Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grim
Speaker 1: and Mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. The year
Speaker 1: is eighteen twenty and smoke is rising through the air
Speaker 1: of the small town of Bordentown, New Jersey. It's a
Speaker 1: cold January night, and the enormous estate of the town's
Speaker 1: newest resident, a charming but strange French nobleman, is going
Speaker 1: up in flames. As the American townsfolk of Bordentown rush
Speaker 1: toward the blaze, rumors swirl like the ashes. They say
Speaker 1: that the frenchmen in their midst known as the Count
Speaker 1: of Cervier, is more than just a minor noble. They
Speaker 1: say that in order to outfit his eighteen hundred acre
Speaker 1: estate in central Jersey, they dug up a buried treasure
Speaker 1: chest in Switzerland. They say that that chest was filled
Speaker 1: with diamonds. They say that this point breeze estate contains
Speaker 1: fine arts the likes of which the United States has
Speaker 1: never seen, including scandalous nudes and busts of the former
Speaker 1: French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. They even say that the man
Speaker 1: surrounded by art and his mistresses in New Jersey is himself,
Speaker 1: a former European ruler, a former king of both Naples
Speaker 1: and Spain. They say, in fact that he is the
Speaker 1: older brother of Napoleon Bonaparte himself. While listener, some rumors
Speaker 1: turn out to be true, and all of those were.
Speaker 1: Joseph Bonaparte lately of New Jersey was the older brother
Speaker 1: of the more famous Napoleon. Back when Napoleon was in
Speaker 1: power in France. Joseph was indeed the reluctant philosopher king
Speaker 1: of both Naples and Spain, and he did indeed flee
Speaker 1: to the United States when his brother lost power. He
Speaker 1: was close with his more famous brother, but at the
Speaker 1: same time Joseph was always a little bit of a
Speaker 1: disappointment to Napoleon, more of an esthete than a political
Speaker 1: or military leader. In America, Joseph owned property in both
Speaker 1: Philadelphia and in Bordentown, New Jersey, where he lived on
Speaker 1: a sprawling eighteen hundred acres, half like an American Republican
Speaker 1: and half like a former king. In the twenty six
Speaker 1: years he spent exiled in America, he never learned passable English.
Speaker 1: He amassed more books at Point Breeze, the name of
Speaker 1: the estate then the Library of Congress had at the time.
Speaker 1: He alternately adored his American neighbors and lamented that they
Speaker 1: couldn't understand European high art. That night, in January eighteen twenty,
Speaker 1: he watched as all he had collected in New Jersey
Speaker 1: went up in flames. It's possible he looked with regret
Speaker 1: at the burning sum total of his life in America.
Speaker 1: It's possible that what crossed his mind was actually water
Speaker 1: instead of fire, that he was thinking about the ship
Speaker 1: that he had taken across the Atlantic years ago, away
Speaker 1: from his wife and two young daughters. By the light
Speaker 1: of the flames, he may have remembered the letters he
Speaker 1: had sent to his wife across the sea, speaking of
Speaker 1: the suitability of the home that he was building for
Speaker 1: her and their children. He had been free here in America,
Speaker 1: but he had also been very alone. Now, as the
Speaker 1: night sky lit up with the flames of the Bonaparte
Speaker 1: History collection, Joseph's own future in America was in doubt.
Speaker 1: Without a home for his wife and children. Would he
Speaker 1: ever see them again? Or would the oldest Bonaparte, the
Speaker 1: former King of Naples and Spain, wind up alone in
Speaker 1: exile forever? I'm Danish forts, and this is noble blood.
Speaker 1: Joseph Buonaparte was born on January seventh, my birthday actually
Speaker 1: seventeen sixty eight, on the Mediterranean island of Corsica. He
Speaker 1: was the eldest of the family's eight children, but it
Speaker 1: was his twenty month's younger brother, Napoleon, who would be
Speaker 1: destined to make a name for the family. In fact,
Speaker 1: that name was different from the one they were born with.
Speaker 1: It was Napoleon who changed the spelling of the family
Speaker 1: name from the Italian sounding Buonaparte to the French sounding Bonaparte,
Speaker 1: the better to rule and fit in France. Joseph and
Speaker 1: Napoleon grew up very close with each other, but that
Speaker 1: didn't stop them from clashing over their very different personalities.
Speaker 1: Napoleon was more interested, as you can imagine, in the
Speaker 1: military and in power. Joseph was more interested in arts
Speaker 1: and culture. Napoleon called him quote an ornament on society,
Speaker 1: and throughout his life Joseph would kind of prove him right.
Speaker 1: He didn't love the law, though he did practice it.
Speaker 1: He didn't love the military, though he did participate in it.
Speaker 1: He was a lover of republic more than monarchy. What
Speaker 1: Joseph did love was literature, gardening, fine arts, opera, high culture,
Speaker 1: not to mention the art of seduction, at which he excelled. Still,
Speaker 1: Joseph also loved his younger brother. When a young Joseph
Speaker 1: proposed to a woman named desire Clary, it turned out
Speaker 1: that Napoleon wanted her too. Napoleon suggested that Joseph proposed
Speaker 1: to Desiree's older sister instead, and, like the good brother
Speaker 1: he always was, Joseph did. Joseph and Julie Clary got
Speaker 1: married in seventeen ninety four, when Joseph was twenty six
Speaker 1: and Julie was twenty two. The two had a happy
Speaker 1: early marriage. They had two daughters, Zenaide and Charlotte, in
Speaker 1: eighteen oh one and eighteen oh two. Joseph loved all
Speaker 1: of his girls and would have happily stayed in the
Speaker 1: countryside with them alongside his arts and literature. Some painted
Speaker 1: nude maybe some mistresses, I mean, don't be mistaken. Of course,
Speaker 1: just because he loved his wife didn't mean that he
Speaker 1: was faithful to her. But Joseph was a guy whose
Speaker 1: younger brother was Napoleon Bonaparte, and Napoleon was not known
Speaker 1: to take the simple pleasures and preferences of other people
Speaker 1: into account. By seventeen ninety nine, five years into Joseph's
Speaker 1: married life, Napoleon had staged a successful coupdetat and become
Speaker 1: first Consul of the French Republic. From then on, Napoleon
Speaker 1: appointed Joseph to a litany of ever more serious positions
Speaker 1: Army colonel and then Regent of France, Commander in chief
Speaker 1: of the Naples Army, King of Naples, and finally King
Speaker 1: of Spain. It was a lot of titles for a
Speaker 1: guy who basically just wanted to read books with his
Speaker 1: family in a pretty French garden somewhere in the country.
Speaker 1: How can I find happiness, Joseph once wrote, when my
Speaker 1: position is quite incompatible with my character. To be fair,
Speaker 1: Joseph did find some happiness as a monarch. As King
Speaker 1: of Spain, he earned the nickname pepe boteas basically Joe Bottles,
Speaker 1: because of how much wine he went through. As King
Speaker 1: of Naples, he had an affair with a duchess who
Speaker 1: wrote him letters twice a day and bore his child,
Speaker 1: though tragically, the boy, Julio, died young. Heads up listeners
Speaker 1: Joseph's story will be littered with illegitimate children, but he
Speaker 1: did always come back to his deep love for his
Speaker 1: two legitimate daughters. And though Napoleon kept pulling Joseph into
Speaker 1: political power games that he never really wanted to be
Speaker 1: a part of, Joseph always loved his little brother. After
Speaker 1: Napoleon's defeat at the famous Battle of Waterloo, it became
Speaker 1: dangerous to be a Bonaparte on the continent. Joseph actually
Speaker 1: offered to pretend to be Napoleon, sick in bed while
Speaker 1: Napoleon escaped to America. Napoleon refused the offer. By July
Speaker 1: eighteen fifteen, Napoleon was a prisoner of the British and
Speaker 1: it was Joseph who took the opportunity to escape Europe. Joseph,
Speaker 1: as historian Patricia Tyson Stroud put it, got to quote
Speaker 1: live out his brother's idea of freedom in America. So,
Speaker 1: at the age of forty seven, Joseph Bonaparte boarded a
Speaker 1: ship headed to New York City. It was a great adventure,
Speaker 1: and it also likely saved his life, but it was
Speaker 1: also a sad and risky move. He was leaving behind
Speaker 1: his beloved wife and country, and his even more beloved
Speaker 1: young daughters. He had been married at this point to
Speaker 1: Julie for twenty one years. As he sailed away to
Speaker 1: safety across the Atlantic, he had had no idea what
Speaker 1: fate had in store for him. He was hopefully sure,
Speaker 1: tragically sure, that his wife and daughters would soon join
Speaker 1: him in America. He sailed away, really believing that he
Speaker 1: would make a home and he would see them all
Speaker 1: again very soon. In eighteen fifteen. It was not a
Speaker 1: simple thing to be a Buonaparte escaping to America. Americans,
Speaker 1: who had recently shaken off the shackles of British monarchy
Speaker 1: didn't tend to like the remnants of European monarchy or
Speaker 1: empire on their shores. Aboard the ship, Joseph told no
Speaker 1: one who he really was. He took on the name
Speaker 1: the Count de Servilliers, which was the least of his
Speaker 1: many grand titles. But it was not so easy for
Speaker 1: the former King of Naples in Spain to go undetected.
Speaker 1: Even across the Atlantic. In New York City, former Spanish
Speaker 1: subjects kept stopping to kiss him on the hand. His
Speaker 1: pretense was flimsy to the point of completely falling apart.
Speaker 1: Worried that he would be extradited to England, where his
Speaker 1: brother was being held prisoner. Joseph tried to get to Washington,
Speaker 1: d C. But President James Madison didn't want to risk
Speaker 1: disturbing international diplomacy by interacting with the brother of the
Speaker 1: former Emperor of France, so he essentially told Joseph to
Speaker 1: go ahead and live the American dream. It's a free country,
Speaker 1: Madison basically said, and you're free to no need for
Speaker 1: my protection. So that was the end of Joseph's attempts
Speaker 1: to get to d C. He rented a house that's
Speaker 1: still standing on Ninth Street in Philadelphia, but a city
Speaker 1: rental was never going to cut it in the long
Speaker 1: run for the lavish former king of Spain. In July
Speaker 1: eighteen sixteen, just about one year after beginning his exile
Speaker 1: in America, Joseph bought the eighteen hundred acre estate of
Speaker 1: Point Breeze now Exit seven on the turnpike for Bordentown,
Speaker 1: New Jersey. Joseph immediately set about fulfilling his brother Napoleon's
Speaker 1: prediction that quote, he will be a bourgeois American and
Speaker 1: spend his fortune in making gardens in order to fund
Speaker 1: his estate. Joseph sent his personal secretary Louis Mayard back
Speaker 1: to Europe. Mayard had only been twenty when he crossed
Speaker 1: the ocean with Joseph before now Joseph dispatched him back
Speaker 1: to Pranjin, Switzerland. It was a little escapade that actually
Speaker 1: could be its own swashbuckling adventure book. Mayard wound up
Speaker 1: being shipwrecked off the coast of Ireland, surviving and finally
Speaker 1: eventually digging up a buried treasure chest at Joseph's old chateau.
Speaker 1: The chest contained a handful of diamonds, letters from Napoleon,
Speaker 1: and rumor has it even the crowns from when Joseph
Speaker 1: was King of Naples and Spain. Joseph used that money
Speaker 1: to turn Point Breeze into the idyllic, expensive center of
Speaker 1: the arts that he had always wanted. He filled the
Speaker 1: estate with paintings, lavish gardens, and a library of eight
Speaker 1: thousand books, as I mentioned, more than the Library of
Speaker 1: Congress had at the time. He also set up an
Speaker 1: elaborate tunnel system under the giant property. He entertained fellow
Speaker 1: French exiles, and he barely spoke English. He baffled and
Speaker 1: amused his American neighbors who couldn't really understand the operas
Speaker 1: and painted nudes that they're strange, but welcoming new European
Speaker 1: neighbors seemed to love the whole time. Joseph was writing
Speaker 1: to his wife Julie. He expected and wanted her to
Speaker 1: come join him make the crossing in August. He told her,
Speaker 1: so that you can see the autumns in America. Bring
Speaker 1: our daughters, whom I miss so dearly. It seemed to
Speaker 1: Joseph like Julie was going to come, but she missed
Speaker 1: one ship to America and then another. She was in
Speaker 1: ill health, she told my Art her doctors were advising
Speaker 1: her not to make the crossing. It didn't help that
Speaker 1: she was terrified of a wreck at sea, which my
Speaker 1: art himself had literally just experienced over in America. It
Speaker 1: slowly dawned on Joseph that he would not be seeing
Speaker 1: his wife again anytime soon. Send me one of our daughters.
Speaker 1: In that case, he told his wife, it's only fair
Speaker 1: you keep one and send the other. Zenate the oldest,
Speaker 1: she's the strongest. I am alone in liberty, he wrote
Speaker 1: his wife. I am unhappy because I am isolated the
Speaker 1: hope of your arrival, the establishing of a house, the
Speaker 1: preparations to receive you have supported my existence. But today
Speaker 1: this hope is extinguished. I am disgusted with my establishment,
Speaker 1: even though it is beautiful, because I have not made
Speaker 1: it for myself alone. Joseph was genuinely sorrow struck to
Speaker 1: be away from his family, but then again, he was
Speaker 1: also the ever charming Joseph Bonaparte, European sophisticate and seducer.
Speaker 1: Those tunnels he'd built under Point Breeze, maybe he'd plan
Speaker 1: to use them to escape the British if they ever
Speaker 1: came for him in the case of an emergency, Or
Speaker 1: maybe he just wanted to ferry his mistresses to and
Speaker 1: from his bed. Because by eighteen eighteen he had met
Speaker 1: a woman named Anna Savage in Philadelphia. Rumor had it
Speaker 1: that she was a descendant of Pocahontas. It was not true,
Speaker 1: although her great ancestor, Thomas Savage, had been hostage to
Speaker 1: Poetan in the early sixteen hundreds. So Joseph, the French exile,
Speaker 1: who barely spoke English, began a year's long affair with Anna,
Speaker 1: descendant of one of the oldest English families in America.
Speaker 1: They would have two daughters together, one of whom would
Speaker 1: live to adulthood. When their first daughter was almost one
Speaker 1: year old, Joseph rented a house in Trenton for Anna
Speaker 1: and his little illegitimate American family. He was in his
Speaker 1: carriage coming back from Trenton on the cold night of
Speaker 1: January fourth, eighteen twenty, when he returned to discover his
Speaker 1: beautiful estate in flames. His heart pounded as he rushed
Speaker 1: toward the fire. His first thought may have been to
Speaker 1: his wife back in France, and to his two daughters,
Speaker 1: who would never see the home that he had built
Speaker 1: in such ardent hopes that they would eventually join him here.
Speaker 1: Or maybe he was thinking about his illegitimate family that
Speaker 1: he had just left in Trenton, who were thankfully safe
Speaker 1: as his estate burned. But if his first thoughts were
Speaker 1: to his women and daughters, then his second was surely
Speaker 1: to his possessions. His American neighbors could easily ransack the
Speaker 1: house in the chaos of the flames and the heath.
Speaker 1: They could have stolen his jewels, his art, his books,
Speaker 1: his gold medals, his letters to and from his brother Napoleon. Instead,
Speaker 1: Joseph's neighbors in Bordentown endeared themselves to him forever. They
Speaker 1: formed an impromptu brigade to put ted his possessions. As
Speaker 1: the fire roared, Joseph's neighbors rescued almost all of his
Speaker 1: valuable possessions and returned them to him. This almost certainly
Speaker 1: included the famous painting of Napoleon crossing the Alps at
Speaker 1: the Great Saint Bernard by Jacques Louis d vide Listeners.
Speaker 1: Look it up, just google it and you'll surely recognize it.
Speaker 1: After the fire, Joseph wrote a letter that was published
Speaker 1: in newspapers across the United States. His letter expressed his
Speaker 1: gratitude toward those upright Americans, the happiest people he'd ever known.
Speaker 1: Of course, people are people. Some of those very Americans
Speaker 1: were offended that he had even thought that they might
Speaker 1: be thieves in the first place. Still, probably encouraged by
Speaker 1: the goodness of his neighbors in New Jersey, Joseph didn't
Speaker 1: give up on Point Breeze after the fire. He started
Speaker 1: rebuilding almost immediately. It was later that same year that
Speaker 1: Joseph finally got his long awaited reward. His daughter was
Speaker 1: coming to America at last, But it wasn't Zenaide. The
Speaker 1: older daughter whom Joseph had sent for It was his
Speaker 1: younger daughter, Charlotte. She had been only twelve years old
Speaker 1: when Joseph left France. Six and a half years later,
Speaker 1: when he finally saw her again in America, she was
Speaker 1: nineteen years old and a firecracker, right in the artistic
Speaker 1: and romantic mold of her father. Princess Charlotte fell in
Speaker 1: love with the captain of her ship to America, and
Speaker 1: then she worked as a painter. Joseph was overjoyed to
Speaker 1: see his younger daughter again. The following year, her older sister,
Speaker 1: Zanade joined her, along with Zanede's husband, Charles Lucienne, and
Speaker 1: Joseph had almost his whole family in America. He even
Speaker 1: had a new mistress at this point, Emil Lacosse, who
Speaker 1: would wind up having twins, but his wife Julie would
Speaker 1: still not come and the fullness of his family was
Speaker 1: short lived. Charlotte sailed back to Europe in eighteen twenty four,
Speaker 1: never to return to America. Zenaide followed her back to
Speaker 1: Europe a few years later. After that, there was less
Speaker 1: and less for Joseph in America. His former mistresses kept
Speaker 1: asking for money and support if you can imagine that
Speaker 1: for his illegitimate children. He had financial troubles. He'd kept
Speaker 1: writing to his wife all those years, and now alone again,
Speaker 1: without the family he considered truly his own. The years
Speaker 1: passed in ever greater loneliness. Hosting the Marquis de Lafayette,
Speaker 1: the famed Frenchman of the American Revolution, didn't help. Joseph
Speaker 1: longed for home for his family, So at last, in
Speaker 1: eighteen thirty six, he said goodbye to his fabulous, once burned,
Speaker 1: now rebuilt Point Breeze. He gave away much of his
Speaker 1: art and treasures to the American neighbors who had helped
Speaker 1: him so much back during the fire, and finally he
Speaker 1: set sail away from America for good. Joseph hoped that
Speaker 1: he would ultimately be allowed to travel back to France
Speaker 1: to see his wife. After all, by this point, Napoleon
Speaker 1: had been dead for fifteen years. Joseph was an old
Speaker 1: man now, and he hoped France would consider the threat
Speaker 1: of the Bonapartes past. But it was not to be.
Speaker 1: France remained closed to the older brother of Napoleon. So
Speaker 1: Joseph went to England, and it was there in eighteen
Speaker 1: thirty nine that Joseph received the worst news of his life.
Speaker 1: His beloved daughter Charlotte had died in Italy at thirty
Speaker 1: six years old. One year later, perhaps as a result
Speaker 1: of age and perhaps of the immense sorrow of losing
Speaker 1: his brilliant younger daughter, Joseph had a stroke in London
Speaker 1: which left him paralyzed on his right side, and one
Speaker 1: year after that, in eighteen forty one, he left England
Speaker 1: for a journey to Florence. At this point he was
Speaker 1: a seventy three year old man, infirm and hunched, and
Speaker 1: he looked up at a figure he had not seen
Speaker 1: since he was a young, charming forty seven year old.
Speaker 1: There walking toward him in Italy was his wife, Julie.
Speaker 1: After twenty six years, the spouses were reunited at last.
Speaker 1: It's impossible to know what they each felt upon seeing
Speaker 1: each other again after a gap of a quarter century.
Speaker 1: They had exchanged letters all these years. Maybe Julie knew
Speaker 1: and simply bore the fact of Joseph's many extramarital affairs
Speaker 1: and illegitimate children. Maybe Joseph felt embarrassed at the immensity
Speaker 1: of his physical decline, or maybe against all odds, they
Speaker 1: simply felt an immense continued love based in the remembrance
Speaker 1: of their time together as a young married couple, way
Speaker 1: back before Napoleon was ever Emperor of France, before it
Speaker 1: was a scourge to hold the last name Bonaparte on
Speaker 1: the continent. Joseph's health had been in decline for a
Speaker 1: long time by the time of the couple's reunion. It
Speaker 1: wasn't long before he had a second stroke. Julie stuck
Speaker 1: by him the whole time. As Joseph sickened. They stayed together,
Speaker 1: and on July twenty eighth, eighteen forty four, Joseph Bonaparte
Speaker 1: lay in his wife's arms and breathed his last. At
Speaker 1: the tail end of their fifty year marriage, they were
Speaker 1: reunited again. For only three Joseph Bonaparte had seen his wife,
Speaker 1: but he would never see his beloved France again. But
Speaker 1: his remains did come to their final resting place in Paris.
Speaker 1: He was interred eventually near his brother Napoleon. That's the
Speaker 1: story of Napoleon's brother Joseph Bonaparte, who wound up living
Speaker 1: in New Jersey, but stick around after a brief sponsor
Speaker 1: break to hear more about what happened to his massive
Speaker 1: estate Point Breeze. As for Joseph's magnificent estate Point Breeze,
Speaker 1: a Catholic mission called the Society of the Divine World
Speaker 1: bought the property in nineteen forty one and held it
Speaker 1: for seventy years. In twenty twenty one, at last, a
Speaker 1: land preservation trust worked with both the state and the
Speaker 1: town of Bordentown to buy the property and make it
Speaker 1: open to the public. The Bordentown Historical Society website says
Speaker 1: that the Joseph Bonaparte exhibit is open at least two
Speaker 1: saturdays per month, and that in it you can see
Speaker 1: a lock of Joseph's hair. If you find yourself on
Speaker 1: exit seven of the New Jersey Turnpike, try and go,
Speaker 1: and please report back. And if you feel some sorrow
Speaker 1: for the exiled King of Naples in Spain, waiting in
Speaker 1: vain for his wife and never to return to France,
Speaker 1: well you might be in good company. Joseph's daughters in
Speaker 1: Aid was married to a man named Charles Lucien, who
Speaker 1: became a famous early ornithologists. Charles Lucien named one bird
Speaker 1: species after his wife. That species is called the Zeneida Macrura.
Speaker 1: We know it better as the Mourning Dove. Noble Blood
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeart Radio and Grimm and Mild
Speaker 1: from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by me Danish Forts,
Speaker 1: with additional writing and researching by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zewick,
Speaker 1: Courtney Sender, Julia Milani, and Armand Cassam. The show is
Speaker 1: edited and produced by Noemy Griffin and rema Ill Kaali,
Speaker 1: with supervising producer Josh Thain and executive producers Aaron Mankey,
Speaker 1: Alex Williams and Matt Frederick. Four more podcasts from iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite ches.