Joseph Bonaparte

Biography

Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's elder brother, was born in Corte, Corsica, in 1768 and trained as a lawyer. Under the Directory he sat in the Council of Five Hundred and served as French ambassador to the Papal States, and in 1799 he helped his brother seize power in the coup of 18 Brumaire. As a diplomat he signed the Convention of 1800 with the United States and, in 1802, the Treaty of Amiens with Britain.

After French troops overran Naples, Napoleon made Joseph King of Naples in March 1806. He kept most of the existing officials, suppressed monastic orders, abolished feudal privileges and pursued a reforming programme. In 1808 Napoleon moved him to the throne of Spain, where his rule provoked a national uprising and the Peninsular War; his government never controlled the whole country, French generals largely ignored his authority, and he left Spain after the defeat at Vitoria in 1813. In 1814 he was lieutenant general of the Empire and nominally commanded in the defence of Paris.

After Napoleon's final defeat in 1815 he sailed to the United States under the name Comte de Survilliers. He lived mainly there until 1832, building the Point Breeze estate at Bordentown, New Jersey, and was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1823. He later returned to Europe and died in Florence in 1844.