The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1873-01-30
Mother of Napoleon.


were his parents. They had loved and
been betrothed when she~xas only four
teen years of age; but their families
were active political antagonists, and
the marriage was deferred for about
two years, when the Paolisparty, to
which Carlo belonged, became absolute
masters of Corsica, and active strife
ceased. They were welded in 1866 by
the archbishop, and received the bless
ing of her parents at the nuptials.
Count Marboeuf, the conqueror, was
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 repre-
sentative in the popular branch of the
Imperial Government of France. Leav-
Letitia in charge of their growing
family, he took Joseph and Napoleon
with him. They crossed the sea of
Leghorn, and iourneyed to Florence,
where Carlo received from the Grand
Duke Leopald a letter to his sister,
Marie Antoinette, the Queen of France.
She made Carlo a welcome guest at
Versailles, when Napoleon, then ten
years old, first looked upon the
gorgeous palace of which he was after
ward the master.
Carlo left Joseph in school at Auton,
and through the influence of Governor
Marboeuf, he was allowed to place Ma
poleon in the military academy at
Brienne, where the afterward eminent
Pichegru, was one of his instructors.
Six years later, a heavy weight of mis-
fortune fell upon Letitia. Carlo was
attacked by the same disease which
terminated the life of his most illus
trious son at st. Helena, thirty six
years afterward. He went alone to
Montpelier, in France, for advice and
remedies, and there he died in 1855,
under the hospitable roof of a girlhood
companion of Letitia, the mother of
the celebrated Marshal Junot. When
Carlo died, Letitia was not thirty-five
years of age, and had been the mother
of thirteen children. Five sons and
three daughters were yet Hving-a race
of monarchs who occupied thrones and
lost them during one of the most won
derful 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 bloomed on
her cheek aid sparkled in her eyes.
Her sons were Giuseppe, or Joseph,
who was made King of Naples in 1906,
and of Spain in 1908; Napoleon;
Luciano, or Lucien, who alone refused
crown, but accepted a principality,
with its title, from the Pope in 1908;
Luigi, or Louis, made King of Holland
in 1906; and Girolania, or Jerome, who
was made King of Westphalia in 1907,
when that province was erected into a
kingdom The daughters were Mari a
Anna Eliza, who was created sovereign of
Tuscany, with the title of Grand Du CHI
ess, who, As the wife of Prince Borghese,
became the most illustrious Italian
Princess of her time; and Caroline
Maria Annunciado, the wife of Murat,
who became Queen of Naples in 1903.
The young widow of Ajaccio had no
reason to dream, in the widest fancy,
of the splendors that awaited herself
and family. The latter were mostly
little children; 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 marvellous success.
Strength of Will was, indeed, the promi-
nent feature in her character, and this
was displayed in the hour of need.
Napoleon once said: {" She had the
head of a man on the shoulders of
woman. Losses, privations, fatigue,
had no effect upon her she endured all,
braved ALL These came, at times,
thick and fast. Joseph, ever kind and
good, helped his mother with all his
might as he grew toward manhood
while Napoleon, a rather dull student
to outward expression, was preparing,
in the military school in Paris, for that
wonderful career which enabled him,
by Imperial decree, to make sovereigns
of his brothers and sisters and to con-
fer 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 $40, 600 year.