Pauline Bonaparte

sister of Napoleon
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Also known as: Maria Paola Buonaparte, Marie-Pauline Bonaparte
Original Italian:
Maria Paola Buonaparte
Born:
Oct. 20, 1780, Ajaccio, Corsica
Died:
June 9, 1825, Florence (aged 44)
House / Dynasty:
Bonaparte family
Notable Family Members:
father Carlo Maria Buonaparte
mother Letizia Buonaparte
brother Louis Bonaparte
brother Lucien Bonaparte
brother Jérôme Bonaparte
brother Napoleon I
brother Joseph Bonaparte
sister Élisa Bonaparte
sister Caroline Bonaparte

Pauline Bonaparte (born Oct. 20, 1780, Ajaccio, Corsica—died June 9, 1825, Florence) second sister of Napoleon to survive infancy, the gayest and most beautiful of his sisters.

She married Gen. C.V.E. Leclerc (1772–1802), a staff officer of Napoleon, in 1797 and accompanied him to San Domingo. When Leclerc died of yellow fever she returned to Paris. She then married Prince Camillo Borghese (Nov. 6, 1803) and went with him to Rome, but soon tired of him, and returned to Paris, where her behaviour caused some scandal. In 1806 she received the title of duchess of Guastalla. Her offhand treatment of Napoleon’s new empress, Marie-Louise, led to her removal from court in 1810. Nevertheless, she went with her mother to Elba in 1814 and is said to have expressed a wish to share Napoleon’s exile in St. Helena. She died of cancer in Florence in 1825. Canova’s statue of her as Venus reclining on a couch is well known.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Rick Livingston.