Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Joseph Bonaparte: The King of New Jersey (Encore)

Starting point is 00:00:00 The following is an encore presentation of Everything Everywhere Daily. When Napoleon Bonaparte conquered much of Europe in the early 19th century, he didn't create a monolithic empire that was centrally run out of Paris. Well, he sort of did, but at least on paper, he didn't. Rather, what he did was set up his family members as monarchs to rule in his place. One of those family members who was set up as king ended up moving to New Jersey. Learn more about Joseph Bonaparte, the king of New Jersey, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Starting point is 00:00:45 What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. Surprisingly, I haven't talked a lot about Napoleon on this podcast. It isn't that there isn't a lot to talk about because there is. it's just that I haven't gotten around to many of those stories yet.

Starting point is 00:01:21 But perhaps one of the most interesting Napoleon stories has to do with his older brother, Joseph. Just a bit of background before I get into the weeds. Napoleon, despite what you might think, actually wasn't French. He was born in the island of Corsica, which is today part of France, but in the late 18th century, it was a republic that had become independent from Genoa. It was seized by France soon after he was born. The family originally immigrated to Corsica well over a century beforehand from Tuscany. In Italian, the family name would have been Bonaparte, which roughly translates to a sizable

Starting point is 00:01:54 share or a good part. Napoleon's first language was actually Italian, and he didn't learn French until he was 13 years old and sent to a military academy in Paris. After the French Revolution, Napoleon saw a meteoric rise up the ranks of the French military. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that he really was a savant when it came to 19th century warfare. He was appointed to the rank of general in his 20s, won multiple impressive victories, became a national hero in France, and eventually in 1799 at the age of 30, led a coup against the French Republican government. In the aftermath of the coup, and ripping a page from the Roman playbook, he appointed himself First Consul of the Republic. A few years after that, in 1804, he crowned himself

Starting point is 00:02:36 Emperor of the French, not Emperor of France, as many people think. As he was defeating armies all over Europe, he needed people he could trust to run things after he left, and who else can you trust more than your own family? Enter into the pitcher Napoleon's older brother, Joseph. To use an analogy, if the Bonaparte family were the Corleone family and the godfather, Napoleon would have been Michael, and Joseph would have been Fredo. He had been described as historians as, quote, idealist, mild-mannered, and lacking in vigor. Joseph initially wanted to become a writer, and then went into law to follow in the footsteps of his father. And after that, he went into the family business of running Europe.

Starting point is 00:03:17 Joseph initially served as an advisor to his younger brother Napoleon, but make no mistake, Joseph was no Napoleon. When war broke out between France and Austria in 1805, the King of Naples, Ferdinand IV, violated a treaty of neutrality that he had with the French and supported Austria. In retaliation, Napoleon sent an army south and removed Ferdinand from the throne. On March 30, 1806, Napoleon issued a decree naming his brother Joseph, as King of Naples and Sicily. Joseph didn't really want to be king, but he wanted to please his brother, so King of Naples he was. Joseph did try, and he wanted to be liked by the people of Naples.

Starting point is 00:03:55 When appointed, he instituted many Napoleonic reforms and eliminated many feudal institutions that were still in place. He built colleges for women, hunted down bandits, and embarked on a series of public works programs to provide jobs for the poor. After two years, he had become a reasonably popular ruler amongst the people of southern Italy. However, eventually duty called, and Napoleon needed him somewhere else. So in June of 1808, Joseph Bonaparte was replaced in Naples by his brother-in-law, and he became the new King of Spain. Unlike his reign in Naples, Joseph was not at all popular in Spain.

Starting point is 00:04:28 In Naples, he could at least claim to be Italian. In Spain, he was a total outsider. His appointment sparked a nationwide revolt, which became known as the Peninsular War. Unlike most of Napoleon's military campaigns, the war in Spain didn't go that well. Joseph was a figurehead who had no control over the military. Any orders he gave to the French military in Spain were always double-checked with Napoleon before being enacted. While he was the king of Spain, Venezuela, New Granada, and Mexico all took the opportunity to declare independence, and it sort of started the beginning of the end for the Spanish Empire.

Starting point is 00:05:01 Eventually, as things went further south in the battlefield, he abdicated the Spanish throne in December of 1813 and moved back to France. He was placed in charge of Paris and given the title of Lieutenant General. of the Empire, but by this point the writing was on the wall for the Bonaparte family. When Napoleon fell, the family fell. Joseph Bonaparte, former King of Naples and Sicily, former King of Spain, and Lieutenant General of the Empire, was now just plain old Joe Bonaparte. While he wasn't put into exile like his brother, he also wasn't very welcome in many places in Europe. He did, however, still have a lot of money, and he also absconded with many of the crown jewels of Spain. So, with no prospects, he did what many Europeans did who were looking for a new start.

Starting point is 00:05:43 He immigrated to America. In 1817, he was smuggled into the United States while wearing a disguise. He paid the captain of a ship $17,000 to bring, quote, an ordinary passenger with a full entourage over to America. He made a new home for himself in the United States and created a very comfortable life. He initially lived in New York City in Philadelphia, and he became the cultural center for French expatriates living in the country. Eventually, however, he purchased a property outside of Borden Town, New Jersey, overlooking the Delaware River, and built an 1,800-acre estate called Point Breeze. Point Breeze was one of the largest homes in the country.

Starting point is 00:06:21 It was filled with fine furniture, paintings from European Masters, and had a library of over 8,000 books, which is probably the largest library in the country at this time, as it was even larger than the Library of Congress. It burned down in 1820, but many of his neighbors managed to salvage the furniture and art from the home and nothing was stolen. He immediately set out and built an even larger home on the property. It was 38,000 square feet, or 3,500 square meters, and employed hundreds of staff. It cost about the equivalent of 50 million in inflation-indjusted dollars. It was called the second greatest house in the country after the White House.

Starting point is 00:06:59 Joseph became a popular figure in the country. America didn't have a lot of royalty, so many prominent figures of the era would stop by when they were in the region. He entertained popular people such as John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and the Marquis de Lafayette. His regal past would sometimes catch up with him. In 1820, he was offered the job of Emperor of Mexico, but he declined. It's unconfirmed, but I'm personally guessing that as an Italian immigrant to New Jersey, he just told everyone his job was a waste management consultant. Eventually, in 1832, Joseph Bonaparte decided to return to Europe. He moved to London and traveled around the continent and occasionally returned to his estate. in New Jersey. Here I should note that Joseph wasn't the only member of the Bonaparte family who was a king, and not the only one who immigrated to America. Napoleon's younger brother, Louis, was the king of

Starting point is 00:07:46 Holland, and his other younger brother Jerome was the king of Westphalia, and his sister Eliza was the Grand Duchess of Tuscany. He had two other sisters named Maria Pauline and Caroline, who both married into royal houses, and another brother Lucian who became the prince of Canio and Musigano. His brother Jerome, the king of Westphalia, married an American woman by the name of Elizabeth Patterson. They had a child named Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte before their marriage was annulled by Napoleon himself, because Napoleon didn't want any Americans in the family when they could be off marrying European royalty. Their child moved to Maryland and started his own American wing of the Bonaparte family, which became rather distinguished in their own right. The family's

Starting point is 00:08:25 biggest claim to fame was probably Charles Joseph Bonaparte, who was both Secretary of the Navy and Attorney General under President Teddy Roosevelt. He also founded the organization which would be the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The buildings of the Point Bree's estate have long since been destroyed. The location of the estate was going to be turned into a warehouse, but local preservationists have recently managed to get the site turned into a park. Joseph Bonaparte died in 1844 in Florence, Italy. His body was interred in Les Al-Léde in Paris, near his younger brother.

Starting point is 00:08:56 In addition to having been the king of Naples in Spain, he is the closest thing we've ever had to a king of New Jersey. Everything Everywhere Daily is an Airwave Media podcast. The associate producers are Thor Thompson and Peter Bennett. Today's review comes from listener Marco Galasso on Apple Podcasts in Brazil. He writes, One of the best podcasts that I've listened to. Rich and interesting information and well explained.

Starting point is 00:09:22 Thanks. Obrugado, Marco. I'm happy to say that you are my first review from Brazil. I've only been able to visit a small part of your country so far. I've only been over the border to see Aguazu Falls. I was supposed to visit Rio two years ago, but the pandemic kind of stopped that. Remember, if you leave a review or send in a boostagram, you too can have it read on the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Joseph Bonaparte: The King of New Jersey (Encore)

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