- Camillo Filippo Ludovico Borghese
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Camillo Borghese redirects here. Camillo Borghese was also the birth name ofPope Paul V ."Don Camillo Filippo Ludovico Borghese, Prince of Sulmona and of Rossano, Duke and Prince of Guastalla (
July 19 1775 -May 9 1832 ) was a member of the Borghese family, best known for being brother-in-law toNapoleon .Biography
Camillo Borghese was born in
Rome , the son of the pro-NapoleonMarcantonio IV Borghese (1730-1800) and brother of Francesco (1776-1839), PrinceAldobrandini , and entered France's service in 1796. He became the second husband of Napoleon's sisterPauline Bonaparte in 1803 (after the death of her first husbandCharles Leclerc ). He was made a in 1804; a troop-commander in theImperial Guard in 1805 and soon afterwardsoberst (and late division general) andduke of Guastalla ; and in 1809 commander of 27th and 28th Division of the French Army.Initially passionate (he commissioned a nude portrait of her from
Canova ), the marriage later foundered due to her taking a series of lovers and showing eccentricities such as being carried to her baths by her huge African slaves and using her ladies-in-waiting for footstools. They led separate lives but did not divorce, and Pauline convinced her brother to give Camillo the governorship ofPiedmont in 1808 (with the words "Camillo is an imbecile, no one knows that better than I do. But what does that matter, when we're talking about governing a territory?") and guardianship of Napoleon's prisonerPope Pius VII .Napoleon also forced him to sell 344 pieces from the family art collection to the French state, which Camillo made up with new pieces from excavations on his estates. Camillo also took an interest in the family villa at
Porta Pinciana , rearranging the display of the collection within it and giving it a new new monumental entrance atPiazza del Popolo .After Napoleon's fall, Camillo's alliance with him proved awkward and he moved to
Florence to distance himself from it and her, managing to avoid any of his lands being sequestered by the popes (a usual punishment for pro-Bonaparte tendencies). After 10 years there with a long-term mistress, he was reluctantly convinced by the pope into receiving Pauline back, only 3 months before she died of cancer. He then continued in secret and futile Bonapartist plots until his own death, which occurred at Florence in 1832. He was succeeded by his brother Francesco.ources
*cite book |last=Majanlahti |first=Anthony |title=The Families Who Made Rome |year=2005 |publisher=Chatto & Windus |location=London |isbn=0701176873|pages=pp. 205 and 180-181
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