Elisa Bonaparte | |||||
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Grand Duchess of Tuscany Princess of Lucca and Piombino Countess of Compignano |
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Elisa Bonaparte (about 1805, painted by Marie-Guillemine Benoist).
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Grand Duchess of Tuscany | |||||
Reign | 3 March 1809 – 1 February 1814 | ||||
Predecessor | Louis II as King of Etruria | ||||
Successor | Ferdinand III | ||||
Princess of Lucca and Piombino | |||||
Reign | 19 March 1805 – 18 March 1814 | ||||
Successor | Maria Luisa as Duchess of Lucca | ||||
Born |
Ajaccio, Corsica, France |
3 January 1777||||
Died | 7 August 1820 Trieste, Austrian Empire |
(aged 43)||||
Spouse | Felice Pasquale Baciocchi | ||||
Issue | Felix Napoléon Baciocchi Elisa Napoléone Baciocchi Jérôme Charles Baciocchi Frédéric Napoléon Baciocchi |
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House | Bonaparte | ||||
Father | Carlo Buonaparte | ||||
Mother | Letizia Ramolino | ||||
Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Full name | |
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Maria Anna Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi Levoy |
Maria Anna (Marie Anne) Elisa Bonaparte Baciocchi Levoy, Princesse Française, Princess of Lucca and Piombino, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Countess of Compignano (3 January 1777 – 7 August 1820), was the fourth surviving child and eldest surviving daughter of Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino. A younger sister of Napoleon Bonaparte, she had elder brothers Joseph and Lucien, and younger siblings Louis, Pauline, Caroline and Jerome.
As Princess of Lucca and Piombino, then Grand Duchess of Tuscany, she became Napoleon's only sister to possess political power. Their relations were sometimes strained due to her sharp tongue. Highly interested in the arts, particularly the theatre, she encouraged them in the territories over which she ruled.
Élisa was born in Ajaccio, Corsica. She was christened Maria-Anna, but later officially adopted the nickname "Élisa" (her brother Lucien, to whom she was very close in childhood, nicknamed her Elisa). In June 1784, a bursary allowed her to attend the Maison royale de Saint-Louis at Saint-Cyr, where she was frequently visited by her brother Napoleon. Following the French Revolution, the Legislative Assembly decreed the Maison's closure on 16 August 1792 as it shut down institutions associated with the aristocracy. Élisa left on 1 September with Napoleon to return to Ajaccio.
Around 1795, the Bonaparte family relocated to Marseille. There Élisa got to know Felice Pasquale Baciocchi (who later adopted the surname Levoy). A Corsican nobleman and formerly a captain in the Royal Corse, he had been dismissed from his rank with the outbreak of the French Revolution.