Historical Figure
Pauline Bonaparte
b. 1780
Princess of Guastalla
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Biography
Paula Maria Bonaparte Leclerc Borghese, better known as Pauline Bonaparte, was an imperial French princess, the first sovereign Duchess of Guastalla, and the princess consort of Sulmona and Rossano. She was the sixth child of Letizia Ramolino and Carlo Buonaparte, Corsica's representative to the court of King Louis XVI. Her elder brother, Napoleon, was the first emperor of the French. She married Charles Leclerc, a French general, a union ended by his death in 1802.
Timeline
The story of Pauline Bonaparte, told in moments.
Married General Victor Emmanuel Leclerc at 17. Napoleon arranged it. Leclerc was sent to Saint-Domingue to suppress the Haitian Revolution. He died there of yellow fever in 1802.
Married Prince Camillo Borghese, one of the richest men in Rome. She reportedly found him boring. Antonio Canova sculpted her reclining semi-nude as Venus Victrix.
One of the few Bonapartes who visited Napoleon in exile on Elba. She sold her jewels to finance his return. Most of his family stayed away.
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