In 1852, Napoleon III, having restored the Bonapartes to power in France, enacted a new decree on the succession. The claim first went to his own male legitimate descendants in the male line.
José Bonaparte
Bonaparte is the son of an Italian sailor, with no close connection to the Napoleon Bonaparte family. He was born in Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina, and grew up in Mercedes, Buenos Aires. Despite a lack of formal training in paleontology, he started collecting fossils with many friends at an early age, and created a museum in their home town. He later became the curator of the National University of Tucumán, where he was named "Doctor Honoris causa" in 1976, and then in the late 1970s became a senior scientist at the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales in Buenos Aires. Bonaparte is a two-time Guggenheim Fellow and since the 1970s has received periodic funding from the National Geographic Society. He is reportedly hard working, stubborn, and has a strong personality, even violent. He received another honorary degree from the National University of Comahue in 2011.
Armorial of the House of Bonaparte
The House of Bonaparte was a royal dynasty started by Napoleon I, son of Carlo Bonaparte. The family formed the Imperial House of France during the first French Empire. The house ruled until 1871, when they were ultimately ousted due to the effects of the Franco-Prussian War. Here are their individual seals:
Charles Félix Jean-Baptiste Camerata-Passionei di Mazzoleni
Charles Félix Jean-Baptiste Camerata-Passionei di Mazzoleni (20 September 1826 – 4 March 1853) was a French-Italian aristocrat born in Ancona, the son of Filippo Camerata-Passionei di Mazzoleni, an Italian count, and Princess Elisa Napoléone Baciocchi, the daughter of Felice Baciocchi Levoy and Elisa Bonaparte. He was therefore a grandnephew of Napoleon and a first cousin once removed of Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, who became President of the French Republic in 1848 and then Emperor of the French as Napoléon III in 1852.
Église Saint-Leu-Saint Gilles (Saint-Leu-la-Forêt)
At the back of the choir, as a tribute to the Bonaparte family and especially Louis Napoleon, the brother of Emperor Napoleon I and Napoleon III's father, there is a tomb for Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland, made by Louis Petitot. On the front of the tomb are the faces of his sons Napoléon Charles Bonaparte and Napoléon Louis Bonaparte and his father Carlo Buonaparte. Behind the monument is a fresco by Sébastien-Melchior Cornu with four angels carrying Saint Louis, St. Charles and St. Napoleon. This wall has recently been restored using the Napoleon Foundation.
Bonapartiste
The "Bonapartistes" desired an empire under the House of Bonaparte, the Corsican family of Napoleon Bonaparte (Napoleon I of France) and his nephew Louis (Napoleon III of France).
Jérôme Napoléon Charles Bonaparte
Jérôme Napoléon Charles Bonaparte, Prince of Montfort (24 August 1814–12 May 1847) was the son of Jérôme Bonaparte and a nephew of Napoleon I, Emperor of France, and a soldier in service of the German kingdom of Württemberg.
Princess Marie Bonaparte
Marie Bonaparte was a great-grandniece of Emperor Napoleon I of France. She was the only child of Prince Roland Bonaparte (19 May 1858 – 14 April 1924) and (1859–1882). Her paternal grandfather was Prince Pierre Napoleon Bonaparte, son of Prince Lucien Bonaparte, who was one of Napoleon's rebellious and disinherited younger brothers. For this reason, despite her title Marie was not a member of the dynastic branch of the Bonapartes who claimed the French imperial throne from exile. Her maternal grandfather was François Blanc, the principal real-estate developer of Monte Carlo. It was from this side of her family that Marie inherited her great fortune.
Marie Clotilde Bonaparte
Princess Marie Clotilde Eugénie Alberte Laetitia Généviève Bonaparte (20 March 1912, Brussels, Belgium14 April 1996, Château de la Pommerie, Cendrieux, France) was a French princess of the Bonaparte dynasty, the eldest child of Victor, Prince Napoléon and his wife, Princess Clémentine of Belgium.
Empress Joséphine
When after a few years it became clear she could not have a child, Napoleon, while still loving Joséphine, began to think very seriously about the possibility of divorce. The final die was cast when Joséphine's grandson Napoléon Charles Bonaparte, who had been declared Napoleon's heir, died of croup in 1807. Napoleon began to create lists of eligible princesses. At dinner on 30 November 1809, he let Joséphine know that - in the interest of France — he must find a wife who could produce an heir.
Napoleon Bonaparte Brown
Brown was named after Napoleon Bonaparte by his parents James & Nancy Brown. The 1850 Pike County, Illinois census gives his age as 16 at that time. A later census (1900) in Concordia, KS gives his birthdate as Oct 1833. He appeared to have two siblings: a brother, Benjamin age 14; and a sister named May or Mary aged 11 listed in the census as well. Later military records list his hometown as Concord, Illinois in neighboring Morgan County. until he resigned on January 17, 1865
Napoléon Louis Bonaparte
When Napoléon I was deposed in 1815 after the Battle of Waterloo, the House of Bourbon was restored to the throne of France. Napoléon Louis fled into exile, but the Bonapartes never abandoned the thought of restoring the Napoleonic Empire.
Susan May Williams
Their sons were the soldier Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte II (1830-1893) and the lawyer and government official Charles Joseph Bonaparte (1851-1921).
Jeanne Bonaparte
Princess Jeanne Bonaparte (15 September 1861 – 25 July 1910) was a great-niece of Napoleon I of France, and the only daughter of Pierre Napoleon Bonaparte by his wife Justine Eleanore Ruflin. She was well known in French society as an artist and sculptor, and was married to Christian de Villeneuve-Esclapon.
Carlo Buonaparte
He served briefly as a personal assistant of the revolutionary leader Pasquale Paoli and eventually rose to become Corsica's representative to the court of Louis XVI. It was well after his death that his second surviving son, Napoleon, became Emperor of the French; subsequently, several of Buonaparte's other children received royal titles from their brother, and married into royalty.
Prince of Canino and Musignano
In May 1870, that order of succession was confirmed by referendum, except that Prince Napoléon Joseph (1822–1891), Jérôme's surviving son by his second wife, Duchess Catharina of Württemberg, was named to follow the emperor's son, the Prince Imperial Napoléon Eugène in the succession line. However, a few months later the French Empire was abolished, and has not been restored. Meanwhile, the agnatic descendants of Jérôme Napoléon's branch (the Prince Napoléon Line) are still extant, and still hold the dynastic claim to the Napoleonic legacy.Lucien Bonaparte (1775–1840) married twice: first to Christine Boyer, who gave birth to a stillborn son and three daughters; and second to Alexandrine de Bleschamp and had eight children.
Jean-Christophe, Prince Napoléon
Jean-Christophe, Prince Napoléon ("Jean Christophe Louis Ferdinand Albéric Napoléon"; born 11 July 1986) is, in the views of some Bonapartists, head of the former Imperial House of France and the heir of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Napoléon Louis Bonaparte
Napoléon Louis's elder brother, Napoléon Charles, died in 1807 at the age of four. On his death, Napoléon Louis became Prince Royal of Holland. It also made Napoléon Louis the second eldest nephew of Emperor Napoléon I, who at the time had no legitimate children, and he was his uncle's likely eventual successor. He lost this presumptive status on 20 March 1811 when his uncle's second wife, Marie Louise, gave birth to a son, Napoléon François Joseph Charles Bonaparte, who was styled the King of Rome and later the Duke of Reichstadt.
Jérôme Napoléon Bonaparte
He was born in 95 Camberwell Grove, Camberwell, London, but lived in the United States with his wealthy American mother. Jérôme's mother's marriage had been annulled by order of Jérôme's uncle, French Emperor Napoleon I. The annulment caused the rescission of his right to carry the Bonaparte name; though the ruling was later reversed by his cousin, Napoleon III.
Jeanne-Françoise Valliccioni
Article 6 of the French Empire's constitution, as modified by the "Senatus Consultus" of 7 November 1852, stipulated that "...The members of the family of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte eligible for the succession, and their descendants of both sexes, are members of the Imperial family...They may not marry without the Emperor's authorization. Their marriage without such authorization entails loss of all rights of succession, both for him who contracts the marriage and his descendants." 
Pursuant to this constitutional provision, which was in force until the abolition of the French imperial monarchy in 1870, the marriage to Valliccioni automatically excluded from the imperial house not only Valliccioni's husband, but all of their children, born and to be born, male and female. Charles Napoléon has publicly rejected the applicability of that law and of the effects of dynastic disinheritance by his father, maintaining that he inherited by right and retains representation of Napoleon's imperial legacy.
Napoleon Andrew Tuiteleleapaga
Tuiteleleapga is often remembered for both his comedic tone and harsh disciplinary methods. He is a beloved son of Leone. Napoleon is survived by a vast clan of descendants. His family is scattered across the western United States and the Polynesian Islands. His former title, "Tuiteleleapaga", is currently vacant.
Prince Napoléon Bonaparte
When Napoléon Eugène, Prince Imperial died in 1879, Prince Napoleon became, genealogically, the most senior member of the Bonaparte family, but the Prince Imperial's will excluded him from the succession, nominating Prince Napoleon's son Napoléon Victor Jérôme Frédéric Bonaparte as the new head of the family. As a result, Prince Napoleon and his son quarrelled for the remainder of Prince Napoleon's life.
House of Bonaparte
The House of Bonaparte (originally "Buonaparte") was an imperial and royal European dynasty of Italian origin. It was founded in 1804 by Napoleon I, the son of Italian nobleman Carlo Buonaparte. Napoleon was a French military leader who had risen to power during the French Revolution and who in 1804 transformed the First French Republic into the First French Empire, five years after his "coup d'état" of November 1799. Napoleon turned the "Grande Armée" against every major European power and dominated continental Europe through a series of military victories during the Napoleonic Wars. He installed members of his family on the thrones of client states, extending the power of the dynasty.
Jérôme Bonaparte
Jérôme-Napoléon Bonaparte (born Girolamo Buonaparte; 15 November 1784 – 24 June 1860) was the youngest brother of Napoleon I and reigned as Jerome I (formally Hieronymus Napoleon in German), King of Westphalia, between 1807 and 1813. From 1816 onward, he bore the title of Prince of Montfort. After 1848, when his nephew, Louis Napoleon, became President of the French Second Republic, he served in several official roles, including Marshal of France from 1850 onward, and President of the Senate in 1852.
Roland Bonaparte
Bonaparte was born in Paris on 19 May 1858, the son of Prince Pierre Napoleon Bonaparte and Justine Eleanore Ruflin. He was a grandson of Lucien Bonaparte, Emperor Napoleon I's brother.
Hélène Napoleone Bonaparte
Hélène Napoleone Bonaparte (18 June 1816 – 16 January 1907) was the reputed daughter of Napoleon by his mistress, Albine de Montholon, wife of Charles Tristan, marquis de Montholon, and mother of Charles-François-Frédéric, marquis de Montholon-Sémonville.
Victor, Prince Napoléon
He was born in the Palais Royal of Paris during the Second French Empire the son of the Prince Napoleon and his wife, Princess Marie Clothilde of Savoy, daughter of Victor Emmanuel II of Italy. Two younger siblings would soon follow: Prince Louis (1864–1932) and Princess Maria Letizia Bonaparte (1866–1926), later the Duchess of Aosta. At the time of his birth, he was third in the line of succession to the throne behind the Prince Imperial and his father. The Empire came to an end in 1870 with the abdication of the Emperor Napoleon III.
Princess Clémentine of Belgium
Throughout Clémentine's life she had three known romantic interests. The first was her cousin Prince Baudouin, eldest son of her uncle Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders, and heir to her own father after the death of her brother Leopold. Baudouin did not return Clémentine's affections and died in his early 20s. The second was Baron Auguste Goffinet, a member of the Belgian court. However the baron did not have 'royal' blood. The last love, which she never relinquished, was Prince Napoléon Victor Bonaparte, who had become heir to the Napoleonic empire after the death of his cousin Napoléon Eugène, Prince Imperial, son of the former Empress Eugénie.
Hélène Napoleone Bonaparte
She was born Napoléone Marie Hélène Charlotte de Montholon-Sémonville in Saint Helena while Albine and Montholon were with Napoleon in exile there. Napoleon never acknowledged Hélène, although she was said to bear a striking resemblance to him. Nothing else is known of Hélène's life after she left Saint Helena. She died at Aix-en-Provence, aged 90.
Line of succession to the French throne (Bonapartist)
Bonapartism had its followers from 1815 onward among those who never accepted the defeat at Waterloo or the Congress of Vienna. Napoleon I's death in exile on Saint Helena in 1821 only transferred the allegiance of many of his loyalists to other members of the House of Bonaparte.
Bonapartism
Bonapartism developed after Napoleon I was exiled to Elba. The Bonapartists helped him regain his power, leading to the Hundred Days period. Some of his acolytes could not accept his defeat in 1815 at Waterloo or the Congress of Vienna, and continued to promote the Bonaparte ideology. After Napoleon I's death in exile on Saint Helena in 1821, many of these people transferred their allegiance to other members of his family. After the death of Napoleon's son, the Duke of Reichstadt (known to Bonapartists as Napoleon II), Bonapartist hopes rested on several different members of the family.
Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte II
Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte II (November 5, 1830 – September 3, 1893) was a French-American military officer who served in the United States Army and later in the French Army. He was the son of Jérôme Napoléon Bonaparte and Susan May Williams.
History of Europe
Napoleon Bonaparte was one of the world's most famous soldiers and statesmen, leading France to great victories over numerous European enemies. Despite modest origins he became Emperor and restructured much of European diplomacy, politics and law, until he was forced to abdicate in 1814. His 100-day comeback in 1815 failed at the Battle of Waterloo, and he died in exile on a remote island, remembered as a great hero by many Frenchmen and as a great villain by British and other enemies.
Eugenie Bonaparte
Eugénie Laetitia Bonaparte (Eugénie Laetitia Barbe Caroline Lucienne Marie Jeanne Bonaparte; 6 September 1872 – 1949) was the youngest daughter of Napoléon Charles Bonaparte, 5th Prince of Canino and princess Maria Cristina Ruspoli.
Timeline of the Napoleonic era
Napoleon Bonaparte (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the latter stages of the French Revolution and its associated wars in Europe.
Prince Napoléon Bonaparte
Napoléon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte, "Prince Français", Count de Meudon, Count di Moncalieri "ad personam", 3rd Prince von Montfort (commonly known as Prince Napoléon and occasionally as Prince Jérôme Napoléon; 9 September 1822 – 17 March 1891) was the second son of Jérôme Bonaparte, king of Westphalia, by his wife Princess Catherine of Württemberg. He soon rendered himself popular by playing on his family ties to Napoleon I. After the French revolution of 1848 he was elected to the National Assembly of France as a representative of Corsica.
Château de Meudon
Although Meudon was assigned to the [[Jerome Bonaparte|Prince Jerome's]] uncle of [[Napoleon III]], he did not come here. On the contrary, from 1860 to 1870, his son, Napoleon Bonaparte, cousin of the Emperor Napoleon III, often occupied Meudon. In Paris he owned the famous Pompeian house sheltering his connection with the actress [[Rachel Felix|Rachel]], but it was to Meudon that he comes to "sulk" the protocol of the imperial court, of which he was not fond. He brought his wife, [[Marie-Clotilde of Savoy|Princess Clotilde]], and her three children, Louis Bonaparte (1864-1932), Louis Victor and Marie Laetitia. He collected many species of plants and exotic animals, brought back from his travels abroad. Several large receptions were organized at the castle, such as the one in honor of Louis I, king of Portugal, in 1867
Jeanne Bonaparte
Jeanne was born on 15 September 1861 in Orval Abbey in Belgium. She was one of five children born to her parents, although she only had one sibling that survived to adulthood: Roland Bonaparte. Though born during the reign of Napoleon III of France, her family was never well received at the French imperial court. He was very intelligent and well-educated; in his youth, he did much traveling. Upon his return from fighting in Spain, he devoted himself to the study of literature and history; his writings were much admired by critics. One observer commented at their wedding:
"Jeanne Bonaparte advanced up the nave leaning on the arm of her brother... She has little of her mother's striking beauty, although she resembles her a good deal, but she is tall, distinguished looking, and has a wealth of raven tresses..."
Jeanne and Christian had six children.
Lucien Bonaparte (cardinal)
He was born in Rome, the son of Charles Lucien Bonaparte and his wife, Zénaïde Bonaparte. His paternal grandparents were Lucien Bonaparte and his second wife, Alexandrine de Bleschamp. His maternal grandparents were Joseph Bonaparte and Julie Clary. His godfather was the future Napoleon III, first cousin to both his parents.
Louis Bonaparte
Louis Napoléon Bonaparte (born Luigi Buonaparte; 2 September 1778 – 25 July 1846) was a younger brother of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French. He was a monarch in his own right from 1806 to 1810, ruling over the Kingdom of Holland (a French client state roughly corresponding to the current Netherlands). In that capacity he was known as Louis I (Dutch: Lodewijk I; ).
Napoleon
While Napoleon's mistresses had children by him, Joséphine did not produce an heir, possibly because of either the stresses of her imprisonment during the Reign of Terror or an abortion she may have had in her twenties. Napoleon chose divorce so he could remarry in search of an heir. Despite his divorce from Josephine, Napoleon showed his dedication to her for the rest of his life. When he heard the news of her death while on exile in Elba, he locked himself in his room and would not come out for two full days. Her name would also be his final word on his deathbed in 1821.
Portrait of Mlle Rachel
Mademoiselle Rachel remained a prominent figure in French society, and was the mistress of Alexandre Colonna-Walewski (with whom she had a son), Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte and Napoléon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte. On her death in early 1858, attempts by newspapers to publish pictures of her on her deathbed led to the introduction of privacy rights into French law, which have remained in place since.
Louis Bonaparte
Louis Bonaparte died on 25 July 1846 in Livorno, and his remains were buried at Saint-Leu-la-Forêt, Île-de-France.
Line of succession to the French throne (Bonapartist)
In 1856, Eugénie gave birth to a legitimate son and heir, Napoléon Eugène Louis, the Prince Imperial who, upon his father's defeat in battle and deposition in September 1870, went into exile and became claimant to the throne of the Second Empire when his father died in 1873. Like the King of Rome, the Prince Imperial died unwed and childless. All Bonapartist claimants since 1879 have been descendants of Jérôme Bonaparte in the male line.
Bonapartiste
The Law of Succession that Napoleon I established on becoming Emperor in 1804 provided that the Bonapartist claim to the throne should pass firstly to Napoleon's own legitimate male descendants through the male line. At that time, he had no legitimate sons and it seemed unlikely he would have any due to the age of his wife Joséphine. To Catholic eyes, his eventual response was unacceptable since he engineered a dubious annulment without papal approval of his marriage to Josephine, undertaking a second marriage to the younger Marie Louise, with whom he had one son. The law of succession provided that if Napoleon's own direct line died out, the claim passed first to his older brother Joseph and his legitimate male descendants through the male line then to his younger brother Louis and his legitimate male descendants through the male line. His other brothers Lucien and Jérôme and their descendants were omitted from the succession (even though Lucien was older than Louis) because they had politically opposed the Emperor or because he disapproved of their marriages. Napoleon had one son with Marie Louise, in whose favour he abdicated after his final defeat in 1815. Although the Bonapartes were now deposed and the old Bourbon monarchy was restored, Bonapartists recognized this child as Napoleon II. However, he was sickly, virtually imprisoned in Austria and died young and unmarried, so there were no further direct descendants of Napoleon I. When the Bonaparte Empire was restored to power in France in 1852, the Emperor was Napoleon III, Louis Bonaparte's only living legitimate son (Joseph having died in 1844 without having had a legitimate son, only daughters).
Théodolinde de Beauharnais
The fifth of the seven children of Eugène de Beauharnais (1781–1824), Duke of Leuchtenberg, and his wife, Princess Augusta of Bavaria (1788–1851), Théodolinde was born in Mantua, Italy, and presumably named for Theudelinda, a 6th-century queen of the Lombards. She had two brothers (Auguste and Maximilian) and three surviving sisters (Joséphine, Eugénie, and Amélie). Joséphine de Beauharnais, the first wife of Napoléon Bonaparte and former Empress of France, was her paternal grandmother. The latter, however, died about six weeks after Théodolinde's birth.
Bonapartiste
In 1870, Napoleon III led France to a disastrous defeat by Prussia in the Franco-Prussian War and he subsequently abdicated. Afterwards, Bonapartists continued to agitate for another member of the family to be placed on the throne of France. However, from 1871 forward they competed with monarchist groups that favoured the restoration of the family of Louis-Philippe, King of the French (1830–1848) (the Orléanists) and also with those who favoured the restoration of the House of Bourbon, the traditional French royal family (Legitimists). The three monarchist factions combined were likely stronger than the Republicans of the era, but they could never unite on supporting one candidate as monarch. Monarchist fervor eventually waned and the French Republic became accepted as part of French life. Bonapartism gradually became a kind of civic faith of a few romantics rather than any sort of practical political philosophy. When Eugene Bonaparte, the only son of Napoleon III, was killed in action while serving as a British Army officer in Zululand in 1879, Bonapartism ceased to be a political force.
Princess Clémentine of Belgium
Princess Clémentine of Belgium (, or ; 30 July 1872 – 8 March 1955) was the wife of Napoléon Victor Bonaparte, Bonapartist pretender to the throne of France (as Napoleon V).
Jérôme Napoléon Bonaparte
In November 1829, Jérôme Napoleon married Susan May Williams, an heiress from Baltimore, and it is from them that the American line of the Bonaparte family descended. They had two sons:
Princess Clémentine of Belgium
Napoleon and Clémentine had two children: Princess Marie-Clotilde, born in 1912, and Louis Jérôme Bonaparte, born in 1914. Through this marriage all the current members of the imperial family of France descend from king Louis Philippe of France.
Line of succession to the French throne (Bonapartist)
Meanwhile, Napoleon I's older brother, Joseph Bonaparte, recognized upon establishment of the First Empire as first in line to succeed and, after the birth of the King of Rome, as second in line, died on 28 July 1844 without ever having had a legitimate son. Although two of Joseph's daughters married, in exile, Bonaparte nephews of Napoleon I, when their dynasty was restored to power in France in December 1851, the man who soon became emperor as Napoleon III was the only living, legally legitimate son of Louis Bonaparte, former King of Holland.
In December 1852, with the imperial crown on his head, Napoleon III, still a bachelor, exercised the authority granted him by a decree in the form of a "Sénatus-consulte", and confirmed by plebecite, to enact a new organic law on the succession (in the event he himself were to leave no legitimate descendants), recognizing Napoleon's last surviving brother, Jérôme Bonaparte, as his heir presumptive. During Napoleon I's reign, Jérôme had been one of the Bonaparte brothers who was bypassed in the order of succession, his first marriage having been an elopement with the American commoner Elizabeth Patterson over the emperor's objections. The Second Empire, however, empowered the new emperor to choose an heir among any of Napoleon I's Bonaparte nephews, so after Jérôme came his male descendants by his second, dynastic marriage to Princess Catharine of Württemberg.
Jérôme Napoléon Charles Bonaparte
Of poor health since childhood, in 1845 Jérôme Napoléon sought permission to travel to Vernet-les-Bains to drink of its spring water, but the government of King Louis-Philippe I refused to let him enter French territory. He died, unmarried and childless, in Florence in 1847, aged 32. As then the eldest legitimate son of Jérôme Bonaparte, Jérôme Napoléon had stood to inherit his titles and claims; instead his younger brother Napoléon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte succeeded to the Westphalia claim, and his son Napoléon Victor Bonaparte eventually became head of the House of Bonaparte.
Louis Bonaparte
After the death of his eldest brother Joseph in 1844, Louis was seen by the Bonapartists as the rightful Emperor of the French, although Louis took little action himself to advance the claim. Louis's son and heir, the future Emperor Napoleon III, on the other hand, was at that time being imprisoned in France for having tried to engineer a Bonapartist coup d'état.
Joseph Bonaparte
He was seen by Bonapartists as the rightful Emperor of the French after the death of Napoleon's own son Napoleon II in 1832, although he did little to advance his claim.
Line of succession to the French throne (Bonapartist)
It further provided that if Napoleon I's own direct line died out, the claim passed first to his older brother Joseph Bonaparte and to his legitimate male descendants through the male line, then to his younger brother Louis Bonaparte and his legitimate male descendants through the male line. His other brothers, Lucien Bonaparte and Jérôme Bonaparte, and their descendants, were omitted from the succession, even though Lucien was older than Louis, because they had politically defied the emperor, made marriages of which he disapproved, or both.
Napoleon II
Upon the death of his stepfather, Adam Albert von Neipperg, and the revelation that his mother had borne two illegitimate children to Neipperg prior to their marriage, Franz grew distant from his mother and felt that his Austrian family were holding him back to avoid political controversy. He said to his friend, Anton von Prokesch-Osten, "If Josephine had been my mother, my father would not have been buried at Saint Helena, and I should not be at Vienna. My mother is kind but weak; she was not the wife my father deserved".
In 1831, Franz was given command of an Austrian battalion, but he never got the chance to serve in any meaningful capacity. In 1832, he caught pneumonia and was bedridden for several months. His poor health eventually overtook him and on 22 July 1832 Franz died of tuberculosis at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna. He left no issue; thus the Napoleonic claim to the throne of France passed to his cousin, Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, who later successfully restored the empire as Napoleon III.
Camberwell
Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte gave birth to her son, Jérôme Napoléon Bonaparte, the nephew of the Emperor Napoleon I, in Camberwell in 1805.
Line of succession to the French throne (Bonapartist)
He was succeeded by his son, Louis Jérôme Bonaparte, husband of Alix de Foresta, daughter of Count Albéric de Foresta, who died in 1997. He was succeeded by his son, Charles Marie Jérôme Victor Napoléon Bonaparte. He married, civilly, Princess Beatrice of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, from whom he was divorced, being subsequently declared excluded as Napoleonic heir in his father's will for divorcing her and remarrying a commoner without paternal permission. His heir apparent (recognized by some as head of the House of Bonaparte since 1997) is his son, Jean-Christophe Napoléon.