Editing Prince Napoléon-Jérôme Bonaparte

{{Short description|Napoleon's nephew (1822–1891)}}
{{other people|Napoleon}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name                = Prince Napoléon-Jérôme Bonaparte
| title              = Prince of Montfort
| image               = Napoléon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte painting.jpg
| image_size          = 220px
| caption             = Portrait by [[Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin|Flandrin]], 1860 ([[Musée d'Orsay]])
| succession  = [[House of Bonaparte|Head of the House of Bonaparte]]<br>(disputed)
| reign       = 1 June 1879 – 17 March 1891
|reign-type  = Tenure
| predecessor = [[Napoléon Eugène, Prince Imperial]]
| successor   = [[Victor, Prince Napoléon]]<br>or<br />[[Louis Bonaparte (1864–1932)|Louis, Prince Napoléon]]<ref name="Valynseele 1967 226–231">{{cite book |last=Valynseele |first=Joseph |title=Les Prétendants aux Trônes d'Europe |year=1967 |location=Paris |language=fr |pages=226–231}}</ref>
| birth_date        = {{birth date|df=y|1822|9|9}}
| birth_place         = [[Trieste]], [[Austrian Empire|Austria]]
| death_date          = {{death date and age|df=y|1891|3|17|1822|9|9}}
| death_place         = [[Rome]], [[Kingdom of Italy|Italy]]
| burial_place       = [[Basilica of Superga]], [[Turin]]
|house       = [[House of Bonaparte|Bonaparte]]
| spouse              = {{marriage|[[Princess Maria Clotilde of Savoy|Maria Clotilde of Savoy]]|1859}}
| issue            = {{ubl|[[Victor, Prince Napoléon]]|[[Louis Bonaparte (1864–1932)|Prince Louis]]|[[Maria Letizia, Duchess of Aosta]]}}
|father      = [[Jérôme Bonaparte]] 
|mother      = [[Catharina of Württemberg]]
}}

Prince '''Napoléon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte'''<ref>{{cite book|language=it|url=http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/bonaparte-napoleone-giuseppe-carlo-paolo-detto-il-principe-girolamo-soprannominato-plon-plon/|title=Bonaparte, Napoleone Giuseppe Carlo Paolo, detto il principe Girolamo, soprannominato Plon Plon|editor=Treccani}}</ref> (9 September 1822 &ndash; 17 March 1891), usually called '''Napoléon-Jérôme Bonaparte''' or '''Jérôme Bonaparte''', was the second son of [[Jérôme Bonaparte|Jérôme, King of Westphalia]], youngest brother of [[Napoleon|Napoleon I]], and his second wife [[Catharina of Württemberg]]. Following the death of his cousin [[Louis-Napoléon, Prince Imperial]] in 1879, he claimed headship of the [[House of Bonaparte]] until his death in 1891. An outspoken [[Liberalism|liberal]] however,<ref>{{cite book|last=Freifeld|first=Alice|url=https://archive.org/details/nationalismcrowd0000frei|url-access=registration|title=Nationalism and the Crowd in Liberal Hungary, 1848-1914|publisher=Woodrow Wilson Center Press|editor=Woodrow Wilson Center Press|date=2000|page=[https://archive.org/details/nationalismcrowd0000frei/page/251 251]|isbn=9780801864629 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Steele|first=E.D.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sXg6AAAAIAAJ|title=Palmerston and Liberalism, 1855-1865|editor=CUP Archive|date=1991|page=270|publisher=CUP Archive |isbn=9780521400459}}</ref> he was passed over as heir in his cousin's final will, which instead chose his elder son [[Victor, Prince Napoléon|Victor]], who was favored by most [[Bonapartists]].<ref>Laetitia de Witt, Le prince Victor Napoléon 1862-1926, Fayard, Paris, 2007, p. 9.</ref> From the 1880s onwards,  he was one of the stronger supporters of General [[Georges Boulanger]], together with other monarchist forces.<ref>Barjot, Jean-Pierre Chaline & André Encrevé, La France au xixe siècle 1814-1914.</ref>

As well as bearing the title of '''Prince Napoléon''', given to him by his cousin Emperor [[Napoleon III]] in 1852,<ref>{{cite web|language=fr|url=http://mjp.univ-perp.fr/france/co1852r.htm#4/52|title=Article 6 of consulting of December 25, 1852|website=Digithèque de matériaux juridiques et politiques}}</ref>
he was also '''2nd Prince of Montfort''', '''1st Count of Meudon''' and '''Count of Moncalieri''', following his marriage with [[Princess Maria Clotilde of Savoy|Maria Clotilde of Savoy]] in 1859. His popular nickname, '''Plon-Plon''', stemmed from his difficulty in pronouncing his own name while still a child, although other notable historians and contemporary letters by his nephew Colonel Jérôme Bonaparte claim it was because he ran in cowardice during battle when the bombs fell. Another nickname, "Craint-Plomb" ("Afraid-of-Lead",) was given to him by the army due to his absence from the [[Battle of Solferino]].

== Biography ==
Born at [[Trieste]] in the [[Austrian Empire]] (today Italy), and known as "Prince Napoléon", "Prince Napoléon-Jérôme,<ref name="jv">{{cite book | title=Les Prétendants aux Trônes d'Europe | publisher=Saintard de la Rochelle | author=Joseph Valynseele | author-link=:fr:Joseph Valynseele | year=1967 | location=France | pages=179}}</ref> or by the [[sobriquet]] of "Plon-Plon", he was a close advisor to his first cousin, [[Napoleon III of France]], and in particular was seen as a leading advocate of French intervention in Italy on behalf of [[Camillo di Cavour]] and the [[Italian unification|Italian nationalists]]. Until Napoleon III produced an heir apparent, the Bonaparte family were at odds for who should be the heir presumptive, a matter complicated by Jérôme Bonaparte's first marriage to American [[Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte]], with whom he had a son, [[Jérôme Napoléon Bonaparte]]. A meeting of the Bonaparte family, presided over by Napoleon III, determined that while Jérôme Napoléon Bonaparte was not considered illegitimate, he would be excluded from the line of succession, making Prince Napoléon the heir presumptive.

An [[Anti-clericalism|anti-clerical]] [[Liberalism|liberal]], he led that faction at court and tried to influence the Emperor to anti-clerical policies, against the contrary influence of the Emperor's wife, the [[Empress Eugénie]], a devout [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] and a conservative, and the patroness of those who wanted French troops to protect the Pope's [[Temporal power (Papal)|sovereignty]] in Rome.  The Emperor was to navigate between the two influences throughout his reign.

When his cousin became president in 1848, Napoléon-Jérôme was appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to Spain. He later served in a military capacity as general of a division in the [[Crimean War]], as Governor of Algeria, and as a corps commander in the French [[Army of Italy (France)|Army of Italy]] in 1859.

[[Image:PrinceNapoléon Bonaparte and his two sons.jpg|thumb|left|180px|Prince Napoléon-Jérôme with his two sons by his second marriage]]
As part of his cousin's policy of alliance with Piedmont-Sardinia, in 1859 Napoléon-Jérôme married [[Princess Maria Clotilde of Savoy]], daughter of [[Victor Emmanuel II of Italy]]. However this did not prevent a nine-year relationship with the courtesan [[Cora Pearl]].

When [[Louis-Napoléon, Prince Imperial]] died in 1879, Prince Napoléon-Jérôme became, genealogically, the most senior member of the Bonaparte family,<ref name="jv"/> but the Prince Imperial's will excluded him from the succession, nominating Prince Napoléon-Jérôme's son [[Victor, Prince Napoléon|Victor]] as his successor. As a result, Prince Napoléon-Jérôme and his son quarreled for the remainder of Prince Napoléon-Jérôme's life. In his final will, Napoléon-Jérôme excluded Victor as his heir, declaring him "a traitor and a rebel", instead nominating his younger son [[Louis Bonaparte (1864–1932)|Louis]] as his successor.<ref name="Valynseele 1967 226–231">{{cite book |last=Valynseele |first=Joseph |title=Les Prétendants aux Trônes d'Europe |year=1967 |location=Paris |language=fr |pages=226–231}}</ref>

Prince Napoléon-Jérôme, upon being banished from France by the 1886 law exiling heads of the nation's former ruling dynasties, settled at [[Prangins]] on the shores of Lake Geneva, in [[Vaud]], Switzerland where, during the [[Second French Empire|Second Empire]], he had acquired a piece of property.<ref name="jv"/> The assets he left his heir were extremely modest: Besides the Villa Prangins and the adjoining estate of 75 hectares, estimated at 800,000 francs of the time, approximately 130 million of France's [[French franc#New franc|old francs]], they were limited to a portfolio valued at 1,000,000 (1891) francs, about 160 million old francs.<ref name="jv"/>

Prince Napoléon-Jérôme died in Rome in 1891, aged 68.

===Issue===
He and Princess Maria Clotilde had three children:<ref>{{cite book |last       = Walker
 |first      = Christopher
 |title      = Armenia: A Survival of a Nation, Chapter 3
 |publisher  = Librairie Au Service de la Culture
 |year       = 1980
 |pages      = [https://archive.org/details/armeniasurvivalo0000walk_c0v5/page/75 75]
 |url        = https://archive.org/details/armeniasurvivalo0000walk_c0v5
 |isbn       = 978-0-312-04944-7
 |url-access = registration
}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!width="18%"|Name!! width="14%"|Birth!! width="14%"|Death!! width="62%"|Notes
|-
| [[Victor, Prince Napoléon]] ||  1862||  1926 || married [[Princess Clémentine of Belgium]], a daughter of [[Leopold II of Belgium]].
|-
| [[Louis Bonaparte (1864–1932)|Louis Bonaparte]] ||  1864 ||  1932 || Russian Lieutenant General and Governor of [[Erivan]]
|-
| [[Maria Letizia Bonaparte]] ||  1866 ||  1926 || who in 1888 became the second wife of her maternal uncle [[Amadeo I of Spain|Prince Amedeo]], [[Duke of Aosta]] (1845–1890), who had, from 1870 until 1873, reigned as [[King of Spain]].
|-
|}

== Honours ==
* {{flagicon image|Flag of France (1794–1815, 1830–1958).svg}} [[Second French Empire|French Empire]]: Grand Cross of the [[Legion of Honour]], 3 January 1853<ref>[http://www.culture.gouv.fr/LH/LH021/PG/FRDAFAN83_OL0277060v001.htm Base léonore].</ref>
* {{flag|Belgium}}: Grand Cordon of the [[Order of Leopold (Belgium)|Order of Leopold]], 1 January 1854<ref name="Veldekens1858">{{cite book|author=Ferdinand Veldekens|title=Le livre d'or de l'ordre de Léopold et de la croix de fer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_6lAAAAAcAAJ&pg=PP11|year=1858|publisher=lelong|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=_6lAAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA188 188]}}</ref>
* {{flagcountry|United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland}}: [[Order of the Bath|Honorary Grand Cross of the Bath]] (military), ''5 September 1855''<ref name=p191>Shaw, Wm. A. (1906) ''The Knights of England'', '''I''', London, [https://archive.org/stream/cu31924092537418#page/n281/mode/2up p. 191]</ref>
* {{flagicon|Sweden|1844}} {{flagicon|Norway|1844}} [[Sweden-Norway]]:<ref>{{cite book|title=Sveriges och Norges statskalender|year=1874|publisher=Liberförlag|pages=468, 703}}</ref>
** [[Order of St. Olav|Grand Cross of St. Olav]], 3 September 1856
** [[Order of the Seraphim|Knight of the Seraphim]], 12 September 1856
* {{flag|Denmark}}: [[Order of the Elephant|Knight of the Elephant]], 24 September 1856<ref>{{cite book|author=Jørgen Pedersen|title=Riddere af Elefantordenen, 1559–2009|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=glw-AQAAIAAJ|year=2009|publisher=Syddansk Universitetsforlag|language=da|isbn=978-87-7674-434-2|page=465}}</ref>

== References in popular fiction ==
*Prince Napoléon-Jérôme takes a leading role in [[Robert Goddard (novelist)|Robert Goddard]]'s  novel ''Painting the Darkness''.  References are made to his role in the Crimean War and his son's succession to the [[Bonapartist]] claim over him.
*Prince Napoléon-Jérôme is a minor character in [[Donald Serrell Thomas]]'s [[Sherlock Holmes]] novel ''Death on a Pale Horse'' (2013); Holmes and [[Dr. Watson]] are tasked with escorting him on a state visit to England as a possible claimant to the French throne after the death of his relative [[Napoléon, Prince Imperial]] in [[1879]].

== Ancestry ==
{{ahnentafel
|collapsed=yes |align=center
| boxstyle_1 = background-color: #fcc;
| boxstyle_2 = background-color: #fb9;
| boxstyle_3 = background-color: #ffc;
| boxstyle_4 = background-color: #bfc;
| boxstyle_5 = background-color: #9fe;
|1          = 1. '''Napoléon-Jérôme Bonaparte, Prince Français'''
|2          = 2. [[Jérôme Bonaparte]], [[Kingdom of Westphalia|King of Westphalia]], 1st [[Counts of Montfort (Swabia)|Prince von Montfort]]
|3          = 3. [[Catharina of Württemberg|Princess Catharina of Württemberg]]
|4          = 4. ''[[Nobile (aristocracy)|Nobile]]'' [[Carlo Buonaparte|Carlo Maria Buonaparte]]
|5          = 5. [[Letizia Ramolino|Maria Letizia Ramolino]]
|6          = 6. [[Frederick I of Württemberg]]
|7          = 7. [[Duchess Augusta of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel]]
|8          = 8. ''[[Nobile (aristocracy)|Nobile]]'' [[Giuseppe Maria Buonaparte]]
|9          = 9. Maria Saveria Paravicini
| 10         = 10. Giovanni Geronimo Ramolino
| 11         = 11. Angela Maria Pietrasanta
| 12         = 12. [[Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg]]
| 13         = 13. [[Princess Friederike of Brandenburg-Schwedt]]
| 14         = 14. [[Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick]]
| 15         = 15. [[Princess Augusta of Great Britain]]
| 16         = <!-- 16. ''[[Nobile (aristocracy)|Nobile]]'' Sebastiano Nicola Buonaparte
| 17         = 17. Maria Anna Tusoli
| 18         = 18. Giuseppe Maria Paravicini
| 19         = 19. Maria Angela Salineri
| 20         = 20. Giovanni Agostino Ramolino
| 21         = 21. Angela Maria Peri
| 22         = 22. Giuseppe Maria Pietrasanta
| 23         = 23. Maria Giuseppa Malerba
| 24         = 24. [[Charles Alexander, Duke of Württemberg]]
| 25         = 25. [[Princess Marie Auguste of Thurn and Taxis]]
| 26         = 26. [[Frederick William, Margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt]]
| 27         = 27. [[Princess Sophia Dorothea of Prussia]]
| 28         = 28. [[Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg]]
| 29         = 29. [[Princess Philippine Charlotte of Prussia]]
| 30         = 30. [[Frederick, Prince of Wales]]
| 31         = 31. [[Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha]] -->
}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}
*[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7044 In the Courts of Memory], by Lillie de Hegermann-Lindencrone, relates the story of the origin of his nickname, with the warning; ''[[wikiquote:Giordano Bruno#bentrovato|Se non è vero è ben trovato]].''

==Further reading==

* Battesti, Michèle (2010) ''Plon-Plon: le Bonaparte Rouge.''
*Berthet-Leleux, François (1932) ''Le vrai prince Napoléon--Jérôme''
*Flammarion, Gaston (1939) ''Un neveu de Napoléon Ier, le prince Napoléon (Jérôme) 1822-1891''
*Edgar Holt, ''Plon-Plon: The Life of Prince Napoleon'' (London: Michael Joseph, 1973).

==External links==
{{Commons category-inline|Napoléon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte}}

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{{s-bef|before=[[Napoléon Eugène, Prince Imperial|Napoléon IV Eugène]]}}
{{S-tul|title=[[List of French monarchs|Emperor of the French]]|years=1 June 1879 - 17 March 1891|reason=[[French Third Republic|Empire abolished in 1870]]}}
{{s-aft|after= [[Victor, Prince Napoléon|Napoléon V Victor]]}}
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{{French Pretenders}}
{{Imperial House of France (First French Empire)}}
{{Bonaparte family}}
{{Third Cabinet of Napoleon III}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonaparte, Prince Napoleon-Jerome}}
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[[Category:Princes of France (Bonaparte)|Napoleon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte]]
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