Letizia Ramolino

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Maria Letizia Bonaparte

Nobile Maria Letizia Bonaparte née Ramolino^[1] (Marie-Lætitia Ramolino, Madame Mère de l'Empereur) (24 August 1750 – 2 February 1836) was the mother of Napoleon I of France.

She was born in Ajaccio, Corsica, to Nobile Giovanni Geronimo Ramolino (13 April 1723 – 1755), Captain of Corse Regiments of Chivalry and Infantry in the Army of the Republic of Genoa, and wife Nobile Angela Maria Pietrasanta (circa 1725 – 1790). The distant cousins of the Ramolinos were a low rank of nobility in the Republic of Genoa. Letizia was not formally educated.

On 2/7 June 1764, when she was 14, she married at Ajaccio Attorney Carlo Buonaparte. She bore 13 children, eight of whom survived infancy, and most of which survivors were made monarchs by Napoleon:

Napoleone Buonaparte (1764/1765 – 17 August 1765)
Maria Anna Buonaparte (3 January 1767 – 1 January 1768)
Joseph Bonaparte (7 January 1768 – 28 July 1844)
Napoleon I of France (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), Emperor of the French and namesake of his deceased older brother
Maria Anna Buonaparte (1770), namesake of her deceased older sister
Maria Anna Buonaparte (14 July – 23 November 1771), namesake of her deceased older sisters
A stillborn son
Lucien Bonaparte (21 May 1775 – 29 June 1840), Prince of Canino
Elisa Bonaparte (13 January 1777 – 7 August 1820), Grand Duchess of Tuscany
Louis Bonaparte (2 September 1779 – 25 July 1844), King of Holland
Pauline Bonaparte (20 October 1780 – 9 June 1825), Sovereign Princess and Duchess of Guastalla
Caroline Bonaparte (24 March 1782 – 18 May 1839), Grand Duchess of Berg and Cleves, wife of Joachim Murat, later queen consort of Naples
Jérôme Bonaparte (15 November 1784 - 24 June 1860), King of Westphalia.

She was a harsh mother, and had a very down-to-earth view of most things. When most European mothers, even those in the upper class, bathed perhaps once a month, she had her children bathed every other day.

When France under the Ancien Régime took control of Corsica, in 1769, French became the national language, but Letizia never learned the tongue. When she was 35, her husband died of cancer. She was decreed "Madam, the Mother of His Majesty the Emperor" (Madame Mère de l'Empereur), Imperial Highness, on 18 May 1804 or 23 March 1805. She died of old age in Rome, in 1836, aged 86. By then she was nearly blind and had outlived her most famous son Napoleone by 15 years.