Jérôme Bonaparte, born November 15, 1784 in Ajaccio, Corsica, was the youngest brother of Emperor Napoleon I of France. He was originally named Roland Buonaparte. He served with the French navy before going to the United States where he married Elizabeth Patterson (1785-1879), daughter of a Baltimore, Maryland merchant. Napoleon annulled their marriage but a son, Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Camberwell, Surrey, England.
Made king of Westphalia, the short-lived realm created from the states of western Germany (1807-1813), Jerome married the second time to Catharina of Württemberg , with whom he had a another son, Napoléon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte, (1822-91) also known as "Prince Napoleon" or "Plon-Plon". Their second child, a daughter, the Princess Mathilde Bonaparte, was prominent during and after the Second French Empire as a hostess. After his own kingdom was dissolved, he was granted the title of Prince of Montfort by the King of Württemberg.
After Emperor Napoleon's exile, Jerome moved to Italy where he married Giustina Pecori-Suárez, the widow of an Italian nobleman.
When his nephew, Prince Louis Napoleon, became President of France in 1848, Jerome was made governor of Les Invalides, Paris, the burial place of his famous elder brother Napoleon I of France. He later became Marshal of France, and President of the Senate, in his nephew's regime, and was confirmed in the title of Prince française.
Jerome Bonaparte died on June 24, 1860 at Villegenis, France (today Massy in Essonne). He is buried in Les Invalides, Paris.
