Letizia Ramolino | |||||
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Mother of His Imperial Majesty The Emperor | |||||
Letizia Ramolino by Robert Lefèvre, 1813
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Born | 24 August 1750 Ajaccio, Corsica, Republic of Genoa |
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Died | 2 February 1836 Rome, Papal States |
(aged 85)||||
Spouse | Carlo Buonaparte | ||||
Issue |
Joseph, King of Spain Napoleon I, Emperor of the French Lucien, 1st Prince of Canino and Musignano Elisa, Grand Duchess of Tuscany Louis I, King of Holland Pauline, Princess and Duchess of Guastalla Caroline, Queen of Naples Jérôme, King of Westphalia |
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House | House of Bonaparte | ||||
Father | Giovanni Geronimo Ramolino | ||||
Mother | Angela Maria Pietrasanta |
Full name | |
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Maria Letizia Buonaparte née Ramolino |
Nobile Maria Letizia Buonaparte née Ramolino (Marie-Lætitia Ramolino, Madame Mère de l'Empereur) (24 August 1750 – 2 February 1836) was an Italian noble, mother of Napoleon I of France.
She was born in Ajaccio, Corsica, Republic of Genoa, the daughter of Nobile Giovanni Geronimo Ramolino (13 April 1723 – 1755), Captain of Corsican Regiments of Chivalry and Infantry in the Army of the Republic of Genoa, and his wife Nobile Angela Maria Pietrasanta (circa 1725–1790). The distant cousins of the Ramolinos were a low rank of nobility in the Republic of Genoa. Like most such girls in the 18th century, Letizia was educated at home. After the death of her father, her mother remarried the Swiss-born naval officer Franz Fesch, a captain in the service of the Republic of Genoa stationed on Corsica, and gave birth to two children, among them her half-brother Joseph Fesch.
On 2/7 June 1764, when she was thirteen, Letizia married the trainee attorney Carlo Buonaparte, himself only seventeen, at Ajaccio. First pregnant a few months later, she went on to give birth to thirteen children, eight of whom survived infancy, and most of whom were created monarchs by Napoleon:
Letizia and her husband Carlo befriended with the island's governor, Mr de Marbeuf and the intendant, Bertrand de Boucheporn whose wife was the godmother of their son Louis (1778), the future king of Holland. These friendships might have helped to have Napoleon admitted to the Brienne cadet school (1779).
She was a harsh mother, and had a very down-to-earth view of most things. When most European mothers bathed children perhaps once a month, she had her children bathed every other day.