Joseph Bonaparte
Joseph Bonaparte arrived in the United States in the summer of 1815, hiding aboard a merchant vessel called the Commerce under the false name M. Bouchard. British naval officers searched the ship three times during the crossing. They never found him. The man they were looking for had, within the span of a decade, been King of Naples, King of Spain, and the de facto ruler of Paris during one of the most desperate moments of the Napoleonic Wars. Now he was a fugitive, slipping into New York harbor with jewels sewn into his luggage and a dynasty collapsing behind him.
Who was Joseph Bonaparte? Not a conqueror like his brother Napoleon, and not a mere puppet either. He was a lawyer, a diplomat, a reforming monarch who doubled kingdom revenues while trying to lighten the burdens of his people. He was also a man perpetually outranked by his own circumstances. The questions worth asking are not simply what he did, but what kind of ruler he tried to be, and how the gap between his intentions and his reality played out across two kingdoms, one continent, and an unlikely retirement in New Jersey.
Giuseppe Buonaparte was born on the 7th of January 1768 at Corte, the capital of the Corsican Republic, to Carlo Buonaparte and Maria Letizia Ramolino. The island was conquered by France the year after his birth, a fact that shaped the family's political calculations for decades. His father had originally followed the Corsican patriot Pasquale Paoli but later pivoted to supporting French rule.
Joseph trained as a lawyer, and the profession suited him. He served in the Council of Five Hundred and as French ambassador to the Papal States. His legal instincts ran toward deliberation and procedure rather than force. When Napoleon moved to overthrow the Directory in 1799, it was Joseph's position inside the Council of Five Hundred that helped create the opening.
On the 30th of September 1800, Joseph signed the Treaty of Mortefontaine as Minister Plenipotentiary, formalizing a treaty of friendship and commerce between France and the United States. He signed alongside Charles Pierre Claret de Fleurieu and Pierre Louis Roederer. The treaty was one of the first significant diplomatic acts of his career, and it foreshadowed an unlikely future connection between Joseph Bonaparte and America.
Ferdinand IV of Naples had agreed to a treaty of neutrality with Napoleon in 1805, then reversed course within days and declared support for Austria. He went further, permitting a large Anglo-Russian force to land in his kingdom. Napoleon's victory at the Battle of Austerlitz on the 5th of December 1805 made Ferdinand's miscalculation devastating.
On the 27th of December 1805, Napoleon issued a proclamation from Schonbrunn declaring Ferdinand to have forfeited his kingdom, promising that a French invasion would relieve the country from what Napoleon called "the yoke of the most faithless of men." Joseph was ordered to Rome on the 31st of December to assume nominal command of the expedition.
On the 8th of February 1806, forty thousand French troops crossed into Naples. The army advanced in several columns: Masséna and General Reynier moved south from Rome, while Giuseppe Lechi led a force down the Adriatic coast from Ancona. Joseph attached himself to Reynier on his brother's recommendation. The Anglo-Russian forces had already withdrawn before the French crossed the border, the British falling back to Sicily and the Russians to Corfu. Ferdinand himself had sailed for Palermo on the 23rd of January, weeks before the invasion reached the capital.
By the 14th of February, Masséna held Naples. Joseph entered the city in triumph the following day. On the 9th of March, General Reynier destroyed the Neapolitan Royal Army at the Battle of Campo Tenese, securing the entire mainland. The fortress of Gaeta, held by Prince Louis of Hesse-Philippsthal, remained the one obstacle, though Masséna simply detached a small force to besiege it and moved on.
Napoleon's decree of the 30th of March 1806 named Joseph Bonaparte King of Naples and Sicily, declaring him "our well-beloved brother, Joseph Napoleon, Grand Elector of France," with the crown hereditary through his male descendants. Joseph arrived in his new capital to cheers and immediately set about trying to be a monarch his subjects would not regret.
He kept most Bourbon officeholders in their posts, touring his kingdom with General Lamarque to assess conditions firsthand. The impossibility of invading Sicily became clear when Joseph reached the Strait of Messina and found that the Bourbons had removed every boat and transport from the coast and concentrated their forces, alongside the British, on the opposite side.
Back in Naples, Joseph formed a ministry staffed, in his own assessment, by competent men. Saliceti became Minister of Police, Roederer Minister of Finance, Miot Minister of the Interior, and General Dumas Minister of War. Marshal Jourdan was confirmed as Governor of Naples and served as Bonaparte's principal military adviser.
The reform agenda was sweeping. Monastic orders were suppressed, their property nationalized to steady royal finances. Feudal privileges and taxes were abolished, with the nobility compensated through certificates exchangeable for former Church lands. Colleges were established for girls in every province, with a central college at Aversa for the daughters of public functionaries. The first system of public street-lighting in Naples was installed in the second year of his reign, modelled on Paris. A road through Calabria that had been delayed for decades was completed within a year. Joseph doubled the crown's revenue from seven to fourteen million ducats across his two-year reign without raising taxes, and he never adopted a policy measure without first putting it to a majority vote in the Council of State.
Joseph left Naples in 1808 with genuine reluctance. He had been popular there. Spain was a different proposition entirely.
His opponents in Spain took to calling him Pepe Botella, meaning Joe Bottle, targeting him with accusations of heavy drinking. Joseph was, in fact, abstemious. The smear campaign reflected a deeper hostility: his arrival as a foreign sovereign ignited a massive revolt against French rule and lit the fuse of the Peninsular War. One historian quoted in the source described the revolt as a reaction against new institutions and new ideas, a defense of hereditary Catholic kingship, the Church, and local privileges against what was seen as a French-imposed centralized order.
Joseph proposed his own abdication almost immediately and asked Napoleon to let him return to Naples. Napoleon refused, instead pouring heavy reinforcements into Spain to prop up his brother's position. Even so, Joseph's reign was never secure. His nominal command of French forces in Spain was largely symbolic: French marshals insisted on checking with Napoleon before following Joseph's orders. Pro-Bourbon guerrillas contested the countryside throughout his reign.
Joseph did end the Spanish Inquisition during this period, partly because Napoleon was then in conflict with Pope Pius VII. His Spanish supporters were called josefinos or afrancesados, meaning the frenchified. His membership in a Masonic lodge guaranteed that the Spanish Catholic establishment would never accept him as legitimate. During his rule, Venezuela declared independence from Spain. Joseph had no meaningful influence over the direction of the Peninsular War. He abdicated after the main French forces were defeated by a British-led coalition at the Battle of Vitoria in 1813.
Between 1817 and 1832, Joseph lived primarily in the United States, selling the jewels he had brought from Spain to fund his new life. He first settled in New York City and Philadelphia, where his house became a center for French emigres.
In 1823, he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society. He later purchased an estate called Point Breeze at Bordentown, New Jersey, on the east side of the Delaware River, formerly owned by Stephen Sayre. He expanded the house considerably and built gardens in the picturesque style. When a fire destroyed the original house in January 1820, he built a second, grander residence that was described by contemporaries as the second-finest house in America after the White House.
In the summer of 1825, the Quaker scientist Reuben Haines III described a meal at Point Breeze in a letter to his cousin: nine courses served on solid silver by six waiters, paintings by Titian, Rubens, and Van Dyck on the walls, tame deer in the park, European swans on an artificial lake, and two Etruscan vases of porphyry three feet high, presented by the Queen of Sweden, who was Joseph's sister-in-law Desiree Clary Bernadotte.
The British writer Thomas Hamilton, visiting a few years later, described Joseph in person as about middle height, round and corpulent, with a dull eye and a manner lacking the ease his visitor had expected of royalty. Hamilton reported that Joseph spoke freely about his reign in Spain, attributed much of his misfortune to the jealousies of the unruly marshals over whom he had no authority, and claimed credit for a sincere desire to benefit the Spanish people. Reputedly, Mexican revolutionaries offered to crown him Emperor of Mexico in 1820. He declined. Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821.
In 1832, Joseph moved to London, returning to Bordentown only intermittently. He died in Florence in 1844, at the age of seventy-six. His body was returned to France and buried in Les Invalides in Paris, beside the dynasty he had served for decades without ever quite belonging to it.
Joseph married Marie Julie Clary on the 1st of August 1794 in Cuges-les-Pins, France. Julie was the daughter of Francois Clary. Their first daughter, Julie Josephine, was born in Genoa on the 29th of February 1796 and died there on the 6th of June 1797. Their second daughter, Zenaide Laetitia Julie, was born in Paris on the 8th of July 1801 and married her cousin Charles Lucien Bonaparte in Brussels in 1822. A third daughter, Charlotte, born in Paris on the 31st of October 1802, married Napoleon Louis Bonaparte in Brussels in 1826; she died in Sarzana in 1839.
Joseph also fathered children outside his marriage. With Maria Giulia Colonna, the Countess of Atri, he had a son born on the 9th of September 1807 and a daughter born in late 1808 who died in infancy. At Point Breeze, his mistress Annette Savage of Philadelphia, known informally as Madame de la Folie, bore him two daughters. A second American liaison, with Emilie Lacoste, wife of Felix Lacoste, the founder of the Courrier des Etats-Unis, produced at least one son born in Philadelphia in 1825.
Joseph's involvement in Freemasonry ran deep. He was admitted to the Marseille lodge la Parfaite Sincerite in 1793. Napoleon later asked him to serve as Grand Master of the Grand Orient of France, a position he held from 1804 to 1815. In 1809 he founded the Grand Lodge National of Spain. Along with Cambaceres, he was a central figure in the revival of French Freemasonry after the Revolution, a connection that cost him Spanish legitimacy but reflected a consistent thread in his life: an attachment to the Enlightenment institutions that shaped him long before he wore a crown.
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Common questions
Who was Joseph Bonaparte and why is he historically significant?
Joseph Bonaparte, born Giuseppe Buonaparte on the 7th of January 1768, was a French lawyer, diplomat, and statesman who served as King of Naples from 1806 to 1808 and King of Spain from 1808 to 1813. He was the older brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. After Napoleon's fall, he lived in the United States for much of the period 1817-1832, becoming a prominent figure in American intellectual circles.
What reforms did Joseph Bonaparte introduce as King of Naples?
As King of Naples, Joseph abolished feudal privileges and taxes, suppressed monastic orders and nationalized their property, established girls' colleges in every province, installed the first public street-lighting system in Naples modelled on Paris, and built roads including the long-delayed Calabrian road. He doubled royal revenue from seven to fourteen million ducats during his two-year reign without raising taxes.
Why was Joseph Bonaparte so unpopular as King of Spain?
Joseph's arrival as a foreign sovereign in 1808 triggered a massive Spanish revolt and the Peninsular War. Opponents nicknamed him Pepe Botella, falsely accusing him of heavy drinking, though he was abstemious. His French birth, Masonic lodge membership, and association with a government seen as hostile to the Catholic Church and local privileges meant most Spanish people never accepted him as legitimate.
Where did Joseph Bonaparte live after Napoleon's defeat?
After escaping to the United States aboard the vessel Commerce in 1815, Joseph lived primarily in the United States from 1817 to 1832. He settled in New York City and Philadelphia before purchasing the Point Breeze estate in Bordentown, New Jersey, on the east side of the Delaware River. He moved to London in 1832 and died in Florence, Italy, in 1844; his remains were later buried in Les Invalides in Paris.
What was the Point Breeze estate that Joseph Bonaparte built in New Jersey?
Point Breeze was an estate in Bordentown, New Jersey, formerly owned by Stephen Sayre, that Joseph Bonaparte purchased and greatly expanded after arriving in the United States. He built extensive gardens in the picturesque style and, after a fire destroyed the first house in January 1820, constructed a second residence described by contemporaries as the second-finest house in America after the White House. He filled it with paintings by Titian, Rubens, and Van Dyck and entertained leading intellectuals and politicians there.
What was Joseph Bonaparte's role in Freemasonry?
Joseph Bonaparte was admitted to the Marseille lodge la Parfaite Sincerite in 1793. He served as Grand Master of the Grand Orient of France from 1804 to 1815 at Napoleon's request, and in 1809 he founded the Grand Lodge National of Spain. Together with Cambaceres, he helped revive French Freemasonry after the Revolution.
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18 references cited across the entry
- 2webRefuge of a KingThe Silver Messenger — The Silver Messenger — 11 September 1900
- 7newsNapoleon's Brother Lived in N.J. Here's What Happened to the Estate.Daniel E. Slotnik — 31 January 2021
- 8bookThe Emperor of Nature: Charles-Lucien Bonaparte and his WorldPatricia Tyson Stroud — University of Pennsylvania Press — 2000
- 11newsYes, a Bonaparte feasted hereLeslie Kwoh — Star Ledger — 10 June 2007
- 13webGrowth of a Century : as illustrated in the history of Jefferson County, New York, from 1793 to 1894John A. 1823– Haddock — Philadelphia, Pa. : Sherman — 26 October 1894
- 15bookThe Man Who Had Been King: The American Exile of Napoleon's Brother JosephPatricia Tyson Stroud — University of Pennsylvania Press — 13 May 2005