Cornwell suggests Napoleon didn't think much of Jerome - "Relations between the two were often fraught, because Jerome was a spendthrift wastrel. He was thirty-one years old in 1815, but his troubles with his brother began much earlier when, aged nineteen, he had met and married an American, Elizabeth Patterson from Baltimore. The marriage drove Napoleon into a fury. He needed his siblings to marry for dynastic reasons, not for something as trivial as love, and so he forbade Elizabeth to enter France and insisted his brother divorce her."
From a Donegal perspective, this was a rather poor show from Napoleon. Because Elizabeth Patterson was the daughter of William Patterson, a Milford man. Shiela Friel, in her fine book 'Milford Towards the Millennium' (1997), says William emigrated from the townland of Rosgarrow and became a shipping magnate. Elizabeth, known as Betsy, met Jerome at a ball in Baltimore in 1803 and "it was love at first sight and within a few months they were married", according to Shiela. But the difficulties with Napoleon meant the couple parted. Betsy gave birth in London to a son she called Bo. She and the child went back to the States.
Shiela adds: "In 1816 Betsy visited Milford and spent some time here. On her return to America she spent the rest of her life alone and died at the grand old age of 94. Her grandson, Charles Joseph Bonaparte (1851 - 1921) was the US Secretary of State for the Navy from 1905 to 1906 and Attorney General from 1906-1909".
There's a photo in Shiela's book of the house William Patterson emigrated from.
According to Betsy's Wikipedia entry, her tragic romance provided material for a play, two films and a novel, and also featured in the Hornblower television series. The entry says: "Elizabeth and Jérôme Bonaparte were married on December 24, 1803, at a ceremony presided over by John Carroll, the Archbishop of Baltimore. Betsy quickly became known for her risqué taste in fashion, starting with her wedding dress." The entry adds that when she returned to Baltimore she lived with her father "while she continued to flaunt her royal connection and skimpy attire. After the Battle of Waterloo, she returned to Europe where she was well received in the most exclusive circles and much admired for her beauty and wit."
Strangely enough, after Betsy's brother died, his widow married a brother of the Duke of Wellington, who defeated Napoleon (and Jerome) at Waterloo. (That's quite confusing, so let's add that another of the Duke's brothers, William H. Pakenham, was the captain of the HMS Saldahna which sunk in the Swilly, and he is buried in Rathmullan.)
William Patterson seems to have had an interesting life. His Wikipedia entry says he was born (in 'Fanand') in 1752 and died in 1835 and "was a businessman, a gun-runner during the American Revolution, and a founder of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad". His many business dealings included shipping, baning and the Baltimore Water Company. He was said to be the second-wealthiest man in Maryland after Charles Carroll, one of those who signed the US Declaration of Independence.
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I'm on a bit of a Napoleon trail at the moment.
It all started I read Tolstoy's 'War and Peace' and scratched it off the bucket list. It's formidable in terms of its sheer length, but also an entertaining read. The setting is Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812, which turned out a disaster for him. On the same subject, years ago I also read a Folio Society edition of 'Retreat from Russia: the memoirs of Sergeant Bourgogne'. It's not quite in the Tolstoy league but worth a shot.
Tolstoy gives his own version of what happened in Russia, and paints a vivid picture of the main protagonists. The Russian Field Marshal Kutuzov springs to mind, and the Tsar. From memory, I think Tolstoy painted Kutuzov as an old warhorse who used his experience and guile to outwit Napoleon. But the soldier and military theorist Clauswitz, who served with the Russians during the 1812 campaign (and was later at Waterloo with his fellow Prussians), suggested that Kutuzov's only contribution to the victory had been his refusal, born of fear, to take on Napoleon.
To get another view, I followed up with '1812: Napoleon's fatal march on Moscow', a Sunday Times bestseller from Adam Zamoyski. Again that's full of interest, particularly in terms of the horrors experienced by Napoleon's retreating army in the depths of winter.
Another coincidence. Tonight the film choice was 'Terminal', starring Tom Hanks. Needless to say, his love interest was fascinated by Napoleon and he had to swot up, buying several books on the man.
