Élisa and Félix Baciocchi—They contract a civil marriage, at Marseilles, in spite of the opposition of Napoleon—Madame Bonaparte, the Baciocchi, Caroline, and Jérôme set out to join the general in Italy—Their journey—Betrothal of Pauline and General Leclerc—Reunion of the Bonaparte family at the Castle of Montebello—Wedding of Pauline and Leclerc, and ecclesiastical marriage of Élisa and Baciocchi—The marriage-contracts—Joséphine and M. Hippolyte Charles—Antipathy of the women Bonapartes to Joséphine.

ABSTRACT

Soon after Pauline’s departure for Italy, a suitor for the hand of her elder sister presented himself. His name was Felice (Félix) Baciocchi, ¹ and he came of an old Genoese family, a branch of which had emigrated to Corsica and settled at Ajaccio, apparently about the middle of the sixteenth century. The Baciocchi were already connected with the Bonapartes by marriage. In the last quarter of the sixteenth century, a Tomaso Baciocchi had married a Caterina Bonaparte, while, about 1615, a Giovanni Maria Baciocchi had taken to wife Laura Bonaparte, daughter of Geronimo, grandson of the founder of the Corsican branch of the family.