Successor Principality abolished Role Prince of Pontecorvo Predecessor Prince Achille Spouse Caroline Fraser (m. 1831) | Successor Prince Joachim Name Lucien Murat | |
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Reign 5 December 1812 – 25 May 1815 Predecessor Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte Tenure 15 April 1847 – 10 April 1878 Died April 10, 1878, Paris, France Parents Joachim Murat, Caroline Bonaparte Similar People Joachim Murat, Prince Achille Murat, Caroline Bonaparte, Letizia Ramolino, Carlo Buonaparte | ||
Children Joachim, 4th Prince Murat Grandchildren Joachim, 5th Prince Murat | ||
Napoléon Lucien Murat
Lucien Charles Joseph Napoléon, Prince Français, Prince of Naples, 2nd Prince de Pontecorvo, 3rd Prince Murat (16 May 1803, Milan – 10 April 1878, Paris) was a French politician, and the sovereign Prince of Pontecorvo between 1812 and May 1815.
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Family
He was the second son of Joachim Murat, King of Naples (1808–1815), and his Queen consort Caroline Bonaparte.
His maternal uncles included Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon I of France, Lucien Bonaparte, Louis Bonaparte and Jérôme Bonaparte. His maternal aunts included Elisa Bonaparte and Pauline Bonaparte.
Life in exile
Murat had to flee the Italian Peninsula after his father's execution, which had been ordered by Ferdinand IV of Naples. Between 1815 and 1822 he and his older brother Prince Achille Murat received a solid education at Castle Frohsdorf in the Austrian Empire. He later went to Venice, where he was pursued by the Austrian authorities, necessitating his departure to the United States.
His ship however shipwrecked in Spain and captured by the Spanish, compelling him to remain there for many months, until his brother secured assistance from President of the United States James Monroe for his release. He finally arrived in the United States in April 1825. He traveled to Philadelphia to meet his maternal uncle Joseph Bonaparte and from there traveled extensively in the western part of the country, as well as Texas and California.
On 18 August 1831 Murat married a Protestant, Caroline Georgina Fraser (Charleston, South Carolina, 13 April 1810 – Paris, 10 February 1879), daughter of Thomas Fraser, a Scottish emigrant to the United States and major in the Loyalist militia during the American Revolution, and his wife Ann Loughton Smith, at Bordentown, New Jersey and lived several years in Bordentown, New Jersey. On his many travels to France, Murat sought in 1838 and 1844 the possibility to reclaim his family's right to the throne, which his elder brother had abandoned. In France he was always only allowed to stay 5 weeks at a time.
Settlement in France
He continued to live in the United States, staying in daily correspondence with his backers, until the fall of Louis-Philippe of France in 1848 new possibilities arose. He returned to France with his wife, and was elected a member of the constituent assembly, and in 1849 appointed as Minister for Turin. In 1852 received the status of a senator and the title of a prince.
In 1861 he tried one more time to regain the throne of Naples, and composed a manifesto to support his claim. This was not well received by his maternal first cousin Napoleon III of France and Murat abandoned hopes of regaining the crown.
During the Franco-Prussian War after the French defeat at the Siege of Metz (3 September – 23 October 1870), Murat was imprisoned with Marshal of France François Achille Bazaine. After the fall of the Second French Empire, Murat moved back to United States for a short time where he had still business interests to attend to.
Napoléon Lucien Murat died on 10 April 1878 in Paris. His wife died shortly after him on 10 February 1879.
Children
He and his wife Caroline Georgina Fraser: