Félix Pascal Baciocchi

Duke of Lucca and Prince of Piombino

Félix Pascal Baciocchi was born in Ajaccio  on May 18, 1762, into a family of minor nobility. He was first second lieutenant in the Royal-Corse regiment in 1778, then lieutenant in the Corsican Royal Hunters in 1788, before moving on to the Var and Italian armies (1794), where he was promoted to captain.

This military man of no particular genius did, however, manage to win over a magnficent conquest: that of Elisa Bonaparte, the sister of his commander, Napoleon Bonaparte. He married her on May 1 or 5, 1797, in Marseille, despite his brother's misgivings. The religious wedding took place on June 14 in Mombello, near Milan.

His career then took a more brilliant turn, although it did not reach the heights reached by that of Joachim Murat, Napoleon Bonaparte's other brother-in-law. Without having to draw his sword, Félix Baciocchi was promoted to colonel in 1802, brigadier general in 1804, and finally major general in 1809. He was also made senator (1804) and prince imperial (1805).

A complaisant husband, he put up with his wife's infidelities with equanimity, and was content to see her govern the states she inherited from the Emperor: the duchies of Lucca and Piombino, then the grand duchy of Tuscany. He himself was content with a role that oscillated between that of aide-de-camp and prince consort.

When the Empire fell in 1815, he withdrew first to Trieste, then, after Elisa's death in 1820, to Bologna.

It was in Bologna that he died on April 28, 1841. He and his wife were laid to rest  in the Basilica of San Petronio.

Although his absence from Paris had spared him the shame of voting with the rest of the Senate (1814) for the Emperor's disqualification, Félix Baciocchi felt the need to publish a proclamation in which he endorsed this decision.

TTalleyrand had a cruel word for him. When the former Prince of Piombino, Elisa's predecessor, stripped of his title, complained of no longer knowing what to call himself, the Minister of Foreign Affairs replied: Why don't you take the name Baciocchi, it's vacant?