Jerome Napoleon Charles Bonaparte (ab. 1910)
Jerome Napoleon Charles Bonaparte (1876 - 1945) - the last American Bonaparte. My restoration and colorization of the Harris & Ewing image in the Library of Congress archive. The photo is not dated, but my estimate is that it was shot about 1910.
Here is how he American branch of the Bonaparte dynasty got started:
"In July 1803, Jerome Bonaparte, Napoleon's youngest brother, then serving as a naval officer, arrived in New York on leave. His brother's fame opened every door. He called on President Jefferson in Washington; he went to a ball in Baltimore. There he met Betsy Patterson. When they danced, a chain on his tunic snagged her gown, and they became much taken with each other. Speaking with unknowing prescience, Betsy declared she would rather be the wife of Jerome Bonaparte for one hour than of any other man for life. As for Jerome, his infatuation was immediate, importunate, and passionate, as only that of the shallow can be. When Betsy made clear the path to her bedroom ran through the chapel, they were married on Christmas Eve 1803 by Bishop Carroll, America's ranking Roman Catholic ecclesiastic.Napoleon ordered Jerome home.
Jerome waited a year before sailing with Betsy in March 1805. At Lisbon, the French ambassador informed them that "Miss Patterson" could not enter France. Jerome persuaded Betsy to continue traveling while he worked things out with his brother. He promised to return and swore his love was eternal.
Napoleon threatened Jerome with imprisonment, having decreed the marriage null and its offspring illegitimate. When Betsy gave birth to a son, Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, on July 7, 1805, Jerome hoped the news might mollify the emperor. Napoleon responded, "Your union with Miss Patterson is null and void in the eyes of both religion and the law." This was not entirely true: The marriage was valid in America, and the pope would not annul it. But Jerome gave in, and Betsy returned to Baltimore after a negotiated settlement with Napoleon involving an annual pension of 60,000 gold francs."
Betsy´s son had two sons. The younger son, Charles Joseph Bonaparte was appointed Secretary of the Navy by Theodore Roosevelt in 1905, and from 1906 to 1909 he served as Roosevelt´s Attorney General. The older brother´s son, Jerome Napoleon Charles Bonaparte (in the picture) became the last Bonaparte in the US. He had inherited a lot of money from his grandmother - who had become very wealthy in the real estate business.
In the portrait Jerome Napoleon Charles Bonaparte looks like he would have been satisfied with life, but historians have characterized him as a rather insignificant figure:
"Jerome-Napoleon Charles Bonaparte, born in 1878, was tall, slender, and mustachioed. A New Yorker throughout his adult life, his inherited wealth let him live as he pleased and do as he liked, and so he never held a job or practiced a profession. In 1921, he was informally offered the Albanian crown, as was Harry Sinclair, the multimillionaire oilman. He was interviewed during the intermission of the Lux Radio Theatre's broadcast of Sardou's "Madame Sans-Gene" on December 14, 1936.
Otherwise, as one historian wrote, his was "a singularly unspectacular life," recorded in one-sentence society-page entries, such as "Mr. and Mrs. Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte are in Palm Springs" or newspaper photographs of him with his Brussels griffon at the Newport Kennel Club's dog show.
Talleyrand observed that Napoleon's death had not been an event: merely an item of news. Jerome-Napoleon Charles Bonaparte's death was not even that: On November 10, 1945, while walking his wife's dog in Central Park, he tripped over its leash and broke his neck."
(The New York Sun)
Jerome Napoleon Charles Bonaparte (ab. 1910)
Jerome Napoleon Charles Bonaparte (1876 - 1945) - the last American Bonaparte. My restoration and colorization of the Harris & Ewing image in the Library of Congress archive. The photo is not dated, but my estimate is that it was shot about 1910.
Here is how he American branch of the Bonaparte dynasty got started:
"In July 1803, Jerome Bonaparte, Napoleon's youngest brother, then serving as a naval officer, arrived in New York on leave. His brother's fame opened every door. He called on President Jefferson in Washington; he went to a ball in Baltimore. There he met Betsy Patterson. When they danced, a chain on his tunic snagged her gown, and they became much taken with each other. Speaking with unknowing prescience, Betsy declared she would rather be the wife of Jerome Bonaparte for one hour than of any other man for life. As for Jerome, his infatuation was immediate, importunate, and passionate, as only that of the shallow can be. When Betsy made clear the path to her bedroom ran through the chapel, they were married on Christmas Eve 1803 by Bishop Carroll, America's ranking Roman Catholic ecclesiastic.Napoleon ordered Jerome home.
Jerome waited a year before sailing with Betsy in March 1805. At Lisbon, the French ambassador informed them that "Miss Patterson" could not enter France. Jerome persuaded Betsy to continue traveling while he worked things out with his brother. He promised to return and swore his love was eternal.
Napoleon threatened Jerome with imprisonment, having decreed the marriage null and its offspring illegitimate. When Betsy gave birth to a son, Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, on July 7, 1805, Jerome hoped the news might mollify the emperor. Napoleon responded, "Your union with Miss Patterson is null and void in the eyes of both religion and the law." This was not entirely true: The marriage was valid in America, and the pope would not annul it. But Jerome gave in, and Betsy returned to Baltimore after a negotiated settlement with Napoleon involving an annual pension of 60,000 gold francs."
Betsy´s son had two sons. The younger son, Charles Joseph Bonaparte was appointed Secretary of the Navy by Theodore Roosevelt in 1905, and from 1906 to 1909 he served as Roosevelt´s Attorney General. The older brother´s son, Jerome Napoleon Charles Bonaparte (in the picture) became the last Bonaparte in the US. He had inherited a lot of money from his grandmother - who had become very wealthy in the real estate business.
In the portrait Jerome Napoleon Charles Bonaparte looks like he would have been satisfied with life, but historians have characterized him as a rather insignificant figure:
"Jerome-Napoleon Charles Bonaparte, born in 1878, was tall, slender, and mustachioed. A New Yorker throughout his adult life, his inherited wealth let him live as he pleased and do as he liked, and so he never held a job or practiced a profession. In 1921, he was informally offered the Albanian crown, as was Harry Sinclair, the multimillionaire oilman. He was interviewed during the intermission of the Lux Radio Theatre's broadcast of Sardou's "Madame Sans-Gene" on December 14, 1936.
Otherwise, as one historian wrote, his was "a singularly unspectacular life," recorded in one-sentence society-page entries, such as "Mr. and Mrs. Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte are in Palm Springs" or newspaper photographs of him with his Brussels griffon at the Newport Kennel Club's dog show.
Talleyrand observed that Napoleon's death had not been an event: merely an item of news. Jerome-Napoleon Charles Bonaparte's death was not even that: On November 10, 1945, while walking his wife's dog in Central Park, he tripped over its leash and broke his neck."
(The New York Sun)