Pauline Bonaparte Part I

Pauline Bonaparte was born in Corsica, in 1780. She was the middle sister of Napoleon and his favorite, who was most loyal to him… Pauline was named Maria Paola, as the family were Italian speaking... and called Paoletta as a child. Later, she and her siblings used French versions of their names or adopted new names that were French, now that they were living in France. The youngest sister, Annunziata used the name Caroline, as an adult.. and the eldest Maria Anna, was called Elisa. The family moved to France in 1793. They were not well-off. They had been minor gentry, with some property but their wealth had diminished after the death of Carlo, their father. Then the English occupation of Corsica had cut off the income that they had had from their vineyards. Napoleon studied to join the army. His brother Joseph married Julie Clary, daughter of a wealthy merchant. The daughters were allowed to grow up with minimal education. Later, Elisa would become something of a scholar..but it was generally not felt necessary for Corsican women to be well educated. Pauline was growing into a beauty as a teenager but she was wild and wilful, and highly sexed. Napoleon had old fashioned ideas about women, and their place and had been scandalised by the freedom that French society women had, running salons, living separate lives to their husbands etc. He too did not see any great need for women to have much education.. to him they were housekeepers and mothers of families….He arranged a marriage for his sister when she was 17, to General Leclerc, who became commander of the French army in Italy. A year later, she had a son Dermide – a French form of the Irish name Dermot…Napoleon seized power from the corrupt Directorate and made himself First Consul and virtual dictator of France. He was not just an excellent soldier but a highly intelligent administrator and he worked hard at reforming the government. However, he was a dictator who had no intention of giving up his power, and ultimately he was committed to war, since his popularity sprang to an extent from his military victories. In 1801, Napoleon ordered Leclerc to St Dominique, (now Haiti) where the island was in rebellion. He defeated the rebels but the country was ravaged by yellow fever, and the strain of life there, plus the fever, undermined Pauline’s health. There were rumours that she took lovers but it seems unlikely at that time; she was fond of her husband and was also often in poor health… In 1802, Leclerc caught yellow fever and died. Pauline and her son came home to France with his remains. She was genuinely grieved at the loss of her husband, but she was a young woman – only 23, and soon she began to find the strict code of mourning for widows which was prescribed in Napoleonic France….tiresome and irritating. She began to long for social life again.