Caroline Murat

Caroline Murat was the youngest of Napoleon's three sisters, and famous in her day. She and her sisters were brought up by their mother who felt that women should be mothers and home makers, but they moved from Corsica to France, and rather ran wild as teenagers. Caroline was born in 1782 before her father died young of cancer. Like her sisters she mixed in society very young. She fell in love with Joachim Murat, the son of an inn keeper who was a brilliant cavalry leader. However as Napoleon began to rise in society, and acheived high military honours, he wanted his family to become more refined. He sent his sister back to school, to Mme Campan's school which gave a good education to young girls of new upper classes. Caroline had had little education but she was intelligent and realised that if she was to become a society hostess in the new Parisian society, she would need to learn languages, managing a household, and other subjects for conversation. Hortense Josephine's daughter was at the school and the 2 girls became mildly friendly but Caroline never really liked her brother's wife. She stuided and became an accomplished woman, but she was not as clever or studious as her older sister Elisa, who enjoyed learning. Elisa was the plainest of the Bonaparte girls - in her 20s she married Felix Bacchiochi, a soldier who allowed her to dominate him a good deal and who enjoyed playing the violin, badly. Pauline, the most beautiful sister, was silly and wild, and Napoleon was keen to get her married off before she caused a scandal. So she married another soldier, Victor Leclerc, who proved a good kind husband. However Napoleon did not want Caroline to marry Murat who was promiscuous, not very clever and only a tradesman's son. He finally agreed to the marriage. Caroline and Murat became King and Queen of Naples, and Caroline was involved in ruling the kingdom, though Napoleon did not believe in women meddling in politics. She and Murat had 2 sons and 2 daughters. Murat in particular had disputes with his brother in law over ruling Naples, since Napoleon wanted all the kingdoms where his siblings ruled to be run for the benefit of France.