The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1870-09-20
The Mother of Napoleon 1.

Carlo Bonadarte and Lltltia Ramolini
were his parents. They had loved and
been betrothed when she was only four
teen years of age but their families were
active political antagonists, and the mar
riage was deferred for about two years,
when the Paoli party, to which Carlo be.
longed, became absolute masters of Cor
sica, and active strife ceased. They were
welded in 1855 by the archbishop, and
received the blessing of her parents at the
nuptials
Count Maebeuf the conqueror, vas
made Governor of Corsica, and Carlo
Bonaparte and his family were highest on
his list Of personal friends. Ten years
after that conquest the Corsican mobiles
sent Carlo to Paris as their representative
in the popular branch of the imperial
government of France. Leaving Letitia
in charge Of their growing family, he took
Joseph and Napoleon with him. They
crossed the sea to Leghorn and journeyed
to Florence, where Carlo received from
the Grand Duke, Leopold, letter to his
sister, Marie Antoinette, the Queen Of
France. She made Carlo welcome guest
at Versailles, when Napoleon, then ten
years old, first looked upon the gorgeous
palace of which he was afterward the
master. Carlo left Joseph in school at
Autun, and through the influence of Gov
ernor Marbeuf he was allowed to place
Napoleon in the Military Academy at
Brienne, where the afterward eminent
Pichegru was one of his instructors
Six years later heavy weight of mis-.
fortune fell upon Letitia. Carlo was at.
tackled by the same disease which termin.
ated the life of the most illustrioys son at
St. Helena thirty.six years afterward.-
He went alone to Montpelier, in France,
for advise and remedies, and there he
died, in 1885, under the hospitabe roof
of a girlhood companion of Letitia, the
mother Of the celebrated Marshal Junot
When Carlo died Letitia was not thir-
ty.five years of age, and had been the
mother Of thirteen children. Five sons
and three daughters were yet living-a
race of monarchs who occupied thrones
and lost them during one Of the most won
dertul historical dramas, enacted in the
space of ten years, the world has ever
known. She saw them rise and fall while
her tresses were yet dark, and the beauty
of her youth yet boomed on her cheeks
and sparkled in her eyes. Her sons were
Giuseppe, or Joseph, who was made King
of Naples in 1906, and of Spain in 1908 |;
Napoleon, who made himself Emperor of
France and disposer of thrones is 1905 /;
Luciano, or Lucicn, who alone refused a
crown, but accepted principality, with
its title, from the Pope, in 1908; Luigi,
or Louis, made King of Holland in 1906,
an1 refused the crown of Spain in 1909 /;
and Girolania, or Jerome, who was made
King of Westphalia in 1907, when that
province was erected into kingdom. The
daughters were Maria Anna Eliza, who
was created sovereign of Tuscany, with the
title of grand Duchess, in 1908; Car.
lotto, atterward Marie Pauline, who as
wife of Prince Borghese, became the most
illustrious Italian princess of her time /;
and Caroline Mary Annunciado the wife
of Murat, who became Queen of Naples
in 1908.
The young widow Of Ajaccio had no
reason to dream, in widest fancy, of the
splendors that awaited herself and fami.
ly. The latter were mostly little chill
dren; Jerome, the youngest, an infant in
her arms. She was left with scanty means
for their support and education. To these
she devoted all her energies, with marve.
lous success. Strength, we have observed
was the prominent feature in her charac-
ter, and this was displayed in the hour Of
need Napoleon once said. "She had the
head of man on the shoulders Of q wo.
moman. +. i. Losses, privations, fatigue,
had no effect upon her; she endured
all, braved all" These came at times
thick aud fast Joseph, ever kind and
good, helped his mother with all his
might as he grew toward manhood while
Napoleon, rather dull student in out.
ward expression, was preparing, in the
military school at Paris, for that wonder.
full career which enabled him, by impe.
rial decree, to make sovereigns of his
brothers and sisters, and to confer upon
his mother, at the age of fifty years, the
lofty title of Madame Mere, equivalent to
that of Empress Mother, with an income
of two hundred thousand dollars year.
From Madame Mere" by Benson j.
LOSING, in Harper's Magazine fer Oct.