The enduring fascination of Letizia Bonaparte
'I carried my Napoleon in my womb with the same joy, the same calm happiness, the same serenity that I experienced later, when I held him in my arms, and fed him at my breast. My mind was entirely occupied by the dangers of his father and those of Corsica. To gather news of the army, I quitted the safe retreat of our steep rocks, to which the women had been consigned, and ventured on to the very fields of battle. I heard the bullets whistling about my ears, but I knew no fear, since I trusted in the protection of the Holy Virgin, to whom I had dedicated my Napoleon.'
Napoleon and Letizia adored one another. He was her greatest creation
But as he rose to power he wanted her to adopt a role that she was not necessarily ready for.
The character I most enjoyed bringing to life in Blood and Fireflies was Letizia Buonaparte
Letizia is one of the most interesting and at the same time misunderstood and underestimated people in the Bonaparte family saga. Finding herself widowed and a penniless refugee in France, she dragged her family into prominence by sheer strength of character.
A forgotten mastermind
Despite her undeniable influence on Napoleon’s character and fortunes, she rates a mere footnote in biographies of her greatest creation. I have restored her to the limelight.
Before she was Madame Mere
In 1797, the year Blood & Fireflies was set, Letizia was just 46 years old, and had lost none of her fascination and attraction.
Founder of a dynasty
Born in 1750 to a modest Corsican family and married at the age of thirteen, she was to become mother of thirteen children. All eight of those children who survived infancy were to become crowned heads of European states. She died in 1836, fifty years after her husband, and fifteen after her most famous son, Napoleon I of France.
