#decaux

Information on Letizia Bonaparte’s passport in 1814.

Addressed to Hortense de Beauharnais

Year: 1832

“I have been given your letter of August 17th, which found me ill and overcome with grief. I try to take courage, but there are some sorrows which are impossible to endure. The blow I have just sustained is one of those. It has re-opened all the barely healed wounds of my heart, and every day I learn new details which add to my sorrow. . . . You will readily appreciate that my health has been greatly affected. It was already very poor, and this fresh grief has made it worse.”

This passing came around the same time as a number of other deaths in the family. Joseph Bonaparte wrote to his mother: “It is our fate to enjoy a little and to suffer much.”

‘Before he left, the Emperor complained about all his brothers. He said, “I’ll have this one locked up . . . that one arrested. . . .” I said to him, “My son, you are both right and wrong. Right, if you compare them with yourself, because you cannot be compared with anyone in the world; you are a marvel, a phenomenon, something that cannot be defined. But you are wrong if you compare them with other kings, because they are better than any of them; because kings are so stupid that anyone would think they had a veil over their eyes and their fall occurred so that my children could take their places.”

The Emperor’s reply to this was: “Signora Letizia [he was laughing] so you, too, flatter me?”

“What, me flatter you? You do your mother an injustice.”’

According to the author, this comes from Letizia’s memoir.

Letizia’s letter to Louis (March 20th, 1805)

Letizia’s letter to Lucien (April 7th, 1805)

Letizia’s letter to Lucien (1810)