Bullet Point #16 – Did Napoleon come from a family of modest means?

Whilst the Bonaparte family was not well-off during their Corsican period, it cannot be said that they lived in poverty, at least until the death of Charles Bonaparte (1785). The Bonaparte household was kept afloat by Charles’s regular income (7,000 livres a year), the profits from his business ventures, and a financial helping hand from rich uncle Archdeacon Lucien. Via a series of ‘ups and ups’, the family even managed to become one of the best off in the town, though the lot of a Corsican notable could not really be compared with that of the elite in mainland France. For example, the Bonapartes employed several servants and, as a result of Charles’ skilful property dealings, the house was regularly extended. The family possessed two other houses, as well as vineyards, land and a mill. That being said, none of it prevented Charles from obtaining a ‘certificate of indigence or low income’ in order to justify his request for scholarships for Napoleon and Joseph. The state also subsidised the draining of a pond he owned, and then granted him the right to plant mulberry trees to produce silk, an enterprise which ended in failure. The debts generated by these agricultural adventures were only settled or cancelled at the beginning of the Revolution, with Napoleon relentlessly importuning the authorities, pleading the case of his “poor mother”.