DATE: Monday, September 29, 1997            TAG: 9709290047

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: George Tucker 

                                            LENGTH:   76 lines

KIN OF ``THE GREAT BONAPARTE'' STOPPED HERE FOR OYSTERS

Even though Napoleon I (1769-1821) never set foot on American soil, two of his relatives - his younger brother, Jerome Bonaparte (1784-1860), and his nephew, Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (1808-1873), who became Napoleon III - were wined and dined in Norfolk during the early part of the 19th century.

Jerome Bonaparte stopped over in Norfolk briefly in July 1803, at which time the Norfolk Herald for July 21 reported: ``It is the general conversation in town, that one of the three gentlemen, who arrived here last week from Martinique, is nothing more or less, than Jerome Bonaparte, youngest brother of `The Great Bonaparte!' who has been for some time on the West-Indian station. The story is told thus: That he sailed in a French frigate from St. Domingo for France - that a British frigate fell in with her and chased her into Martinique, where the three gentlemen alluded to, took passage in an American vessel for this country, from which they purpose getting home safe - They chartered Walker's packet and sailed for Baltimore on Tuesday.''

Subsequently, Jerome Bonaparte fell in love with Elizabeth (``Betsy'') Patterson, a curvaceous Baltimore belle, and they were married on Christmas Eve, 1803. The union greatly displeased ``The Great Bonaparte,'' and he later had it annulled.

So much for Jerome Bonaparte's brief stopover in Norfolk, for the later visit of his nephew, Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, turned out to be a much more colorful event in Norfolk's social history. Interestingly, while he was here, Prince Napoleon, a great gourmet, visited Witchduck Point in Princess Anne County (now the city of Virginia Beach) to eat Lynnhaven oysters.

As anyone acquainted with local history already knows, the point received its name because Grace Sherwood, reputedly the area's most notorious sorceress, was ducked there in 1706.

Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was the third son of Louis Bonaparte, king of Holland, a brother of Napoleon I, and Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter of Napoleon's first wife, the Empress Josephine, by her first marriage. During his early years, after the exile of his illustrious uncle to St. Helena, Prince Louis Napoleon was involved in several Bonapartist plots. Rather than make a martyr of him, Louis Philippe, king the French, had him placed aboard a French warship en route to America.

According to the Norfolk Herald for April 3, 1837, the ship arrived in Hampton Roads on the night of March 30, 1837. The Herald for April 2 contained this notice:

``Prince Louis Napoleon - The French Frigate Andromede arrived in Hampton Roads on Thursday night in 58 days from Rio Janeiro, having on board Prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte who left France under a sentence of banishment to the United States in consequence of the affair of Strasbourg. . . The young Napoleon took the steamboat yesterday for the North. While here he occupied apartments in French's (new) Hotel, the cognomen of which establishment he translated `l'Hotel Francais.' He is a pleasant young gentleman, somewhat inclining to en bon point, and a distant resemblance of his illustrious uncle may be detected in the contour of his figure.''

French's Hotel, where the prince stayed while he was in Norfolk, was located on the southeast corner of Main and Church streets.

Prince Louis Napoleon's subsequent history is well-known. After becoming Emperor of the French in 1852, he was deposed after the disastrous Franco-Prussian War in 1871. He died in England two years later. Before his death, however, he had an opportunity to renew his acquaintance with Lynnhaven oysters that he had apparently relished when he was in Norfolk in 1837.

The Norfolk Virginian for Dec. 4, 1871, reported: ``Louis Napoleon - In our notice a few days since of the shipment of Lynnhaven oysters by Messrs. R. & H. Chamberlaine to the ex-emperor we remarked that `we envied the pleasure he would have of tasting Lynnhaven oysters for the first time. We have since learned that Napoleon III, when in America many years since, visited Norfolk, and was the guest of French's, now the National Hotel. And also, that among the courtesies extended him during his stay was an excursion to Witch Duck, for the purpose of eating Lynnhaven oysters in their purity. Of course he ate and relished them, and we do not doubt still retains a lively remembrance of their delicious flavor. We would like to see him come over and buy a farm and oyster cove in that region.''' ILLUSTRATION: Painting

Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, nephew of Napoleon I

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