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Maria Letizia Ramolino

Letizia Ramolino
Mother of His Imperial Majesty The Emperor
Robert Lefèvre 001.jpg
Letizia Ramolino by Robert Lefèvre, 1813
Born 24 August 1750
Ajaccio, Corsica, Republic of Genoa
Died 2 February 1836(1836-02-02) (aged 85)
Rome, Papal States
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
Full name
Maria Letizia Buonaparte née Ramolino
House House of Bonaparte
Father Giovanni Geronimo Ramolino
Mother Angela Maria Pietrasanta
Full name
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.


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