Julie Clary
Julie Clary was the Queen of Spain who never set foot in Spain. Born on the 26th of December 1771 in Marseille, she married into the most powerful family in Europe, yet spent her queenship in a chateau in the Oise countryside while her husband sat on a throne she never visited. Her title was real, her absence was deliberate, and the Spaniards had a name for her: Reina ausente. The Absent Queen.
How does a silk merchant's daughter from Marseille become a queen twice over? What kept her from the countries her husband ruled? And what does it tell us about a woman who, despite the turbulence of the Napoleonic era, managed to survive it on her own terms?
Francois Clary, Julie's father, was a wealthy silk manufacturer and merchant in Marseille, a man of Irish heritage who had built a prosperous life in the south of France. He was born on the 24th of February 1725 and died on the 20th of January 1794, and in between those dates he fathered children who would reshape European history in ways he could not have imagined.
Julie was not the only Clary sister whose life would intersect with royalty. Her younger sister Desiree, six years her junior, would eventually become Queen of Sweden and Norway when her husband Marshal Bernadotte was crowned King Charles XIV John. Their brother Nicolas Joseph Clary was created 1st Comte Clary, and his family's connections continued to branch outward; his granddaughter would become the first wife of Joachim, 4th Prince Murat.
Julie's mother, Francoise Rose Somis, was born on the 30th of August 1737 and outlived her merchant husband by more than two decades, dying in Paris on the 28th of January 1815. The Clary family, in short, was one where longevity and ambition ran side by side, and it was into this merchant household in Marseille that Julie grew up before the Bonaparte connection changed everything.
On the 1st of August 1794, at Cuges in the Bouches-du-Rhone department, Julie married Joseph Bonaparte, the elder brother of Napoleon. The date is worth noting: the French Revolution had not yet finished reshaping France, and Napoleon was still an artillery officer, not yet the figure who would dominate Europe.
The marriage drew Julie into the orbit of the Bonaparte family's relentless rise. When Joseph became ambassador to Rome in 1797, she accompanied him to Italy. By 1804, the year Napoleon declared himself emperor, the couple had settled in Paris, and Joseph was named Imperial Prince, which made Julie an Imperial Princess.
At the coronation of Napoleon and his empress that same year, Julie was given a specific ceremonial role: she carried the train of the empress alongside her sisters-in-law. It was a visible moment in one of the most theatrical events of the era. But it also illustrated a pattern that would define Julie's position throughout the Napoleonic years. She was present enough to perform her duties at court, capable of navigating royal formality and etiquette. Yet she preferred the private life she had established at her chateau in Mortefontaine, in the Oise, a property that had been bought in 1800. Away from court, away from Napoleon's world, and notably, away from her adulterous husband.
When Joseph was made King of Naples in 1806, Julie became queen consort. She did not go to Naples. She stayed at Mortefontaine, where she was ceremoniously treated as queen within Napoleon's Imperial court in Paris. It was only before April 1808, when Napoleon sent her there specifically to support Joseph as he faced a rebellion, that she finally joined him in the kingdom.
The Neapolitans' verdict on the Bonaparte reign was delivered in a comment that has survived: "The King arrived like a sovereign, and left like a brigand. The Queen arrived in rags and left like a sovereign." It is a remarkable inversion. The king who had come with all the trappings of power left in disgrace, while the queen who had arrived late, reluctant, and perhaps underprepared left with something resembling dignity.
In 1808, Joseph was transferred to Spain, made King of Spain and the Indies, a title that theoretically extended across an ocean. Julie formally became Queen of Spain. She was the first queen of Spain not of royal birth. She also never lived there. From Vichy and Plombières, she was kept informed of Joseph's adulterous relationships in Spain. She remained in Mortefontaine, and in Spain her name circulated attached to that single, pointed phrase: Reina ausente.
Yet absence did not mean passivity. At Napoleon's Imperial court in France, she functioned as Joseph's representative, treated ceremoniously as Queen of Spain. She maintained a political correspondence with her husband, warning him explicitly that Napoleon would never allow Spain to be truly independent, and that Joseph needed to take personal control of Spain's unity, finances, and army. It was a sharper political analysis than her quiet, domestic reputation might suggest.
Napoleon's army was defeated at the Battle of Vitoria on the 21st of June 1813, and the end of Joseph's Spanish reign followed by December of that year. Through the final years of the Napoleonic wars, Julie's chateau at Mortefontaine became a shelter. Her sister Desiree, whose marriage to the Crown Prince of Sweden technically made her an enemy citizen, took refuge there. So did her sister-in-law Catharina of Wurttemberg.
When allied troops took Paris in 1814, Julie herself took shelter in Desiree's Paris home. After Napoleon's abdication that same year, she bought the castle of Prangins in Switzerland, near Lake Leman. During the Hundred Days in 1815, she was among those who welcomed Napoleon back to the Palace in Paris, appearing in an Imperial court robe alongside Hortense, Napoleon's former stepdaughter.
After Waterloo and Napoleon's second downfall in 1815, the Bonaparte family was exiled. Joseph bought property in New Jersey near the Delaware River, funding the purchase with proceeds from the sale of Spanish paintings taken from ransacked Madrid palaces, castles, monasteries, and town halls. Julie did not follow him to America. She took her daughters to Frankfurt, where she stayed for six years.
In 1816, her sister Desiree, by then Crown Princess of Sweden, wanted to bring Julie with her on her return to Stockholm. The crown prince refused. Julie was a Bonaparte, and her presence might signal that he sympathized with the exiled Napoleon. So that avenue closed too. Julie remained in Frankfurt, separated from a husband who had crossed an ocean in the other direction.
Julie settled in Brussels in 1821, then moved to Florence, to the Palazzo Serristori. She was described by those who knew her as charming, quiet, dignified, and peaceful, and generally well liked. She did not socialize with the French exile community.
In 1823, her sister Desiree became Queen of Sweden, the culmination of the Clary family's extraordinary journey from Marseille silk trade to European thrones.
Joseph finally rejoined Julie in Florence in 1840, decades after their marriage had functionally separated them across continents. Despite everything, she referred to him as "my beloved husband". Joseph Bonaparte died on the 28th of July 1844, aged 76. Julie died eight months later in Florence, on the 7th of April 1845, at the age of seventy-three.
She was buried next to Joseph at the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence. In 1862, Napoleon III, who had proclaimed himself French Emperor, brought Joseph's remains back to France and had them placed to the right of Napoleon I. Julie's remains were not moved. They are still at Santa Croce, beside those of her daughter Charlotte, who died in Lucca on the 3rd of March 1839, aged 36, while giving birth to a stillborn child.
Continue Browsing
Common questions
Who was Julie Clary and why was she called the Absent Queen of Spain?
Julie Clary was the wife of Joseph Bonaparte and formally Queen of Spain from 1808 to 1813. She earned the Spanish nickname Reina ausente because she never lived in Spain, preferring to remain at her chateau in Mortefontaine in France while her husband ruled.
When and where was Julie Clary born?
Julie Clary was born on the 26th of December 1771 in Marseille, France. She was the daughter of Francois Clary, a wealthy silk manufacturer and merchant of Irish heritage.
Who did Julie Clary marry and when?
Julie Clary married Joseph Bonaparte, the elder brother of Napoleon, on the 1st of August 1794 at Cuges in the Bouches-du-Rhone department of France.
Was Julie Clary the first Queen of Spain not of royal birth?
Yes. When Joseph Bonaparte was made King of Spain in 1808, Julie became the first queen of Spain not of royal birth. She never lived in Spain during her time as queen.
What happened to Julie Clary after Napoleon's fall?
After Napoleon's second downfall in 1815, Julie took her daughters to Frankfurt, where she stayed for six years. She later settled in Brussels in 1821 and then in Florence at the Palazzo Serristori, where she died on the 7th of April 1845.
Where is Julie Clary buried?
Julie Clary was buried at the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, Italy. Her remains stayed there even after Napoleon III had Joseph Bonaparte's remains returned to France in 1862; her burial is beside that of her daughter Charlotte.
All sources
2 references cited across the entry
- 2bookHedvig Elisabeth Charlottas dagbokHedvig Elisabeth Charlottas — P.A. Norstedt & Söners förlag — 1942