1Joseph Bonaparte had chartered a boat for America, hoping to persuade his brother to join him. He failed, however, so during the night of the 24th to the 25th of July 1815 he embarked alone on the brig La Margaretha, accompanied by his Spanish aide-de-camp Unzaga, his cook François Parrot, his private secretary Louis Maillard and his interpreter James Carret.

2They landed in New York City on the 20th of August. Calling himself the Comte de Survilliers, the former king of Spain was recognised by chance in his hotel. He was summoned by the mayor, Jacob Radcliffe, who advised him to seek asylum in the United States directly from the president, James Madison. So Joseph set out for Washington. On arriving in Philadelphia he was told that he would not be received, so as not to make his presence official. However, he was also told that he could remain in the United States as long as he kept quiet.

3Joseph first stayed at a hotel in the former temporary capital, then rented a townhouse there with the help of the banker Stephen Girard. He later moved into a mansion, Lansdowne, to the west of the city. It was a place to stay while waiting for something better.

4Joseph immediately felt at home in the United States. As he wrote to his confidant Presle: “Americans are cold but hospitable and good. They are not ceremonious like the Spanish, nor polite like the French, but more cordially obliging towards a foreigner. Generally speaking, I like the country and the people very much, and once I have those in whom I take an interest beside me” – meaning his wife and two daughters – “I shall feel quite at home and much better than in Switzerland” [1].

5In Philadelphia, Joseph was thought to be “one of the richest men in the world”, which only increased the interest he attracted in a small city of 60,000 inhabitants. Although this estimation was exaggerated, he had at least brought enough with him into exile to set himself up in style. As Pierre Branda will tell you later, the Emperor’s brother was a very astute businessman. He never lacked for anything.

6He soon got himself organised, bringing furniture, paintings and, most importantly, money from Europe. Several of his French servants joined him, giving him a real household. He proved equally generous with the veterans of the Grande Armée who came to see him. Several were taken into service. Personalities such as, from left to right, Marshal Grouchy, Generals Vandamme, Hulin, Lefebvre-Desnouettes, Charles and Henri Lallemand, the counsellors of state Regnaud and Réal, the scholar Lakanal and others all knew they could count on him. He also became a favourite in Philadelphia society, into which he was introduced by Girard. His friends included the professor of medicine Nathaniel Chapman, the surgeon Philip Physick, regarded as the father of American surgery, the financier and writer Nicholas Biddle, Admiral Charles Stewart, General Thomas Cadwalader, Charles Ingersoll, the district attorney for Pennsylvania, William Short, Thomas Jefferson’s former secretary, and the jurist Joseph Hopkinson, son of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, who became one of his attorneys. He was also much liked by his neighbours for his simplicity and generosity. His status as a popular local figure quelled concerns about what he might be up to. As a result, he was easily able to gain the right to live under the protection of the law, surrounded by admiration and affection.

7Joseph moved again in June 1816, to a property not far from Bordentown, about 40 miles from Philadelphia. There he created the Point Breeze estate, which ultimately covered nearly eighteen hundred acres. In all, it cost him 110,000 dollars to buy, plus about 200,000 dollars for the installations. The initial mansion had about thirty rooms, furnished in the Empire style and hung with paintings which impressed visitors, especially David’s Bonaparte Crossing the Alps and family portraits by Gérard and Wicar. The gardens, walks and woods around were cleared and replanted. The owner supervised the works himself, and was often to be found covered in mud or dust, wearing a shabby overcoat or outfits which recalled neither his glorious past nor his present status as a very wealthy gentleman farmer.

8No sooner was the work completed than it had to start all over again. The house was destroyed by fire on the 4^th of January 1820, but the staff and neighbours worked together to save the rich collections within. A new house was built. The main building was sixty yards long by twenty wide, with thirty-two windows in a white façade with green shutters, a garden house and, soon after, a small guest villa called the Lake House. The paintings by David, Gérard and Wicar were re-hung, along with works by Joseph Vernet, a Rubens (Two Lions Pursuing a Fawn), a Natoire, Gobelin tapestries and a host of other treasures, including a library containing over eight thousand books.

9Visitors were of course amazed and overawed by such an interior, without equal in the United States, but their host’s easy grace soon reassured them. Except at grand dinners, there was no tiresome etiquette. Visits were informal and good-natured. Joseph felt at home on the banks of the Delaware River and the local people respected him. They sent delegations and a brass band on birthdays, helped with the work on the house and the estate, and hurried to greet him when he passed by. His wife and children were all that Joseph lacked to make him perfectly happy in what he called “the most beautiful country in the world” [2]. And so that even more people could see his fabulous collections, Joseph agreed to lend some of his paintings to exhibitions at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Bonaparte Crossing the Alps was shown each year from 1822 to 1829, which the artist himself called a “great honour” [3]. As a sign of gratitude, on the 18^th of April 1823 Joseph was admitted into the American Society of Philosophy, founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1743.

10My colleagues will be talking later about Joseph Bonaparte’s political and business activities. That gives me time here to look at his founding of a second family. As his wife Julie never made it across the Atlantic, Joseph set up house with Annette Savage, a young woman from a local Quaker family. Born in 1800, she claimed to be descended from the princess Pocahontas [4]. Annette bore him two children, Caroline Charlotte in 1819, and Pauline Josèphe in 1822. But she was not his only love in America. Joseph also enjoyed the favours of Émilie Hémart, the wife of Felix Lacoste, another of his attorneys. She gave him a son, Felix Joseph, born on 22 March 1825. He looked after these natural children, making sure that they never lacked for anything. Joseph’s dalliances were well-known, including to his family, who cared as little about them as about his other children born outside wedlock in Naples or Spain. Annette and Emilie were even able to meet Joseph’s daughters when they came to see their father on long visits to Point Breeze.

11Spending his days reading, walking and riding, Joseph took some interest, though not too much, in events in Europe. He let people say more or less what they liked, without reacting, even after Napoleon’s death, when the latter was blamed for all the Empire’s misfortunes. By doing so, Joseph unfairly gained a reputation for incapacity and idleness which has stuck to him ever since.

12But he could not stand back completely. On hearing of the July Revolution in 1830, he decided to return to Europe. On arrival, he learnt of the death of the king of Rome. Under the Empire constitutions, he had become the heir to the throne.

13In London he summoned what has been called the “family meeting”, at which he was joined by several other family members to discuss the future. He clashed with his over-eager nephews, including Louis-Napoleon, the future Napoleon III. After three years in England, he returned to Point Breeze in mid-October 1835. More than ever, he got the feeling that time was accelerating. Crossing New York, he was amazed by the changes that had taken place since he had left. The city’s population had tripled and buildings were going up everywhere, including the first skyscrapers. Progress had also changed the face of his own estate. A railway line was being built along the river and would encroach on his land. Rather than face a court case with an uncertain outcome, he preferred to settle the matter out of court and exchanged the land in question for a thousand shares in the Baltimore railroad company [5].

14As often happens as people get older, a run of misfortunes began which, as we may imagine, did little to improve his already fragile health. They included Louis-Napoleon’s attempted coups, and the death of Madame Mère, Cardinal Fesch and, above all, his daughter Charlotte, which devastated him.

15Isolated in the New World and with no hope of a political future, the ageing head of the clan threw in the towel. He decided to return to Europe and, if possible, to his wife, his surviving daughter and his grandchildren. He boarded the Philadelphia and was back in London by the end of November 1839. He was already quite ill by then, having suffered a stroke which left him gaunt and paralysed. The European powers allowed him to join Julie – who had changed – in Florence, where he died on the 28^th of July 1844 at the age of 76. He was buried in the church of Santa Croce, but his remains were transferred to Paris in 1862 on the order of Napoleon III.

16Joseph’s years in the United States were probably the happiest time of his life, after all the cruel disappointments he had suffered in Europe. There, he could more than ever be himself. But as the gentleman farmer went his quiet way, he kept a watchful eye on the interests of the Bonapartes and their chances of a come-back. The king of Rome was first in line, then Joseph himself, even if that did not please his over-eager nephews. When he departed for Europe, he left only fond memories behind him in the United States. He was a leading proponent of the French art of living in the New World. Many of his American friends’ families received valuable gifts from him, several of which are now on display in museums in Philadelphia and elsewhere. He was also regarded as an ambassador for the European way of life. When a TV documentary starring Jackie Kennedy was made in the early 1960s to show American viewers the result of a major restoration of the White House, she stopped for a moment before a pier table and explained that the magnificent piece had belonged to “Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother”. She made it an example both of her own good taste and of the splendid furnishings of the seat of the American presidency.

17Joseph’s stay in the region of Philadelphia made such a deep impression that even now his ghost is still said to haunt the place where he had settled on the banks of the Delaware, looking for his lost loves. Be that as it may, I must confess that I have not yet seen it!