Louis Lucien Bonaparte (4 January 1813 – 3 November 1891) was a French

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined ...

. The third son of Napoleon's second surviving brother,

Lucien Bonaparte Lucien Bonaparte, 1st Prince of Canino and Musignano (born Luciano Buonaparte; 21 May 1775 – 29 June 1840), was French politician and diplomat of the French Revolution and the Consulate. He served as Minister of the Interior from 1799 to 1800 ...

, he spent much of his life outside France for political reasons. After a brief political career, he focused on his academic work, which particularly centered on the Basque language and the

Celtic languages The Celtic languages (usually , but sometimes ) are a group of related languages descended from Proto-Celtic. They form a branch of the Indo-European language family. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edward ...

Early life

In 1809, Lucien Bonaparte came under pressure from his brother

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...

to divorce his wife,

Alexandrine de Bleschamp Alexandrine Bonaparte, Princess of Canino and Musignano (née Alexandrine de Bleschamp; 23 February 1778 – 12 July 1855) was a French aristocrat. She was first married to the banker Hippolyte Jouberthon, with whom she had one child, Anne, ...

, and return to France from his Italian estates, where he was a virtual prisoner, needing permission to leave his own land. He took ship to sail to the United States, but in 1810, on the way there, he and his wife were captured by the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

. The British government allowed Lucien and his wife to settle at

Ludlow Ludlow () is a market town in Shropshire, England. The town is significant in the history of the Welsh Marches and in relation to Wales. It is located south of Shrewsbury and north of Hereford, on the A49 road which bypasses the town. The ...

, and later at Thorngrove House, Grimley,

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

, where Louis Lucien Bonaparte was born in 1813. Napoleon believed Lucien had gone to Britain as a traitor.Out of the confusion of tongues: Louis-Lucien Bonaparte (1813-1891)
British Library, accessed 29 January 2021 Following his brother's abdication in April 1814, Louis Lucien's father returned to France and then to Rome, where on 18 August 1814 he was made Prince of Canino, Count of Apollino, and Lord of Nemori by

Pope Pius VII Pope Pius VII ( it, Pio VII; born Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti; 14 August 1742 – 20 August 1823), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 14 March 1800 to his death in August 1823. Chiaramonti was also a m ...

. In 1824 he was created Prince of Musignano by

Pope Leo XII Pope Leo XII ( it, Leone XII; born Annibale Francesco Clemente Melchiorre Girolamo Nicola della Genga (; 2 August 1760 – 10 February 1829), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 28 September 1823 to his death ...

.Stroud, Patricia Tyson, ''The Emperor of Nature: Charles-Lucien Bonaparte and his world'', (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000), pp.21; 160. In the

Hundred Days The Hundred Days (french: les Cent-Jours ), also known as the War of the Seventh Coalition, marked the period between Napoleon's return from eleven months of exile on the island of Elba to Paris on20 March 1815 and the second restoratio ...

after Napoleon's return to France from exile in

Elba Elba ( it, isola d'Elba, ; la, Ilva) is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino on the Italian mainland, and the largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago. It is also part of the Arcipelago Toscano Nationa ...

, Lucien rallied to his brother's cause. Napoleon made him a French prince and included his children in the Imperial Family. However, this was not recognized by the restored Bourbon government after Napoleon's second abdication. In 1815, Lucien was proscribed and deprived of his seat in the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...

. Louis-Lucien Bonaparte grew up in Italy and was educated at the Jesuit college at Urbino, before studying chemistry and

mineralogy Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the proce ...

Career

and briefly a politician, Bonaparte spent most of his early life in Italy. He attended the first ''Riunione degli Scienziati Italiani'', a conference of scholars of natural sciences, at

Pisa Pisa ( , or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower, the ci ...

, and published some early work on scientific subjects in Italy. On 29 June 1840, by his father's death, he inherited various papal titles. His first work on languages, called ''Specimen lexici comparativi'', was published at Florence in 1847. He did not go to France until 1848, when he served two one-year terms in the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the r ...

as representative for

Corsica Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...

(1848) and for the

Seine department Seine was the former department of France encompassing Paris and its immediate suburbs. It is the only enclaved department of France at that time. Its prefecture was Paris and its INSEE number was 75. The Seine department was disbanded in 1968 ...

(1849). In 1852, he was appointed as a Senator, but not long after moved to London, where he spent most of the rest of his life. He had a printing press in his home printing 10 volumes in 1857 and five in 1858. In 1866 he was elected member of the Athenaeum Club and at that time presented the Club with 137 of his publications bound in 24 volumes. He worked on the classification of dialects of the Basque language, and his work is still used. He also worked on Cornish and denounced William Pryce for having plagiarized the research of

Edward Lhuyd Edward Lhuyd FRS (; occasionally written Llwyd in line with modern Welsh orthography, 1660 – 30 June 1709) was a Welsh naturalist, botanist, linguist, geographer and antiquary. He is also named in a Latinate form as Eduardus Luidius. Life ...

into Cornish and other

. File:Bonaparte euskalki mapa.jpg, Carte des sept Provinces Basques File:BonaparteEuskara.png, Carte des sept Provinces Basques

Private life

On 4 October 1833, in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

, Louis Lucien Bonaparte married Maria Anna Cecchi, the daughter of a Florentine sculptor. In 1850, he separated from his wife and later began to live with Clémence Richard, with whom he had a son, Louis Clovis Bonaparte (1859–1894). In 1891, after Maria Anna's death on 17 March 1891, Louis Lucien and Clémence Richard were married in

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensington Garden ...

. The Bonapartes’ son Louis Clovis became a

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...

, and on 14 October 1891, at

Reigate Reigate ( ) is a town in Surrey, England, around south of central London. The settlement is recorded in Domesday Book in 1086 as ''Cherchefelle'' and first appears with its modern name in the 1190s. The earliest archaeological evidence for huma ...

, he married Laura Elizabeth Scott, the daughter of F. W. Scott of Redhill, another engineer. Louis Lucien Bonaparte died at

Fano Fano is a town and '' comune'' of the province of Pesaro and Urbino in the Marche region of Italy. It is a beach resort southeast of Pesaro, located where the '' Via Flaminia'' reaches the Adriatic Sea. It is the third city in the region by ...

, Italy. His widow, Clémence Bonaparte, lived on until 1915. He is buried at

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cemetery St Mary's Catholic Cemetery is located on Harrow Road, Kensal Green in London, England. It has its own Catholic chapel. History Established in 1858, the site was built next door to Kensal Green Cemetery. It is the final resting place for ...

Kensal Green Kensal Green is an area in north-west London. It lies mainly in the London Borough of Brent, with a small part to the south within Kensington and Chelsea. Kensal Green is located on the Harrow Road, about miles from Charing Cross. To the w ...

next to his son and second wife. His collection of chemical elements was bequeathed to the

Science Museum, London The Science Museum is a major museum on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, London. It was founded in 1857 and is one of the city's major tourist attractions, attracting 3.3 million visitors annually in 2019. Like other publicly funded ...

where it subsequently was on display during the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...

"International Year of the Periodic Table" in 2019. His library was bought by the Newberry Library in Chicago.The Newberry
History.
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References

General references

* Howard Louis Conard, ''Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri'' (New York: 1901), Vol. IV, p. 530 * Out of the confusion of tongues: Louis-Lucien Bonaparte (1813–1891)

External links

Prince Bonaparte's Collection of Elements
at the Science Museum, London {{DEFAULTSORT:Bonaparte, Louis Lucien 1813 births 1891 deaths People from Malvern Hills District

Louis Lucien Bonaparte Louis Lucien Bonaparte (4 January 1813 – 3 November 1891) was a French philologist. The third son of Napoleon's second surviving brother, Lucien Bonaparte, he spent much of his life outside France for political reasons. After a brief political ...

Party of Order politicians Bonapartists Members of the 1848 Constituent Assembly Members of the National Legislative Assembly of the French Second Republic French Senators of the Second Empire French philologists Dialectologists Basque-language scholars Honorary members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Burials at St Mary's Catholic Cemetery, Kensal Green