Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples, Then King of Spain

JOSEPH BONAPARTE, King of Naples, Then King of Spain. - Born Jan. 7, 1768 at Corte in Corsica, d. July 28, 1844 at Florence. The elder brother of Napoleon, he studied law at the College of Autun. During the French Revolution he took part in the siege of Toulon. Elected in 1796 a deputy to the Council of the Five Hundred, he was sent in 1797 as ambassador to Rome, where he pursued a policy of agitation against the papal government, which led to the killing of General Duphot by the Roman people, impatient of provocations. Having returned to France, as minister plenipotentiary, after the 18th Brumaire he contributed to the conclusion of the Treaty of peace and commerce with the United States (Sept. 30, 1800), and of the Treaties of Lunéville (Feb. 9, 1801) and of Amiens (March 24, 1802).

He also held a similar post in the negotiations that led to the signing of the Concordat of 1801. A divisional general in 1806, he became the same year King of Naples, and in 1808 King of Spain. In Naples he implemented a policy hardly benevolent toward the Church. He set a limit to the number of priests (five per thousand souls); expelled the Jesuits (July 3, 1806) and suppressed the Benedictine monasteries (Feb. 13, 1807); he studied the reduction of the number of dioceses in the Kingdom. After his brother's fall he left France for the United States; from 1832 he resided in England, and later, with the consent of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, in Florence.