Wondrous Beauty: The Life and Adventures of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte

by Berkin, Carol

  6 Those invitations came: Amelia Ruth Gere Mason, The Women of the French Salons (New York: Century, 1891), pp. 69, 128.

  7 “If I were a queen”: EPB to Sydney Morgan, November 28, 1816, in William Hepworth Dixon, ed., Lady Morgan Memoirs: Autobiography, Diaries and Correspondence, 2nd ed. (London, 1863), pp. 45–47; Mason, Women of the French Salons, p. 138; Helen Jean Burn, Betsy Bonaparte (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2010), pp. 175–76.

  8 Warden also introduced: Mason, Women of the Salons, pp. 148–51.

  9 Sydney’s literary talents: Dixon, Lady Morgan Memoirs, introduction.

  10 Over her lifetime: EPB to Sydney Morgan, September 23, 1816, November 18, 1816, September 30, 1820, September 22, 1839, March 14, 1849, in Dixon, Lady Morgan Memoirs, pp. 42–44, 45–47, 62–65, 140–42, 454–56, 502–4.

  11 “their whining”: EPB to John Spear Smith, August 22, 1816, MdHS, ms. 142.

  12 “where no pleasures”: Ibid.

  13 “those long wearisome”: Ibid.

  14 “shut up in our melancholy”: Ibid.

  15 “tone of tristesse”: Sydney Morgan to EPB, May 26, 1817, MdHS, ms. 142.

  16 “an Eroneous”: James McIlhiny to EPB, September 18, 1817, MdHS, ms. 142.

  10 “For This Life There Is Nothing but Disappointment”

  1 Betsy understood both: EPB to Sydney Morgan, May 23, 1818, in William Hepworth Dixon, ed., Lady Morgan Memoirs: Autobiography, Diaries and Correspondence, 2nd ed. (London, 1863), pp. 80–84; for letters dealing with finances see, for example, Edward Patterson to EPB, September 20, September 25, 1816, March 14, 1817, in MdHS, ms. 142; EPB to William Patterson, September 19, 1821, in Eugène Lemoine Didier, The Life and Letters of Madame Bonaparte (Chestnut Hill, Mass.: Adamant Media, 2005, replica of 1879 edition), pp. 89–90; EPB to Eliza Patterson, March 14, 1817, MdHS, ms. 142.

  2 Betsy was probably: EPB to Sydney Morgan, October 1, 1819, in Dixon, Lady Morgan Memoirs, pp. 108–11.

  3 William, in turn: William Patterson to EPB, April 23, 1827, MdHS, ms. 145.

  4 “I shall hasten”: Didier, Life and Letters, p. 86.

  5 Bo’s longing for home: Bo to William Patterson, November 6, 1820, in Didier, Life and Letters, pp. 75–77; Helen Jean Burn, Betsy Bonaparte (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2010), p. 75.

  6 “Mamma goes out”: Didier, Life and Letters, p. 85.

  7 “She says she looks”: Ibid., p. 86; Charlotte Boyer Lewis, “Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte: ‘Ill Suited for the Life of a Columbian’s Modest Wife,’ ” Journal of Women’s History 18, no. 2 (2006), p. 50.

  8 “I was not surprised”: Virginia Tatnall Peacock, Famous American Belles of the Nineteenth Century (Books for Libraries Press, n.d., reissued by University, 2011), p. 57; Clarence Edward McCartney and Gordon Dorrance, The Bonapartes in America (Philadelphia: Dorrance & Co., 1939), p. 37.

  9 “He seems, poor man”: Axel Madsen, John Jacob Astor, America’s First Multimillionaire (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2001); Burn, Betsy Bonaparte, p. 187.

  10 In the autumn of 1819: John Jacob Astor to EPB, April 23, 1820, MdHS, ms. 142.

  11 In March 1820: EPB to William Patterson, May 8, 1820, in Didier, Life and Letters, pp. 80–82; Claude Bourguignon-Frasseto, Betsy Bonaparte: The Belle of Baltimore (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2003), pp. 168–69.

  12 “If I took my son”: EPB to William Patterson, April 10, 1820, in Didier, Life and Letters, pp. 66–70.

  13 “necessity of application”: Ibid.

  14 “without an education”: Ibid.

  15 In a letter to Pauline: EPB to Princess [Pauline Bonaparte] Borghese, March 25, 1820, in Didier, Life and Letters, pp. 70–72.

  16 “spends everything he can”: EPB to William Patterson, April 25, 1820, ibid., pp. 74–77.

  17 Pauline seemed equally: EPB to William Patterson, November 28, 1821, ibid., pp. 93–96; Flora Fraser, Pauline Bonaparte: Venus of Empire (New York: Knopf, 2009), pp. 227–37.

  18 Joseph Bonaparte was: Patricia Tyson Stroud, The Man Who Had Been King: The American Exile of Napoleon’s Brother Joseph (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005).

  19 “entirely ruined, his fortune”: EPB to William Patterson, November 28, 1821, in Didier, Life and Letters, pp. 93–96.

  20 “Since I have been”: Bo to William Patterson, n.d., ibid., p. 86.

  21 “There is no knowing”: EPB to William Patterson, January 29–30, 1822, ibid., pp. 102–5.

  22 “discourage all that tendency”: EPB to William Patterson, March 8, 1822, ibid., pp. 108–9.

  23 “exactly as she has done”: EPB to William Patterson, January 29–30, 1822, ibid., pp. 102–5.

  24 “are those who support”: EPB to William Patterson, December 21, 1821, ibid., pp. 96–97.

  25 “It is generally”: EPB to William Patterson, October 16, 1821, ibid., pp. 90–92.

  11 “That Was My American Wife”

  1 “You may not have reigned”: Claude Bourguignon-Frasseto, Betsy Bonaparte: The Belle of Baltimore (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2003), p. 172.

  2 “Did you see?”: There are several slightly different accounts of this meeting. See, for example, Eugène Lemoine Didier, The Life and Letters of Madame Bonaparte (Chestnut Hill, Mass.: Adamant Media, 2005, replica of 1879 edition), p. 113; Virginia Tatnall Peacock, Famous American Belles of the Nineteenth Century (Books for Libraries Press, n.d., reissued by University, 2011), p. 57; Bourguignon-Frasseto, Betsy Bonaparte, p. 192.

  3 That enduring beauty: Ann “Nancy” Spear to EPB, April 12, 1827, MdHS, ms. 142.

  4 “the extreme profligacy”: Earl of Ilchester, ed., The Journal of the Hon. Henry Edward Fox, 1818–1830 (London: Thornton Butterworth, 1932), p. 319.

  5 “I every Day miss”: Sir George Dallas to [Lady Dallas], December 13, 1827, MdHS, ms. 142.

  6 “The land of romance”: See, for example, EPB to William Patterson, July 7, 1822, February 5, 1923, November 9, 1823, in Didier, Life and Letters, pp. 113–16, 134–35, 159–60.

  7 “the next best thing”: EPB to William Patterson, December 4, 1829, ibid., pp. 231–32.

  8 “We must instill ambition”: EPB to William Patterson, July 7, 1822, ibid., pp. 113–16.

  9 “Disappointments,” she wrote: EPB to William Patterson, December 24, 1822, February 15, 1823, ibid., pp. 126–26, 139–41.

  10 “young people are often”: EPB to William Patterson, October 15, December 11, 1822, ibid., pp. 124, 125.

  11 Thus far Betsy: EPB to William Patterson, December 24–27, 1822, in Dorothy MacKay Quynn, “The Marriage of Betsy Patterson and Jérôme Bonaparte,” unpublished ms., MdHS, p. 17.

  12 “However advantageous”: Bo to William Patterson, March 3, 1824, in Didier, Life and Letters, pp. 166–67.

  13 Although Bo’s extravagance: Bo to William Patterson, August 16, 1824, ibid., pp. 168–69.

  14 When Bo returned: William Patterson to EPB, September 14, 1824, MdHS, ms. 145.

  15 “I have no confidence”: EPB to William Patterson, July 7, 1822, May 22, 1823, in Didier, Life and Letters, pp. 113–16, 152–54.

  16 No matter how: EPB to Sydney Morgan, n.d., ibid., pp. 171–73.

  17 Betsy arrived at Le Havre: EPB to Sydney Morgan, November 28, 1825, ibid., pp. 184–85.

  18 “mere adventurers”: Jehanne Wake, Sisters of Fortune: Marianne, Bess, Louisa, and Emily Caton, 1788–1874 (London: Chatto & Windus, 2010), esp. p. 189; EPB to William Patterson, November 2, 1825, in Didier, Life and Letters, pp. 181–83.

  19 “I should pass”: EPB to William Patterson, February 21, 1826, in Didier, Life and Letters, pp. 188–89.

  20 “My dear child,” he wrote: Jérôme Bonaparte to Bo, March 6, 1826, ibid., pp. 190–91.

  21 “I have seen a great”: Bo to William Patterson, n.d., 1826, ibid., pp. 195–96.

  22 “I perceive that he”: William Patterson to EPB, April 23, 1827, MdHS, ms. 145.

  23 “You seem somewhat angry”: Ibid.

  24 �
��I am excessively tired”: Bo to William Patterson, January 7, January 25, 1827, in Didier, Life and Letters, pp. 210, 211–12.

  25 “think of doing something”: Bo to William Patterson, January 25, 1827, ibid., pp. 211–21.

  12 “He Has Neither My Pride, My Ambition, nor My Love of Good Company”

  1 “Your father’s family”: William Patterson to Bo, August 14, 1825, in Eugène Lemoine Didier, The Life and Letters of Madame Bonaparte (Chestnut Hill, Mass.: Adamant Media, 2005, replica of 1879 edition), pp. 176–77.

  2 The only stumbling block: William Patterson to EPB, July 24, November 4, 1829, MdHS, ms. 145.

  3 “determined not to marry”: William Patterson to EPB, July 24, 1829, MdHS, ms. 145.

  4 Still Betsy was kept: EPB to William Patterson, May 30, 1828, in Didier, Life and Letters, pp. 221–23.

  5 “If he were a Minor”: EPB to William Patterson, September 9, October 17, 1829, MdHS, ms. 145.

  6 Betsy’s suspicions: William Patterson to EPB, November 4, 1829, MdHS, ms. 145; Edward Patterson to EPB, October 27, 1829, March 30, 1830, MdHS, ms. 142.

  7 “look back on”: William Patterson to EPB, November 4, 1829, MdHS, ms. 145.

  8 “I think that”: EPB to William Patterson, December 4, 1829, in Didier, Life and Letters, pp. 231–32.

  9 “Please Understand, Maman”: Quoted in Claude Bourguignon-Frasseto, Betsy Bonaparte: The Belle of Baltimore (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2003), p. 206.

  10 “by nature rather indolent”: Edward Patterson to EPB, March 5 1830, MdHS, ms. 142.

  11 “I have gained”: EPB to William Patterson, December 21, 1829, in Didier, Life and Letters, pp. 233–34.

  12 “A duller person”: Quoted in Helen Jean Burn, Betsy Bonaparte (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2010), p. 207.

  13 Betsy’s attraction to Gorchakov: See Dorothy MacKay Quynn, “The Marriage of Betsy Patterson and Jérôme Bonaparte,” unpublished ms., MdHS; “Portrait of Prince Gorchakoff,” MdHS, ms. 142; Burn, Betsy Bonaparte, pp. 206–8; Bourguignon-Frasseto, Betsy Bonaparte, pp. 240–41.

  13 “Disgusted with the Past, Despairing of a Future”

  1 “Every thing is turning”: William Patterson to EPB, November 27, 1830, MdHS, ms. 145.

  2 “Let them all descend”: EPB to John White, August 20, 1833, MdHS, ms. 145; Dorothy MacKay Quynn, “The Marriage of Betsy Patterson and Jérôme Bonaparte,” unpublished ms., MdHS, chap. 13, p. 26.

  3 “We are in great confusion”: William Patterson to EPB, March 10, 1834, MdHS, ms. 145.

  4 “sweet home”: Ibid.

  5 “Your father is excessively”: Ann “Nancy” Spear to EPB, August 4, 1833, MdHS, ms. 142.

  6 “How could you”: William Patterson to EPB, March 10, 1834, MdHS, ms. 145.

  7 “The conduct of”: See William Patterson’s Will, MdHS, ms. 145; Dorothy MacKay Quynn, “The Truth About Betsy Patterson,” May 1953, unpublished ms., MdHS, ms. 2194; Eugène Lemoine Didier, The Life and Letters of Madame Bonaparte (Chestnut Hill, Mass.: Adamant Media, 2005, replica of 1879 edition), pp. 256–57.

  8 “The clause in his will”: EPB, notes on her father’s will, n.d., MdHS, ms. 142.

  9 At William’s death: William Patterson’s Will, MdHS, ms. 145.

  10 They had found: John Patterson to EPB, February 15 1835, MdHS, ms. 142; Roger Taney to John Sergeant and Horace Birney, May 6, 1835, MDHS, ms. 142; Helen Jean Burn, Betsy Bonaparte (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2010), pp. 212–16.

  11 “graphic description”: EPB to George Patterson, August 12, 1835, MdHS, ms. 142

  12 “Edward loved me,”: Burn, Betsy Bonaparte, p. 216.

  13 “Having told many”: EPB to George Patterson, August 12, 1835, MdHS, ms. 142.

  14 “Quaint Companion”: Poem, MdHS, ms. 142.

  15 “He never says”: Note in EPB’s hand on letter from Bo to EPB, March 31, 1835, MdHS, ms. 142.

  16 “no one who has”: EPB to William Patterson, February 12, 1827, in Didier, Life and Letters, pp. 213–15; Burn, Betsy Bonaparte, p. 219.

  14 “My Birth Is Legitimate”

  1 “melancholy and regrets”: EPB to Sydney Morgan, September 22, 1839, in William Hepworth Dixon, ed., Lady Morgan Memoirs: Autobiography, Diaries and Correspondence, 2nd ed. (London, 1863), pp. 454–56.

  2 Bo too had come to Europe: EPB to Sydney Morgan, September 22, 1839, ibid., pp. 454–56.

  3 Here her life took: Eugène Lemoine Didier, The Life and Letters of Madame Bonaparte (Chestnut Hill, Mass.: Adamant Media, 2005, replica of 1879 edition), pp. 261–62.

  4 “I do feel enchanted”: EPB to Sydney Morgan, March 14, 1849, in Dixon, Lady Morgan Memoirs, pp. 222–23; Sidney Mitchell, A Family Lawsuit: The Romantic Story of Elisabeth Patterson and Jérôme Bonaparte (New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1958), p. 143.

  5 While Betsy and Sydney: See John Bierman, Napoleon III and His Carnival Empire (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988).

  6 “I only wish that”: EPB to James Gallatin, May 4, and November 3, 1852, MdHS, ms. 142.

  7 “I have never coveted”: EPB to editors of The New American Cyclopaedia, n.d. [1852], MdHS, ms. 142.

  8 “received with great pleasure”: Bo to Napoleon III, January 1, 1853; Napoleon III to Bo, February 9, 1853, MdHS, ms. 144; Didier, Life and Letters, p. 267.

  9 Bo took the emperor’s words: Mitchell, Family Lawsuit, pp. 143–45.

  10 More signs of favor: Ibid., pp. 145–46.

  11 At first this reunion: Philip Walsingham Sergeant, Jérôme Bonaparte: The Burlesque Napoleon; Being the Story of the Life and Kingship of the Youngest Brother of Napoleon the Great (Whitefish, Mont.: Kessinger, 2005), p. 373.

  12 “The most prodigiously”: Helen Jean Burn, Betsy Bonaparte (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2010), p. 229; Mitchell, Family Lawsuit, p. 146.

  13 “In the event that we should leave”: E. M. Oddie, The Bonapartes in the New World (London: Elkin Mathews and Marrot, 1932), pp. 209–10.

  14 “addressed to him”: Mitchell, Family Lawsuit, p. 147n. The prince imperial, Napoleon Eugène Louis Jean Joseph Bonaparte, was born in March 1856 and would be killed in battle in Africa in June 1879.

  15 In the decision: Mitchell, Family Lawsuit, pp. 148–51; Didier, Life and Letters, p. 270.

  16 “Since no man creates”: Mitchell, Family Lawsuit, pp. 151–52.

  17 Before leaving France: Ibid., p. 153n.

  18 Betsy was cruelly: See, for example, Daily National Intelligencer (Washington, D.C.); New Hampshire Statesman, December 25, 1852; Daily Morning News (Savannah, Ga.), July 26, 1856; New York Herald, August 9, 1856; Newark Advocate (Newark, Ohio), September 17, 1856.

  19 “to ascertain, vindicate”: EPB to Berryer, October 13, 1858; EPB to Alexander Gorchakov, ca. 1858, MdHS, ms. 142; See letters between EPB and Berryer, December 1857–January 1859, MdHS, ms. 142.

  20 “His death creates”: Daily Sentinel (Milwaukee), July 16, 1860.

  21 “His first wife”: Harper’s Weekly, July 28, 1860.

  15 “I Will Never Be Dupe Enough Ever to Try Justice in France”

  1 Fort Sumter: Harper’s Weekly, March 9, 1861; New York Herald, February 11, February 16, 1861; Boston Daily Advertiser, May 9, 1861; New Hampshire Statesman, October 5, 1866.

  2 “My time,” Betsy had written: EPB to John White, February 11, 1861, printed in The Collector: A Magazine for Autograph & Historical Collectors, December 1956, in MdHS.

  3 “I am for life”: Bo to Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, September 5, 1840, in Sidney Mitchell, A Family Lawsuit: The Romantic Story of Elisabeth Patterson and Jérôme Bonaparte (New York: Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1958), p. 139.

  4 Just as the battle: Helen Jean Burn, Betsy Bonaparte (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2010), p. 235.

  5 “I am confident”: Junior to Bo, July 11, 1860, MdHS, ms. 144.

  6 “the children of a second marriage”: Mitchell, Family Lawsuit, pp. 77–153; E. M. Oddie, The Bonapartes in the New World (London: Elkin Math
ews and Marrot, 1932), pp. 231–32.

  7 Betsy, he continued: Mitchell, Family Lawsuit, pp. 77–153; Burn, Betsy Bonaparte, pp. 236–39.

  8 In a long letter: EPB to Alexander Gorchakov, February 19, 1861, MdHS, ms. 142.

  9 “personage, whose poverty”: Ibid.

  10 “This drop in eternity”: Ibid.

  11 “in order and”: Mitchell, Family Lawsuit, pp. 158–59.

  12 “with Philosophy, resignation”: EPB to Lady Westmoreland, n.d., MdHS, ms. 142.

  13 “to follow my example”: Mitchell, Family Lawsuit, pp. 196–97.

  14 “I will never be dupe”: EPB to Bo, July 18, 1861, MdHS, ms. 142.

  15 Betsy’s confidence: See, for example, Examiner (London), February 16, 1861; Athenaeum (London), August 31, 1861; New York Herald, February 16, 1861.

  16 “fool and a poltroon”: Athenaeum (London), August 31, 1861.

  16 “Once I Had Everything but Money; Now I Have Nothing but Money”

  1 “I can tell you nothing”: EPB to Mr. Guillardet, April 19, 1964, MdHS, ms. 142.

  2 Betsy was determined: Helen Jean Burn, Betsy Bonaparte (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 2010), p. 243.

  3 “Once I had everything”: Quoted in Eugène Lemoine Didier, The Life and Letters of Madame Bonaparte (Chestnut Hill, Mass.: Adamant Media, 2005, replica of 1879 edition), p. 274.

  4 Her present condition: William Thomas Roberts Saffell, The Bonaparte-Patterson Marriage in 1803 (General Books, 2009), p. 233.

  5 “retains TRACES”: Quoting an article in Baltimore Sun, January 19, 1870.

  6 “an unknown Madman”: John Prichard to EPB, October 9, 1869, February 1872, May 1872, MdHS, ms. 142.

  7 beautiful blue eyes: John Perkergrue to EPB, ca. 1872, MdHS, ms. 142.

  8 Charley, now in his twenties: For a biography of Charles Bonaparte, see Joseph Bucklin Bishop, Charles Joseph Bonaparte: His Life and Public Services (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1922).

  9 “The humiliating Shame”: EPB to Junior, August 18, 1871, MdHS, ms. 142.