Jérôme Napoleon Bonaparte (5 July 1805 – 17 June 1870) was a son of Jérôme Bonaparte, a brother of Napoleon I, and Elizabeth Patterson, an American.
He was born in 95 Camberwell Grove, Camberwell, London, England, but lived in the United States with his mother, whose marriage had been annulled at the order of the French emperor. With the annulment came the rescission of Patterson's son's right to carry the Bonaparte name; the ruling was later reversed by his cousin, Napoleon III.
There is some speculation that he is the reason that in 1810 the 11th Congress of the United States proposed a Titles of Nobility Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to strip an American citizen of his or her citizenship if he or she accepts a title of nobility from a foreign nation. The amendment came close to being ratified by the legislatures of enough states to become part of the U.S. Constitution, lacking the approval of only two.
He married Susan May Williams, and it is from them that the American line of the Bonaparte family descended. They had two sons:
- Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte II
- Charles Joseph Bonaparte.
He graduated from Mount St. Mary's College (now Mount St. Mary's University) in 1817.
Jérôme Napoleon Bonaparte died in Baltimore, Maryland and is buried in the Loudon Park Cemetery, Baltimore.
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“France has more need of me than I have need of France.”
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“As to moral courage, I have rarely met with two o’clock in the morning courage; I mean instantaneous courage.”
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