Joseph Bonaparte

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Joseph Bonaparte as King of Spain
Signature Joseph Bonaparte.PNG
Julie Clary and her two daughters (painting by François Gérard , 1808/09)
Coat of arms of Joseph Bonaparte as King of Spain

Joseph Bonaparte (born January 7, 1768 in Corte ( Corsica ), † July 28, 1844 in Florence ), actually Giuseppe Buonaparte , was Napoléon's eldest brother and only became King of Naples as Joseph I ( Italian Giuseppe I ) (1806-1808) and then also as Joseph I ( Spanish José I ) appointed King of Spain (1808-1813). After the fall of Napoleon, he called himself Comte de Survilliers .

Early years

Joseph was born as Giuseppe Buonaparte in 1768 as the son of Carlo Buonaparte and Laetitia Ramolino in Corte , the capital of the Republic of Corsica . Thanks to a royal scholarship for impoverished French nobles, Joseph and Napoléon Bonaparte were able to attend boarding school in Autun in 1779 . Originally, he was to start the career of a priest, then studied but like his father law at the University in Pisa . After his father's death, he returned to the family in Corsica and worked as a lawyer.

At the beginning of the French Revolution he was elected chairman of the district council of Ajaccio , while Napoleon became a lieutenant in the National Guard in Corsica. Both later came into political conflict with Pasquale Paoli, who had returned from exile . While the Bonaparte brothers supported the convent rule in France, Paoli, who supported the majority of the island, was significantly more moderate. Joseph had to flee to France.

In 1796 he accompanied his brother at the beginning of his Italian campaign . He took part in the negotiations with the Kingdom of Sardinia that led to the Cherasco armistice . He then took part in the French military expedition to recapture Corsica, which was now occupied by the British. Then he was involved in the reorganization of the situation on the island.

In 1797 the government in Paris sent him on a diplomatic mission to the court of Parma and then to Rome . He then became a member of the Council of Five Hundred as representative of Corsica .

Diplomat and King of Naples

In contrast to his brother Lucien, he was hardly involved in Napoleon's coup d'état of 18th Brumaire in 1799. He then became a member of the State Council and the Corps Législatif . Joseph Bonaparte participated in an agreement between France and the United States in 1800 . A year later he was involved in negotiations that led to the Peace of Lunéville . In 1802 he was one of the French envoys negotiating with the British negotiator, Lord Cornwallis . This led to the Peace of Amiens in 1802 .

After Napoleon had been appointed consul for life, there was a dispute with Joseph about the possible successor. While Napoleon preferred the son of Louis Bonaparte , Joseph himself wanted to be considered. After the proclamation of the empire in 1804, this conflict became more acute. Nevertheless, Joseph represented his brother as a kind of regent in France, while Napoléon was at war in Germany in 1805.

Napoléon sent him to Naples in 1806 to drive out the ruling Bourbons and to incorporate the area into the French sphere of influence. A year later he was proclaimed King of Naples. At the time of his reign, he tried to remove feudal structures and reform the Catholic orders. There were also changes in the judicial, financial and educational systems. Napoléon was nevertheless increasingly dissatisfied with his brother. In 1808 he was replaced as King of Naples by Joachim Murat .

Spanish king

After the abdication of Charles IV and Ferdinand VII , Joseph was proclaimed King of Spain on June 6, 1808 by Napoléon I with the participation of the Council of Castile. After revolts had already broken out in May 1808, resistance spread after his proclamation. This culminated in a permanent guerrilla war that overshadowed the entire reign of Joseph.

Joseph strove to modernize the political and economic foundations of the state. In June 1808 a constituent assembly was called in Bayonne . Although this had a class character, it was partly composed arbitrarily due to the hasty convocation. In the drafted constitution, some special rights of the provinces were curtailed, but neither the abolition of the privileges of the nobility and the church nor the introduction of the civil code could be enforced. The Bayonne Constitution enabled Joseph to rely on at least parts of the Spanish liberals and reformers. Due to the difficult military situation, the constitution could not be enforced throughout the country from the start. An administrative reform was already getting stuck. Only the abolition of the Castile Council in favor of the individual ministries and the division of the country into prefectures based on the French model could be achieved.

The ongoing guerrilla war also prevented the state finances from being restructured. During Joseph's reign it was not possible to set up a proper state budget. During this time, Spain was constantly on the verge of national bankruptcy .

Joseph's rule was severely restricted from the start. On the one hand, the commanders were de facto subordinate to Napoléon I. It was not until the end of March 1812 that Joseph was officially given the command of the French troops in the country. On the other hand, Napoléon I reserved important decisions for himself. In a proclamation in January 1810, he finally announced that he could partition Spain if it continued to behave in a hostile manner. As a result of this proclamation, he established four military governments ( Aragon , Catalonia , Navarra and Biscay ), which were to rule their provinces under martial law. Although Joseph was able to get the promise to be informed about measures in their area, this proved to be worthless in practice. If it is also taken into account that other areas were controlled by the junta , it becomes clear that Joseph was unable to exercise any real power over large parts of Spain. In contrast, Joseph had more support in Catalonia, the Basque border and Valencia, but in 1812 Catalonia was annexed directly to Napoleon's France.

In the course of 1813 its military situation deteriorated ( see Spanish history) . After the defeat in the Battle of Vitoria at the latest, Napoléon I was ready to end the war in Spain by evacuating Spain and recognizing Ferdinand VII as King of Spain again. As a result of the Treaty of Valençay of December 11, 1813, Joseph had to renounce the rule over Spain.

After the end of Napoleonic rule

After his brother was overthrown, he first went into exile in Switzerland in 1814, where he resided at Prangins Castle until Napoleon's return from Elba . During the reign of the Hundred Days , Joseph ran the business of government in Paris.

Then he emigrated to the United States. Joseph arrived in New York on August 28, 1815 with his Spanish orderly officer Unzaga, his interpreter James Carret (an American who grew up in upstate New York), his cook Francois Parrot, and his secretary Louis Mailliard. It is said that Congressman Henry Clay had vacated his hotel suite to offer Joseph a place to stay. Joseph had left Julie and the girls in Paris.

In order to remain incognito, Joseph assumed the title of Earl of Survilliers after a small property he owned near Mortefontaine. He was able to transfer much of his fortune to the United States, where he invested it. He rented a house in Philadelphia and bought a property called Point Breeze in Bordentown, New Jersey. He also bought a large piece of land in New York State, where he made extensive improvements. The latter contained a 1200 acres (486 ha) lake, which Joseph named Lake Diana after the goddess of the hunt. It is now known as Lake Bonaparte.

Joseph's houses became a gathering place for other Napoleonic exiles, including Charles and Henri Lallemand and Charles Lefebvre-Desnouettes. He also generously supported the exiled French of the "Society for the Cultivation of the Vine and the Olive". ("Society for the cultivation of vines and olives"). As can be seen from his birthday party guest list on "Point Breeze," Joseph developed friendships with many prominent Americans, including Charles Stewart (his house, "Old Ironsides," was next to Point Breeze), Joseph Hopkinson, Nicholas Biddle, and Charles Ingersoll Stephen Girard. He became a member of the American Philosophical Society, where he made the acquaintance of other important personalities.

He stayed in the United States for 17 years before returning to Europe.

He died in Florence in 1844 and, like Napoléon, was buried in the Invalides in Paris.

progeny

Joseph Bonaparte's tomb in the Paris Invalides

Joseph Bonaparte married Julie Clary , daughter of François Clary (* 1725) , in 1794 . Her sister was Désirée Clary , the wife of Jean Baptiste Bernadotte .

Joseph had two illegitimate children while in exile in America with Annette Savage

  • Pauline Anne, died young
  • Caroline Charlotte (1822-1890); married to Col. Zebulon Howell Benton

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Point Breeze (Bonaparte Estate) By Richard Veit . In: The Encyclopaedia of Greater Philadelphia
  2. ↑ Vine and Olive Colony . By Rafe Blaufarb, Florida State University. In: Encyclopedia of Alabama
  3. ^ Joseph Bonaparte: From King of Spain to New Jersey

Web links

Commons : Joseph Bonaparte  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
predecessor Office successor
Ferdinand VII. King of Spain
1808–1813 		Ferdinand VII.
Ferdinand IV. King of Naples
1806-1808 		Joachim Murat
personal data
SURNAME Bonaparte, Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION King of Naples and Spain
DATE OF BIRTH January 7, 1768
PLACE OF BIRTH Corte
DATE OF DEATH July 28, 1844
Place of death Florence