Joseph Bonaparte

Early life and education

Joseph Bonaparte was born on 7 January 1768 as Giuseppe Nabulion Buonaparte in Corte, the capital of the Corsican Republic.^[1][2][3] He was born in the house of Giovan Tomaso Arrighi, a councillor of state in the government of the Corsican patriot leader Pasquale Paoli. Joseph was the first surviving child of Carlo Buonaparte and Maria Letizia Ramolino, who had moved to Corte in the winter of 1765 so that Carlo could study at the newly founded university directed by Father Francesco Antonio Mariani. He was baptised the day after his birth in the Church of the Annunciation by the abbé François Antoine Gaffori, with Giovan Tomaso Arrighi and his wife Maria Biadelli standing as godfather and godmother. A few days after the birth, the family relocated to the nearby house of the physician and general Jean-Pierre Gaffory, who had been assassinated in 1753.

Following the signature of the Treaty of Versailles on 15 May 1768, by which the Republic of Genoa ceded sovereignty over Corsica to the Kingdom of France, Carlo Buonaparte joined Paoli in fighting against French rule, serving as a captain of partisans. After the defeat of Corsican forces at the Battle of Ponte-Novo in May 1769, Carlo chose not to follow Paoli into exile in Great Britain, instead returning with his family to Ajaccio. In November 1769, Carlo travelled to the University of Pisa to obtain a degree in civil and canon law, after which he practised as a lawyer in Corsica. Reconciling himself to French authority, Carlo established ties with the French military governor, Charles Louis de Marbeuf, which assisted the family in securing noble status and social advancement.

Joseph grew up in Ajaccio alongside his younger brother Napoleon, born on 15 August 1769. The two boys were raised strictly by Letizia due to their father's frequent absences. During their childhood, they associated closely with their maternal uncle Joseph Fesch, who was five years older than Joseph, and their cousin Charles André Pozzo di Borgo. Joseph received his earliest schooling from his father, his great-uncle Lucien Bonaparte, and the abbé Jean-Baptiste Recco, showing an aptitude and fondness for literature.

Carlo Buonaparte decided to direct Joseph toward the Catholic priesthood rather than a military career. In early 1779, supported by a royal scholarship for impoverished French nobility, Joseph and Napoleon entered the Collège d'Autun under the direction of the abbé François Chardon, benefiting from the patronage of the Bishop of Autun, Yves Alexandre de Marbeuf.^[4] Napoleon departed Autun less than four months later to attend the military academy at Brienne, while Joseph remained for five years. Joseph won numerous scholastic prizes and developed an interest in classic epic poets, François Fénelon, and Jean-François de Saint-Lambert. During the prize ceremonies of 1782, he performed the lead role in a staging of Molière's comedy Les Fâcheux.^[5] At Autun, he formed relationships with several future figures of the First French Empire, including Aimé Lucotte, Hugues Nardon, Louis Gareau, Ferdinand Guillemardet, and Jean-Baptiste Jame.

Upon completing his studies at Autun in 1783, Joseph renounced an ecclesiastical career, disregarding objections from his father and Napoleon. He returned to Ajaccio in August 1784. Joseph then considered entering the military and gained admission to Brienne. Carlo Buonaparte accompanied him to the French mainland late in 1784, travelling through Montpellier to consult medical specialists for severe stomach pains. Carlo died in Montpellier on 24 February 1785. On his deathbed, he extracted a promise from Joseph to abandon military ambitions and return to Corsica to support the family.

Joseph returned to Corsica, where legal guardianship over the children and the administration of the family estate initially fell to his great-uncle, Archdeacon Lucien Bonaparte. Joseph spent time in Provence establishing friendships with local notables such as Joachim-Jean-Xavier d'Isoard. In early 1787, Joseph enrolled at the University of Pisa to read law. In Tuscany, he associated with Corsican exiles centred around Clément Paoli.^[6] He graduated as a doctor of law on 24 April 1788 under Professor Antonio Maria Vanucci and was sworn in before the Superior Council of Corsica at Bastia. In the spring of 1789, he made a second journey to Tuscany to present documentation seeking recognition of his family's nobility for entry into the Order of Saint Stephen, though the attempt was unsuccessful, and he returned to Ajaccio in July 1789.

French Revolution in Corsica

With the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, Joseph used his command of the French language to serve as voluntary secretary to the 36-member municipal committee established in Ajaccio, translating decrees of the National Constituent Assembly into Italian. In March 1790, he was elected to the municipal council under Mayor Jean-Jérôme Levie. Joseph and Napoleon aligned themselves with Philippe Masseria and Philippe Buonarroti, contributing articles to Buonarroti's publication Giornale Patriottico di Corsica. On 12 April 1790, Joseph attended an assembly of island delegates at Orezza, delivering a speech opposing the division of Corsica into two departments and supporting Corte as the seat of the patriotic committee. In the summer of 1790, he served on the delegation sent to Marseille to welcome Pasquale Paoli on his return from exile.

In September 1790, Joseph sat in the departmental electoral college at Orezza, and on 9 October 1790, he was elected president of the directory of the district of Ajaccio. He and his brothers also participated in establishing the Ajaccio patriotic club, which was affiliated with the Jacobin Club in Paris. In 1791, Joseph declined to run for the National Legislative Assembly when Paoli withheld support, instead securing election to the departmental general council by 192 votes out of 249. In this period, Joseph purchased confiscated Church lands on behalf of the family, expanding their landholdings from 45 hectares to 280 hectares with the political assistance of Christophe Saliceti, the departmental procureur général syndic.^[7]

Political tensions deepened in April 1792 following Napoleon's controversial election as second lieutenant colonel of the 2nd Battalion of Corsican Volunteers. In the legislative elections of September 1792, Joseph was defeated by Paoli's associate Antoine Andrei, securing only 64 votes out of 398 in the first round. Joseph lost his seat on the general council and became a judge on the district court of Ajaccio. Tension between the Bonapartes and the Paolists grew again after a letter written by Lucien Bonaparte denouncing Paoli was read before the National Convention. When the Convention ordered Paoli's arrest, his supporters revolted across the island. Facing armed threats, the entire Bonaparte family fled Corsica on 9 June 1793, sailing for the southern French coast.

Mainland administration and marriage

In July 1793, Joseph accompanied Christophe Saliceti to Paris to submit an official report to the National Convention. Through Saliceti's influence as a representative on mission, the Bonaparte family established a residence in Marseille. On 4 September 1793, Joseph was appointed a first-class war commissioner (commissaire des guerres) attached to ordonnateur Chauvet, receiving an annual salary of 6,000 livres plus allowances for lodgings, offices, and horse fodder. Stationed at the military headquarters at Ollioules during the Siege of Toulon, he employed numerous Corsican refugees in administrative roles.

On 8 October 1793, Joseph was initiated into Freemasonry at the lodge La Parfaite Sincérité in Marseille alongside Saliceti, with Chauvet acting as his sponsor.^[8][9][10] Following the recapture of Toulon in December 1793, he was assigned to representative on mission Dominique Multedo to assist in reorganising the municipal administration. Joseph also served with Buonarroti as commissioner for public spirit for Corsica to plan a military expedition to retake the island, an office that was abolished on 29 April 1794.

On 1 August 1794, Joseph married Marie Julie Clary at the town hall of Cuges-les-Pins. Julie was the daughter of François Clary, a wealthy silk manufacturer and merchant from Marseille, and Françoise Rose Somis. In early 1795, Joseph served as commissioner of hospitals in Toulon. After the suppression of approximately two hundred war commissioner posts in March 1795, he entered commercial partnerships with his brother-in-law Nicolas Clary in Genoa. Joseph engaged in speculation on assignats, purchased goods in France at depreciated paper rates, and resold them in Italy, Switzerland, and Germany for metallic currency. He also established a porcelain trading venture in Basel for his uncle Joseph Fesch. In June 1795, Joseph relocated to Genoa, residing near the Church of Saint-Cyr with his wife Julie, his mother-in-law, and his sister-in-law Désirée Clary, who was being courted by Napoleon.

Diplomatic career under the Directory

Napoleon's suppression of the royalist uprising of 13 Vendémiaire in October 1795 transformed the fortunes of the Bonaparte family. Joseph declined an offer of a consular post at Chios. On 7 April 1796, he met Napoleon at Albenga, where Napoleon had assumed command of the Army of Italy. Following the Armistice of Cherasco, Joseph carried military dispatches to the Directory in Paris, where he was received by Foreign Minister Charles-François Delacroix. On 9 July 1796, Joseph rejoined Napoleon in Milan alongside Joséphine de Beauharnais.

In late 1796, following the British evacuation of Corsica, Joseph accompanied General Gentili and Saliceti to re-establish French administrative authority on the island. While in Ajaccio, he restored the family residence and acquired properties including central city buildings, agricultural land, a rural mill, and the episcopal palace. In April 1797, Joseph stood for election to the Council of Five Hundred as deputy for the department of Liamone, winning the seat with 103 votes out of 104 cast against Jean-Marie Cittadella.

Before taking his legislative seat, the Directory appointed Joseph resident minister to Duke Ferdinand I of Parma, and on 6 and 15 May 1797, named him minister plenipotentiary and ambassador to the Papal States under Pope Pius VI. Joseph established his embassy at the Palazzo Corsini in Rome on 31 August 1797, tasked with overseeing compliance with the Treaty of Tolentino, the collection of financial indemnities, and the requisitioning of works of art. He also secured the release of local political prisoners. On 28 December 1797, anti-papal demonstrations near the embassy escalated into a riot in which French Brigadier General Léonard Duphot was shot and killed by papal troops. Joseph demanded his passports and departed Rome the next day. French forces under General Louis-Alexandre Berthier occupied Rome on 10 February 1798 and proclaimed the Roman Republic five days later.

Upon returning to Paris, Joseph assumed his seat in the Council of Five Hundred, serving as secretary of the assembly in February 1798. He associated with prominent figures including Foreign Minister Talleyrand, Police Minister Joseph Fouché, and Pierre-Louis Roederer, owner of the Journal de Paris. Joseph financed the election of his brother Lucien to the Council of Five Hundred.^[11] In October 1798, Joseph purchased the estate of Mortefontaine for 258,000 francs, which included a château, dependencies, two mills, the hamlet of Charlepont, and several hundred hectares of farm and woodland, later adding the neighbouring château of Survilliers. During his early months at Mortefontaine, he completed his novella Moïna, ou la villageoise du Mont-Cenis.

Consulate and major treaties

Joseph participated in preparing the coup of 18 Brumaire on 9 November 1799. Introduced to Director Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès by Talleyrand and Roederer, he helped coordinate political alliances, facilitated the reconciliation between Sieyès and Napoleon after the Egyptian expedition, and persuaded his brother-in-law Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte not to oppose the takeover. Following the establishment of the Consulate, Joseph was appointed deputy for the department of Golo in the Corps Législatif and was named to the Conseil d'État on 6 May 1800.

On 4 March 1800, Joseph was named minister plenipotentiary to conduct peace negotiations with the United States following the maritime tensions of the Quasi-War. Supported by Charles Pierre Claret de Fleurieu and Pierre-Louis Roederer, he negotiated with the American envoys at Mortefontaine. On 30 September 1800, the parties signed the Treaty of Mortefontaine (the Convention of 1800), which restored commercial freedom between the two nations, terminated the 1778 alliance treaties, and arranged for the restitution of captured non-contraband vessels.^[12]

On 11 October 1800, Joseph was appointed head of the French delegation sent to negotiate peace with Austria at Lunéville. Dealing with Austrian envoy Louis de Cobentzel, negotiations stalled until French military victories at Hohenlinden and Pozzolo in December forced Austrian concessions. On 9 February 1801, Joseph and Cobentzel signed the Treaty of Lunéville, confirming the terms of Campo Formio, recognising French sovereignty over the left bank of the Rhine, and establishing French dominance in northern Italy.^[13]

In June 1801, Joseph joined State Councillor Emmanuel Crétet to negotiate the Concordat of 1801 with papal envoy Cardinal Ercole Consalvi. The agreement, signed on 15 July 1801 at the Hôtel Marbeuf in Paris, reconciled the French government with the Roman Catholic Church.^[14] Consalvi recorded that Joseph's moderate and accommodating disposition proved decisive in preventing the breakdown of talks.^[14]

Joseph was next selected to lead the French delegation at Amiens to negotiate peace with Great Britain, represented by Charles Cornwallis, alongside Spanish envoy José Nicolás de Azara and Batavian envoy Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck. On 25 March 1802, the Treaty of Amiens was signed, temporarily ending the French Revolutionary Wars.^[15] Joseph was appointed a senator on 4 August 1802, became a member of the administrative council of the Legion of Honour, received the sénatorerie of Brussels in January 1803, and was elected to the ancient history and literature section of the Institut de France in April 1803.^[16] He acquired commercial shares in the military contracting firm of Jean-Pierre Collot, southern French toll canal concessions, the Banque de France, and bridge construction companies in Paris.

Friction developed between Joseph and Napoleon regarding the succession to the consular regime. Following the establishment of the Consulate for Life on 1 August 1802, Joseph asserted his right as the eldest brother to be recognised as heir apparent, given that Napoleon had no children. Napoleon favoured naming the son of their younger brother Louis. Joseph opposed the deportation of Jacobins after the Plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise and defended Bernadotte during political intrigues. He refused the presidency of the Italian Republic and the chancellorship of the Senate. In April 1804, Napoleon directed Joseph to adopt a military role, appointing him colonel of the 4th Line Infantry Regiment stationed at the Camp de Saint-Omer. On 10 August 1804, Joseph was promoted to brigadier general.^[17]

First French Empire and Grand Elector

When the First French Empire was proclaimed on 18 May 1804, Joseph was designated a French prince and appointed Grand Elector of the Empire. The office entitled him to sit in the Conseil d'État, the Senate, and the imperial councils, as well as to administer oaths to departmental electoral colleges. His annual remuneration was established at 333,333 francs as Grand Elector, supplemented by one million francs as an imperial prince and a 300,000-franc establishment grant, along with the Petit Luxembourg palace in Paris. Joseph expressed discomfort with court ceremonial, declined to wear the official Grand Elector costume, asked acquaintances not to address him as Monseigneur, and voiced dissatisfaction with Jacques-Louis David's coronation painting, which placed Joseph in the left background while highlighting Louis's son Napoléon-Charles.^[18]

In early 1805, Joseph declined Napoleon's offer of the crown of the Kingdom of Italy. When Napoleon left Paris in September 1805 to command the Grande Armée against the Third Coalition, he placed Joseph in charge of the government in Paris. Joseph chaired the weekly Council of Ministers and addressed the financial crisis surrounding the Négociants réunis affair. Disagreements arose regarding foreign policy; Joseph expressed support for general peace and discussed dynastic succession with Prussian envoy Girolamo Lucchesini, drawing reprimands from Napoleon upon his return.

Kingdom of Naples

Following the Battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon issued a decree from the Schönbrunn on 27 December 1805 declaring that Ferdinand IV of Naples had forfeited his throne by violating neutrality and welcoming British and Russian troops.^[19] Joseph was appointed commander-in-chief of the Army of Naples and promoted to general of division on 3 January 1806.^[17] Marshal André Masséna held actual operational command, with General St. Cyr as second in command.^[20] General Laurent de Gouvion-Saint-Cyr resigned in protest against serving under Masséna and left for Paris, but Napoleon ordered him back to his post.^[20]

On 8 February 1806, the French force of 40,000 men crossed into Neapolitan territory.^[21] Ferdinand fled to Palermo on 23 January, and Queen Maria Carolina departed on 11 February. British and Russian troops withdrew to Sicily and Corfu. Capua surrendered after light resistance, and the French occupied Naples on 14 February.^[22][23] Joseph staged a formal entrance on 15 February 1806, donating a diamond necklace to the shrine of San Gennaro.^[23] Reynier secured mainland southern Italy after routing the royalist army at the Battle of Campo Tenese on 9 March 1806. The fortress of Gaeta, held by Prince Louis of Hesse-Philippsthal, resisted until mid-July.^[22]

By an imperial decree issued on 30 March 1806, Napoleon installed Joseph as King of Naples and Sicily.^[24] Accompanied by General Jean Maximilien Lamarque, Joseph toured Calabria, Lucania, and Apulia to examine administrative conditions and evaluate whether an invasion of Sicily was feasible across the Strait of Messina.^[25][26] Concluding that an amphibious crossing was impossible because royalist and British forces controlled the coastline, Joseph concentrated on governing the mainland.^[25][26] He appointed Christophe Saliceti as Minister of Police, Pierre-Louis Roederer as Minister of Finance, André-François Miot as Minister of the Interior, and Mathieu Dumas as Minister of War, while confirming Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jourdan as Governor of Naples.^[27] Neapolitan notables were included in high offices, such as the Duke of Gallo in Foreign Affairs and Michelangelo Cianciulli in Justice.

Joseph introduced substantial institutional reforms. Feudal jurisdictions and feudal taxes were abolished on 2 August 1806, with former seigneurs compensated by certificates exchangeable for nationalised Church lands.^[27][28] Monastic orders were suppressed, their property confiscated to stabilise state finances, and provision was made for elderly monks.^[27][29] The kingdom was divided into 13 provinces governed by intendants and 42 districts directed by sub-intendants. A Council of State, a Court of Cassation, a Cour des comptes, provincial gendarmeries, a civic guard, and a royal guard were created. A Neapolitan civil code based on the French Napoleonic Code was drafted and decreed at Bayonne on 22 June 1808 to take effect on 1 January 1809.

In education and cultural matters, Joseph established a secondary college for girls in each province, as well as a central college at Aversa for the daughters of civil servants, placed under Queen Julie's patronage.^[30] He refounded the University of Naples, created the Royal Society of Naples, founded the Royal College of Music in November 1806 under Giovanni Paisiello, and reformed the Academy of Drawing under painter Jean-Baptiste Wicar. He financed excavation work at Pompeii and Paestum. He initiated public works including a road to Reggio Calabria, completed within a year, and installed public street lighting in Naples modelled on that of Paris.^[28][31] Joseph also established a dedicated municipal fire brigade on 22 February 1806. During his two-year reign, crown revenues doubled from seven million to fourteen million ducats.^[32]

Joseph's Neapolitan reign faced armed resistance. A British force under Admiral Sidney Smith occupied the offshore island of Capri on 11 May 1806, remaining there until October 1808. In July 1806, British troops commanded by General John Stuart landed in the Gulf of Saint Euphemia and defeated Reynier's forces at the Battle of Maida, sparking insurrections across Calabria. Royalist guerrilla leaders, notably Michele Pezza (known as Fra Diavolo), organized rural resistance. French commanders, including Masséna and Lamarque, conducted harsh counter-insurgency operations, including the sack of Lauria. Saliceti's police established military commissions to execute captured armed brigands without appeal.^[33] In 1806, the extraordinary tribunal of Naples indicted 3,121 persons and condemned 16 to death, including Fra Diavolo. Relations with the Catholic Church became strained when Archbishop Luigi Ruffo-Scilla of Naples refused to swear allegiance to Joseph and was expelled to Rome.

Kingdom of Spain

In May 1808, Napoleon orchestrated the Bayonne abdications, compelling Charles IV and Ferdinand VII to surrender their rights to the Spanish crown.^{[34][35][36][37]} Napoleon offered the throne to his brothers Louis and Jérôme, who both declined.^[38] On 10 May 1808, Napoleon informed Joseph that he was appointed King of Spain, and on 6 June 1808, issued an imperial decree officially naming him King of Spain and the Indies.^{[39][40][41][42][43]} Joseph left Naples on 23 May, yielding that crown to his brother-in-law Joachim Murat, who was declared King of Naples on 15 July 1808.^[13][44] Joseph met Spanish notables assembled at Bayonne, where the Bayonne Statute was approved on 7 July 1808. The constitution established nine ministries, provided for an executive Council of State, ended the Spanish Inquisition, and maintained Catholicism as the exclusive state religion, while leaving the existing privileges of the nobility intact.

Joseph entered Spain on 9 July 1808 amid the outbreak of the Peninsular War, which had been sparked by the Dos de Mayo Uprising in Madrid.^[45] Provincial insurrectionary juntas rejected his legitimacy, condemning him as a usurper and an instrument of an anti-papal power.^[46][47] Spanish opponents derided him with the nickname Pepe Botella (Joe Bottle), alleging habitual drunkenness, although Joseph was abstemious.^{[46][48][49][50][51][52]} He was also called El rey plazuelas (The King of Squares) because he ordered the demolition of urban convents and churches to create open civic plazas in Madrid, most notably the Plaza de Oriente facing the Royal Palace.^[49][52][53] Supporters of Joseph among the Spanish educated classes were termed josefinos or afrancesados.^[54]

Joseph entered Madrid on 20 July 1808 and was proclaimed king on 25 July. Following the capitulation of General Pierre Dupont de l'Étang at the Battle of Bailén on 22 July, Joseph evacuated Madrid on 31 July, retreating north to Burgos, Miranda de Ebro, and Vitoria, where he established headquarters in the palace of the Marquis of Montehermoso. Napoleon intervened personally with 200,000 troops in November 1808, winning victories at Somosierra and retaking Madrid on 4 December.^[55][56] Joseph was kept away from the capital while Napoleon himself took the first measures under his own signature. Hurt at being set apart from power, Joseph sent his resignation to Napoleon but received no reply, and he was allowed to re-enter Madrid only on 22 January 1809.

Joseph strengthened the organisation of the central government, supported by his Secretary of State Mariano Luis de Urquijo. To ease tensions with the clergy, he attended Catholic mass daily and appointed the former Inquisition secretary Juan Antonio Llorente as royal chaplain and councillor of state. In 1808, Joseph created the Ministry of Police, an institutional precursor to the modern Spanish Ministry of the Interior. In December 1809, he decreed the establishment of a public art museum in Madrid, known in historiography as the Museo Josefino, intended to retain cultural treasures in Spain and provide a public gallery comparable to other European capitals; the institution was later opened by Ferdinand VII in 1819 as the Museo del Prado.^[49] Joseph introduced a dual monetary system based on the traditional silver real and a real de vellón valued at 2.5 reales de vellón per silver real, issuing coins in bronze, silver, and gold.^[57][58]

Joseph's authority was constrained by French military commanders who answered directly to Napoleon. In January 1810, Joseph led a campaign into Andalusia, entering Seville on 1 February, but Napoleon assigned the subsequent operations and the Siege of Cadiz to Marshal Nicolas Soult. In February 1810, Napoleon established four autonomous military governments in Catalonia, Aragon, Navarre, and Biscay under martial law, and in 1812 Catalonia was annexed directly to the French Empire without Joseph's consent.^[59] Over his five-year reign, Joseph tendered his resignation to Napoleon four times.^[60] During his rule, Venezuela declared independence from the Spanish Crown in 1810, followed by Paraguay in 1811.

Although Napoleon decided on 16 March 1812 to place Joseph in general command of the French armies in Spain, the leading marshals refused to submit to his orders. After the French defeat at the Battle of the Arapiles on 22 July 1812, Joseph left Madrid for Valencia.^[61] He reached Valencia on 31 August, and after a French counter-offensive and the failure of Wellington's troops before Burgos, he returned to Madrid on 2 November 1812. After Napoleon recalled Soult, many generals and 15,000 men to prepare the German campaign, Joseph fell back to Valladolid on 23 March 1813, and a new evacuation of Madrid was completed on 28 May 1813.^[61] On 21 June 1813, Allied forces under the Duke of Wellington defeated French armies commanded by Joseph and Marshal Jourdan at the Battle of Vitoria.^[62] Joseph escaped on horseback, leaving behind his baggage train, military payroll, official papers, and confiscated Spanish royal treasures.^[63] He crossed the French border at Saint-Jean-de-Luz on 28 June. Under the Treaty of Valençay signed on 11 December 1813, Napoleon recognised Ferdinand VII as King of Spain, officially ending Joseph's reign.^[64]

Campaign of 1814 and the Hundred Days

Following the retreat from Spain, Joseph resided at his Mortefontaine estate under orders to avoid Paris. On 28 January 1814, as Allied armies invaded France, Napoleon appointed Joseph Lieutenant General of the Empire, assigning him command of the Paris National Guard and the 1st Military Division, alongside military advisory duties to Empress Marie-Louise, who served as regent. When Allied forces converged on the capital in late March, Joseph, acting on instructions from Napoleon that the imperial heir must not fall into enemy hands, ordered the evacuation of the Empress and the King of Rome to Blois on 28 March.

On 30 March 1814, during the Battle of Paris, Joseph convened a military council with War Minister Henri Clarke and garrison commanders, authorising Marshals Auguste de Marmont and Édouard Mortier to negotiate a capitulation with Allied leaders.^[60][65] Joseph then left Paris to join the imperial government at Blois. Following Napoleon's first abdication on 4 April, Joseph attempted to persuade Marie-Louise to seek the protection of her father, Emperor Francis I of Austria. When the provisional government headed by Talleyrand denied Joseph permission to retire to Mortefontaine, he went into exile in Switzerland, leaving on 18 April 1814 with his aide-de-camp Colonel Espert, his secretary Louis Maillard, and his physician.

On 27 July 1814, Joseph purchased the Château de Prangins on Lake Geneva, having stayed previously with Jean-Jacques de Sellon at Allaman. His wife Julie and their daughters joined him at Prangins in September 1814. He furnished the residence with items brought from Mortefontaine and hosted visitors including Germaine de Staël. Suspecting Joseph of clandestine communications with Napoleon on Elba, Talleyrand dispatched agents to monitor Prangins and pressured Vaud cantonal authorities to expel him. Through de Staël, Joseph relayed warnings to Elba concerning royalist assassination plots.^[66] When Swiss authorities, prompted by Allied diplomats, arrived at Prangins on 20 March 1815 to arrest him, Joseph had fled the previous night.

Reaching Paris on 23 March 1815 during the Hundred Days, Joseph was reinstated as Grand Elector and entered the Chamber of Peers. He and Lucien advised Napoleon to commission liberal theorist Benjamin Constant to draft the Acte additionnel aux constitutions de l'Empire, promulgated on 22 April 1815. When Napoleon departed to campaign in Belgium, Joseph served as president of the Council of Ministers in Paris. Following the defeat at Waterloo on 18 June 1815 and Napoleon's second abdication on 22 June, Joseph met his brother at Rochefort. Joseph offered to surrender to the British in Napoleon's guise so that Napoleon could escape to the United States on a chartered American merchant vessel, but Napoleon declined the proposal.^[67]

Exile in the United States

Joseph obtained blank French passports through Joseph Fouché and an American passport from the chargé d'affaires Henry Jackson. After hiding for a time in a house at Les Mathes, near La Tremblade, he reached the port of Royan and, on the night of 24–25 July 1815, boarded the brig Le Commerce under the name of M. Bouchard, accompanied by his Spanish aide Mariano Unzaga Saint Maxent, secretary Louis Maillard, cook François Parrot, and interpreter James Carret.^[68] British naval vessels searched the ship three times but did not identify him.^[68] The ship docked in Brooklyn, New York, on 20 August 1815. Assuming the title Count of Survilliers, Joseph was granted residence by President James Madison, though Madison declined to receive him officially. Joseph initially lived in New York City and Philadelphia, leasing the Lansdowne mansion west of the city.

In April 1817, Joseph bought Point Breeze, an estate in Bordentown, New Jersey, on the Delaware River formerly owned by Stephen Sayre.^[69][70][71] Because New Jersey law restricted foreign land ownership, agents held the initial title until the state legislature passed a special act permitting him to own real estate. Joseph expanded the property from an initial 211 acres to approximately 1,800 acres (720 hectares).^[71] On 4 January 1820, a fire destroyed the main residence, though neighbours and staff saved much of his furniture and art collection.^[70][72][73] Joseph converted his stables into a second, grander house, which on completion was viewed as the second-finest house in America after the White House.^[72][73] Point Breeze featured landscaped gardens in the picturesque style, an artificial lake, tunnels connecting buildings, an aviary, an 8,000-volume library, and approximately 150 paintings by artists including Peter Paul Rubens, Titian, and Jacques-Louis David.^{[70][74][75][76][77]}

Joseph liquidated European assets through his brother-in-law Nicolas Clary, selling the Château de Prangins in 1827 to Marie-Madeleine Verniquet for nearly 500,000 francs and the Mortefontaine estate to the Prince of Condé. He also sold jewels and fine weapons taken from Spain, including a diamond-encrusted sword for 107,000 francs in 1821.^[10] In northern New York, he acquired large tracts of land from Jacques Le Ray de Chaumont, which he later resold at a profit of 300,000 francs, naming a 1,200-acre lake Lake Diana (now Lake Bonaparte).^[70][78] In 1828, he and former French staff officer Félix Lacoste founded the French-language weekly newspaper Le Courrier des États-Unis in New York. Joseph invested in regional transport, purchasing shares in the Camden and Amboy Railroad, and on 12 November 1831, rode the John Bull steam locomotive during its trial run.^[79] He provided financial support to French exiles settling in the Society for the Cultivation of the Vine and the Olive in Alabama.^[80]

Point Breeze functioned as a centre for French emigrants, including Generals Charles Lefebvre-Desnouettes, Emmanuel de Grouchy, and Charles and Henri Lallemand.^[80] Joseph entertained American figures such as Joseph Hopkinson, Nicholas Biddle, Stephen Girard, Frances Wright, Charles Ingersoll, Charles Stewart, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John Quincy Adams, as well as the Marquis de Lafayette.^[76][81] In 1823, Joseph was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society.^[81][82] In 1820, representatives of Mexican revolutionaries reportedly approached Joseph with an offer to accept the crown of Emperor of Mexico, which he declined.^[10][83]

Head of the House of Bonaparte and London years

Following the July Revolution of 1830 in France, Joseph dispatched letters from the United States to Lafayette, Empress Marie-Louise, Prince Metternich, and the French Chamber of Deputies, proposing an imperial regency under which Napoleon II would assume the throne.^[84][85] His proposals were ignored in Paris, where Louis-Philippe I was proclaimed King of the French, and the French government renewed the exile of the Bonaparte family, enacting legislation in March 1832 requiring the sale of their remaining French property.

Concerned by the deteriorating health of Napoleon II, Joseph sailed for Europe on the Alexander on 20 July 1832, arriving in Liverpool on 16 August. Upon arrival, he learned that Napoleon II had died at Schönbrunn on 22 July 1832.^[85] The death of Napoleon II made Joseph the head of the imperial house of France and first heir to the throne. He established residences in London at Park Crescent and in Surrey at Marden Park, hosting Bonapartists and European figures including Daniel O'Connell and the Duke of Wellington. Joseph met his nephew Prince Louis-Napoléon (the future Napoleon III) on 18 November 1832, but opposed his proposals for aggressive agitation, preferring legal petitions to repeal the banishment laws.^[86] On 7 July 1833, Joseph and Lucien published a political declaration urging France to adopt a constitution with an elected executive council alongside an emperor.

Unable to secure permission to visit his wife in Italy and disappointed by the failure of a 30,000-signature petition presented to the French Chamber of Deputies to repeal the exile law, Joseph returned to the United States in late 1835. In exchange for granting a right-of-way through Point Breeze, he received one thousand shares in the Baltimore railroad company. His mother Letizia died in Rome on 3 February 1836, naming Joseph her residuary legatee, an estate he delegated to Cardinal Fesch. When Louis-Napoléon attempted a coup at Strasbourg in October 1836 and was deported to America, Joseph refused to receive him in New York.^[87] Following the death of his daughter Charlotte on 2 March 1839 in childbirth, Cardinal Fesch on 13 May, and his sister Caroline Murat on 18 May, Joseph returned to Europe, sailing on the Philadelphia and arriving in London in November 1839.

Final years and death in Florence

In London, Joseph established a residence in Cavendish Square. When the French government under Adolphe Thiers and King Louis-Philippe arranged the return of Napoleon's remains from Saint Helena in 1840, Joseph offered to assist with funding, but the French government barred him from attending the ceremony and refused his request to receive Napoleon's Austerlitz sword, which General Henri Gatien Bertrand presented to the French crown. In the summer of 1840, following the death of his brother Lucien on 29 June, Joseph suffered a stroke that left his right side paralysed. He underwent treatment at the thermal baths of Bad Wildbad in Württemberg.

In 1841, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Leopold II, granted Joseph permission to reside in Florence, aided by the intervention of his sister-in-law, Queen Désirée of Sweden. He arrived in Genoa on 6 June and Livorno on 13 July 1841, reuniting with his wife Julie Clary at the Palazzo Serristori after a separation of over twenty-five years. Suffering from recurrent strokes, progressive paralysis, and erysipelas in his feet, Joseph fell into a coma on 27 July 1844 and died the following morning, 28 July 1844, at the age of 76, with his surviving brothers Louis and Jérôme present.

Joseph's funeral, organised by Jérôme, took place on 3 August 1844 at the Church of San Niccolò in Florence, with military honours rendered by two grenadier companies dispatched by the Grand Duke of Tuscany. His body was entombed in the Giugni Chapel of the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, alongside his daughter Charlotte. Julie died in Florence eight months later on 7 April 1845 and was interred beside them.

In 1862, Napoleon III had Joseph's remains brought to France and buried in Les Invalides.^[88] On 14 June 1862, the body was received at Les Invalides by Minister Alexandre Walewski and Marshal d'Ornano, governor of Les Invalides. The ceremony was organised by his former secretary, Louis Maillard. On 22 March 1864, his coffin was placed in the Chapel of Saint-Augustin, and his funerary monument was entrusted to Alphonse-Nicolas Crépinet. Julie and Charlotte remained buried in Santa Croce.

Personal life and family

From his marriage to Marie Julie Clary on 1 August 1794, Joseph had three daughters. Julie Joséphine Bonaparte, born on 29 February 1796, died in infancy on 6 June 1797. Zénaïde Laetitia Julie Bonaparte, born on 8 July 1801, married her first cousin Charles Lucien Bonaparte (son of Lucien Bonaparte) in Brussels on 29 June 1822 and had twelve children, dying in Naples on 8 August 1854. Charlotte Napoléone Bonaparte, born on 31 October 1802, married her first cousin Napoléon Louis Bonaparte (son of Louis Bonaparte) on 23 July 1826; after his death in 1831, Charlotte died in childbirth at Sarzana on 2 March 1839. Joseph formally designated his two surviving daughters as his heirs.

Joseph had several extramarital affairs and fathered children outside marriage. During his reign in Naples, he conducted a relationship with Maria Giulia Colonna, Duchess of Atri and daughter of Prince Colonna di Stigliano, with whom he had a son, Giulio (born 1806 or 1807), and a daughter, Teresa (born in autumn 1808), who died in infancy.^[89][90] While King of Spain, he maintained a relationship with María del Pilar Acedo y Sarriá, Marchioness of Montehermoso, acquiring the Montehermoso Palace in Vitoria for 300,000 reales as a royal residence and elevating her husband, Ortuño Aguirre del Corral, to Grandee of Spain and knight of the Royal Order of Spain.^[91] He also had liaisons with the Cuban heiress María Teresa Montalvo y O'Farril (Countess of Jaruco), her daughter María de las Mercedes (wife of General Christophe-Antoine Merlin), opera singer Fineschi, Nancy Derjeux, and Baroness Burke, wife of the Danish ambassador.^[92]

During his exile at Point Breeze, Joseph lived with Annette Savage, a young woman from Philadelphia known as Madame de la Folie. They had two daughters: Pauline Josephann (born 1819, died in December 1823) and Caroline Charlotte Delafolie (born 1822, died 25 December 1890).^[93] Caroline married Colonel Zebulon Howell Benton of Jefferson County, New York, on 27 January 1839, having seven children.^{[94][95][96][97][98][99][100]} Joseph also fathered two sons with Émilie Hémart Lacoste, wife of Le Courrier des États-Unis co-founder Félix Lacoste: Félix-Joseph-François Lacoste, born in Philadelphia on 22 March 1825, and a second son born on the same date who died in infancy.^[101][102]

Freemasonry

Joseph was admitted to the Masonic lodge La Parfaite Sincérité in Marseille on 8 October 1793.^[8][9][10] On 5 December 1804, Napoleon appointed him Grand Master of the Grand Orient de France, an office he retained through the Hundred Days until 1815, though administrative management was largely left to Grand Master Adjunct Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès.^{[103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110]} In 1807, Joseph founded the Grand Orient of Naples and became its Grand Master. In Spain, he founded the Gran Logia Nacional de España on 24 November 1809 and supported the creation of a Supreme Council in July 1811, administered by Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs Miguel José de Azanza.^[111][112] After Napoleon's fall, Joseph refused to formally abdicate as Grand Master of the Grand Orient de France, leaving the position officially vacant from 1814 until 1844.^[113]

Literary works and publications

In 1799, Joseph published a 100-page novella, Moïna, ou la villageoise du Mont-Cenis, which he began writing in 1796 after encountering an injured French soldier at Bramans during the Italian campaign. The pastoral narrative depicts a romantic relationship between a mountain villager and a French soldier while discussing peace and warfare.^[114][115] It received favourable comments from Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Madame de Staël, and critic Amédée Renée.^[114][115] Joseph did not write comprehensive memoirs, publishing only an autobiographical Fragment historique covering events up to 1806. Between 1853 and 1854, Albert Du Casse, aide-de-camp to Prince Jérôme Napoléon, published a 10-volume edition of his official correspondence titled Mémoires et correspondance du roi Joseph.

Joseph was sometimes incorrectly credited with the authorship of the 5,000-line epic poem Napoléon en dix chants. The work was written by Hubert-Louis Lorquet, a teacher at Port Louis on Mauritius, who published it there in 1822 before issuing an 1838 Paris edition. Joseph had merely arranged for a Philadelphia printer to publish an American edition of Lorquet's text in 1823.

Historiographical assessment

Historical appraisals of Joseph Bonaparte have varied considerably. During his exile on Saint Helena, Napoleon criticised his older brother's administrative and military firmness, remarking to his physician Barry O'Meara that Joseph was well-educated but lacked the traits required of a king, and remarking to Emmanuel de Las Cases that the tasks assigned to Joseph exceeded his capacities.^[116][117] Austrian Chancellor Metternich similarly recorded that Napoleon often described Joseph as gentle in character and mind but incapable of a career that demanded vigour. In contrast, his page Abel Hugo maintained that Joseph was capable in civil administration and sought to moderate the rigours of French occupation.^[118] Historian Georges Lefebvre described the Bonaparte siblings as eager for dynastic power, while Frédéric Masson wrote that Joseph was the most balanced of the Bonapartes and perhaps the only one of Napoleon's brothers who could have reigned usefully, had the peoples been willing.^[119]

Spanish historiography long viewed Joseph negatively as el rey intruso (the intruder king) and perpetuated the claim of alcoholism, though modern historians such as Juan Mercader Riba and Manuel Moreno Alonso have analysed his administrative intentions and desire to avoid brutal repression.^[120][121] His withdrawal from Spain in 1813 was accompanied by the removal of precious objects, including Habsburg and Bourbon family jewels, the Estanque diamond, the Peregrina pearl, and the medieval manuscript Beatus of Silos.^{[122][123][124][125]} His actions during the surrender of Paris in 1814 also drew criticism from contemporaries such as François-René de Chateaubriand and historians Henry Houssaye and Jean Massin, though defenders like Antoine Marie Chamans de Lavalette noted that he operated under vague imperial instructions.^{[126][127][128][129]} In Naples, historians have generally judged his two-year reign more favourably, noting his fiscal reforms, infrastructural investments, and integration of domestic elites.^[130][131]

Cultural depictions and monuments

Joseph Bonaparte was painted by Jean-Baptiste Wicar, François Gérard, Robert Lefèvre, François-Joseph Kinson, Josep Bernat Flaugier, Charles Willson Peale, and Innocent-Louis Goubaud.^[132] An X-ray examination conducted in 2011 on Francisco de Goya's Portrait of Ramón Satué (1823) in the Rijksmuseum revealed an underlying portrait of a French general officer believed to be Joseph Bonaparte.^[133] He appears in Jacques-Louis David's The Coronation of Napoleon and The Distribution of the Eagle Standards. In literature, he is the central figure in Benito Pérez Galdós's 1875 novel El equipaje del rey José, and appears in Juan Antonio Vallejo-Nágera's Yo, el rey (1985) and Yo, el intruso (1991), Annemarie Selinko's Désirée (1951), and Thomas B. Costain's The Tontine (1955).

Joseph was portrayed on screen by Georges Lampin in Napoléon (1927), Cameron Mitchell in Désirée (1954), Robert Manuel in Napoléon (1955), Edward de Souza in Napoleon and Love (1974), Fabrizio Jovine in Joséphine ou la Comédie des ambitions (1979), Philippe Rouleau in Los desastres de la guerra (1983), Jacek Domański in Napoléon et l'Europe (1991), Ennio Fantastichini in Napoléon (2002), Julian Wadham in Goya's Ghosts (2006), and Benjamin Gomez in La Guerre des trônes (2024).^{[134][135][136][137][138][139][140][141][142][143]}

A bronze statue of Joseph sculpted by Jean-Claude Petit forms part of the monument to Napoleon and his brothers erected between 1864 and 1865 in Place Charles-de-Gaulle in Ajaccio, designed by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc.^[144] Commemorative plaques honour him at his birthplace in Corte, the town hall park of Survilliers, the Chapelle des Grecs in Ajaccio, the Palazzo Serristori in Florence, and the Chemin des Trois-Rois in Lausanne.^{[145][146][147]} Joseph Bonaparte Gulf in the Northern Territory of Australia and Lake Bonaparte in Diana, New York, are named after him.^[78][148] In December 2020, the State of New Jersey acquired his former Point Breeze estate in Bordentown to preserve the property and establish a museum in the surviving gardener's house.^[149]

References

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3. Жозеф был третьем ребёнком Буонапарте, однако первые двое — мальчик и девочка — умерли в младенчестве.
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11. Haegele 2010, p. 117.
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34. Mena Villamar, Claudio (1997). El Quito rebelde (1809-1812). p. 63. «Napoleón toma toda la iniciativa, se firman los pactos de Bayona en los que el 6 de mayo , Fernando devuelve la corona a su padre, quien ya la había cedido a Napoleón la víspera y el 10 de mayo el emperador comunica a José».
35. La Parra, Emilio (2017). «"Aspiraciones a la Corona española tras las abdicaciones de Bayona."». HispanismeS, hors-série 1: 151-174. «El 5 de mayo de 1808, Carlos IV renunció formalmente en Bayona a sus derechos al trono español en favor de Napoleón. Al día siguiente lo hizo Fernando VII, quien había sido proclamado rey de España el 19 de marzo anterior».
36. varios autores (1988). Historia de España: La tracsición del Antiguo al Nuevo régimen (1789-1874). Planeta. «Napoleón atrae a la familia real a Bayona , donde , tras lamentables incidencias , Fernando devuelve la corona a su padre , quien la cede a Napoleón . Éste encarga el reinado de España a su hermano José. p91».
37. La Parra, Emilio. Aspiraciones a la Corona española tras las abdicaciones de Bayona. hispanistes.fr (kontsulta data: 2023-12-26).
38. Bertaud 2014, p. 139.
39. «Córdoba 4 de marzo.- Reflexiones sobre el comportamiento de la ciudad de Córdoba con el Rey Josef I. Relación de poblaciones cuyos vecinos han capturado salteadores y bandidos.». Gaceta de Madrid (79): 333. 20 de marzo de 1810. Consultado el 7 de enero de 2025. «...estos la imitan tan pronto y gustosamente que todos los correos llegan al señor comisario regio las actas de sumisión, obediencia y fidelidad debidas al REI nuestro Señor D. Josef I, y mandadas prestar por los ayuntamientos, clero y vecindarios...»
40. «Augsburgo, 8 de diciembre de 1808.- Reflexiones publicadas en el monitor del 2 del corriente acerca de las funciones del ministro y enviado extraordinario de España en Constantinopla tras el reconocimiento de Josef I por Rey de España». Gaceta de Madrid (167): 1683. 27 de diciembre de 1808. Consultado el 7 de enero de 2025. «Había circulado el rumor, y aun se había insertado en algunos periódicos, que el marques de Almenara, ministro y enviado extraordinario de España en Constantinopla, hacia en aquella corte un papel harto dudoso; y que habiéndosele hecho ciertas insinuaciones extrangeras, habia mostrado apartarse del sistema que habia seguido desde los principios con la Puerta otomana; y, que, en fin, el reiss-reffendi se habia visto en el caso de enviar á decirle que habiendo el gran-5eñor reconocido á Josef I por Rei de España, era necesario que declarase si se le debia considerar en adelante como á representante de dicho Soberano».
41. Mercader, Joan (1971). José Bonaparte, rey de España, 1808-1813: historia externa del reinado. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto Jerónimo Zurita. Escuela de Historia Moderna. p. 52. Consultado el 18 de mayo de 2011. «La proclamación oficial de José Napoleón I, se efectuó con toda solemnidad, el día de la fiesta de Santiago, patrón de España.»
42. Bertaud 2014, p. 143.
43. Castillo Iglesias, Belén. 1808: La respuesta de los madrileños. cultura.gob.es (kontsulta data: 2023-12-26).
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47. J. M. Thompson, Napoleon Bonaparte: His Rise and Fall (1951) 244-45
48. «Caricatura de José Bonaparte». Memoria de Madrid. Ayuntamiento de Madrid. «José Bonaparte aparece de nuevo caricaturizado llevando una bandeja con botella y vasos, ataviado con casaca formada por copas y pantalón por naipes. Estas referencias aluden a su afición por la bebida, el juego y la poca disposición al trabajo. Otra referencia a la bebida la proporciona el mono que ofrece un naipe con el rey de copas. El soberano va montado sobre un pepino en recuerdo de su nombre. Un criado negro ofrece una bota de vino sobre la que hay una condecoración».
49. Biografía de José Bonaparte
50. «Pepe Botellas». Blanco y Negro. ABC [Madrid], 02-05-1908, p. 22 [Consulta: 24 gener 2020].
51. Euskaltzaindia. (PDF) 186. arauaː Atzerriko pertsona-izenak. Grafia-irizpideak. Erregeerreginen eta kidekoen kasua. .
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54. Richard Hocquellet, Résistance et révolution durant l'occupation napoléonienne de l'Espagne : 1808-1812, La Boutique de l'Histoire, 2001, p. 151.
55. Rubio Andrada, Manuel; Rubio Muñoz, Francisco Javier. «El Ejército de Extremadura en la Guerra de la Independencia (1808-1811): Bosquejo histórico». Coloquios Históricos de Extremadura, 2019. [Consulta: 6 octubre 2019].
56. Robinson, Charles Walker. Lectures upon the British campaigns in the Peninsula, 1808-14 (en anglès). Mitchell, 1871, p. 10.
57. González Santirso, Cipriano. Notizias de un peregrino de Oviedo a Covadonga, 1759, 1"..En principios del siglo XIX, con el rey José Bonaparte, se introdujo como base de la moneda de plata el "real de vellón", que valía la mitad de "un real de plata", con lo cual la "peseta", pasó a contener "cuatro reales.." [Consulta: 24 febrer 2013].
58. Mateu y Llopis, Felipe. La moneda española (en castellà). Editorial Alberto Martín, 1946, p. 275.
59. Bertaud 2014, p. 201.
60. Joseph Bonaparte | King of Spain, Naples & France | Britannica www.britannica.com. 24.7.2025. Viitattu 5.8.2025. (englanniksi)
61. Anguita Osuna, José Enrique; Silva Coto, Álvaro. Aportaciones históricas y jurídicas sobre el reinado de Fernando VII. Midac, 2019, p. 95. ISBN 8413241294.
62. Sarramon 1985, p. 420-422.
63. Sarramon 1985, p. 534-535.
64. La Parra López, Emilio (2014). «La restauración de Fernando VII en 1814». Historia constitucional: Revista Electrónica de Historia Constitucional (15): 215-216. «José no había abdicado, pero tras este exabrupto tal formalidad carecía de importancia».
65. (francese) «Si M. le Maréchal Duc de Raguse et M. le Maréchal duc de Trévise ne peuvent plus tenir, ils sont autorisés à entrer en pourparlers avec le Prince de Schwarzenberg et l'Empereur de Russie qui sont devant eux. Signé Joseph» (italiano) «Se il Signor Maresciallo Duca di Ragusa e il Signor Maresciallo Duca di Treviso non possono più tenere [la città di Parigi, n.d.r.], essi sono autorizzati a entrare in trattativa con il principe di Schwarzenberg e l'imperatore di Russia che si trovano loro di fronte. Firmato Giuseppe» (da Mémoires du Maréchal Marmont, Duc de Raguse, Livre XX, Ed Perrotin, Paris, 1857) Il Duca di Ragusa era il Maresciallo Auguste Marmont e il Duca di Treviso era il Maresciallo Mortier
66. Pierre Kohler, Madame de Staël et la Suisse, Librairie Payot & Cie, 1916, p. 637.
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94. This family was not related to the more famous T. H. Bentons, but Zebulon reportedly felt the name was appropriate.
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103. Franc-maçonnerie et politique au siècle des lumières: Europe-Amérique p. 55 – article Le binôme franc-maçonnerie-Révolution – José Ferrer Benimeli (Presses Univ de Bordeaux ed., 2006)
104. Histoire de la franc-maçonnerie en France Jean André Faucher and Achille Ricker (Nouvelles éditions latines ed., 1967)
105. Histoire du Grand Orient de France p. 338, Achille Godefroy Jouaust, (Brissard et Teissier ed. 1865)
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107. Franc-maçonnerie et politique au siècle des lumières: Europe-Amérique p. 55 – artigo Le binôme franc-maçonnerie-Révolution – José Ferrer Benimeli (Presses Univ de Bordeaux ed., 2006)
108. Franc-maçonnerie et politique au siècle des lumières: Europe-Amérique page 55 – article Le binôme franc-maçonnerie-Révolution – José Ferrer Benimeli (Presses Univ de Bordeaux ed., 2006)
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111. Masonería e Ilustración: Del siglo de las luces a la actualidad pp. 61, 109
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