It's Bastille Day. Where is our lesson in French history?
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It's Bastille Day. Where is our lesson in French history?
Nobody cares, so I didn't want to inflict my interests on anyone else. Vive la guillotine!
[img]http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0WTb_4GtHtIaUwBG1ujzbkF/SIG=13k318f44/EXP=1216152966/**http%3A//home.xtra.co.nz/hosts/AffinityEnterprises/images/travel%2520photos/vietnam/guillotine.jpg[/img]
I would like to set up some in DC. A lot of them.
I care, GL. I saw a preview for a show on History Channel the other night (but I missed the show itself) that said it was going to deal with Napoleon's brother and some tunnels in New Jersey.....is that right? Or was I confused and misread it?
Well Lew the Bonapartes had 2 connections to New Jersey. The first involved Napoleon's brother Jerome. While in the navy he came to America and married Betsy Patterson and they had a son together. Napoleon refused to acknowledge the marriage as valid on a number of grounds (including the fact that Jerome was a minor and had not gotten parental consent, was Catholic and Patterson was Protestant, it had not been approved by the parish, it had not been published in the papers lest anyone have cause to contest it, but most importantly he wished to set Jerome up in a dynastic match that he felt would be helpful to his regime. The marriage was anulled and Napoleon paid Betsy a healthy pension and looked after their son financially. (she ended up being the wealthiest woman in America in the early part of the 19th century in her own right anywhow). Descendants of this line of the Bonapartes stayed in America and Jerome Jr.(commonly known as "Bo") kept on familiar terms with the Bonaparte family. His grandson ended up becoming the US Secretary of Navy under TR. Napoleon's brother Joseph moved to New Jersey after the empire fell for good in 1815. He had an estate called Point Breeze, which housed the largest and most expensive art collection in North America at that time. He stayed in America until his nephew Napoleon III was plotting to seize control. He had offered to trade places with Napoleon in 1815 to allow Napoleon to escape to America but Napoleon felt it was beneath his dignity and did not want to expose Joseph to retaliation from the "Allies" (Britain, Russia, Prussia, Austria and the Bourbons). Some of Napoleon's nephews ended up in America as well from his sister Caroline and brother-in-law Joachim Murat. They settled in Louisiana and Florida. When I was a kid we stayed at a hotel called the Prince Murat and the owner had told my parents Napoleon had been his ancestor. Now my fingers are tired...
<font color="#CC6600" size="1">[ July 15, 2008 07:30 AM: Message edited by: Beachcomber ]</font>
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7yxA9vt2-c"]YouTube - Rush Bastille Day live 1976[/ame]
This is Jerome in old age. I suspect by this time he looked a lot like Napoleon and this is as close to seeing Napoleon as anyone can get:
[img]http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0WTefQBknxIQtsAxVCjzbkF/SIG=13c2fj31q/EXP=1216209793/**http%3A//www.royaltyguide.nl/images-families/bonaparte/1822%2520Jerome%2520Napoleon-14.jpg[/img]
Based on paintings I have seen he looked a lot like their mother, Letizia Ramolino-Bonaparte.
<font color="#CC6600" size="1">[ July 15, 2008 08:06 AM: Message edited by: Beachcomber ]</font>
And Lew, Joseph likely did have tunnels on his estate, escape tunnels. He was a dethroned king who saw first hand the perils of revolutionary ferment in Paris. All of the Bonapartes had the threat of assasination over their heads from the Bourbons, specifically Artois who would become Charles X and the last direct descendant of Louis XIV to rule France. The fear of a Bonapartist revival never left the Bourbons, and their successor, the Orleans branch of the family, King Louis Phillipe (descended from Louis XIV's brother) was in fact over thrown by Napeoleon's nephew, Louis and Hortense's son. Hortense's mother was Josephine and she married Napoleon's neurotic brother Louis. So Hortense was Napoleon's step daughter and sister in law. Josephine apparently pushed fo rthe marriage to shore up her own shaky marriage to Napoleon. She could no longer have children and he needed a successor. Josephine felt that by marrying her daughter to Napoleon's brother it would safely ensconce her as his wife for life. It didn't but her grandson did end up being Napoleon III.