Pauline Bonaparte: The Scandalous Loyal Sister

She was the most beautiful woman in the empire and the greatest scandal-monger of the Roman court. She posed nude for a famous sculptor, bought a yacht she never boarded, and gave her creditors such headaches that even the Emperor himself despaired. Yet, when fortune turned against Napoleon, it was revealed that, among the entire Bonaparte clan, she alone could show true loyalty.

Pauline’s Youth

Pauline was born in 1780 in Ajaccio as the second daughter of Carlo Maria Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino. Among Napoleon’s many siblings, she uniquely preserved the original Corsican spelling of the family name, a peculiar gesture of sentiment towards her homeland in later years. Her childhood passed amidst island routines, and little reliable evidence exists about her early years.

At thirteen, she was forced to leave Corsica with her mother and sisters as the family faced threats from Pasquale Paoli, the leader of the Corsican independence movement, with whom the Bonapartes had entered into open conflict. They found shelter in Marseille, where, for months, they lived in poverty and had to adjust to the humble refugee lifestyle.

The family’s circumstances changed when Napoleon was promoted to general. The whole clan moved to Paris and, for the first time, began to taste the glow of power.

Entering her teenage years, Pauline had all the traits needed for a meteoric rise through society. Her beauty, temperament, and Corsican audacity quickly caught the attention of Parisian circles.

The Young Widow

In 1797, Napoleon married off his sister to General Victor Emmanuel Leclerc. This union was essentially a political move in line with the Bonaparte family’s ambitions. Pauline herself seemed to treat marriage as a mere obligation that wouldn’t prevent her from enjoying private pleasures.

Five years later, Leclerc was ordered to lead an expedition to San Domingo, tasked with quelling a local uprising. Pauline followed her husband overseas and reportedly embarrassed him with her lively social life, conducting romances with officers of various ranks and hardly hiding her inclinations.

The expedition ended in tragedy. In 1802, General Leclerc contracted yellow fever and died in the tropics, leaving Pauline a widow with a son, Dermide, as she returned to France. The boy survived only four more years, passing away at eight, which further destabilized her already tumultuous emotional life.

The Venus of Villa Borghese

She remarried in 1803, wedding Prince Camillo Borghese, heir to one of Italy’s oldest noble families—a politically arranged match organized by Napoleon. The marriage opened doors for the Bonapartes into Rome’s aristocratic society and linked the new empire with the old European elite.

The prince went down in history for commissioning one of the 19th century’s most famous sculptures. Antonio Canova, at his request, crafted the Venus statue for which Pauline posed nude. The marble figure attained legendary fame, while the marriage quickly fell apart. Pauline’s extravagant whims were blamed for the union’s collapse; her daily behavior routinely scandalized even the most jaded members of Rome’s papal court. Camillo endured several years by her side before they parted ways and began living separate lives.

Milk Baths, Servants, and the Costs of Aristocracy

Pauline’s daily life in Rome and Florence became a spectacle of ritualized ostentation. She reportedly made servants sit as her chairs and had black slaves carry her to her baths. Her devoted staff endured these practices in silence because this was the image their mistress sought to project.

Especially notorious were her milk baths, allegedly to maintain flawless white skin. The logistics were so overwhelming that the daily demand could consume an entire estate’s supply. On one visit to a relative, Pauline insisted on a milk shower. When her host explained he lacked the appropriate device, she simply suggested making a hole in the bathroom ceiling so servants could pour the milk through it.

Her extravagance reached levels that astonished even early 19th-century Rome. Pauline purchased a yacht she never set foot on, endlessly traveled to spas, and spent fortunes on balls. Napoleon often paid off her debts, swearing profusely in Corsican. In 1806, he granted her the title of sovereign Princess and Duchess of Guastalla, but Pauline carelessly sold the duchy of Parma for six million francs, keeping only the empty title.

Incest Rumors and Imperial Disfavor

Pauline’s relationship with her brother fueled European gossip for decades. Empress Josephine claimed to have caught them in a compromising situation, and one courtier reported that Pauline herself confessed to breaking incest taboos. Cautious biographers don’t treat these claims as established facts, though they admit, with both siblings’ temperaments, nothing can be completely ruled out.

Napoleon doted on his sister, often rescuing her from the consequences of her financial recklessness. Creditors knocking on her door left empty-handed, as the Emperor’s protective umbrella effectively blocked legal action. Pauline took full advantage, treating her brother’s treasury as a personal bank account.

A temporary imperial disgrace befell her due to a sharp conflict with Empress Marie Louise. In 1810, Napoleon banished her from court, causing a brief chill in family relations. The rest of the siblings welcomed this with satisfaction, as Pauline’s closeness to the Emperor had long irritated many of them.

The Faithful Sister

When Napoleon’s star began to wane, Pauline acted in a way no one expected. After his abdication in 1814, she liquidated her assets and traveled to Elba, using the money to improve the living conditions of her exiled brother. Among all the emperor’s siblings, she was the only one to visit him in exile; the rest of the Bonapartes were more concerned with their own interests in the new political order.

After the defeat at Waterloo, the princess settled in Rome under the protection of Pope Pius VII, once her brother’s prisoner. The irony did not escape contemporaries, serving as proof of the Vatican’s neighborly diplomacy and ability to forgive. Pauline lived in a villa between Porta Pia and Porta Salaria, decorated in her beloved Egyptian style.

Camillo Borghese lived separately, maintaining a relationship with his mistress for a decade. Three months before her death, Pauline persuaded the Pope to convince the prince to take her back. Reconciliation came at the last minute. The empire’s most famous scandal-monger died on June 9, 1825, in her husband’s Florentine residence, probably of tuberculosis, at just forty-four.

Pauline Bonaparte remains a figure difficult to pin down in the history of the empire. She was extravagant, capricious, and troublesome, yet when her family turned away from the fallen emperor, she sold her estate to sweeten his exile. So, does the milk-bathing scandal-monger deserve the label of a vain egotist, or should she be remembered as the only one who truly loved Napoleon?

Bibliography