May 14, 2024 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, The History Guy unpacks the largely forgotten saga of the Bonapartes who came to America. The story illustrates the pretensions and complexity of Napoleon's attempts to create a lasting dynasty.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is our American Stories, and our next story comes
to us from a man who simply known as the
History Guy. His videos are watched by hundreds of thousands
of people of all ages on YouTube. The History Guy
has also heard here at our American Stories. If at
the height of his power in eighteen ten, someone had
approached Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and told him that in about
(00:34):
one hundred years his great nephew would be the Secretary
of the United States Navy and be responsible for setting
up arguably the most successful law enforcement agency in the
world in the new country of America. He probably would
have laughed or had you sent to an asylum. Here's
the History Guy with the story of the American Bonapartes.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
On June eighteenth, eighteen fifteen, one of the most important
and well known battles in history was fought in Belgium
between the French army of the Emperor Napoleon and armies
of the Seventh Coalition commanded by the Duke of Wellington.
The Battle of Waterloo, a significant part of that story.
Battle occurred on Napoleon's left at a walled farmhouse called Ugomont.
(01:30):
Napoleon sent a division to attack the farm, which Willington
knew he must hold. Historians today disagree or whether that
attack was merely a diversion intended to draw Willington's reserves
away from his center, whether Napoleon thought that Yugomonte must
be taken, but in either case, the battle started at
the walls of Yugomont, and by many accounts, was lost there,
(01:51):
as the farm, although nearly destroyed, never found. Willington observed
after the battle that the success of the battle turned
on the closing of the gates at Hugomont. The French
commander whose division was to take the farm was Jerome Bonaparte,
Napoleon's youngest brother, and Jerome Buonaparte had a little known
(02:12):
connection to his opponent, the Duke of Wellington, through the
nearly forgotten American Bonapartes. It is a story that deserves
to be remembered. Jerome Bonaparte was born in Corsica in
seventeen eighty four, the youngest brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. His father,
Carlo Bonaparte, died when Jerome was just three months old.
(02:33):
His mother struggled after the death of his father, and
he grew up an unruly child, while his brother, now
the head of the family in a rising general in
the French army, sent him to a Catholic university. Jerome
was a lack student, more interested in the ladies than
his studies. Exasperated, Napoleon sent Jerome to join the navy
in the hopes that the military would straighten him out.
(02:55):
While he was a successful naval officer, Jerome was still
not quite straightened out. In eighteen o three, at the
age of nineteen, Drum was serving with the French Navy
in the Caribbean when he decided to visit the United States.
It seems that he had inadvertently fired on a British ship,
and given that his brother was the first consul of
France and France and England had signed a peace treaty
(03:16):
in eighteen oh two, Drum had to lay low for
a while to avoid an international incident that might start
another war. While in America, a friend advised Jerome, who
always said that he just loved beautiful things, that the
most beautiful women in America were in Baltimore. William Patterson
was born in Ireland and came to America before the Revolution.
(03:37):
He ran guns during the war and after became a
successful and very wealthy businessman in Baltimore. He married and
raised a large family, including a daughter, Elizabeth Patterson, affectionately
called Betsy. In eighteen o three, Betsy Patterson was seventeen
years old, very wealthy, and generally regarded as the most
beautiful woman in America. Where Betsy Patterson and Jerome Bonapartners met,
(04:03):
likely it's some ball or social gathering, but they fell
madly in love. For Jerome it may simply have been
his love of beautiful things, but for Betsy was a
chance at fame, that independence, and a way out of
a dreary American marriage. They married on Christmas Eve, eighteen
o three, but that was a problem for Jerome's brother, Napoleon.
(04:23):
He wanted his brothers to have marriages that served his
ambitions and expected to marry Jerome to European royalty. Marriage
to an American, even one of the wealthiest in the nation,
was not acceptable. Napoleon ordered Jerome to leave Betsy and
returned to France. In the fall of eighteen oh four,
Jerome took Betsy, now pregnant, with him, to visit France
(04:44):
in the hopes of changing his brother's mind, but Napoleon
forbade her landing in France or even on the continent.
While Jerome went to France to pleay their case, she
went to England and in July eighteen oh five had
a son, whom they named Jerome Napoleon, affectionately called Beau.
But Napoleon Bonaparte was a man who did not take
(05:05):
no for an answer. As Druam pleaded his case and
still made promises to Betsy, she gave up and sailed
back to Baltimore. In the fall of eighteen oh five,
Napoleon annulled the marriage by decree. In eighteen oh seven,
Betsy got word that Napoleon had made her husband king
of the newly created Kingdom of Westphalia and had married
Jerome to a German princess, Catherine of Wurtemberg. Many argued
(05:28):
that he still loved Betsy Patterson, but could not defy
the will of his brother. He wrote to his brother Lucien,
you know the feelings of my heart, and you know
the well being and benefit of my family alone forced
me to make other ties. The love affair between Elizabeth
Patterson and Jerome Bonaparte was the subject of two motion
pictures nineteen twenty fours glorious Betsy. In nineteen thirty six
(05:50):
is Hearts divided. Their son was not allowed to use
the name Bonaparte, although Betsy did manage to get Napoleon
to invite a yearly stipend to help raise him. Leon
was defeated at Waterloo. Betsy traveled with her son in
Europe and even met his grandmother, Maria Bonaparte, Napoleon's mother.
She had hopes of marrying him back into the Bonaparte family,
(06:10):
but he preferred America. He returned to Baltimore and in
nineteen twenty nine heard a beautiful heiress and took on
the life of a gentleman farmer. In eighteen forty eight,
Drum's cousin Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, the son of Napoleon's brother. Louis,
became President of France and in eighteen fifty one proclaimed
himself Emperor Napoleon, the third of the Second French Empire.
(06:31):
In eighteen fifty four, Louis Napoleon restored to his cousin
the right to use the name Bonaparte, although he did
not recognize him in the line of succession, as that
doing would invalidate the claims of Jerome's children by Catherine
of Wurtenberg. Beau was now officially Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, the
American Bonaparte. Beau Bonaparte had two sons. The oldest, Jerome
(06:53):
Napoleon Bonaparte. The second attended West Point and served in
the US Army from eighteen forty eight to eighteen fifty four,
when it was in vite by his cousin, Emperor LOEWI
Napoleon to join the French Army, where he served in
several campaigns and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel.
The younger son was named Charles Joseph Baudaparte. Born in
eighteen fifty one. Charles was a Harvard trained lawyer who
(07:14):
became a political reformer. One of the Republican progressives of
the day, He helped to found the Reform League of Baltimore,
which took on corruption in Baltimore politics. His interest in
civil reform brought him to the attention of the most
famous progressive of the day, future US President Theodore Roosevelt.
In nineteen oh five, Roosevelt appointed him Secretary of the Navy,
where he directed naval and Marine personnel to assist in
(07:37):
release efforts following the San Francisco earthquake. In nineteen oh six,
when Attorney General William Henry Moody was appointed to the
Supreme Court, Roosevelt appointed Charles to replace him as Attorney General.
He was a tireless trustbuster, breaking up the tobacco monopoly
and became known as Charlie the crook Chaser, and in
nineteen oh eight he used Department of Justice expense funds
(07:59):
to hire thirty four employees who had served as an
investigative agency reporting to the Department of Justice. The organization
today is known as the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Yes,
the FBI was created by Napoleon Bonapartes great nephew, So
what happened to the American Bonapartes. Charles had no children
(08:21):
and died in nineteen twenty one at the age of seventy.
His older brother, Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte the Second, who served
in the French Army, returned to Baltimore after the Franco
Prussian War, married a widow and they had two children.
His daughter, Eugenie, married a German count. They have several
surviving descendants, but being a daughter, she did not keep
the name Bonaparte. His son Jerome Napoleon Charles Bonaparte, the
(08:43):
great great nephew of Emperor Napoleon the First, died without
children in nineteen forty five, the last of the American Bonapartes.
And as for the one who started it all, Napoleon's
brother Jerome, who married the beautiful American and couldn't take
Ugomont at Waterloo. He went into exile after the battle,
returned to French politics after his nephew Louis Napoleon became emperor.
(09:04):
He was made a Marshal of France and served as
President of the French Senate. He died in eighteen sixty.
His dettendants, through Catherine of Wurtemberg of the last remaining
line of the Imperial House of Bonaparte, and I mentioned
an odd connection to the Duke of Wellington, who led
the coalition forces of the Battle of Waterloo. Betsy Patterson
had an older brother, Robert Patterson, who married another heiress,
(09:27):
Baltimore Bell named Marian Caton. Robert died in eighteen twenty two,
leaving Maryan Caton Patterson a widow. She remarried a British
peer named Richard Wellesley, the first Marquess Wellesley, who was
the great great great great grandfather of Queen Elizabeth Second
and the older brother of Arthur Wellesley, better known as
(09:49):
the Duke of Wellington. A final twist in the story
of the American bonapartes.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
And great job is always by Greg Hengler and especial
thanks to The History Guy, and if you want more
stories of forgotten history, please subscribe to The History Guy's
YouTube channel, The History Guy colon history deserves to be remembered.
This is our American stories, the story of the American Bonapartes,
This is our American Stories, and our next story comes
to us from a man who simply known as the
History Guy. His videos are watched by hundreds of thousands
of people of all ages on YouTube. The History Guy
has also heard here at our American Stories. If at
the height of his power in eighteen ten, someone had
approached Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and told him that in about
(00:34):
one hundred years his great nephew would be the Secretary
of the United States Navy and be responsible for setting
up arguably the most successful law enforcement agency in the
world in the new country of America. He probably would
have laughed or had you sent to an asylum. Here's
the History Guy with the story of the American Bonapartes.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
On June eighteenth, eighteen fifteen, one of the most important
and well known battles in history was fought in Belgium
between the French army of the Emperor Napoleon and armies
of the Seventh Coalition commanded by the Duke of Wellington.
The Battle of Waterloo, a significant part of that story.
Battle occurred on Napoleon's left at a walled farmhouse called Ugomont.
(01:30):
Napoleon sent a division to attack the farm, which Willington
knew he must hold. Historians today disagree or whether that
attack was merely a diversion intended to draw Willington's reserves
away from his center, whether Napoleon thought that Yugomonte must
be taken, but in either case, the battle started at
the walls of Yugomont, and by many accounts, was lost there,
(01:51):
as the farm, although nearly destroyed, never found. Willington observed
after the battle that the success of the battle turned
on the closing of the gates at Hugomont. The French
commander whose division was to take the farm was Jerome Bonaparte,
Napoleon's youngest brother, and Jerome Buonaparte had a little known
(02:12):
connection to his opponent, the Duke of Wellington, through the
nearly forgotten American Bonapartes. It is a story that deserves
to be remembered. Jerome Bonaparte was born in Corsica in
seventeen eighty four, the youngest brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. His father,
Carlo Bonaparte, died when Jerome was just three months old.
(02:33):
His mother struggled after the death of his father, and
he grew up an unruly child, while his brother, now
the head of the family in a rising general in
the French army, sent him to a Catholic university. Jerome
was a lack student, more interested in the ladies than
his studies. Exasperated, Napoleon sent Jerome to join the navy
in the hopes that the military would straighten him out.
(02:55):
While he was a successful naval officer, Jerome was still
not quite straightened out. In eighteen o three, at the
age of nineteen, Drum was serving with the French Navy
in the Caribbean when he decided to visit the United States.
It seems that he had inadvertently fired on a British ship,
and given that his brother was the first consul of
France and France and England had signed a peace treaty
(03:16):
in eighteen oh two, Drum had to lay low for
a while to avoid an international incident that might start
another war. While in America, a friend advised Jerome, who
always said that he just loved beautiful things, that the
most beautiful women in America were in Baltimore. William Patterson
was born in Ireland and came to America before the Revolution.
(03:37):
He ran guns during the war and after became a
successful and very wealthy businessman in Baltimore. He married and
raised a large family, including a daughter, Elizabeth Patterson, affectionately
called Betsy. In eighteen o three, Betsy Patterson was seventeen
years old, very wealthy, and generally regarded as the most
beautiful woman in America. Where Betsy Patterson and Jerome Bonapartners met,
(04:03):
likely it's some ball or social gathering, but they fell
madly in love. For Jerome it may simply have been
his love of beautiful things, but for Betsy was a
chance at fame, that independence, and a way out of
a dreary American marriage. They married on Christmas Eve, eighteen
o three, but that was a problem for Jerome's brother, Napoleon.
(04:23):
He wanted his brothers to have marriages that served his
ambitions and expected to marry Jerome to European royalty. Marriage
to an American, even one of the wealthiest in the nation,
was not acceptable. Napoleon ordered Jerome to leave Betsy and
returned to France. In the fall of eighteen oh four,
Jerome took Betsy, now pregnant, with him, to visit France
(04:44):
in the hopes of changing his brother's mind, but Napoleon
forbade her landing in France or even on the continent.
While Jerome went to France to pleay their case, she
went to England and in July eighteen oh five had
a son, whom they named Jerome Napoleon, affectionately called Beau.
But Napoleon Bonaparte was a man who did not take
(05:05):
no for an answer. As Druam pleaded his case and
still made promises to Betsy, she gave up and sailed
back to Baltimore. In the fall of eighteen oh five,
Napoleon annulled the marriage by decree. In eighteen oh seven,
Betsy got word that Napoleon had made her husband king
of the newly created Kingdom of Westphalia and had married
Jerome to a German princess, Catherine of Wurtemberg. Many argued
(05:28):
that he still loved Betsy Patterson, but could not defy
the will of his brother. He wrote to his brother Lucien,
you know the feelings of my heart, and you know
the well being and benefit of my family alone forced
me to make other ties. The love affair between Elizabeth
Patterson and Jerome Bonaparte was the subject of two motion
pictures nineteen twenty fours glorious Betsy. In nineteen thirty six
(05:50):
is Hearts divided. Their son was not allowed to use
the name Bonaparte, although Betsy did manage to get Napoleon
to invite a yearly stipend to help raise him. Leon
was defeated at Waterloo. Betsy traveled with her son in
Europe and even met his grandmother, Maria Bonaparte, Napoleon's mother.
She had hopes of marrying him back into the Bonaparte family,
(06:10):
but he preferred America. He returned to Baltimore and in
nineteen twenty nine heard a beautiful heiress and took on
the life of a gentleman farmer. In eighteen forty eight,
Drum's cousin Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, the son of Napoleon's brother. Louis,
became President of France and in eighteen fifty one proclaimed
himself Emperor Napoleon, the third of the Second French Empire.
(06:31):
In eighteen fifty four, Louis Napoleon restored to his cousin
the right to use the name Bonaparte, although he did
not recognize him in the line of succession, as that
doing would invalidate the claims of Jerome's children by Catherine
of Wurtenberg. Beau was now officially Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, the
American Bonaparte. Beau Bonaparte had two sons. The oldest, Jerome
(06:53):
Napoleon Bonaparte. The second attended West Point and served in
the US Army from eighteen forty eight to eighteen fifty four,
when it was in vite by his cousin, Emperor LOEWI
Napoleon to join the French Army, where he served in
several campaigns and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel.
The younger son was named Charles Joseph Baudaparte. Born in
eighteen fifty one. Charles was a Harvard trained lawyer who
(07:14):
became a political reformer. One of the Republican progressives of
the day, He helped to found the Reform League of Baltimore,
which took on corruption in Baltimore politics. His interest in
civil reform brought him to the attention of the most
famous progressive of the day, future US President Theodore Roosevelt.
In nineteen oh five, Roosevelt appointed him Secretary of the Navy,
where he directed naval and Marine personnel to assist in
(07:37):
release efforts following the San Francisco earthquake. In nineteen oh six,
when Attorney General William Henry Moody was appointed to the
Supreme Court, Roosevelt appointed Charles to replace him as Attorney General.
He was a tireless trustbuster, breaking up the tobacco monopoly
and became known as Charlie the crook Chaser, and in
nineteen oh eight he used Department of Justice expense funds
(07:59):
to hire thirty four employees who had served as an
investigative agency reporting to the Department of Justice. The organization
today is known as the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Yes,
the FBI was created by Napoleon Bonapartes great nephew, So
what happened to the American Bonapartes. Charles had no children
(08:21):
and died in nineteen twenty one at the age of seventy.
His older brother, Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte the Second, who served
in the French Army, returned to Baltimore after the Franco
Prussian War, married a widow and they had two children.
His daughter, Eugenie, married a German count. They have several
surviving descendants, but being a daughter, she did not keep
the name Bonaparte. His son Jerome Napoleon Charles Bonaparte, the
(08:43):
great great nephew of Emperor Napoleon the First, died without
children in nineteen forty five, the last of the American Bonapartes.
And as for the one who started it all, Napoleon's
brother Jerome, who married the beautiful American and couldn't take
Ugomont at Waterloo. He went into exile after the battle,
returned to French politics after his nephew Louis Napoleon became emperor.
(09:04):
He was made a Marshal of France and served as
President of the French Senate. He died in eighteen sixty.
His dettendants, through Catherine of Wurtemberg of the last remaining
line of the Imperial House of Bonaparte, and I mentioned
an odd connection to the Duke of Wellington, who led
the coalition forces of the Battle of Waterloo. Betsy Patterson
had an older brother, Robert Patterson, who married another heiress,
(09:27):
Baltimore Bell named Marian Caton. Robert died in eighteen twenty two,
leaving Maryan Caton Patterson a widow. She remarried a British
peer named Richard Wellesley, the first Marquess Wellesley, who was
the great great great great grandfather of Queen Elizabeth Second
and the older brother of Arthur Wellesley, better known as
(09:49):
the Duke of Wellington. A final twist in the story
of the American bonapartes.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
And great job is always by Greg Hengler and especial
thanks to The History Guy, and if you want more
stories of forgotten history, please subscribe to The History Guy's
YouTube channel, The History Guy colon history deserves to be remembered.
This is our American stories, the story of the American Bonapartes,
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