| Princess of Canino and Musignano | |
| Full Name: | Zénaïde Laetitia Julie Bonaparte |
| Birth Date: | 8 July 1801 |
| Birth Place: | Paris, France |
| Place Of Burial: | Santa Maria in Via Lata |
| Death Place: | Naples, Kingdom of the Two Sicilies |
| House: | Bonaparte |
| Father: | Joseph Bonaparte |
| Mother: | Julie Clary |
Zénaïde Laetitia Julie Bonaparte, Princess of Canino and Musignano (8 July 1801 – 8 August 1854) was the elder daughter of Joseph Bonaparte and Julie Clary, and the wife of Charles Lucien Bonaparte, who was also her cousin. She joined her father in exile for several years in Bordentown, New Jersey.
When she was 14, in 1815, Napoleon offered Zénaïde in marriage to Ferdinand, the deposed king of Spain, but the offer was refused.[1]
After the fall of her uncle Emperor Napoleon in 1815, her father moved to America and purchased Point Breeze, an estate on the Delaware River in Bordentown, New Jersey. Zénaïde and her sister, however, stayed with their mother in Europe. They lived in Frankfurt and Brussels from 1815 to 1821, and then in Florence.
On 29 June 1822, in Brussels, she married her cousin Charles Lucien Bonaparte, son of her uncle Lucien. Her father Joseph had suggested marriage to his wife when Zénaïde was only five; the idea was to carry on the Napoleonic succession (a return to power was always anticipated) by marrying his two daughters to sons of two of his brothers.[2]
The wedding was met with surprisingly little fanfare, perhaps because Zénaïde's mother was outraged at the excessive sum of the dowry (730,000 francs, which was unreasonable considering that Lucien's villa in Rome had cost only 150,000), which had strained her resources.[2]
In 1823, after emigrating to the United States, she and her husband resided in the Lake House on her father's Point Breeze estate.[3]
Charles was an ornithologist (who named the Zenaida doves after her). They had twelve children, listed below.
| Name | Date of birth | Date of death | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joseph Lucien Charles Napoléon Bonaparte, 3rd Prince of Canino and Musignano | 13 February 1824 | ||
| Alexandrine Gertrude Zénaïde Bonaparte | 9 June 1826 | ||
| Lucien Louis Joseph Napoléon Bonaparte, 4th Prince of Canino and Musignano | 15 November 1828 | ||
| Julie Charlotte Bonaparte (married Alessandro del Gallo Marquess of Roccagiovine) | 5 June 1830 | ||
| Charlotte Honorine Joséphine Pauline Bonaparte (married Pietro Primoli Count of Foglia, had two sons: Joseph and Louis) | 4 March 1832 | ||
| Léonie Stéphanie Elise Bonaparte | 18 September 1833 | ||
| Marie Désirée Eugénie Joséphine Philomène Bonaparte (married Count Paolo Campello della Spina) | 18 March 1835 | ||
| Augusta Amélie Maximilienne Jacqueline Bonaparte (married Placido Gabrielli, son of Charlotte Bonaparte, Princess Gabrielli) | 9 November 1836 | ||
| Napoléon Charles Grégoire Jacques Philippe Bonaparte, 5th Prince of Canino and Musignano | 5 February 1839 | ||
| Bathilde Aloïse Léonie Bonaparte (married Louis, Comte de Cambacérès) | 26 November 1840 | ||
| Albertine Marie Thérèse Bonaparte | 12 March 1842 | ||
| Charles Albert Bonaparte | 22 March 1843 |