Author: Bonaparte, Lucien
Biography:
Bonaparte, Lucien (1775-1840: WBIS)
Younger brother of Napoleon, son of Carlo Maria Bonaparte and Maria Letizia (Ramolino) Bonaparte, he was born in Corsica (at that time under the control of France) and educated in France. On the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789 he returned to Corsica and joined a Jacobin Club. Back in France in 1794, he was imprisoned briefly (at Aix-en-Provence) after the coup that led to the fall and execution of his friend Robespierre. In the same year, he married his first wife, Catherine Christine Boyer, the daughter of his landlord; they had four children, two of whom survived infancy, but she died in childbirth in 1800. As president of the Council of Five Hundred, he played a crucial role in the coup of 1799 and the election of his brother as First Consul. Napoleon rewarded him by making him Minister of the Interior, but they later fell out over aspects of their political and personal lives--including Lucien's second marriage, to Alexandrine de Bleschamp Jouberthon, a widow, with whom he would have ten children. He was excluded from all dynastic claims in France and forced to leave the country. He settled in Canino in Italy. When he attempted to sail to America in 1810, however, he was captured by the British. It was during his enforced stay as a prisoner in Britain that he wrote the epic Charlemagne. Other works include a novel (1799) and another long poem, La Cyrnéide, ou la Corse sauvée (1819); he also published his memoirs (1836). A cultivated man, he was instrumental in the reconstitution of the Académie Française and held a seat there from 1803 to 1815. He was reconciled with Napoleon after the latter's escape from Elba and supported him during the Hundred Days, but returned to Italy after Waterloo. (fr.wikipedia.org 27 Mar. 2019; Electronic Enlightenment Biographical Dictionary online 27 Mar. 2019)