Thursday, March 17, 2011

Prince Napoleon is dead

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March 17, 1891

Prince Napoleon died this afternoon in Rome, according to the Chicago Daily Tribune.  His "last hours were agonizing," which "required the united strength of four men to keep him in bed."

 His "cries, caused by the agony he endured," could be heard in the streets.

The funeral for the Bonapartist pretender "will be conducted with religious ceremonies."  His body will be placed in one of the crypts of the royal mausoleum near Turin.

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 The prince received the last rights this morning at 6 a.m, and he was, according to the priest, "in full possession of his faculties."

The prince was the second son of the late Prince Jerome, brother of Napoleon I, by his second marriage to Princess  Catharina Friederike of Württemberg.   The late Prince Jerome had been forced by his brother to "discard his American wife."  The Prince, known commonly as "Plon-Plon," has been generally referred to as Prince Jerome Napoleon.

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 Prince  Napoleon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte was born on September 9, 1822, at Trieste. He spent most of his life in Trieste, Vienna, Florence, and Rome, "with occasional visits to Switzerland, Spain, and England."  

Many considered him the "cleverest man of the Bonaparte family since the great Napoleon,: but he was a "conspicuous failure both in politics and war."

He is survived by his three children, Prince Victor, who succeeds as head of the Bonaparte cause, Prince Louis, and Princess Marie Laetitia, by his marriage to Princess Clotilde of Italy, daughter of King Victor Emmanuel.  The couple was estranged.

The New York Times is reporting that Princess Marianne Bonaparte, a grandniece of Napoleon, died today at Ajaccio, Corsica.  More likely, the woman was Maria Anna Cecchi, the first wife of Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte, son of Prince Lucien, and younger brother of Napoleon I. 

 Maria Anna and Louis Lucien married in 1832 and were separated in 1850.

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