Exhibition labels & didactics - National Gallery of Victoria

THE IMPERIAL FAMILY
Napoleon’s preference was to appoint members of his extensive
family to govern in his stead in diverse quarters of the Empire.
In 1805 he crowned himself the new King of Italy, appointing
his stepson, Eugène de Beauharnais, to the position of Viceroy;
and his family’s presence in Italy was strengthened as new alliances
were forged and new territories came under French control.
In 1805 Napoleon also created the Principality of Lucca and
Piombino for his sister Élisa Bonaparte and her Corsican husband,
Felice Pasquale Baciocchi. The following year he granted Carrara
to Élisa, and in 1809 he made her the Grand Duchess of Tuscany.
Élisa revolutionised production at the marble quarries in Carrara,
which became a centre for producing busts of the Bonaparte
family. In 1806, Napoleon appointed his elder brother Joseph
as King of Naples. Napoleon next made Joseph the King of Spain
in 1808 and then appointed his sister Caroline as Queen Consort
of Naples and her husband, Joachim Murat, as King of Naples.
In the north of Europe, Napoleon’s brother Louis, who had
married Josephine’s daughter, Hortense de Beauharnais, in 1802,
was appointed King of Holland in 1806. From 1807 to 1813,
Napoleon’s youngest brother Jérôme ruled as King of Westphalia,
a new kingdom that Napoleon created out of conquered German
and Prussian territories.
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