Weird Things About Napoleon You Didn't Know

The tiny community of Bordentown, New Jersey, is not the sort of place you'd associate with important historical figures. Well, prepare to be amazed, because Bordentown used to be the home of the king of Spain and Naples. Older brother to Napoleon, Joseph Bonaparte had ruled Spain during the Peninsular War before going on the run from France when his brother finally abdicated.

After the debacle of Waterloo, France made a law to ban all relatives and descendants of Napoleon. The Bonapartes scattered, and Joseph ran to America. As the New York Times tells it, he wound up in New Jersey, where he had the exact kind of retirement his younger brother probably wished he could have had. Joseph built a massive house, amassed the biggest library in America, and spent the next two decades palling around with guys like Quincy Adams and, presumably, bragging about his royal status at parties.

Joseph wasn't the only Bonaparte to visit America. Years earlier, Napoleon's younger brother, Jerome, also washed up there and got a woman pregnant. She stayed in America and raised a line of Bonapartes. One of her grandchildren, Charles Bonaparte, became secretary of the U.S. Navy in 1904. The line didn't peter out until 1945, when Jerome Napoleon died in Central Park after tripping over a dog leash (via The New York Times).

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