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Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples and Spain, claimed that he had never wanted the overpowering roles thrust upon him by his illustrious younger brother Napoleon. Left to his own devices, he would probably have been a lawyer in his native Corsica, a country gentleman with leisure to read the great literature he treasured and oversee the maintenance of his property. When Napoleon's downfall forced Joseph into exile, he was able to become that country gentleman at last, but in a place he could scarcely have imagined. It comes as a surprise to most people that Joseph spent seventeen years in the United States following Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo. In The Man Who Had Been King, Patricia Tyson Stroud has written a rich account-drawing on unpublished Bonaparte family letters-of this American exile, much of it passed in regal splendor high above the banks of the Delaware River in New Jersey. Upon his escape from France in 1815, Joseph arrived in the new land with a fortune in hand and shortly embarked upon building and fitting out the magnificent New Jersey estate he called Point Breeze. The palatial house was filled with paintings and sculpture by such luminaries as David, Canova, Rubens, and Titian. The surrounding park extended to 1,800 acres of luxuriously landscaped gardens, with twelve miles of carriage roads, an artificial lake, and a network of subterranean tunnels that aroused much local speculation. Stroud recounts how Joseph became friend and host to many of the nation's wealthiest and most cultivated citizens, and how his art collection played a crucial role in transmitting high European taste to America. He never ceased longing for his homeland, however. Despite his republican airs, he never stopped styling himself as "the Count de Survilliers," a noble title he fabricated on his first flight from France in 1814, when Napoleon was exiled to Elba, nor did he ever learn more than rudimentary English. Although he would repeatedly plead with his wife to join him, he was not a faithful husband, and Stroud narrates his affairs with an American and a Frenchwoman, both of whom bore him children. Yet he continued to feel the separation from his two legitimate daughters keenly and never stopped plotting to ensure the dynastic survival of the Bonapartes.In the end, the man who had been king returned to Europe, where he was eventually interred next to the tomb of his brother in Les Invalides. But the legacy of Joseph Bonaparte in America remains, and it is this that Patricia Tyson Stroud has masterfully uncovered in a book that is sure to appeal to lovers of art and gardens and European and American history.

Napoleon --- Joseph Bonaparte, --- José --- Bonaparte, Joseph, --- Bonaparte, José, --- Giuseppe Bonaparte, --- José Napoleón --- José Bonaparte --- Bonaparte, Giuseppe, --- Bonapart, Napoleon, --- Bonāpārṭa, Nepoliyana, --- Bonaparte, Napoleão, --- Bonaparte, Napoleon, --- Bonaparte, Napoleone, --- Bonaparṭeh, Napolyon, --- Buonaparte, Napoleon, --- Na-pʻo-lun, --- Nābuliyūn, --- Napoleone --- Napʻolleong, --- Napolun, --- נפוליאון --- נפוליאון, --- نابليون --- بونابرت، نابليون، --- Būnābart, Nābuliyūn, --- Family. --- Exile --- Spain --- Kings and rulers --- Biography --- Napoleon I --- Family --- Joseph Bonaparte --- Exil --- United States --- Autobiography. --- Biography. --- Books of Regional Interest. --- BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Historical. --- Napoléon --- Bonaparte, Napoléon --- Bonāpārṭa, Nepoliyana --- Bonaparte, Napoleão --- Bonaparte, Napoleon --- Bonaparte, Napoleone --- Buonaparte, Napoleon --- Na-pʻo-lun --- Napolun

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Personnage contrasté, souvent incompris, malheureux dans sa carrière militaire, Joseph Bonaparte souffre d'une image particulièrement négative en regard de la légende qui auréole la statue de son frère cadet Napoléon. Et pourtant, l'aîné de l'empereur fut le soutien permanent de son élévation et un pilier du nouveau régime instauré après le coup d'État du 18 Brumaire. Homme politique aux convictions modérées, grandement influencé par les idées des penseurs des Lumières, mais proche également des théories de Germaine de Staël, Joseph, est un personnage incontournable de la vie politique française. Devenu roi de Naples en 1806, puis roi d'Espagne en 1808, il s'attache, sans succès, à allier les principes du système de famille napoléonien à ses propres conceptions du pouvoir. Comme tous les souverains faisant partie intégrante de l'Empire, il ne parvient pas à éviter les tensions avec le maître de l'Europe, et le « meilleur des frères », et se mue peu à peu en un opposant résolu. Cette étude, qui se fonde sur les archives personnelles de Joseph, sa correspondance et des témoignages de contemporains, aborde successivement l'éducation parallèle des deux frères, leur parcours sous la Révolution, l'opposition menée par Joseph dans les premières années de l'Empire, son « laboratoire » napolitain, l'échec espagnol et la tentative d'instaurer dans la Péninsule un régime politique libéral, ainsi que les jours sombres de la Campagne de France. Elle tente également de comprendre l'émergence d'une pensée politique se voulant novatrice, le bonapartisme. Il s'agit moins d'une biographie de Joseph que du portrait de ses relations avec l'homme qu'il prétendait le mieux connaître et partager les traits, Napoléon.

Joseph Bonaparte, --- Napoleon --- Bonaparte family. --- French Political History --- First Empire --- Napoleon and His Brother --- 18th-19th Century