Letizia Ramolino

Letizia Ramolino
Mother of His Majesty the Emperor
Letizia Ramolino by Robert Lefèvre, 1813
Spouse	Carlo Buonaparte
Issue
Joseph, King of Spain Napoleon I, Emperor of the French Lucien, 1st Prince of Canino and Musignano Elisa, Grand Duchess of Tuscany Louis I, King of Holland Pauline, Princess and Duchess of Guastalla Caroline, Queen of Naples Jérôme, King of Westphalia
Full name
Maria Letizia Buonaparte née Ramolino
Father	Giovanni Geronimo Ramolino
Mother	Angela Maria Pietrasanta
Born	24 August 1750 Ajaccio, Corsica
Died	2 February 1836(1836-02-02) (aged 85) Rome, Papal States

Nobile Maria Letizia Buonaparte née Ramolino^[1] (Marie-Lætitia Ramolino, Madame Mère de l'Empereur) (24 August 1750 – 2 February 1836) was the mother of Napoleon I of France.

She was born in Ajaccio, Corsica, to Nobile Giovanni Geronimo Ramolino (13 April 1723–1755), Captain of Corse Regiments of Chivalry and Infantry in the Army of the Republic of Genoa, and wife Nobile Angela Maria Pietrasanta (circa 1725–1790). The distant cousins of the Ramolinos were a low rank of nobility in the Republic of Genoa. Letizia was not formally educated.

On 2/7 June 1764, when she was 14, she married at Ajaccio to attorney Carlo Buonaparte. She bore 13 children, eight of whom survived infancy, and most of whom were created monarchs by Napoleon:

• Napoleone Buonaparte (1764/1765 – 17 August 1765)
• Maria Anna Buonaparte (3 January 1767 – 1 January 1768)
• Joseph Bonaparte (7 January 1768 – 28 July 1844) King of Naples and Sicily, King of Spain and the Indies, and Comte de Survilliers.
• Napoleon Bonaparte (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), Emperor of the French and namesake of his deceased older brother
• Maria Anna Buonaparte (1770), namesake of her deceased older sister
• Maria Anna Buonaparte (14 July – 23 November 1771), namesake of her deceased older sisters
• A stillborn son
• Lucien Bonaparte (21 March 1775 – 29 June 1840), Prince of Canino and Musignano
• Elisa Bonaparte (3 January 1777 – 7 August 1820), Grand Duchess of Tuscany
• Louis Bonaparte (2 September 1778 – 25 July 1846), King of Holland
• Pauline Bonaparte (20 October 1780 – 9 June 1825), Sovereign Princess and Duchess of Guastalla
• Caroline Bonaparte (25 March 1782 – 18 May 1839), Grand Duchess of Berg and Cleves, wife of Joachim Murat, later queen consort of Naples
• Jérôme Bonaparte (15 November 1784 - 24 June 1860), King of Westphalia.

Deathbed portrait of Maria Letizia Bonaparte

She was a harsh mother, and had a very down-to-earth view of most things. When most European mothers, even those in the upper class, bathed perhaps once a month, she had her children bathed every other day.

When France under the Ancien Régime took control of Corsica, in 1769, French became the national language, but Letizia never learned the tongue. When she was 35, her husband died of cancer. She was decreed "Madam, the Mother of His Majesty the Emperor" (Madame Mère de l'Empereur), Imperial Highness, on 18 May 1804 or 23 March 1805. She died of old age in Rome, in 1836, aged 85, three weeks before the 50th anniversary of her husband's death. By then she was nearly blind and had outlived her most famous son Napoleon by 15 years.

See also

• François Carlo Antommarchi

References

1. ^ Bourrienne's biography of Napoleon misspells the surname as Ramolini

• This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia.

External links

• Bonaparte Genealogy
• Letizia Bonaparte Photograph part of the Nineteenth Century Notables Digital Collection at Gettysburg College

Persondata
Name	Ramolino, Letizia
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	24 August 1750
Place of birth	Ajaccio, Corsica
Date of death	2 February 1836
Place of death	Rome, Papal States