Joseph I Bonaparte

Joseph Bonaparte (Joseph-Napoléon Bonaparte; Court, January 7, 1768-Florence, December 28 July 1844), better known as Joseph I Bonaparte or Joseph Napoleon I was a French politician, diplomat and lawyer, older brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, deputy for Corsica in the Council of the Five Hundred (1797-1799) and secretary of the same, and again in the Legislative Corps (1799-1800), plenipotentiary minister and member of the Council of State (1800-1804), prince and great elector of the First French Empire (1804- 1806), King of Naples between March 30, 1806, and June 5, 1808 with the name of José I, and King of Spain between June 6, 1808 and December 11, 1813, also with the name of Joseph I, as constitutional king under the Statute of Bayonne.

In Spain, his proclamation as monarch in June 1808 was due to the appointment by his brother Emperor Napoleon, who in turn, the previous month, had obtained the transfer of the rights of the Spanish Crown to Carlos IV, the day before it was returned by Ferdinand VII to his father in Bayonne. However, Bayonne's abdications were not recognized by the Juntas that were formed after the anti-French uprising on May 2 that began the which would be known as the War of Independence. The Central Supreme Board was formed, which convened the Cortes that met in Cádiz before the advance of the French army. Thus Spain was divided into "patriot Spain", which defended the rights of Ferdinand VII as constitutional king and was governed by the Constitution of 1812 approved by the Cortes of Cádiz, and "Joseph Spain" under the authority of José I and which was governed by the Statute of Bayonne on the ground under the military control of the Imperial Army. Most of its actions were repealed during the reign of Fernando VII of Spain, although others endured, such as urban improvements in various cities.

Joseph Bonaparte founded the National Grand Lodge of Spain and was Grand Master of the Grand Orient of France and the Grand Orient of Italy.^{[citation required]} He was distinguished with the Great Eagle of the Legion of Honor.

The Spanish «patriots», defenders of the rights of Ferdinand VII during the War of Independence from Spain (1808-1814), contemptuously called him Pepe Botella or Pepe Plazuelas.

Biography

Portrait of José Bonaparte by Jean Baptiste Joseph Wicar.

Joseph Bonaparte was born in Corte, on the island of Corsica on January 7, 1768, being baptized with the name of Giuseppe Napoleone Buonaparte. He was the son of Carlo Buonaparte and María Letizia Ramolino and older brother of the future Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. He studied law in Pisa (Italy). On August 1, 1794, he married Marie Julie Clary, daughter of a merchant from Marseille, in Cuges-les-Pins (Bouches-du-Rhône), with whom he would have three daughters: Julia Josefina Bonaparte (1796), who did not survive, Zenaida Leticia Julia (1801-1854) and Charlotte Napoleon (1802-1839).

In 1796 he took part in Napoleon's campaign in Italy. The following year, during the First French Republic, he acted as a diplomat, first at the Parma court and later in Rome. He was a member of the Council of Five Hundred, the lowest legislative body at the time of the Directory, in 1798. During the Napoleonic Wars he acted as his brother's envoy and signed treaties with the United States, Austria, Great Britain, and the Holy See.. From 1806 to 1808 he ruled the Kingdom of Naples by appointment of his brother.

King of Spain (1808-1813)

After Bayonne's abdications on May 5, 1808, the rights to the Spanish Crown fell to the emperor, who on June 6 published the decree appointing his older brother as King of Spain. However, the effective reign of Joseph I, premier et dernier ("first and last") as General Thiébault called him in his Mémoires, began on July 7, 1808 after swearing in the new Constitution and receiving, immediately afterwards, the oath of fidelity from the components of the Spanish junta in Bayonne.

Reign

José Bonaparte as King of Spain, by François Gérard (c. 1808). Oil on canvas, 203 × 125 cm.

Currency of 80 royal gold coined in 1812 during the reign of Joseph Bonaparte.

His arrival in Madrid on July 20 occurred during the War of Independence, after the popular uprising on May 2 against Napoleonic troops in Madrid, which was followed by riots in the rest of the country. He was proclaimed king in Madrid on July 25. But he had to flee before the defeat of the French troops in the battle of Bailén, first to Burgos, then to Miranda de Ebro and finally to Vitoria, where he arrived on September 22, there he established his headquarters and from that same place he directed various proclamations to the Spanish people. Finally, the intervention of Emperor Bonaparte himself, along with the bulk of his army, enabled him to establish his own government in the capital.

He promulgated the Statute of Bayonne in an attempt to gain the support of the Spanish enlightened, the so-called afrancesados, without managing to make his government's reformist program triumph. The fact that he was imposed by the invader, as well as his liberal and enlightened measures, met with popular hostility and alienated the support of the Spanish people, including many of the enlightened themselves. In 1808 he created the Ministry of Police, the historical precedent of the current Ministry of the Interior of Spain. He also published (December 1809) the announcement of the foundation of a museum of Fine Arts, under the name of Josefino Museum . His intention was to compare Madrid to other European capitals that already had real museums open to the public. On the other hand, with said institution he intended to retain the works of art that his brother Napoleon and certain French soldiers were taking to France. The museum as such was never founded; It was his successor on the Spanish throne, Ferdinand VII of Spain, who undertook its creation and inaugurated it in 1819, as the Prado Museum. During his reign he was known by the nickname Pepe Botella, in reference to an alleged alcoholism, which seems certain that it was not true. The people of Madrid also nicknamed him El rey plazuelas, since he opened many squares in the capital, mainly demolishing churches and convents. The most important was the Plaza de Oriente, in front of the Royal Palace.

Real monogram of José I of Spain.

After the defeat in the battle of the Arapiles, on July 22, 1812, he left Madrid to go to France; As he passed through Vitoria, he was overtaken by the troops of the Duke of Wellington who defeated his army. He left Spain for good on June 13, 1813 without his valuable "luggage", which consisted of the Spanish crown jewels and works of art,^{[citation required]} to take refuge in France, where he remained until the Treaty of Fontainebleau (1814) and the first abdication of Napoleon Bonaparte.

The remains in Spain of his reign are scarce, the only stone shield of his coat of arms that is preserved in the world is remarkable, located in the church of San Benito de Valladolid, a building that was occupied by the Napoleonic soldiery.

The signing of the Treaty of Valençay on December 11, 1813 in which Napoleon recognized Ferdinand VII as King of Spain formally ended his reign. In fact, during the negotiations, Napoleon himself ignored the rights to the Spanish throne of his brother José I who, although he had crossed the Franco-Spanish border five months ago, was still the King of Spain according to imperial legality. On this question the two brothers argued bitterly. On December 29, twenty days after the signing of the Treaty, José I returned to protest before the emperor and he answered emphatically: "You are no longer King of Spain" ("Vous n'êtes plus roi d'Espagne"). And he added: «I do not want Spain for myself, nor do I want to dispose of it; but I no longer want to meddle in the affairs of this country except to live there in peace and have my army available" ("Je ne veux pas l'Espagne pour moi, ni je n'en veux pas disposer; mais je ne veux plus me meler dans les affaires de ce país que pour y vivre en paix et rendre mon armée disponible”).

Private life

Alusive caricature to the nickname Pepe Bottle. Below you can see: "Each qual is lucky, yours is drunk until death."

During his first flight from the capital, he met again in Vitoria with María del Pilar Acedo y Sarriá, Countess of Vado and Echauz, wife of the Marquis of Montehermoso, Ortuño Aguirre del Corral, a Frenchified nobleman who was part of the deputies who approved the constitution of Bayonne. José makes the Marquis grande of Spain, a gentleman of the chamber and grants him the Royal Order of Spain. In addition, he acquired the Montehermoso palace in Vitoria for 300,000 reales, which he converted into his momentary royal palace. Both accompanied him on his trip to Paris in 1811 for the baptism of Napoleon II of France, but Ortuño died in the French capital. María del Pilar will remain by her side until she flees to France, where she lost the throne, lost interest.

In addition, he had relations with the Countess of Jaruco, a romance that cost him five million reais. María Teresa Montalvo y O'Farril had married the richest man in Cuba at a very young age, although her husband was ruined at the court of Carlos IV of Spain. Her maternal uncle was Minister of War under José I. When he died young, he became infatuated with his daughter María de las Mercedes, wife of the captain general of his guard, Christophe-Antoine Merlin. José I named him Count of Merlin in 1810, and constantly kept him on missions outside of Madrid. Regarding this, the popular couplet ran:

The Countess Lady
He's got a dye.
where the feather wets
Joseph first.

The Italian opera singer Fineschi, the French Nancy Derjeux (whose husband did prosperous business supplying the French troops in Spain) and Baroness Burke, wife of the Danish ambassador, complete José's love conquests.

Exile to the United States (1814-1844)

José I Bonaparte's Tomb in Los Inválidos.

In the middle of 1814, José Bonaparte, accompanied by his most trusted officer Mariano Unzaga Saint Maxent moved to the United States, where, thanks to the sale of the Spanish crown jewels, a mansion was built in the property called Point Breeze, located in Bordentown, New Jersey, luxuriously furnished and with an impressive collection of rare books and works of art; It was also surrounded by a large park with an artificial pond. There he dealt with personalities such as senator and lawyer Joseph Hopkinson, who also lived in Bordentown and represented Pennsylvania in Congress; banker Nicholas Biddle whose property, Andalusia, was just across the Delaware River; the writer Frances Wright, the banker and philanthropist of French origin Stephen Girard, for some time the greatest American fortune; President John Quincy Adams and his Secretary of State Henry Clay; the politician Daniel Webster or the Marquis de La Fayette.

In the United States, Bonaparte lived without the company of his wife, who took care of their daughters in Europe, but with an American mistress, with the title of Count of Survilliers, dedicated to charitable works and to protecting the Bonapartists who had emigrated for Freemasonry until 1841, when he received permission to settle in Florence, capital of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. He died in that city in 1844 but was buried in Paris after Napoleon III claimed that he be buried to the right of his brother Napoleon in Les Invalides in Paris.

Honorary Distinctions

• Sovereign Grand Master of the Insigne Order of the Golden Toy (Reino de España, June 6, 1808).
• Sovereign Grand Master (and founder) of the Royal Order of Spain (Reino de España, October 20, 1808).
• Sovereign Grand Master of the Royal Order of the Two Sicilies (King of Naples, February 24, 1808).
• Grand Dignatius Knight of the Order of the Iron Crown (First French Empire).
• Grand Eagle Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honor (First French Empire).
• Laureate in Jurisprudence by the University of Pisa.
• Knight of the Order of the Seraphim (1810) (Kingdom of Sweden).

Ancestors

Predecessor: Fernando I	King of Naples 1806-1808	Successor: Joaquin I
Predecessor: Fernando VII	King of Spain (Not recognized by the Spanish Courts or by the Indian Boards) 1808-1813	Successor: Fernando VII
Predecessor: Napoleon II	French Emperor 1832-1844	Successor: Luis I