Louis Bonaparte

Louis was born in Ajaccio, Corsica. He was a younger brother of Joseph, Napoleon, Lucien, and Elisa Bonaparte, and the older brother of Pauline, Caroline, and Jérôme Bonaparte. Louis' godparents were the island's governor, Mr de Marbeuf, and the wife of the intendant, Bertrand de Boucheporn, whom Letizia and her husband, Carlo, had befriended.

Louis Bonaparte's early career was spent in the Army, and he served with Napoleon in the French campaign in Egypt and Syria. Thanks to his older brother, Napoleon, Louis was given a commission in the French Military, and was promoted to Lieutenant in the 4th Artillery Regiment, and from there he was made Aide-de-Camp on Napoleon's staff. Napoleon, during his Italian Campaign, recommended Louis to Carnot, and Louis was consequently made a captain. He later became a General by the age of 25, although he felt that he had risen too high in too short a time.

Upon Louis's return to France, he was involved in Napoleon's plot to overthrow the Directory. After becoming the First Consul, Napoleon arranged for a marriage between Louis and Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter of Empress Josephine, and hence Napoleon's stepdaughter. Hortense was opposed to the marriage at first. She was soon persuaded by her mother to marry Louis for the sake of the family.

Louis was married on 4 January 1802 to Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter of the deceased general Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais, and his wife Josephine Tascher de la Pagerie. Josephine was the first wife of Louis's brother Napoleon. Thus Hortense was also Louis's step-niece.

This marriage had been forced upon them and was rather loveless, though they supposedly consummated it and interacted often enough to produce three sons. As a rule, the Bonapartes, except Napoleon, loathed the Beauharnaises. Hortense also certainly had extra-marital lovers.

Hortense de Beauharnais gave birth to three sons who were officially claimed by Louis Bonaparte, despite his doubts about their paternity:

Napoleon Charles Bonaparte, born 10 October 1802, Prince Royal of Holland. When he died on 5 May 1807 at 4½ years of age, his body lay in state at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. He is buried at Saint-Leu-La-Foret, Ile-de-France.

Napoleon Louis Bonaparte, born 11 October 1804. Became Prince Royal of Holland on his brother's death, and was King for eight days in 1810, between his father's abdication (1 July) and the fall of Holland to Napoleon Bonaparte's invading army (9 July). Sovereign of the Grand Duchy of Berg in 1809-1813 (under regency). Napoleon Louis Bonaparte died from measles on 17 March 1831, and his remains were buried at Saint-Leu-La-Foret, Île-de-France.

Charles Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, (1808–73). Born in Paris, he was the third and last son, and became Sovereign of the Second French Empire (1852–1870) as Emperor Napoleon III.