THE GONE GREATNESS

Evening Star, Issue 18394, 1 October 1923, Page 1

THE GONE GREATNESS

BONAPARTE'S OF TO-DAY.

Little more than a, century ago the. Corsican family of Bonaparte ruled tho greater portion of Western Europe. Napoleon, the genius of the family, was F.mforor of Franco and conqueror of Austria, taly, Spain, Poland, Prussia, and tho German States. Joseph was King of Spain, Louis King of Holland, Jerome King of Westphalia, and Caroline Queem of Naples. Lucien, who played a prominent part in the French Revolution in its later days, was a Republican at heart, and opposed his famous brother’s progress towards monarchy. iJocimimr teie offer of tho torones ot Italy and Spain. Jio retired to Romo, where he accepted trom too Pope the uno ot Prince oi Uannino. LLsa became Princess ot Lucca. and Pa.uj.uio Princess Jiorgtrese. Lcima. Uio mother of this rcmarhablo tamily or eight—five | others died m childhood—received the ' title ot JMadamo Mere when tier son was crowned Jwnperor ot the drench in 1804. Letizia. remembering mo adversities of her earlier Jite. and lorebodmc reverses of the splendid success ot her sons, was prepared lor all that lotlowed. tote died in 1800. aged cigtitv-six. leaving considerable property, tho result ot saving habits during prosperity. I "Where aro the Bona.pa.rtcs ot to-day? asks a writer m the Melbourne Ago.’ Nono ot tiio glamor and brilliancy of a century ago remains. Ut the present-day Bonapartes. scattered almost, to too four corners ot tho earth, ono is a frenchman, one a rjelgian. ono a Russian. one an Irishman, and ono an American. Them may he others (including many of tho illegitimate branches of the family), but these are the best known. They are the descendants of Lttcicn and Jerome. The only male Bonapartes the legitimacy of whoso membership of tho Bonaparte family is beyond question, are Prince Victor Napoleon, tho pretender, his rnnc-ycar-old son, end his bachelor brother Louis, a retired General of Russian cavalry. Victor’s wife is Clementine, daughter of tho lato King Leopold of Belgium, and their son was born in Brussels. Victor’s father was Prince Napoleon, the second son of Jerome (ex-King of Westphalia.) and Princess Catherine of Wurtcmburg. This Prince Napoleon has been described at, tho “ most prodigiously intelligent and most prodigiously vicious man who ever lived.” He was a warm supporter of the second French Republic, and wrote enthusiastically of it to Ids grandfather, the King of Wurtemlmrg, signing himself “Citizen Bonaparte. ’* The King was so angered that he cut off a pension of 30,000 francs a year which he allowed the prince, declaring that “so good a Republican cannot take a pension from a tyrant like myself.” >■

Prince Napoleon bore a. striking resemblance to tho great Napoleon, possessing in a very marked degree that classical and Cajsarian cut of features that distinguished tho first Emperor Napoleon, his brothers, and their beautiful sisters. Prince Victor, on the other hand, is not prepossessing in personal appealanco, and there is nothing Napoleonic about him but his name. Victor is a man ol very ordinary capacity, while his father was a man ot learning and ready wit. 1 mg r L t I to es, ho was the o-nest, of Eresirtent, Lincoln, and won much j I i d brilliancy. He had a remarkable peculiarity —toe frequency ot ins yawning—due to some eliromc trouble ol the iivei. He would vawn at the rate ot about one every two minutes, even on toe must solemn occasions, no matter to whom ho was talking. There is nothing more contagions than yawning, and people who met him for the first (into wore rendered so nervous by this habit of his that they involuntarily began to yawn too, which was, to say tile least, very disconcerting. Victor openly arrayed himself on the side of his father’s political and personal adversaries, so that ho was not _ only disinherited, but was cursed by his father on his dying bed. The knowledge that 1c boro this curse had always hindered his pretensions to tho French 'Jhrone, as in the eyes of the French it would be like tempting fate to place the destinies of tho nation in the hands of so impious a eon. It is to Victor's son, Louis Napoleon, therefore, that tho Bonapartisis look as tho “ hope of French democracy.” The name of Roland Bonaparte is missing from the Almanac do Gotha. Roland who was born in Paris in 1858, is a son of Prince Picrre-Napolcon, fourth son of Lucien. Pierre passed through many changes of fortune in America, Italy, and Belgium, returning to France after the catastrophe of 1048. In 1871 ho shot, a journalist. Ho was acquitted of the charge of murder, but was ordered to pay £I,OOO to the victim’s relatives. Roland was the son of Pierre and Milo Ruffin, a plumber’s daughter and modiste. Pierre always described himself as a bachelor, and the legitimacy of Roland’s title is open to dispute, his father having declined to recognise him aa long as ho lived. Roland, who is a scientist of some note, having been twice president of tho French Geographical Society, married (Milo Felix Blanc, and owes to her his part ownership of the great gambling tables at the casino at (Monte Carlo. Their daughter Marie was married in 1907 to Prince George of Greece, a brother of ex-King Constantine. Apart from tho question of legitimacy, Roland’s connection with the

public gambling tables at Monte Carlo prevents his ever being put forward by the Bonapartiste ns a candidate for the Throne of France. AMERICAN DESCENDANTS.

The American Bonapartes are the descendants of Jerome, and arc the living embodiments of ono of the most romantic and at the samo time most tragic episodes in Napoleonic history. 'When Napoleon was First Consul of Franco ho determined to make Jerome the Nelson of the French Navy. A naval life was unpalatable to Jerome, hut Ids autocratic brother, unheeding his many p rote pis, shipped him off as a midshipman. He went with the French fleet on an expedition to tho West Indies, but soon found an excuse for landing in America, with tho idea of returning to France. Jerome was then a lieutenant of eighteen, attractive and impressionable, and was accompanied by a suite of four to maintain his dignity as a brother of the dictator of France. Jerome went to Baltimore, where he was feted and lionised. What was more i aiural than that he should fall in love with the belle of the town, Elizabeth Paterson, a girl of Ids own age, the eldest of thirteen, the family of William Paterson, a Donegal farmer’s son. On Christmas Eve, 1803, Jerome and Elizabeth were married. Tho marriage greatly incensed Napoleon. Ho took immediate steps to secure the return of Jeromo to Franco, and appealed to Pope Pina VII. to declare the marriage null. The i’opo declined. Tho newlywedded couple remained in America until tho early part of 1805, Napoleon in the meantime having become Emperor. When they sailed for Europe, Jerome was permitted to land at Lisbon, then in possession of the French, whence he proceeded to Paris. His American wife was not allowed to land at Lisbon or at any Continental port, and finally found refuge in England, where she gave birth, in the Camberwell suburb of London, to her son, Jeromo Napoleon, who became the founder of the American branch of tho family. The infant was taken back to Baltimore. I he Pope having upheld the marriage as valid, Napoleon had recourse to the Gel-

lician Church, and the marriage was declared null ecclesiastically in Paris. Napoleon then made Jeromo King of Westphalia, and forced him to marry the daughter of tho King of Wurtemberg. After the battle of Waterloo her father wished to annul the marriage, but Catherine declared her resolution to share through life the fortunes of her Imbaiul, And she was tolerably happy, considering that she was married to the greatest rake in Europe. On her death-bed at Lausanne, alter they had been married twentyseven years, her last words were : “ W hat I loved most in tho world was you, Jerome. I wish 1 could say farewell to you in Franco.” THE HE AD,SHIP OF TO-DAY.

After they parted at Lisbon Jerome never but once saw ins American wile again. It was after tho death of Napoleon, when Jeromo and his German wife were out walking in Florence, that Jerome saw Elizabeth, but they passed witnout sliowing signs of recognition. Elizabeth had got a divorce from him in Maryland to secure herself against any financial claims Jerome might make on her in _ hits days of exilo and semi-pov«rty. Elizabeth educated her son firs! in America and then at Genova., where ho was received with affection by Madame Mere. Lucien, Louis, and Pauline, as “ JeromeV, eldest son.” In 1826, when lie was twenty years old, Jeromo first, met. Jus lather. It was in Rome, In 1829 he married Miss Susan Williams, of Baltimore, u granddaughter of David Webster, and received the good wishes and congratulations of the Bonapartes. With a son. also uanred Jerome, ho visited Franco many years later, and was received so favorably by the Emperor Napoleon HI. that, ho aroused the jealousy of his half-brother, Prince Napoleon, who protested against his legitimacy being recognised. But the Emp.cr.ir, backed up by the Empress Eugenie, who disliked the Prince Napoleon, secured a decree, issued by the 'Council of Stale, declaring tho American Jerome to to of legitimate birth, thus invalidating (lie decree of annulment obtained by Napoteou I. His son served with distinction as a lieutenant in the, French army of the Crimea, and with (ho FA’cnclt forces in Italy and Austria, during tho war ot 1859, In 1861, the year alter Prince Jerome s death, the French Law Comte declared against the legitimacy of tho PattersmiBonapartcs, and so secured to the descendants of Jerome’s .second marriage, of whom Prince Victor Napoleon is 10-rlay the head, tho headship of the Bonapartes, when tho young Prince Imperial, cun of Napoleon ILL, foil in Zululand.

But. for this decision of the French courts it would be possible for an American Bonaparte to become President- of the United Stales and Emperor of Frureo. Tho chieftain of the Bonapartes in America is Jeromo Napoleon Bonaparte, < ! Washington. The next in seniority was his unde. Charles Jerome Bonaparte, who died a year or two ago. Tim latter vas the younger son of Jerome and Busan Williams. lie became, a, distinguished aenioti' of the American bar, and got as near lire United States Presidentship as AflonreyGoneral in Roosevelt’s Cabinet. The former is a son of tho elder son of Jerome, and ho' has a sister, who is married to Count Moltke, of the Danish diulomatlo service. The Irish member of the Bonaparte family is Mr Andrew Nicholas Bo- a-parle-Wyse, Assistant .Secretary. 1o rim Ministry ol Education of Northern Itejand. He was born at Limerick, and w; lie grandson, .•>£ i/.n.im.’c i.’,.;,u da Jgb'.ci. ns;zia, who married Sir T. Wy.ne, an Irish gentleman, from whom sho was separated after a few years. The Bonaparlc-Wyse of to-dav is an M.A. of London Uiiiverehv.