Grand Master
Which position did Lucien, 3rd Prince Murat hold from 1852 to 1861?
Lucien , 3rd Prince Murat Lucien Charles Joseph Napoléon , Prince Français , Prince of Naples , 2nd Prince de Pontecorvo , 3rd Prince Murat ( 16 May 1803 – 10 April 1878 ) was a French politician , and the sovereign Prince of Pontecorvo between 1812 and May 1815 . Early life . Lucien Charles Joseph Napoléon was born on 16 May 1803 in Milan . He was the second son of four children of Joachim Murat , the 1st Prince Murat , Grand Duke of Berg and King of Naples , and his Queen consort Caroline Bonaparte . His siblings included Achille , 2nd Prince Murat ( who married the American widow , Catherine Daingerfield Willis , a great-grandniece of President George Washington ) , Princess Marie Letizia Murat ( who married Guido Taddeo Pepoli , Marchese Pepoli , Conte di Castiglione ) , and Princess Louise Julie Murat ( who married Giulio Conte Rasponi ) . His maternal grandparents were Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino and his maternal uncles included Joseph Bonaparte , Napoleon I of France , Lucien Bonaparte , Louis Bonaparte and Jérôme Bonaparte . His maternal aunts included Elisa Bonaparte and Pauline Bonaparte . His paternal grandparents were Pierre Murat-Jordy , an affluent innkeeper and postmaster , and the former Jeanne Loubières . Life in exile . Murat had to flee the Italian Peninsula after his fathers execution , which had been ordered by Ferdinand IV of Naples . Between 1815 and 1822 he and his older brother Prince Achille Murat received a solid education at Schloss Frohsdorf in the Austrian Empire . He later went to Venice , where he was pursued by the Austrian authorities , necessitating his departure to the United States where his elder brother Prince Achille Murat had already moved ( becoming a naturalized citizen sometime after July 1828 and dropping his European titles ) . En route to America , he was shipwrecked in Spain and captured by the Spanish , compelling him to remain there for many months until his brother secured assistance from the American President James Monroe for his release . He finally arrived in the United States in April 1825 . He traveled to Philadelphia to meet his maternal uncle Joseph ( the former King of Spain ) and from there traveled extensively in the western part of the country , as well as Texas and California . While in the U.S. , he married an American and had several children . After several years of financial difficulty , he opened a girls boarding school with his wife . On his many travels to France , Murat sought in 1838 and 1844 the possibility to reclaim his familys right to the throne , which his elder brother had abandoned . In France he was always only allowed to stay 5 weeks at a time . Settlement in France . He continued to live in the United States , staying in daily correspondence with his backers , until the fall of Louis-Philippe of France in 1848 . He returned to France with his wife and son and was elected a member of the constituent assembly in the 1848 French Constituent Assembly election . In 1849 , he was appointed as Minister for Turin . In 1852 , he received the status of senator and the title of prince . Meanwhile the dignitaries of the Grand Orient de France , Saint-Albin Berville and Marie-Auguste Desanlis saw no other means to save obedience after the coup détat of 2 December 1851 , than to offer the title of Grand Master to Prince Murat who accepted it . He had the constitution of 1854 passed , which gave the Grand Master , elected for seven years , great powers . He created the Civil Society for the construction of French Masonry ( 1853-1854 ) and purchased the building at 16 , rue Cadet , which became the Hôtel du Grand Orient de France . In 1861 , he tried to regain the throne of Naples , and composed a manifesto to support his claim and was referred to by The New York Times as the fat pretender to the throne of Naples . This was not well received by his maternal first cousin Napoleon III of France and Murat abandoned hopes of regaining the crown . During the Franco-Prussian War , after the French defeat at the Siege of Metz in 1870 , Murat was imprisoned with Marshal of France François Achille Bazaine . After the fall of the Second French Empire , Murat moved back to United States for a short time where he resumed his business interests , including grist mills and saw mills near Evans Mills , Jefferson County , New York . Personal life . On 18 August 1831 Murat married Caroline Georgina Fraser ( 1810–1879 ) in Bordentown , New Jersey . Caroline , a Protestant , was born in Charleston , South Carolina , daughter of Thomas Fraser , a Scottish emigrant to the United States and major in the Loyalist militia during the American Revolution , and his wife Ann Loughton ( née Smith ) Fraser . Together , they lived in Bordentown for several years , and were the parents of : - Princess Caroline Laetitia Murat ( 1832–1902 ) , who married Charles , Baron de Chassiron in Paris in 1850 . After his death in 1871 , she married John Lewis Garden ( 1833–1892 ) of Redisham Hall in London in 1871 . - Joachim Joseph Napoléon Murat , 4th Prince Murat , 3rd Prince of Pontecorvo ( 1834–1901 ) , a Major-General of the French Army who married Malcy Louise Caroline Berthier de Wagram ( 1832–1884 ) , a daughter of Napoléon Berthier de Wagram , 2nd Duc de Wagram ( 1810–1887 ) , at the Palais de Tuileries in 1854 . After her death in 1884 , he married Lady Lydia Hervey ( 1841–1901 ) in Paris in 1894 . - Princess Anne Murat ( 1841–1924 ) , who Antoine Just Léon Marie , 6th Duc de Mouchy , 6th Prince-Duc de Poix ( 1841–1909 ) in Paris in 1865 . - Prince Charles Louis Napoléon Achille Murat ( 1847–1895 ) , who married Princess Salomé Dadiani of Mingrelia ( 1848–1913 ) in Paris in 1868 . - Prince Louis Napoléon Murat ( 1851–1912 ) , who married Eudoxia Mikhailovna Somova ( 1850–1924 ) , a relative of Orest Somov , in Odessa in 1873 . She was a widow of Prince Orbeliani . Napoléon Lucien Murat died on 10 April 1878 in Paris . His wife died shortly after him on 10 February 1879 in their Paris apartment , 80 boulevard Malesherbes , 8th arrondissement . Descendants . Through his son Joachim , he was a grandfather of Joachim , 5th Prince Murat , a celebrated sportsman and race horse owner who married Marie Cécile Ney dElchingen , a daughter of the Prince de la Moskowa and a great-granddaughter of the Marshal Michel Ney . In 1919 , Prince Murat gave his Paris house on the rue de Monceau to President Woodrow Wilson for his use while in Paris for the Paris Peace Conference . He died at the family estate , Château de Chambly in Oise . Through his daughter Princess Anne , he is a direct ancestor of Archduke Carl Christian of Austria ( b . 1954 ) and Michel , 14th Prince of Ligne ( b . 1951 ) . Through his son Prince Achille Murat , he was a grandfather of Lucien-Charles-David-Napoléon Murat , Prince Murat ( 1870–1933 ) , who married Marie Augustine de Rohan-Chabot , a daughter of Alain de Rohan-Chabot , Duke of Rohan . Her older sister , Marie-Joséphine de Rohan-Chabot , was the wife of Louis de Talleyrand-Périgord ( grandson of Louis de Talleyrand-Périgord and nephew of Boson de Talleyrand-Périgord ) . After Prince Murats death in 1933 , his widow married French writer and diplomat Count Charles de Chambrun . Through his youngest son , Prince Louis , he was a grandfather of two boys , the elder being Prince Eugéne Michel Napoléon Murat ( 1875–1906 ) , who married a daughter of the Duke of Elchingen , with whom he had three children . Prince Eugéne died in an automobile accident while on his way to Karlsbad . The younger was Prince Michel Anne Charles Joachim Napoléon Murat ( 1887–1941 ) , who married Helena MacDonald Stallo , heiress to the Standard Oil fortune , in 1913 . Through his grandson Prince Michel , he was a great-grandfather of Princess Laure Louise Napoléone Eugénie Caroline Murat , who married Swiss-American journalist Fernand Auberjonois , parents of his great-great-grandson , actor René Auberjonois ( 1940–2019 ) . External links .