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Jérôme Bonaparte, King of Westphalia (November 15, 1784 - June 24, 1860) was the youngest brother of Napoleon, who made him King of Westphalia (1807-1813). After 1848, when his nephew Louis Napoleon became President of the French Republic, he served in several official roles there.
Jérôme was born Roland Buonaparte in Ajaccio, Corsica as the eighth and last surviving child, fifth surviving son, of Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino. He was a younger brother of Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon Bonaparte, Lucien Bonaparte, Elisa Bonaparte, Louis Bonaparte, Pauline Bonaparte and Caroline Bonaparte.
He studied at the Catholic college of Juilly, and then served with the French navy before going to the United States. On December 24, 1803, Jérôme married Elizabeth Patterson (1785-1879), daughter of Baltimore merchant William Patterson and his wife Dorcas Spear. Napoleon annulled their marriage but a son, Jérôme Napoleon Bonaparte was born in Camberwell Grove, Camberwell, London, England.
Made King of Westphalia, the short-lived realm created by Napoleon from the states of northwestern Germany (1807-1813), with its capital in Kassel (then: Cassel), Jérôme married Catharina of Württemberg, with whom he had a son, Napoléon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte (1822-1891), also known as "Prince Napoleon" or "Plon-Plon". Their second child, a daughter, Princess Mathilde Bonaparte, was prominent during and after the Second French Empire as a hostess. After his own kingdom was dissolved, he was given the title of Prince of Montfort by the King of Württemberg.
After Emperor Napoleon's ouster, Jérôme moved to Italy where he married Giustina Pecori-Suárez, the widow of an Italian nobleman.
When his nephew, Prince Louis Napoleon, became President of the French Republic in 1848, Jérôme was made governor of Les Invalides, Paris, the burial place of his famous brother Napoleon I. He later became Marshal of France and president of the Senate during his nephew's regime, and was confirmed in the title of Prince Français.
Jérôme Bonaparte died on June 24, 1860 at Villegenis, France (today Massy in Essonne). He is buried in Les Invalides, Paris.
His grandson Charles Joseph Bonaparte served as United States Secretary of the Navy and United States Attorney General. He founded the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1908.
William Ash, leading industrial strategist of the Flight Attendants Association of Australia is known to have modelled much of his industrial tactics on Jerome.