Elisa, Paulina and Caroline Bonaparte

[Prince_Christopher]

From Napoleon's Family by Desmond Seward:

"[The only surviving child of the Bacciochis], Napoleone (1806-69), was among the most high-spirited of the clan's later members.  Even more masculine than her mother Elisa, she went so far as to wear men's clothes, fenced and enjoyed driving carriages.  She married a sensitive Italian, Count Camarata, whom she reduced to a nervous wreck before deserting him in 1830 and reverting to her maiden name of Bacciochi.  At the end of 1830 she went to Vienna with a hare-brained plan of rescuing her cousin Napoleon II, which was quickly discovered by the Austrian police, who made her leave the city.  Very much her mother's daughter, she later acquired a keen interest in drainage." (p.187)

(p.195) During the Second Empire Napoleone Bacciochi profited by extracting more than 6 million francs from the government and securing titles and appointments for her Bacciochi cousins.  One cousin received the post of "Superintendent of Court Spectacles" with the responsibility of procuring women for his master.

[Prince_Christopher]

There were actually 4 children born to the Bacciochis:
Felix Napoléon Bacciochi (1798 - 1799).
Elisa Napoléone Bacciochi (1806 - 1869). She married Philippe, Comte Camerata-Passioneï de Mazzoleni.
Jérôme Charles Bacciochi (1810 - 1811).
Frédéric Napoléon Bacciochi (1813 - 1833).

Elisa-Napoleone's son was:
Napoléon Charles Félix Antoine Baptiste Camerata-Passionei di Mazzoleni (b. 20 Sept., 1826 at Ancona, d. 4 March 1853, Paris)

The young Count Camerata seemed to be well-liked and served as a State Councillor during the 2nd Empire.  However, he was apparently heavily in debt and ended his life by putting a bullet in his head at his mother's home in Paris.  (This can be read in My Memoirs by Caroline Murat, available on Google Book Search).

[britt.25]

Thanks for the infos, I did not know much about Napoleone Elisas character and personality before. The sentences are very interesing. It seems she was a very strong personality with her own will and style of dressing and life. Fascinating. From the portrait of her as an older woman, I can imagine her as strict and maybe, it almost seems a bit like that, she might have dominated her husband a bit. It would be interesting to have a full biography of her, but until now I never found any, and only found little infos on her life. I did not know that it was something like a secret plan to rescue her cousin, I thought there was a meeting between the both officially arranged, that was the way I had once read it.
I always looked for a picture of her only son Napoleone Camerata, but never found any. Please, if anybody finds a link, post it.