Princess Marie-Félix Bonaparte (née Marie-Félix Blanc; 22 December 1859 – 1 August 1882) was a French heiress. Born into a wealthy French

bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and aristocracy. They are traditionally contrasted wi ...

family with financial holdings in Monaco and Germany, she was left with a large inheritance after her father's death. Despite her mother's objections, in 1880, she married Prince Roland Bonaparte, a member of a

morganatic Morganatic marriage, sometimes called a left-handed marriage, is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which in the context of royalty or other inherited title prevents the principal's position or privileges being passed to the spous ...

branch of the

House of Bonaparte The House of Bonaparte (originally ''Buonaparte'') is a former imperial and royal European dynasty of French and Italian origin. It was founded in 1804 by Napoleon I, the son of Corsican nobleman Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Buonaparte (née ...

. She died from an embolism a month after giving birth to her only child,

Princess Marie Bonaparte Princess Marie Bonaparte (2 July 1882 – 21 September 1962), known as Princess George of Greece and Denmark upon her marriage, was a French author and psychoanalyst, closely linked with Sigmund Freud. Her wealth contributed to the popularity ...

Early life and family

Marie-Félix Blanc was born on 22 December 1859 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

to French businessman

François Blanc François Blanc (; 12 December 1806 – 27 July 1877), nicknamed "The Magician of Homburg" and "The Magician of Monte Carlo", was a French entrepreneur and operator of casinos, including the Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco. His daughter, Marie-F� ...

and his second wife, Marie Charlotte Hensel. Her father was the founder of the

Société des bains de mer de Monaco The Société des Bains de Mer (SBM; ), officially the Société Anonyme des Bains de Mer et du Cercle des Etrangers à Monaco (; ), is a publicly traded company registered in the Principality of Monaco. SBM owns and manages the Monte Carlo Casi ...

and operated multiple casinos, including the Casino de Monte-Carlo in

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

and the

Bad Homburg vor der Höhe Bad Homburg vor der Höhe (, ) is the district town of the Hochtaunuskreis, Hesse, Germany, on the southern slope of the Taunus mountains. Bad Homburg is part of the Frankfurt Rhein-Main urban area. The town's official name is ''Bad Homburg ...

Casino in Germany. Her godfather, Count Antoine Bertora, was rumored to be her biological father. She had an older sister, Louise; an older brother, Edmond; and two older half-brothers from her father's first marriage to Madeleine-Victoire Huguelin, Camille and Charles. Her older sister later married Prince Constantine Wincenty Maria Radziwiłł. Her older brother later served as the mayor of

La Celle-Saint-Cloud La Celle-Saint-Cloud () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in Northern France. It is a western outer suburb of Paris, from its centre, on the departmental border with Hauts-de-Seine. In 2021, it had a popula ...

, and her older half brother, Camille, served as mayor of

Beausoleil Beausoleil, beau soleil or variants may refer to: * Beausoleil, Alpes-Maritimes, a town in southern France, adjoining the Principality of Monaco * Beausoleil, New Brunswick, a community in Canada * Beausoleil, a rural hamlet in the municipality of ...

. When she was 18 years old, Blanc's father died, leaving her a vast inheritance.

Marriage and issue

On 18 November 1880, Blanc married Prince Roland Bonaparte at the Church of Saint-Roch in Paris, despite her mother's opposition. Her husband was the son of Prince Pierre-Napoléon Bonaparte and

Éléonore-Justine Ruflin Princess Éléonore-Justine Bonaparte (née Éléonore-Justine Ruflin; 1 July 1832 – 13 October 1905) was the wife of Prince Pierre-Napoléon Bonaparte, a nephew of Napoleon I. Under the pseudonym Nina Bonaparte she published a memoir titled ...

, and he was a grandson of Lucien Bonaparte, 1st Prince of Canino and Musignano and

Alexandrine de Bleschamp Alexandrine Bonaparte, Princess of Canino and Musignano (née Alexandrine de Bleschamp; 23 February 1778 – 12 July 1855) was a French aristocrat and by marriage member of the French Imperial family. Early life Marie Laurence Charlotte ...

. Her husband was also the grand-nephew of Emperor

Napoleon I Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

of France; King Jérôme I of

Westphalia Westphalia (; ; ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the region is almost identical with the h ...

; King

Joseph I Joseph I or Josef I may refer to: *Joseph I of Constantinople, Ecumenical Patriarch in 1266–1275 and 1282–1283 *Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor (1678–1711) * Joseph I (Chaldean Patriarch) (reigned 1681–1696) *Joseph I of Portugal (1750–1777) ...

of Spain, Naples and Sicily; King

Louis I Louis I may refer to: Cardinals * Louis I, Cardinal of Guise (1527–1578) Counts * Ludwig I, Count of Württemberg (c. 1098–1158) * Louis I of Blois (1172–1205) * Louis I of Flanders (1304–1346) * Louis I of Châtillon (died 13 ...

of Holland; Queen Caroline of Naples; Grand Duchess

Elisa The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (, ) is a commonly used analytical biochemistry assay, first described by Eva Engvall and Peter Perlmann in 1971. The assay is a solid-phase type of enzyme immunoassay (EIA) to detect the presence of ...

of Tuscany, Princess of Lucca and Piombino; and Duchess Pauline of

Guastalla Guastalla ( Guastallese: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Reggio Emilia in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. Geography Guastalla is situated in the Po Valley, and lies on the banks of the Po River. Guastalla is located at around from the citi ...

. Her mother-in-law, Princess Pierre Bonaparte, reportedly held the Blanc family in low regard, but supported the marriage due to Marie-Félix's large dowry, which included 8,400,000 francs worth of assets and a reversionary right to a 6,000,000 franc trust which her mother held a life-interest in. Blanc gave birth to her only child,

, on 2 July 1882 in

Saint-Cloud Saint-Cloud () is a French commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France, from the centre of Paris. Like other communes of Hauts-de-Seine such as Marnes-la-Coquette, Neuilly-sur-Seine and Vaucresson, Saint-Cloud is one of France's wealthie ...

. Her daughter married

Prince George of Greece and Denmark Prince George of Greece and Denmark (; 24 June 1869 – 25 November 1957) was the second son and child of George I of Greece and Olga Konstantinovna of Russia, and is remembered chiefly for having once saved the life of his cousin the future Em ...

in 1907 and had two children, Prince Peter and Princess Eugénie.

Death

Blanc's health later declined as she suffered from

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

. On 1 August 1882, she died from an

embolism An embolism is the lodging of an embolus, a blockage-causing piece of material, inside a blood vessel. The embolus may be a blood clot (thrombus), a fat globule (fat embolism), a bubble of air or other gas (air embolism, gas embolism), amniotic ...

. Blanc's death was seven years before her husband succeeded his cousin, Napoléon Charles Bonaparte, as the 6th Prince of Canino and Musignano. She was buried in the

Cimetière des Gonards The Cimetière des Gonards () is the largest cemetery in Versailles (city), Versailles on the outskirts of Paris. It began operations in 1879. The cemetery covers an area of and contains more than 12,000 graves. Description This is a rurally la ...

Versailles, Yvelines Versailles ( , ) is a commune in the department of the Yvelines, Île-de-France, known worldwide for the Château de Versailles and the gardens of Versailles, which is designated an UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Located in the western suburbs ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blanc, Marie-Felix 1859 births 1882 deaths 19th-century French people 19th-century French women Blanc family Burials at the Cimetière des Gonards Deaths from blood disease Deaths in childbirth French people of German descent House of Bonaparte People from Saint-Cloud People of the Second French Empire People of the French Third Republic Princesses of France (Bonaparte) Princesses by marriage