… this young sister of Napoleon tore down ancient cathedrals to build palaces, such as one at Massa.  She built aqueducts and spas. In 1807, when Napoleon’s 2nd wife Marie-Louise left Tuscany having been the 3rd person to fail at ruling it, Napoleon gave it to Elise. The result was …

… so Elise established the Academie des Beaux-Arts focused on marble sculpture.  She financed sculptors and used the money to “reform” the clergy. Elise closed convents if they weren’t hospitals or schools, and set up the “Code de Napoleon”; strict penal codes with tax penalties. These funds she used to …

.. because he didn’t like him.  Napoleon gave his sister and her husband the Principality of Piombino, which was strategic to his political plans because it was near Corsica and Elba. Elise ran Lucca and Piombio on her own.  Felice only ran the military.  The residents disliked her, and called …

… as the middle children of the Bonaparte family, they played together.  Elisa and Lucien’s 1st wife, Christine Boyer were good friends.  They held receptions and plays, and Elisa and Lucien co-owned a literary salon in Ajaccio. When Christine died in 1800, Elisa too over the care of Christine’s 2 …

.. was the only sister to hold real political power.  When the Bonaparte family moved to Marseille when Napoleon became Emperor, Elisa met Felice, a former Captain in the Royal Corse before the French Revolution. Napoleon thought Felice, who later called himself Levoy, was a very bad captain, but made …

… 4th child of 7, and eldest sister of Napoleon 1st, her full name after marriage was Elisa Maria Anna Bonaparte Baciocchi Levoy. She was Princess Fanciscan, Priness of Lucca and Piombino, and Grand Duchess of Tuscany.  Her husband was Felice Pasquale Baciocchi. (portraits: 1806 Elisa younger sister Pauline had …

… He was the nephew and heir to Napoleon 1st. We will discuss Napoleon III and his wife  in detail later, because they are our fashion connection into the 20th century, and the central figures bringing together the stories of almost all the royal families of Europe. (Featured portrait: Napoleon …

.. would carry on the Bonaparte heritage after Napoleon I was long gone, and into the new era of the French Republic. The Louis/Hortense grandchildren and heirs would remain to this day key political and fashion figures worldwide. (portrait: Hortense in about 1812 with Napoleon III, her son who would …

.. in great detail because Napoleon made him marry Empress Josephine’s daughter (from another marriage), Hortense. They were the King and Queen of Holland from 1806-1810, and were married when he was 24. Fashion was very important to both of them.  The 3 key Regency styles can easily be pointed …

Pauline (“Paulette”) moved with her mother to Rome, under the protection of the Pope when all the Bonapartes were exiled from France.  Interestingly, that same Pope had been a prisoner of her brother. When Pauline became gravely ill with tuberculosis, the Pope made her husband Camilio return to her side …