Caroline Bonaparte (25 March 1782-18 May 1839) was Queen consort of Naples from 1 August 1808 to 20 May 1815 as the wife of King Joachim Murat.
Biography[]
Caroline in 1799
Carolina Maria Annunziata Bonaparte was born in Ajaccio, Corsica in 1782, a daughter of Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino and the sister of Joseph, Napoléon, Lucien, Elisa, Louis, Pauline, and Jerome. She was raised in Toulon and Marseille during the French Revolution and went to school with Hortense de Beauharnais, Josephine de Beauharnais' daughter and Louis' wife. She fell in love with her brother Napoleon's cavalry commander Joachim Murat and married him on 20 January 1800. She was made Grand Duchess of Berg and Cleves in 1806 and Queen consort of Naples in 1808, and she renovated the royal residences in Naples, had new gardens planned, partonized the silk and cotton industry, and founded a school for girls. She served as regent of Naples during her husband's participation in the French invasion of Russia from 1812 to 1813, during the German campaign of 1813, during the War of the Sixth Coalition in 1814, and during the return of Napoleon to power in 1815. In 1814, she supported her husband's decision to make a separate peace with the Coalition in order to keep his throne. In 1815, her husband was defeated in the Neapolitan War and executed after failing to retake his throne, and Caroline fled to the Austrian Empire and died in Florence in 1839.