II. LUCIEN (1775-1840), prince of Canino, was born at Ajaccio on the
21st of May 1775. He followed his elder brothers to the schools of Autun
and Brienne. At that time he wished to enter the French army, but, being
debarred by defective sight, was destined for the church, and with this
aim in view went to the seminary at Aix in Provence (1786). His
excitable and volatile disposition agreed ill with the discipline of
the place, and on the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789 he eagerly
espoused the democratic and anti-clerical movement then sweeping over
France. On returning to Corsica he became the leading speaker in the
Jacobin club at Ajaccio. Pushing even Napoleon to more decided action,
Lucien urged his brothers to break with Paoli, the leader of the more
conservative party, which sought to ally itself with England as against
the regicide republic of France. He headed a Corsican deputation which
went to France in order to denounce Paoli and to solicit aid for the
democrats; but, on the Paolists gaining the upper hand, the Bonapartes
left the island and joined Lucien at Toulon. In the south of France he
worked hard for the Jacobinical cause, and figured as "Brutus" in the
Jacobin club of the small town of St Maximin (then renamed Marathon).
There on the 4th of May 1794 he married Mlle Catherine Boyer, though he
was a minor and had not the consent of his family--an act which brought
him into a state almost approaching disgrace and penury. The _coup
d'etat_ of Thermidor (July 28, 1794) compelled the young disciple of
Robespierre hurriedly to leave St Maximin, and to accept a small post at
St Chamans. There he was arrested and imprisoned for a time until
Napoleon's influence procured his release, and further gained for him a
post as commissioner in the French army campaigning in Germany. Lucien
soon conceived a dislike for a duty which opened up no vista for his
powers of oratory and political intrigue, and repaired to Corsica. In
the hope of being elected a deputy of the island, he refused an
appointment offered by Napoleon in the army of Egypt in 1798. His hopes
were fulfilled, and in 1798 he entered the Council of Five Hundred at
Paris. There his vivacious eloquence brought him into prominence, and he
was president of that body on the eventful day of the 19th of Brumaire
(November 10) 1799, when Napoleon overthrew the national councils of
France at the palace of St Cloud. The refusal of Lucien to put the vote
of outlawry, for which the majority of the council clamoured, his
opportune closing of the sitting, and his appeal to the soldiers outside
to disperse _les representants du poignard_, turned the scale in favour
of his brother.
By a strange irony this event, the chief event of Lucien's life, was
fatal to the cause of democracy of which he had been the most eager
exponent. In one of his earlier letters to his brother Joseph, Lucien
stated that he had detected in Napoleon "an ambition not altogether
egotistic but which surpassed his love for the general weal; ... in case
of a counter-revolution he would try to ride on the crest of events."
Napoleon having by his help triumphed over parliamentary institutions in
France, Lucien's suspicion of his brother became a dominant feeling; and
the relations between them became strained during the period of the
consulate (1799-1804). He accepted office as minister of the interior,
but was soon deprived of it owing to political and personal differences
with the First Consul. In order to soften the blow, Napoleon appointed
him ambassador to the court of Madrid (November 1800). There again
Lucien displeased his brother. France and Spain were then about to
partition Portugal, and the Spanish forces were beginning to invade that
land, when the court of Lisbon succeeded, owing (it is said) to the free
use of bribes, in inducing Godoy, the Spanish minister, and Lucien
Bonaparte to sign the preliminaries of peace on the 6th of June 1801 at
Badajoz. The First Consul, finding his plans of seizing Lisbon
frustrated, remonstrated with his brother, who thereupon resigned his
post, and returned to Paris, there taking part in the opposition which
the Tribunate offered to some of Napoleon's schemes. Lucien's next
proceeding completed the breach between the two brothers. His wife had
died in 1800; he became enamoured of a Mme Jouberthou in the early
summer of 1802, made her his mistress, and finally, despite the express
prohibition of the First Consul, secretly married her at his residence
of Plessis (on October 23, 1803). At that time Napoleon was pressing
Lucien for important reasons of state to marry the widow of the king of
Etruria, and on hearing of his brother's action he ordered him to leave
French territory. Lucien departed for Italy with his wife and infant
son, after annoying Napoleon by bestowing on her publicly the name of
Bonaparte. He also charged Joseph never to try to reconcile Napoleon to
him.
For some years he lived in Italy, chiefly at Rome, showing marked
hostility to the emperor. In December 1807 the latter sought to come to
an arrangement by which Lucien would take his place as a French prince,
provided that he would annul his marriage. This step Lucien refused to
take; and after residing for some time at his estate of Canino, from
which he took the papal title of prince of Canino, he left for America.
Captured by a British ship, he was taken to Malta and thence to England,
where he resided under some measure of surveillance up to the peace of
1814. Returning to Rome, he offered Napoleon his help during the Hundred
Days (1815), stood by his side at the "Champ de Mai" at Paris, and was
the last to defend his prerogatives at the time of his second
abdication. He spent the rest of his life in Italy, and died at Rome on
the 29th of June 1840. His family comprised four sons and six daughters.
He wrote an epic, _Charlemagne, ou l'Eglise delivree_ (2 vols., 1814),
also _La Verite sur les Cent Jours_ and _Memoirs_, which were not
completed.
For sources see T. Jung, _Lucien Bonaparte et ses memoires_ (3 vols.,
Paris, 1882-1883); an anonymous work, _Le Prince Lucien Bonaparte et
sa famille_ (Paris, 1888); F. Masson, _Napoleon et sa famille_ (4
vols., Paris, 1897-1900), and H. Houssaye, _"1815"_ (3 vols., Paris,
1899-1905).