Letizia Ramolino—History of the Bonapartes of Corsica—Carlo Bonaparte—His marriage with Letizia Ramolino—Birth of Joseph Bonaparte—Letizia and the confessor at Bastia—Enthusiasm of Carlo Bonaparte for Paoli and the cause of Corsican independence—Cession of the island to France—The Bonapartes at Corte—Outbreak of the war between the Corsican patriots and France—Courage of Letizia, who follows her husband throughout the war—Adventures of the Bonapartes after the battle of Ponte-Nuovo—Carlo Bonaparte makes his submission to France.

ABSTRACT

At the beginning of the fifth decade of the eighteenth century, there was living at Ajaccio, in Corsica, a young man named Gian Geronimo Ramolino. He came of a family of Lombard origin, branches of which had settled at Florence, Naples, and Genoa, and it was from the last-named city that his ancestors had emigrated to Corsica, towards the end of the fifteenth century. Since the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, in 1559, the island had belonged to Genoa, and Gian Ramolino obtained a commission in the army of that republic. He proved himself an excellent officer, and the ability he displayed 2as an engineer impressed his superiors so favourably that, in May 1750, he received the post of inspector-general of roads and bridges in Corsica.