Prince Napoléon-Jérôme Bonaparte
Napoleon's nephew (1822–1891)
Prince Napoléon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte (9 September 1822 – 17 March 1891), usually called Napoléon-Jérôme Bonaparte or Jérôme Bonaparte, was the second son of Jérôme, King of Westphalia, youngest brother of Napoleon I, and his second wife Catharina of Württemberg. Following the death of his cousin Louis-Napoléon, Prince Imperial in 1879, he claimed headship of the House of Bonaparte until his death in 1891. An outspoken liberal however, he was passed over as heir in his cousin's final will, which instead chose his elder son Victor, who was favored by most Bonapartists. From the 1880s onwards, he was one of the stronger supporters of General Georges Boulanger, together with other monarchist forces.
As well as bearing the title of Prince Napoléon, given to him by his cousin Emperor Napoleon III in 1852,
he was also 2nd Prince of Montfort, 1st Count of Meudon and Count of Moncalieri, following his marriage with Maria Clotilde of Savoy in 1859. His popular nickname, Plon-Plon, stemmed from his difficulty in pronouncing his own name while still a child, although other notable historians and contemporary letters by his nephew Colonel Jérôme Bonaparte claim it was because he ran in cowardice during battle when the bombs fell. Another nickname, "Craint-Plomb" ("Afraid-of-Lead",) was given to him by the army due to his absence from the Battle of Solferino.
Biography
Born at Trieste in the Austrian Empire (today Italy), and known as "Prince Napoléon", "Prince Napoléon-Jérôme," or by the sobriquet of "Plon-Plon", he was a close advisor to his first cousin, Napoleon III of France, and in particular was seen as a leading advocate of French intervention in Italy on behalf of Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour and the Italian nationalists. Until Napoleon III produced an heir apparent, the Bonaparte family were at odds for who should be the heir presumptive, a matter complicated by Jérôme Bonaparte's first marriage to American Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte, with whom he had a son, Jérôme Napoléon Bonaparte. A meeting of the Bonaparte family, presided over by Napoleon III, determined that Jérôme Napoléon Bonaparte and his descendants would be excluded from the line of succession, making Prince Napoléon the heir presumptive.
“Prince Napoléon-Jérôme Bonaparte” enters the record as napoleon's nephew (1822–1891). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Prince, Napoléon-Jérôme and Bonaparte can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q434077. VIAF identifies the subject as 103645462. The Library of Congress control number is n50075988. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1822, 1891, 1879 and 1852.
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This entry incorporates text from “Prince Napoléon-Jérôme Bonaparte” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.