Editing Joseph Bonaparte (section)

==Later life in the United States and Europe==

[[Image:Joseph Bonaparte at Point Breeze, 1832.jpg|thumb|right|''King Joseph at [[Point Breeze (estate)|Point Breeze]]'', portrait painted on 2 February 1832 by the French artist Innocent-Louis Goubaud, during a visit to Bonaparte at his estate in [[New Jersey]]]]
[[File:Joseph Bonaparte Historical Marker 260 S 9th St Philadelphia PA (DSC 3395).jpg|thumb|Joseph Bonaparte Historical Marker at 260 S 9th St Philadelphia PA]]

Bonaparte travelled to the [[United States]] onboard the ''Commerce'' under the name of M. Bouchard. British naval officers had searched the vessel three times but never found Bonaparte on board and the ship arrived on 15 July 1815.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88056158/1900-09-11/ed-1/seq-2/print/image_681x648_from_1414%2C3350_to_4560%2C6347/ |title= Refuge of a King| author= The Silver Messenger|date= 11 September 1900|website= Chronicling America|publisher=The Silver Messenger|access-date= 8 April 2022}}</ref> In the period 1817–1832, Bonaparte lived primarily in the United States (where he sold the jewels he had taken from Spain).<ref name=flatrock>{{cite web |url= http://www.flatrock.org.nz/topics/new_jersey/new_jerseys_ex_king.htm |title=Joseph Bonaparte at Point Breeze |work= Flat Rock |access-date=8 July 2011}}</ref> He first settled in [[New York City]] and [[Philadelphia]], where his house became the centre of activity for French [[Human migration|migrants]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/DOH/markerresults.asp?secid=31&namesearch=Joseph+Bonaparte&Submit=Search+by+Marker+Title |title=PHMC Historical Markers Program |access-date=24 October 2007 |archive-date=8 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081208163331/http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/DOH/markerresults.asp?secid=31&namesearch=Joseph%20Bonaparte&Submit=Search%20by%20Marker%20Title |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1823, he was elected as a member to the [[American Philosophical Society]].<ref>{{cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=1823&year-max=1823&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=6 April 2021|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> Later he purchased an estate, called [[Point Breeze (estate)|Point Breeze]]<ref name="NYT"/> and formerly owned by [[Stephen Sayre]]. It was in [[Bordentown, New Jersey]], on the east side of the [[Delaware River]]. It was located near the confluence of Crosswicks Creek and the Delaware. He considerably expanded Sayre's home and created extensive gardens in the picturesque style. When his first home was destroyed by fire in January 1820 he converted his stables into a second grand house. On completion, it was generally viewed – perhaps diplomatically – as the "second-finest house in America" after the [[White House]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://househistree.com/houses/point-breeze|title=The Story of Bonaparte's Point Breeze|website=HouseHistree.com | access-date=1 February 2021}}</ref> At Point Breeze, Bonaparte entertained many of the leading intellectuals and politicians of his day.<ref name="NYT">{{cite news|last=Slotnik|first=Daniel E.|date=31 January 2021|title=Napoleon's Brother Lived in N.J. Here's What Happened to the Estate.|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/31/nyregion/bonaparte-point-breeze-bordentown.html|access-date=31 January 2021|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

In the summer of 1825, the Quaker scientist [[Reuben Haines III]] described Bonaparte's estate at Point Breeze, in a letter to his cousin:
<blockquote>I partook of royal fare on solid silver and attended by six waiters who supplied me with 9 courses of the most delicious viands, many of which I could not possibly tell what they were composed of; spending the intermediate time in Charles' private rooms looking over the [[Herbarium]] and Portfolios of the Princess, or riding with her and the Prince drawn by two Elegant Horses along the ever varying roads of the park amidst splendid [[Rhododendron]]s on the margin of the artificial lake on whose smooth surface gently glided the majestic European swans. Stopping to visit the Aviary enlivened by the most beautiful English pheasants, passing by alcoves ornamented with statues and busts of Parian marble, our course enlivened by the footsteps of the tame deer and the flight of the [[American woodcock|Woodcock]], and when alighting stopping to admire the graceful form of two splendid [[Etruscan vase painting|Etruscan vases]] of Porphyry 3 ft. high & 2 in diameter presented by the Queen of Sweden [Joseph's sister-in-law Desiree Clary Bernadotte] or ranging [?] through the different appartments of the mansion through a suite of rooms 15 ft. in [height] decorated with the finest productions of the pencils of Coregeo [sic]! Titian! Rubens! Vandyke! Vernet! Tenniers [sic] and Paul Potter and a library of the most splended books I ever beheld.<ref>{{cite book|last=Stroud|first=Patricia Tyson|title=The Emperor of Nature: Charles-Lucien Bonaparte and his World|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|year=2000|isbn=978-0812235463|location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania|pages=37}}</ref><ref>Wyck Association Collection (Mss.Ms.Coll.52). American Philosophical Society Library. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. https://search.amphilsoc.org/collections/view?docId=ead/Mss.Ms.Coll.52-ead.xml;query=Wyck;brand=default#top</ref></blockquote>Another visitor a few years later, British writer [[Thomas Hamilton (writer)|Thomas Hamilton]], described Bonaparte himself:<blockquote>Joseph Bonaparte, in person, is about the middle height, but round and corpulent. In the form of his head and features there certainly exists a resemblance to Napoleon, but in the expression of the countenance there is none. I remember, at the Pergola Theatre of Florence, discovering Louis Bonaparte from his likeness to the Emperor, which is very striking, but I am by no means confident that I should have been equally successful with Joseph. There is nothing about him indicative of high intellect. His eye is dull and heavy; his manner ungraceful and deficient in that ease and dignity which we vulgar people are apt to number among the necessary attributes of majesty. **** I am told he converses without any appearance of reserve on the circumstances of his short and troubled reign — if reign, indeed, it can be called — in Spain. He attributes more than half his misfortunes, to the jealousies and intrigues of the unruly marshals, over whom he could exercise no authority. He admits the full extent of his unpopularity, but claims credit for a sincere desire to benefit the people.<ref>Hamilton, Thomas, ''Men and Manners in America'', [https://archive.org/details/menmannersinamer00hamiiala/menmannersinamer00hamiiala/page/207/mode/1up?view=theater p.207] (Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blanchard, 1833) (retrieved June 16, 2024).</ref></blockquote>Reputedly some Mexican revolutionaries offered to crown Bonaparte as [[Emperor of Mexico]] in 1820, but he declined.<ref name=flatrock/> Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821.

In 1832, Bonaparte moved to London, returning to his estate in the United States only intermittently.<ref name="NYT" /> In 1844, he died in [[Florence]], Italy. His body was returned to France and buried in [[Les Invalides]], in Paris.<ref>{{cite news |first=Leslie |last=Kwoh |title=Yes, a Bonaparte feasted here |publisher=[[Star Ledger]] |date=10 June 2007 |url=http://www.monmouth.edu/newswire/default.asp?iNewsID=4461 |access-date=19 February 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081208185014/http://www.monmouth.edu/newswire/default.asp?iNewsID=4461 |archive-date=8 December 2008 }}</ref>