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Joseph Bonaparte

François Gérard, Portrait of Joseph Bonaparte. Ajaccio, Hôtel de Ville, Salon Napoléonien
François Gérard, Portrait of Joseph Bonaparte. Ajaccio, Hôtel de Ville, Salon Napoléonien

Joseph Bonaparte (Corte, 7 January 1768–Florence, 28 July 1844) was the oldest son of Letizia Ramolino and Carlo Maria Bonaparte. After studying law at the University of Pisa and taking his first steps in a career in commerce, he joined his brother Napoleon, one year his junior, in the Italian Campaign. In 1794, he married Julie Clary, the daughter of a trader from Marseilles, and the they had two daughters: in 1801, Zenaide Laetitia Julie and the following year, Charlotte Napoléone.
With the advent of the Empire, his brother entrusted him first with the Kingdom of Naples and then, in 1808, the Kingdom of Spain, but despite the commitment of the sovereign to modernization, the Spanish never accepted the externally–imposed king. Forced to return to France, he remained there until his brother’s fall, then deciding to move to the United States. He returned to Europe only in 1839, to settle in 1841 in Florence, where he stayed until his death. Like Napoleon and their other brother, Jérôme, he was buried in the church of Saint–Louis des Invalides in Paris.