AHC: Elisa Bonaparte keeps a throne

[Uhura's Mazda]

Elisa Bonaparte (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elisa_Bonaparte) was one of Napoleon's sisters, and he made her Princess of Lucca and Piombino in 1805 and Grand Duchess of Tuscany in 1809 when he got rid of the local Bourbons. IIRC Elisa was the only female relative who he treated in this manner (except for Pauline, who basically told him to f*ck off when he made her the Duchess of Guastalla) and I was wondering if there was any possibility of her keeping either Tuscany or Lucca after 1815. Unlike Empress Marie Louise, she didn't have powerful relatives who could wrangle her a Duchy for life at the Congress of Vienna at the expense of the aforementioned Bourbons, but on the other hand, she had been voted in by the general populace in Lucca at least, so she had that semblance of legitimacy going for her. Elisa seems to have been a pretty competent and Enlightened ruler when she wasn't forced into authoritarianism by her brother, and she had a taste for fine arts. So maybe if she had befriended somebody with the charm of Count Adam Albert von Neipperg, she and her family could have held on until the Savoyards swept all before them a few decades later.

So what diplomatic shenanigans would be required for Elisa to keep, say, her Principality? Where would the Bourbon-Parma dynasty be shipped off to in the meantime? Or would the early death of Carlo II of Parma be a necessity? Or would Murat have to win/stay quiet in 1815? Are there any ramifications for the course of Italian Unification?

 

[Kellan Sullivan]

Could be interesting to see a Bonaparte-Bacchiocchi state in Lucca. There was a comment passed that by the time the longed for son was born, there was nothing left for him to inherit; although, her daughter, Countess Camerata, was as ambitious and as proud as Caroline Bonaparte had been in the previous generation (also, somewhat disgustingly, there was the rumor that went around that Countess Camerata's father was actually Napoleon, due to a statement that Elisa had made at some point about her husband's virility)

 

[Uhura's Mazda]

Could be interesting to see a Bonaparte-Bacchiocchi state in Lucca. There was a comment passed that by the time the longed for son was born, there was nothing left for him to inherit; although, her daughter, Countess Camerata, was as ambitious and as proud as Caroline Bonaparte had been in the previous generation (also, somewhat disgustingly, there was the rumor that went around that Countess Camerata's father was actually Napoleon, due to a statement that Elisa had made at some point about her husband's virility)

I hadn't realised how close the margin was: she was chased out of Lucca in March 1814 and Federico Baciocchi was born in the following August. Obviously, the rumour about her daughter's paternity was unfounded: Elisa and Felix arrived in Lucca in July 1805 and Elisa Baciocchi wasn't born until June 1806, so the dates don't work out for incest. Anyway, that was one of the go-to smear campaigns against Napoleon was that sort of impropriety, doubtless inspired by the over-familiarity of these bourgeois provincials when compared to normal Parisians. I read somewhere that Pauline had also got herself into trouble by dancing a bit too vigourously with her brother.

Do you think the Baciocchi rulers of Lucca would have been as keen as OTL for the restoration of Reichstadt in France or Italy in the 1830s if they stood to lose their sovereignty on the gamble? And would any established dynasties have been willing to marry their kids to some distaff Bonapartes, or would they have had to marry Italian Counts like this Camerata bloke? I was thinking that there might be an outside chance of Maria II of portugal being desperate enough, but even the Beauharnais had protectors in the Establishment in the form of the Wittelsbachs, so that wouldn't be practical. If they don't get decent marriages, Lucca might not survive as long as Modena and the rest.

 

[Kellan Sullivan]

Well, Mlle Bacchiocchi was one of the few Bonapartes brave enough to risk going into Austria to confront Reichstadt OTL, so if her brother's more like that than like Felix's violin-playing Francis to Elisa's Maria Theresa, then I could see something of the sort happening.

As to marriages, probably a shade better than Camerata - perhaps some minor royalties, a Habsburg or Bourbon marrying a Bonaparte bride seems unlikely. Most likely some of the Empire's royalties - Baden, Württemberg, Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, Murat etc.

 

[jb3]

So what diplomatic shenanigans would be required for Elisa to keep, say, her Principality? Where would the Bourbon-Parma dynasty be shipped off to in the meantime? Or would the early death of Carlo II of Parma be a necessity? Or would Murat have to win/stay quiet in 1815? Are there any ramifications for the course of Italian Unification?

Off-hand I can't think of anything that would keep Elisa on a throne. The Bonaparte siblings were widely regarded with contempt by many of the crowned heads and were only shown respect due to Napoleon himself. Eugene (not a Bonaparte) was widely regarded by the Alllies and was of blue-blood himself (and married into the Bavarian royal house), Murat kept his throne (briefly) by turning on Napoleon but he saw that there was no way he was going to be allowed to keep into the long run. Elisa and her husband had ZERO partisans among the Allies, they were not powerful enough to to do a Murat (and Elisa was one of the most sycophantic of the Bonaparte siblings) and she and her sisters made their contempt of Marie Louise clear (so the Austrians weren't going to help her). There was also her treatment of the Pope (who provided succor to Bonaparte relatives after Napoleon's fall), Elisa acquiesced in the Pope's kidnapping through her domains and would not even deign to meet him when the French troop stopped in Tuscany. So she would have no support of the Church if she managed to stay in power.

In addition she may have been popular in Lucca, but in Tuscany the French overseers made themselves radically unpopular with their numerous taxes (for France's benefit), looting of italian culture and art (often shipped to Paris), anti-clerical laws, and draining of manpower to supply French imperial aims. Elisa was no home-grown Medici who made sure the cultural patrimony of Florence stayed there.. And even if there were no Parmas to put in Lucca, the Austrians will give the whole of it to Marie-Louise rather than a Bonaparte sister. Especially after the 100 days there is zero chance of any Bonaparte keeping sovereignty anywhere.

The only way it works is if she and her husband pull a Marat and join the Coalition against her brother. She gives up Tuscany for something much lesser...and Napoleon never makes the attempt to come back to France from Elba.

If they don't get decent marriages, Lucca might not survive as long as Modena and the rest.

Later in the century in 1859 when Maria Clotilde of Savoy daughter of Victor Emmanuel II and Adelaide of Austria married "Plon-Plon" Bonaparte, as a way to shore up alliances with Napoleon III, many Italians felt that it was a great misalliance and that Bonapartes were still upstarts. Even the Austrias considered marrying Marie-Louise to Napoleon himself a sacrifice for her country and family. I doubt that many of the crowned houses of Europe (outside ironically the Bernadottes of Sweden) would consider marrying into Bonaparte-Bacchiocchi who would basically come from a small petty Italian state (or even less if they go the way of the Bourbons and Habsburgs during Italian unification) as anything other than a desperate move. Especially the Catholic royal houses, the heirs to Louis-Phillipe either had to marry Protestants or their close cousins because of how they got the throne and Victor Emmanuel III of Italy famously had to look to Orthodox Montengero for a bride because of the Roman Question. What chance would a Bonaparte-Bacchiocchi have? They would probably marry into the Massimo or Colonna or other noble but uncrowned Italian families.