Zénaïde Laetitia Julie Bonaparte

Princess Zénaïde
Princess of Canino and Musignano
Zenaïde Bonaparte (in front) and her sister Charlotte, commissioned during the winter of 1821, by David.
Spouse	Charles Lucien Bonaparte
Father	Joseph Bonaparte
Mother	Julie Clary
Born	1801
Died	1854 (aged 52–53)

Zénaïde Laetitia Julie Bonaparte, Princess of Canino and Musignano (8 July 1801 – 1854) was the elder daughter of Joseph Bonaparte and Julie Clary, and the wife of Charles Lucien Bonaparte, who was also her cousin. She joined her father in his Bordentown, New Jersey exile for several years.

Titles

• Princess Zénaïde Bonaparte, Princess of Spain
• Princess Zénaïde Bonaparte, Princess of Spain, Princess of Canino and Musignano

Biography

On 29 June 1822, in Brussels, she married her cousin, her Uncle Lucien's son, Charles Lucien Bonaparte. Her father Joseph had suggested the marriage to his wife when Zénaïde was only five; the idea was to carry on the Napoleonic succession (a return to power was always anticipated) by marrying his two daughters to sons of two of his brothers. The wedding was met with surprisingly little fanfare, perhaps because Zénaïde's mother was outraged at the excessive sum of the dowry (730,000 francs, which was unreasonable considering that Lucien's villa in Rome had cost only 150,000), which had strained her resources.

Charles was an ornithologist (who named the Zenaida doves after her). They had twelve children, listed below.

Name	Date of birth	Date of death
Joseph Lucien Charles Napoleon Bonaparte, 3rd Prince of Canino and Musignano	13 February 1824	2 September 1865(1865-09-02) (aged 41)
Alexandrine Gertrude Zénaïde Bonaparte	9 June 1826	May 1828
Lucien Louis Joseph Napoleon Bonaparte, 4th Prince of Canino and Musignano	15 November 1828	19 November 1895(1895-11-19) (aged 67)
Julie Charlotte Bonaparte	5 June 1830	28 October 1900(1900-10-28) (aged 70)
Charlotte Honorine Joséphine Pauline Bonaparte	4 March 1832	1 October 1901(1901-10-01) (aged 69)
Léonie Stéphanie Elise Bonaparte	18 September 1833	14 September 1839(1839-09-14) (aged 5)
Marie Désirée Eugénie Joséphine Philomène Bonaparte	18 March 1835	28 August 1890(1890-08-28) (aged 55)
Augusta Amélie Maximilienne Jacqueline Bonaparte	9 November 1836	29 March 1900(1900-03-29) (aged 63)
Napoléon Charles Grégoire Jacques Philippe Bonaparte, 5th Prince of Canino and Musignano	5 February 1839	11 February 1899(1899-02-11) (aged 60)
Bathilde Aloïse Léonie Bonaparte	26 November 1840	9 June 1861(1861-06-09) (aged 20)
Albertine Marie Thérèse Bonaparte	12 March 1842	3 June 1842(1842-06-03) (aged 0)
Charles Albert Bonaparte	22 March 1843	6 December 1847(1847-12-06) (aged 4)

References

View of Princess Zenaide's former residence, Bordentown, New Jersey

Bibliography

• Stroud, Patricia Tyson. The Emperor of Nature: Charles-Lucien Bonaparte and His World. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000. ISBN 0812235460.

External links

Media related to Zénaïde Bonaparte at Wikimedia Commons