When and where was Lucien Bonaparte born?
Lucien Bonaparte entered the world in Ajaccio, Corsica, on the 21st of May 1775. He was the third surviving son of Carlo Bonaparte and Letizia Ramolino.
Questions about Lucien Bonaparte
Short answers, pulled from the story.
What role did Lucien Bonaparte play during the French Revolution?
Lucien Bonaparte returned to Corsica to become an outspoken orator within the Jacobin Club chapter in Ajaccio when the French Revolution erupted in 1789. He adopted the alias Brutus Bonaparte to signal his revolutionary fervor before facing brief imprisonment due to his activities during the Thermidorian Reaction later that year.
How did Lucien Bonaparte influence Napoleon's rise to power in November 1799?
On the 23rd of October 1799, Lucien won election as president of the Council of Five Hundred despite being underage. Just days later he distributed pamphlets across Paris claiming a fake Jacobin plot existed to justify moving the council to Saint-Cloud, which allowed him to buy time until Napoleon entered the chamber surrounded by grenadiers.
Why did Lucien Bonaparte leave politics for archaeology after 1804?
Lucien Bonaparte rejected Napoleon's plan to declare himself Emperor of the French in 1804 and refused all imperial honours including a marriage arrangement to a Bourbon Spanish princess known as the Queen of Etruria. He moved into self-imposed exile near Rome where he excavated Roman sites at his property in Frascati and Musignano to produce artifacts like a complete statue of Tiberius.
Who were the wives and children of Lucien Bonaparte?
Lucien married Christine Boyer on the 4th of May 1794 who bore four children before her death in 1800. His second wife was Alexandrine de Bleschamp whom he married in Paris on the 25th of May 1803, producing ten more children including Charles Lucien Bonaparte who became a famous naturalist and Louis Lucien Bonaparte who studied the Basque language.