Editing Mathilde Bonaparte

{{More citations needed|date=December 2009}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name        = Mathilde Bonaparte
| title       = Princesse Française
| image       = La princesse Mathilde (1820-1904) par Dubufe en 1861.jpg
| full name = Mathilde Laetitia Wilhelmine Bonaparte
| caption     = Portrait by [[Édouard Dubufe]], 1861
| birth_date  = {{Birth date|1820|5|27|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Trieste]], [[Austrian Empire]]
| death_date  = {{Death date and age|1904|1|2|1820|5|27|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Paris]], [[Third French Republic|France]]
| father      = [[Jérôme Bonaparte]]
| mother      = [[Catharina of Württemberg]]
| spouse      = [[Anatoly Nikolaievich Demidov, 1st Prince of San Donato]]
| house       = [[House of Bonaparte|Bonaparte]]
}}
'''Mathilde Laetitia Wilhelmine Bonaparte, Princesse Française, [[Prince of San Donato|Princess of San Donato]]''' (27 May 1820 – 2 January 1904), was a French princess and [[Salon (gathering)|salonnière]]. She was a daughter of [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleon]]'s brother [[Jérôme Bonaparte]] and his second wife, [[Catharina of Württemberg]], daughter of [[Frederick I of Württemberg|King Frederick I of Württemberg]].

== Biography ==
[[File:Disderi, La princesse Mathilde Bonaparte, 1860.jpg|left|thumb|Princess Mathilde Bonaparte in 1860, by [[André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri]].]]
Born in [[Trieste]] on 27 May 1820, Mathilde Bonaparte was raised in [[Florence]] and [[Rome]]. She was originally engaged to her first cousin, the future [[Napoleon III|Napoleon III of France]], but the engagement was cancelled following his imprisonment at [[Ham, Somme|Ham]]. She married a rich [[Russian Empire|Russian]] nobleman, [[Anatoly Nikolaievich Demidov, 1st Prince of San Donato]], on 1 November 1840 in Rome. Anatole was raised to the position of ''Prince'' by [[Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany|Grand Duke Leopold II of Tuscany]] shortly before the wedding to fulfill the wishes of Mathilde's father and to preserve Mathilde's position as ''Princess''. Anatole's princely title was never recognised in [[Russia]]. They had no children.

The marriage between these two strong and prominent personalities was stormy. Prince Demidov insisted on keeping his mistress, [[Valentine de Sainte-Aldegonde|Valentine, Duchess of Dino]], which of course was fiercely resisted by Mathilde. In 1846, Mathilde fled the household for Paris with her new lover [[Émilien de Nieuwerkerke]] and with Anatole's jewelry. The jewelry constituted the [[dowry]] that Anatole was forced to bankroll for his father-in-law, so it formed the property of Anatole.

Princess Mathilde's mother was [[Nicholas I of Russia|Emperor Nicholas I of Russia]]'s first cousin, and the emperor supported Mathilde in her clashes with her spouse, a Russian subject. As consequence, Anatole chose to live much of his remaining life outside Russia.

The terms of the [[Legal separation|separation]] announced by the Tribunal in Saint Petersburg forced Anatole to pay annual [[alimony]] of 200,000 French [[franc]]s. Anatole vigorously pursued the return of his property, which led Mathilde and her strong circle of literary friends to mount highly personal and unfair counter-attacks using the public media. In the end, Anatole's heirs never recovered his property since Mathilde's [[Last will and testament|last will]] was altered towards the end of her life.
[[File:Salon Princesse Mathilde - Rue de Courcelles.jpg|thumb|right|Inside Princesse Mathilde's mansion, rue de Courcelles (until 1857)]]

Princess Mathilde lived in a mansion in [[Paris]], where, as a prominent member of the new aristocracy during and after the [[Second French Empire]], she entertained eminent men of arts and letters at her salon. She disliked etiquette, but welcomed her visitors, according to [[Abel Hermant]], with an extreme refinement of snobbery and politeness. [[Théophile Gautier]] was employed as her librarian in 1868. Referring to her uncle, [[Emperor Napoleon I]], she once told [[Marcel Proust]]: "If it weren't for him, I'd be selling oranges in the streets of [[Ajaccio]]."

At the fall of the monarchy in 1870, she lived in [[Belgium]] for a while, but soon returned to Paris. Throughout her time in France, she maintained ties with the Imperial court in [[Saint Petersburg]], her maternal cousins. In 1873, following the death of Prince Demidov in 1870, she married the artist and poet [[Claudius Marcel Popelin]] (1825–1892). She was the only member of the [[Bonaparte family]] to stay in France after May 1886, when the French Republic expelled the princes of the former ruling dynasties. In 1896, she was invited to a ceremony at [[Invalides]] by [[Félix Faure]] at a visit of [[Nicholas II|Emperor Nicholas II Russia]] and his wife [[Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse)|Empress Alexandra]].

She died in Paris on 2 January 1904 aged 83.

== In culture ==
An aged Princess Mathilde makes a brief appearance in Proust's ''À l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs'' (''In the Shadow of Young Girls In Flower''), the second volume of ''[[In Search of Lost Time]]''.  She mentions that if she wants to visit [[Invalides|les Invalides]], she does not need an invitation: she has her own set of keys.

Princess Mathilde is referred to several times in [[Gore Vidal]]'s novel ''[[1876 (novel)|1876]]'' as being a friend of the fictional narrator, Charles Schermerhorn Schuyler. She is also mentioned by the Portuguese romantic realist [[Eça de Queiroz]] in one of his most relevant posthumous novels [[To the Capital (novel)|To the Capital]].

== Ancestry ==
{{ahnentafel
|collapsed=yes |align=center
| boxstyle_1 = background-color: #fcc;
| boxstyle_2 = background-color: #fb9;
| boxstyle_3 = background-color: #ffc;
| boxstyle_4 = background-color: #bfc;
| 1 = 1. ''' Mathilde Bonaparte, Princesse Française '''
| 2 = 2. [[Jérôme Bonaparte]], [[Kingdom of Westphalia|King of Westphalia]] and [[Counts of Montfort (Swabia)|Prince of Montfort]]
| 3 = 3. [[Catharina of Württemberg|Princess Catharina of Württemberg]]
| 4 = 4. ''[[Nobile (aristocracy)|Nobile]]'' [[Carlo Buonaparte|Carlo Maria Buonaparte]]
| 5 = 5. [[Letizia Ramolino|Maria Letizia Ramolino]]
| 6 = 6. [[Frederick I of Württemberg]]
| 7 = 7. [[Duchess Augusta of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel]]
| 8 = 8. ''[[Nobile (aristocracy)|Nobile]]'' [[Giuseppe Maria Buonaparte]]
| 9 = 9. Maria Saveria Paravicini
| 10 = 10. Giovanni Geronimo Ramolino
| 11 = 11. Angela Maria Pietrasanta
| 12 = 12. [[Frederick II Eugene, Duke of Württemberg]]
| 13 = 13. [[Margravine Friederike of Brandenburg-Schwedt]]
| 14 = 14. [[Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel]]
| 15 = 15. [[Princess Augusta of Great Britain]]
}}

==Bibliography==
* {{cite book|first=Joanna|last=Richardson|author-link=Joanna Richardson|title=Princess Mathilde|year=1969|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson |isbn=978-0297763369|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/princessmathilde00rich}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Mathilde Bonaparte}}
* {{Internet Archive author |search=( "Bonaparte, Mathilde" OR "Mathilde Bonaparte" AND princess )}}

{{Bonaparte family}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonaparte, Mathilde}}
[[Category:1820 births]]
[[Category:1904 deaths]]
[[Category:French salon-holders]]
[[Category:Socialites from Paris]]
[[Category:Nobility from Trieste]]
[[Category:House of Bonaparte|Mathilde Bonaparte]]
[[Category:Princesses of France (Bonaparte)|Mathilde Bonaparte]]
[[Category:Demidov family|Mathilde Bonaparte]]
[[Category:Daughters of kings]]