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| Jerome Bonaparte King of Westphalia @Musee N. C. de Fontainebleau |
Rear-Admiral 1806, French Prince 1806 & 1852, General of Division 1807 &1848, King of Westphalia 1807-1813, Prince of Montfort in Wurttemberg 1816, Governor of Les Invalides 1848 & 1852, Prince of France, Marshal of France 1850, Senator 1852, President of Senate 1852
Also known as:
Jerome's spouses.
3) Maria Giustina Pecori-Saurez (1811-1903), Marchesa Baldelli, mar 1853.
" . . . Historians consider Jerome (Girolamo) quite a storybook character. Napoleon I, bent on elevating his family members to European royalty, created him King Hieronymus Napoleone of Westphalia in 1807. . . The emperor now created for his obedient brother the new puppet kingdom of Westphalia, carved out of Hesse, Brunswick, Nassau, parts of Hanover, and lands west of the Elbe." (Royalty Who Wait: 54)
The least well-looking of all his family.
". . . Jerome Bonaparte was described by the Duchesse d'Abrantes---who, however, was no friend of his, and was little inclined to do him even justice---as 'the least well-looking of all his family.' She allows him a good figure. According to less prejudiced critics, he was in his youth small, spare, and graceful, dark-haired and dark-eyed. His dandyism, of a long-last era, renders his early portraits rather than attractive to modern eyes. In the later representations of him he is not altogether unpleasing, but he in no way suggests either his daughter, or his son. . . ." (The Princess Mathilde Bonaparte: 19)
Madame Junot's impressions of Jerome.
" . . . Madame Junot, so merciless in describing Catherine's physical defects, is certainly no more kind to Jerome at this period. The least well-looking of Napoleon's brothers, she calls him. His head was close to his shoulders---the fault of all the younger Bonapartes except Pauline. He was pleasing neither in face nor in figure. . . ." (The Burlesque Napoleon: 155)
Jerome's Kingdom of Westphalia.
"All the territory of the Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, who was killed at Jena, was included in the new kingdom; nearly all Hesse-Cassel; the bulk of Prussia's lost possessions on the left bank of the Elbe; Prussia's fief of Stolberg, and Hesse-Cassel's fief of Rietberg; Göttingen, Grubenhagen, and Osnabruck, belonging to George III, as Elector of Hanover, and the Abbey of Corvey, belonging to the Prince of Orange. (Mémoires et correspondence du Roi Jerome, iii, p. 40)." (The Burlesque Napoleon: 189)
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| Elizabeth Patterson |
Also known as:
Betsy Bonaparte
the Belle of Baltimore.
Betsy Patterson's physical characteristics and personal qualities.
" . . . She is described as having possessed ;the pure Grecian contour.' 'Her head was exquisitely formed, her forehead fair and shapely, her eyes large and dark, with an expression of tenderness which did not belong to her character; and the delicate loveliness of her mouth and chin, together with her beautifully-rounded shoulders and tapering arms, combined to form one of the loveliest of women. . . When she married Jerome her prominent characteristics were ambition, love of pleasure, and self-will. Under the influence of the cruel fate which the Bonaparte family brought upon her, she developed an admirable courage and a less admirable but surely pardonable hardness. Her native wit, encouraged perhaps by her early reading, was trained by undeserved humiliation into a bitterness which cause it to the said of her afterwards that she charmed with her eyes while she slew with her tongue. She has suffered in reputation from the vindictive remarks in her father's will. . . ." (The Burlesque Napoleon: 62)
She wanted to leave Baltimore; he for beautiful women.
"Betsy Patterson was the Belle of Baltimore, yet all she wanted to was was leave the city in her dust. And at 18, Patterson saw her chance in Jerome Bonaparte. the 19-year-old brother of Napoleon, emperor of France. Booted from the French Ney, Jerome had come to Baltimore, lured by a sailor's promise that it was where to find America's most beautiful women." (Baltimore Sun)
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| Jerome & Katharine by Weygandt, 1810 |
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| Jerome , Katharina & family |
Daughter of: Friedrich I von Wurttemberg & Augusta von Braunschweig.
Physical appearance & personal qualities.
" . . . Catherine of Wurttemberg inherited from her father, mockingly called 'the greatest king in Europe,' an excessive stoutness. She was small in stature, but carried herself very upright, and her head was well poised on a short neck. Her hair was fair, her eyes blue, and her complexion very fresh. The stoutness, somewhat modified, the good carriage and the fair hair all descended to the Princess Mathilde. So too did the fresh colour, which in daughter as in mother, at times of excitement turned to a deep crimson which was not altogether becoming." (The Princess Mathilde Bonaparte: 19)
Wife Catherine of Wurttemburg's character.
"Sophia-Dorothea-Frederika-Catherine of Wurttemberg, the princess chosen to be the bride of the newest king in Europe, has furnished to her contemporaries and to subsequent writers alike a puzzle for which they have found it difficult to suggest a satisfactory explanation. Merely as the faithful and loving wife of the most notorious royal rake of his day, she might be dismissed as stupid. Against such a verdict there is a powerful protest of observers during life, including not the least acute men and women of the period. Napoleon himself, to the very last, had nothing but good to say of her. The tribute is well known which he paid to her at Saint Helena, when he said that she had 'with her own hand inscribed her name on the page of history.' In her fragments of diary, and in the mass of her correspondence which has been published, we are bound to recognise Catherine's great simplicity of character; but certainly there are more evidences of amiability than of strength. Her main fault, undoubtedly, was a lack of sense of the responsibility of her position. She was pleasure-loving, too, but in no dishonourable way. How then, it has been asked, could she reconcile herself to Jerome's ideas of pleasure, the chief of which was rooted in his dishonour as a husband? Still more, how could she be satisfied with him in the midst of his Court, as she always, in the accents of sincerity, protested herself to be? If she was not stupid, she could not be blind when all around her knew so much; and if not blind, how could she find contentment with a Jerome? The secret of the latter's fascination for his 'Trinette' must, apparently, remain unknown. As a rule, his power of attraction was merely superficial, or exerted itself only on worthless persons. But Catherine preferred ruin, and virtual imprisonment, with him to any easier lot without him, and declared that he made here perfectly happy." (The Burlesque Napoleon: 143)
Madame Junot's impressions of Katharina.
" . . . Napoleon superintended all arrangements, and according to these Catherine was not to arrive in Paris till seven on the evening of the 21st of August. The early part of that day she was to spend at the chateau of Raincy, where Madame Junot was deputed to receive her, and whither a suite, chosen for her from Josephine's household, was sent to wait on her. A full record of the events of the day was preserved by Madame Junot, on whose impressions we must rely. Catherine was not altogether pleasing on first view, says this writer. She was a fine woman, however, and there was a noble pride about her head, which would have been more striking still if her neck had not been short, as was her general figure. To make the most of her inches she carried herself very upright, throwing her head back on her shoulders. She could not be called exactly pretty, though her features were all good. Her eyes looked as though they might soften; but they never did, and this gave her a very haughty if not disagreeable expression. She seldom smiled; seriousness and calm marked her face rather than liveliness or grace. With fair hair, blue eyes, very white teeth she had a very fresh complexion, while her unfortunately inherited stoutness caused her to colour violently when agitated as she was when she reached Raincy. . . ." (The Burlesque Napoleon: 152)
First encounter.
" . . . It is agreed that it was in September that the two first set eyes on each other; and the earliest meeting is usually placed in the house of Samuel Chase, where Jerome was a visitor through the introduction of his friend Barney. But one writer, stating that Jerome and Elizabeth were first face to face at the Baltimore races, gives a strong verisimilitude to the story by describing the lady's costume on the occasion. Elizabeth wore a a buff silk dress, a lace fichu, and a leghorn hat with pink tulle trimmings and black plumes. Wherever it was that they were first introduced, Elizabeth's reception of the French lieutenant was cold, for she had heard of his presumptuous reference to his belle femme. This state of affairs did not last long, Jerome being piqued by the show of resistance, and determined to overcome it. The society which surrounded the two fostered the growth of their acquaintance, and soon their mutual attraction was evident to all.' (The Burlesque Napoleon: 65)
Far from blameless domestic life.
"It will have been gathered that the domestic life of Jerome Bonaparte, from the time when he married the Princess Catherine, had been far from blameless. even in the honeymoon period, at Fontainebleau, he was alleged to have shown very marked attention to the Grand Duchess of Baden. But as Stephanie Beauharnais and he had been friends in childhood, the malicious comments were quite possibly unfair. In the first month of his reign at Cassel, however, we have seen Jollivet writing of 'certain gallant adventures' which had damned the King in public esteem, of a Court dame on whose dismissal the Queen had insisted, and of the Breslau actress whom Le Camus had brought to Cassel at this master's desire. The latter lady, it appears had been considered by Jerome a suitable wife for his head valet Albertoni; but the ingenious plan had not been very successful, for Albertoni, though he received a dowry with his bride, found her too good-looking for life in Cassel, retired from the King's service, and took her to Paris. Other actresses were connected to Court scandal with the King, and the lesser stars of the dramatic profession certainly seemed to have a strong attraction for him. One, it was said, was secretly deported from Westphalia in a closed carriage, by no less orders that Napoleon's, much to Jerome's disgust. Usually, with the aid of obliging courtiers, he found little difficulty in lodging a temporary favourite discreetly in his capital; often, indeed, at his Court; for Catherine was marvellously unsuspicious about the appointment of her maids-of-honour. Jerome suffered little interference in his faithless career." (Burlesque Napoleon: 215-216)
Affairs in Silesia.
" . . . Napoleon had a strong suspicion that Jerome was not finding life too hard at Breslau. Indeed, he wrote to him, nine days after this last bulletin, mentioning that 'a certain lady of Stuttgart' was complaining that Jerome was too gallant towards the ladies of Breslau. Was it true? he asked. It is not probable that the Princess Catherine had actually made any complaint, but it is more probable that stories were current in Germany about Jerome's life at Breslau. In particular, he was known to have attached himself to an opera-singer, whom Le Camus, on his behalf, induced to come to Cassel later. Other entanglements were spoken of also. Now, thought the Emperor might himself have one love affair in Poland, it was by no means suitable that Jerome, soon to marry a princess, should have a number of affairs in Silesia. It was necessary that he should recall to him the thought of the marriage in store for him." (The Burlesque Napoleon: 135)
Aftermath.
"Later on, Sophie stated that only her aunt, Catherine of Wurttemberg, had given her any motherly love. In 1807 this aunt had married Jerome Bonaparte, the King of Westphalia and a younger brother of Napoleon I. After the fall of the emperor and the collapse of his empire, Catherine, her husband, and their children, Jerome, Mathilde, and Napoleon, loved for a time in Wurttemberg. For the rest of her lofe Sophie felt always very close to Mathilde and Napoleon; their brother Jerome died in 1847." (A Stranger in The Hague: The Letters of Queen Sophie of the Netherlands: 1)
Marchesa Baldelli
mar 1853.
"Jerome took as his third wife the Marchesa Bartolini-Badelli, a widow of about forty, though still possessed of good looks in addition to a fortune. He suceeded in presenting himself to her in so desirable a light that she accepted what was virtually only a morganatic marriage, never allowing her to take his title even after his return to France. Apart from this he treated her with base ingratitude and finally drove her away from him." (The Princess Mathilde Bonaparte: 29)
mar 1853.
"Jerome took as his third wife the Marchesa Bartolini-Badelli, a widow of about forty, though still possessed of good looks in addition to a fortune. He suceeded in presenting himself to her in so desirable a light that she accepted what was virtually only a morganatic marriage, never allowing her to take his title even after his return to France. Apart from this he treated her with base ingratitude and finally drove her away from him." (The Princess Mathilde Bonaparte: 29)
Jerome's important mistresses.
1. Anna, Marchioness Azzolino
2. Blanche Carrega, Baroness Keudelstein
3. Countess Collin de Plancy.
4. Countess von Bocholtz
5. Countess von Lowenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg
6. Diane Waldner von Freundstein, Countess von Pappenheim
7. Maria Antonia von Hohenzollern-Hechingen, Countess von Truchsess-Waldburg
8. Wife of the Cénéral de Coudras
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| Jerome Bonaparte by Sophie Lienard |
Jerome Bonaparte's lovers were:
1) Anna, Marchesa Azzolino.
2) Atcha Minoar.
Indian princess.
Natural offspring: 1. Giulio (1820-1856)
3) Blanche Carrega, Baroness Keudelstein.
a.k.a. Blanche Carrega, Baroness von Keudelsheim, the Beautiful Madame L. (by Maubreuil).
Natural offspring: 1. Giulio (1820-1856)
3) Blanche Carrega, Baroness Keudelstein.
a.k.a. Blanche Carrega, Baroness von Keudelsheim, the Beautiful Madame L. (by Maubreuil).
Bianca's four admirers.
"Leaving aside all question of her husband, Bianca had four admirers. First there was King Jerome, and secondly the Prince Royal of Wurttemberg, brother to Queen Catherine, Jerome's wife. At the period which we have now reached in this narrative (1809-1810), the Prince, who subsequently proved his military ability in the command of some portion of the Allied forces during the Campaign of France, was for ever seeking one or another pretext to escape from Stuttgart and visit Cassel, to lay homage at the feet of the beautiful Bianca, for he declined to live with his Bavarian wife. Still, this was to the advantage of France, his infatuation for Bianca helping bind Wurttemberg to the French alliance. The admiration of a King and a Crown Prince was not sufficient, however, for Bianca. She counted a third admirer in Maubreuil, and a fourth in a certain Lasserre, a young and handsome Creole, who, on the occasion of one of Jerome's voyages, had followed him to Europe, and was employed in some petty clerkly post in the palace of Cassel. According to la chronique scandaleuse, Bianca, though favoured with the attention of a King, a Prince, and a Marquis, found the young Creole clerk more to her liking; and when one remembers the natural eccentricity not to say perversity of woman, and all the many similar examples which might be adduced, it is not difficult to believe in the accuracy of this report." (The Wild Marquis: 41)
Bianca's physical appearance & personal qualities.
"It appears that the lady was very coquettish, very flighty, very beautiful. A Genoese by nationality, she had the 'black rolling eye' so much admired by Byron, who, if he had gone to Westphalia at this period, might never have reached Venice. It other respects the Baroness von Keudelsheim was no worse than some of those ladies of the Court of our Second Charles, whom Hamilton described so vivaciously, and from whom so many prominent English peers and even statesmen have traced their descent." (The Wild Marquis: 41)
". . . It is true that we very soon begin to hear of a young Genoese woman, Bianca or Blanche Carrega, whom he met during his mission to her native place, and who attached herself to his fortunes in such a way as to leave no doubt of their relations. But this did not take place at once, and we need not consider his early letters to Elizabeth as pretending to sentiments which he had ceased to feel. . . . " (Burlesque Napoleon: 106)
"As has been stated already, Jerome made the acquaintance of Blanche Carrega when he was at Genoa, mourning for the loss of his first wife. He had assisted her to marry a Frenchman named La Fleche, whom he took very much into his favour as the reward of a base complacency. On his elevation to kingship he appointed La Fleche Master of the Ceremonies to himself and Blanche maid-of-honour to the Queen. After this charming arrangement he proceeded to create La Fleche Baron Keudelstein, and shortly afterwards Councillor of State and Superintendent of the Civil List, a post which gave him plentiful opportunities of increasing his own income.
"To depict the Court of Westphalia aright, one would need the pen of Count de Gramont's historiographer, the inimitable Anthony Hamilton. It has already been mentioned that among the bevy of beauties surrounding King Jerome there was a certain Bianca Carrega, married to a certain money -grubbing Lafleche, who, for his wife's sake, had been created Baron von Keudelsheim. Bianca, who ranked as a Lady of Honour of the Court, had a sister bearing the very un-Italian name of Jenny. Maubreuil's name, after his return to cassel, was coupled, rightly or wrongly, with those of both sisters, as is shown by a report which Reinhard, Napoleon's family Ambassador, addressed to Champagny, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The Emperor, of course, took no interest whatever in Maubreuil's amourettes---at least, so far as Maubreuil was concerned personally---and if Reinhard thought it his duty to report this matter, it was solely because Bianca Carrega's name was also coupled with King Jerome's." (The Wild Marquis: The Life and Adventures of Armand Guerry de Maubreuil, Marquis D'Orvault: 40-41)
4) Comtesse Collin de Plancy. |
| Diana von Pappenheim |
5) Diana Rabe, Grafin von Pappenheim (1788-1844)
German aristocrat & royal mistress.
Palastdame in Kassel 1802, Hofdame in Weimar 1805
Lover in 1810.
a.k.a. Diane de Waldner de Freundstein, Diana, Freiin Waldner von Freundstein.
Daughter of: Gottfried Waldner von Freundstein & Friederike Freiin von Stein zu Nord und Ostheim.
Wife of: Wilhelm Maximilian, Graf Rabe von Pappenheim (1768-1813) mar 1806
Natural offspring:
1) Jenny von Gustedt
a.k.a. Jenny von Pappenheim.
2) Pauline von Schonfeld (1813-?)
"In 1908 Braun published the first of several works of considerable accomplishment and popularity. Im Schatten der Titanen: Erinnerungen an Baronin Jenny von Gustedt is an account of the life of Braun's maternal grandmother, Jenny von Gustedt (1811-1890). Von Gustedt was the illegitimate daughter of Napoleon's brother, Jerome Bonaparte (1784-1860), conceived during a passionate affair with Diana von Waldner Pappenheim (1788-1847), while Bonaparte was King of Westphalia." (Lily Braun, 1865-1916: German Writer, Feminist, Socialist: 82)
6) Ernestine von Pueckler und Limpurg (1784-1824)
a.k.a. Ernesta de Loewenstein.
Wife of: Georg Wilhelm Ludwig von Lowenstein-Wertheim-Virneburg (1775-1855)
Natural offspring:
1) Charles Philippe Henri Bach (1811-1870)
2) Achille Bach (1813-1819)
7) Grafin von Bocholtz.
8) Grafin von Lowenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg.
Natural offspring:
1. Charles-Henri Bach (1811-?)
2. Melanie von Wertheim-Wietersheim
wife of General de Coudras:
11) Madame Escalonne.
" . . . He had recently been captivated by the charms of a young girl, whose parents had shown a perfect willingness to sacrifice her in return for an official post for her father. In order to keep her near the Court, the kind had found her a husband, in pursuance of his usual method, and rewarded this miserable creature also with a post. When he left Cassel on his way to Kalisch, though he continued to write to the Queen daily, the Court and townspeople did not fail to notice that Madame Escalonne---such was the new favourite's name---had also left; and the next heard of her was that she was at Kalisch. Yet the profligate commander was not only trusting to win himself immortal fame as a general, but also entertained expectations of being made King of Poland." (Burlesque Napoleon: 295)
" . . . He had recently been captivated by the charms of a young girl, whose parents had shown a perfect willingness to sacrifice her in return for an official post for her father. In order to keep her near the Court, the kind had found her a husband, in pursuance of his usual method, and rewarded this miserable creature also with a post. When he left Cassel on his way to Kalisch, though he continued to write to the Queen daily, the Court and townspeople did not fail to notice that Madame Escalonne---such was the new favourite's name---had also left; and the next heard of her was that she was at Kalisch. Yet the profligate commander was not only trusting to win himself immortal fame as a general, but also entertained expectations of being made King of Poland." (Burlesque Napoleon: 295)
12) Mademoiselle Hennin.
". . . (E)ven if one admit that Reinhard may have some private reason for wishing to prejudice Napoleon against Jerome, his reports must certainly have a basis of truth. Their accounts of political imprudence, prodigal wastefulness, and even lax morals quite angered the Emperor at times. His wrath was fully aroused on one occasion, when a certain Mademoiselle Hennin, a vivacious Parisian actress, was invited to Cassel. By his orders she was summarily arrested and brought back to France; but in this we think that the Emperor was actuated less by a fear that his brother's susceptible heart might be fluttered by the lady's smiles than by a desire to check Jerome's general passion for amusement and frivolity. . . . " (Vizetelly, 1905, p. 26)
". . . (E)ven if one admit that Reinhard may have some private reason for wishing to prejudice Napoleon against Jerome, his reports must certainly have a basis of truth. Their accounts of political imprudence, prodigal wastefulness, and even lax morals quite angered the Emperor at times. His wrath was fully aroused on one occasion, when a certain Mademoiselle Hennin, a vivacious Parisian actress, was invited to Cassel. By his orders she was summarily arrested and brought back to France; but in this we think that the Emperor was actuated less by a fear that his brother's susceptible heart might be fluttered by the lady's smiles than by a desire to check Jerome's general passion for amusement and frivolity. . . . " (Vizetelly, 1905, p. 26)
13) Maria Antonia von Hohenzollern-Hechingen, Grafin von Truchsess-Waldburg (1781-1831)
Wife of: Friedrich Ludwig Truchsess, Graf von Waldburg-Capustigail
" . . . Another intrigue in which he engaged had further consequences. A remark has already been quoted from the long report of Reinhard in January 1809 concerning a Madame de Truchsess, on whom Napoleon's envoy decided to reserve his judgment. She was not, indeed, of a character which it was easy to read hastily. The Countess of Truchsess-Waldburg was the first Grand Mistress of Catherine's household. She was a Hohenzollern by birth, and her husband, who succeeded Le Camus as Grand Chamberlain in Westphalia, had formerly been Wurttemberg's Minister in Paris. She was a woman of striking appearance. Reinhard goes so far as to describe her as 'the ornament of a Court not lacking in beauties,' and speaks of the grace and seductiveness which supplemented her looks. In the Palace she was naturally more popular with men than with women. But she was very reserved towards all except the sovereign themselves, and paid the penalty for this in being an object of suspicion. The manner in which she appealed to Jerome it is unnecessary to specify. Over the Queen she had a strong influence, which Catherine appeared to tolerate easily, but also rejoiced to shake off ultimately. The Countess dominated her by a combination of charm and of imperiousness. So far she was able to carry this domination that the Queen came to pass nearly all her days tete-a-tete with the Grand Mistress, and was thus cut off from other influences. The Court in revenge called her Catherine's gouvernante, and accused her of plying the Queen during the hours they spent together with scandal concerning itself. In particular, the French section of the Court alleged that the Countess poisoned Catherine's mind against the French at Cassel. It does not seem that this was true. Madame de Truchsess was a German, like her Queen, and there was as distinct division between the French and German members of the Court. But Catherine neither now nor afterwards showed any lack of loyalty to the nation into which marriage had brought her. All that could be said against her at this period was that she allowed her Grand Mistress to isolate her to a great extent from all the ladies of her Court." (Burlesque Napoleon: 216)
14) Marie Capinaki (1805-1879)
Lover in 1822
Wife of: Baron Charles Louis David (1783-1854), French diplomat, archaeologist & philologue
Natural offspring:
1. Jerome Frederic Paul David (1823-1882)
" . . . One might include, too, among the payments to members of the imperial family the special grants and the annuity secured by Baron Jerome David, as, although he was legally the son of Charles Louis David, the son pf David the great painter, it was generally admitted that his real father was none other than old Prince Jerome, the ex-King of Westphalia. Baron David's mother was a beautiful Greek, named Maria Capinaki, whom Jerome, the Don Juan par excellence of the Bonapartes, met at Rome. He became godfather to his own child, and that sponsorship subsequently served as an official explanation for the high favour to which Baron Jerome David gradually attained at the Tuileries. From being a deputy he rose in time to such positions as Vice-President of the Legislative Body and Minister of Public Works. . . ." (The Court of the Tuileries, 1852-1870: 214)
15) Marie-Justine Semplais.
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| Marie-Therese Bourgoin by Henri-Francois Riesener |
a.k.a. the Goddess of Love & Pleasure.
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| Jerome Bonaparte & Catherine of Wurttemberg |
Jerome Bonaparte Gallery.
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| Jerome Bonaparte |
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| Jerome Bonaparte |
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| Jerome Bonaparte |
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| Jerome Bonaparte by Gilbert Stuart, 1804 @The Athenaeum |
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| Portrait of an elegant young man in blue skirt and white shirt, in his hand a whip (supposed to represent the Prince Jerome Bonaparte) |
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| Jerome Bonaparte |
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| Jerome Bonaparte |
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| Jerome Bonaparte |
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| Jerome Bonaparte King of Westphalia by Constantin Abraham @Muzeo.com |
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| Jerome Bonaparte |
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| Jerome Bonaparte |
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| Jerome Bonaparte by Gilbert Stuart, 1804 |
onaparte @Scandalous Woman
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