Lucien Bonaparte, 1st Prince of Canino and Musignano (; born Luciano Buonaparte; 21 May 1775 – 29 June 1840), was a French politician and diplomat of the French Revolution and the Consulate. He served as Minister of the Interior from 1799 to 1800 and as the president of the Council of Five Hundred in 1799.

The third surviving son of Carlo Bonaparte and his wife Letizia Ramolino, Lucien was the younger brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. As president of the Council of Five Hundred, he was one of the participants of the Coup of 18 Brumaire that brought Napoleon to power in France.

Early life

Lucien was born in Ajaccio, Corsica, on 21 May 1775. He was educated in mainland France, initially studying at the military schools of Autun and Brienne. After his father's death, he attended the seminary of Aix-en-Provence, from which he dropped out in 1789.

Revolutionary activities

Lucien became a staunch supporter of the French Revolution upon its outbreak in 1789, when he was 14 years old. He returned to Corsica at the start of the Revolution, and became an outspoken orator at the Corsican chapter of the Jacobin Club in Ajaccio, where he adopted the alias "Brutus Bonaparte".

On 23 October 1799, Lucien was elected president of the Council of Five Hundred. On 9 November 1799 (18 Brumaire Year VIII on the French Republican Calendar), he had pamphlets distributed in Paris that detailed a fake Jacobin plot, which he used to justify the relocation of the Council to the suburban security of Saint-Cloud. He resigned as minister in November 1800. In March 1801, Lucien and Godoy signed the Treaty of Aranjuez, establishing the French client kingdom of Etruria.

In the Hundred Days after Napoleon's return to France from exile in Elba, Lucien rallied to his brother's cause, and they joined forces once again during Napoleon's brief return to power.

In 1823, Bonaparte was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society.

Marriages and children

thumb|[[Portrait of Christine Boyer by Antoine-Jean Gros, 1800]]

His first wife was his landlord's daughter, Christine Boyer (3 July 1771 – 14 May 1800), the illiterate sister of an innkeeper of Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, whom he married on 4 May 1794 at Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, and by her he had four children:

  • Filistine Charlotte then Christine Charlotte Bonaparte (Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, 28 February 1795 – Rome, 6 May 1865). She married firstly in Rome on 27 December 1815 Mario Gabrielli, Prince of Prossedi (Rome, 6 December 1773 - Rome, 18 September 1841). She married secondly secretly in 1842 Cavaliere Settimio Centamori. She had eight children by her first husband:
  • a son Bonaparte (Augsburg, 13 March 1796 – Augsburg, 13 March 1796);
  • Victoire Gertrude Bonaparte (Ajaccio, 1797 – Ajaccio, 1797);
  • Christine Charlotte Alexandrine Egypta Bonaparte (Paris, 18 October 1798 – Rome, 19 May 1847); married firstly in Rome on 18 March 1818 Arvid, Count Posse (Sweden, 11 June 1782 - Washington, D.C., May 1826 or San Antonio de Béxar, Tejas, Coahuila y Tejas, 1831), son of Fredrik, Count Posse, and wife Carolina Stedt. This ended in divorce in 1824. She married secondly on 20 July 1824 Lord Dudley Coutts Stuart (London, 11 January 1803 - Stockholm, 17 November 1854). She had one child, a son, by her second husband.

His second wife was Alexandrine de Bleschamp (23 February 1778 – 12 July 1855), widow of Hippolyte Jouberthon, known as "Madame Jouberthon", whom he married in a religious ceremony on 25 May 1803 at Paris and in a civil marriage on 26 October 1803 at Chamant, Plessis, and by her he had ten children:

  • Charles Lucien Bonaparte (Paris, 24 May 1803 – Paris, 29 July 1857), the naturalist and ornithologist.
  • Laetitia Bonaparte (Milan, 1 December 1804 – Viterbo, 15 March 1871), married in Canino on 4 March 1821 Sir Thomas Wyse (1791 - 1862).
  • Joseph Bonaparte (Rome, 14 June 1806 – Rome, 15 August 1807).
  • Jeanne Bonaparte (Rome, 22 July 1807 – Iesi, 22 September 1829), married in Canino in June 1825 Marquess Honorato Honorati (1800 - 1856).
  • Paul Marie Bonaparte (Canino, 3 November 1809 – off Nauplia, 7 September 1827).
  • Louis Lucien Bonaparte (Grimley, Worcestershire, 4 January 1813 – Fano, Ancona, 3 November 1891). A philologist and politician, expert on the Basque language.
  • Pierre Napoleon Bonaparte (Rome, 11 October 1815 – Versailles, 7 April 1881).
  • Antoine Bonaparte (Frascati, 31 October 1816 – Florence, 28 March 1877), married on 9 July 1839 Marie-Anne Carolina Cardinali (Lucca, 24 February 1823 - Florence, 10 October 1879), without issue.
  • Marie Alexandrine Bonaparte (Perugia, 10 October 1818 – Florence, 20 August 1874), married on 29 July 1836 Vincenzo Valentini, Count of Laviano (Canino, 1808 - Porretta Terme, 1858).
  • Constance Bonaparte (Bologna, 30 January 1823 – Rome, 5 September 1876), a nun and an abbess in Rome.

Coat of arms

<gallery>

File:Blason fam fr Bonaparte ornamented.svg|Coat of arms of the Bonaparte family

File:Coat of Arms of Lucien Bonaparte, Roman Prince of Canino.svg|Coat of arms as Prince of Canino and Musignano

File:Coat of Arms of Lucien Bonaparte during the Hundred Days.svg|Coat of arms as a French prince during the Hundred Days

</gallery>

References

Further reading

  • Marcello Simonetta & Noga Arikha, Napoleon and the Rebel: A Story of Brotherhood, Passion, and Power (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011)
  • Académie Francaise: Les Immortels: (in French)
  • Lucien Bonaparte