Dermide Leclerc

Always a frail child, Dermide died of a fever at the age of six, three months after his uncle became Emperor and two years before his mother's proclamation as Duchess of Guastalla.

[1] He was the first and only child of his parents, Maria Paola di Buonaparte (known as Pauline) and Charles Victoire Emmanuel Leclerc, a general in the French Army.

[5] He was the eldest surviving son born to one of the Bonaparte siblings (Joseph, Napoleon, Lucien, Elisa, Louis, Pauline, Caroline and Jérôme, most of which would later receive ruling positions in their brother's client states).

[8] Consequently, on 14 December 1801, Leclerc embarked on the flagship L'Océan at Brest with his wife and son, and sailed for Saint-Domingue,[9] which they eventually reached on 28 January 1802.

[15] Preparations for Pauline and Dermide's departure from Saint-Domingue were completed quickly, and they left the colony aboard HMS Swiftsure, arriving at Toulon on New Year's Day 1803.

[18] Napoleon did not wish for Pauline to remain without a husband and, as such, Roman nobleman Camillo Borghese, 6th Prince of Sulmona was selected with the help of Pope Pius VII.

Dermide had his own carriage, drawn by six horses, which he shared with his governess, Madame Ducluzel, and with his mother's lectrice (reader), Jenny Saint-Maur.

In one of the cities through which they passed, a gendarme asked the family who they were, upon which Dermide replied, "Messieurs, it is the son of General Leclerc traveling with his suite."

[21] Pauline, being "family minded", welcomed her brother Lucien, who had been living in exile at the Villa Rufinella in Frascati, during his visits in Rome and valued his children, Charlotte (b.

Immediately after receiving the first letter, Pauline began making preparations for her departure from Pisa, in order to reach her son at Frascati.

[31] Leclerc's parents accused Pauline of having neglected Dermide, leaving him to die under the care of servants, when she could have left him in France, to live with them.