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Show Claims Napoleon Was Breton ther, was made a baroness and given an annual pension of 15,000 pounds. Also her son, Francois-Napoleon's Francois-Napoleon's half-brother, if Beau-frere's Beau-frere's theory be true became one of the emperor's favorite aides de camp. Napoleon even arranged the marriage of Francois with a rich heiress of Lyons and gave her a diamond necklace on her wedding day. The exact date of Napoleon's birth Is In dispute, and the emperor em-peror was very touchy about the matter. This would seem to help the theory that be may have been born in Brittany. At any rate, travelers are now being shown a bedroom in the chateau cha-teau of Penanvern "where Napoleon Napo-leon Bonaparte may have been born." Says He Was Born in Brittany, Brit-tany, Not Corsica. Morlalx, Brittany. Napoleon was not a Corsican but a Breton, born not In the Italian island which Just before his birth became French, but In Brittany. This, according to Louis Beau-frere, Beau-frere, specialist in Breton history. Ills statement of his case In the periodical La Bretagne, defying all other biographers and historians, Is in' substance as follows: Napoleon was born in the Chateau of Penanvern, near Morlalx. Ills mother was Laetizia Bonaparte, nee Ramolino, und his father was Louis Charles, Count de Marbeuf, one time governor of Corsica. Marbeuf was fifty at the time, Laetizia only eighteen. Less than a year after their marriage mar-riage Napoleon was born and duly Inscribed In the records of the par lsh of Saint Eve. But the page con' raining the entry hns been torn from the registry. That the Count de Marbeuf was Napoleon's father was asserted by royalist propagandists us far back as the first empire. Mabeuf's friendship friend-ship with the Bonaparte family was well known and until his death he showed an affectionate Inter est In "his son." It was due to Marbeuf that Napoleon was able to enter the military school at Brlenne. In further support of his curious theory HIstorlai. Eeaufrere mentions men-tions Napoleon's protection of the Marbeuf family. Mme. de Marbeuf, widow of the emperor's supposed fa- |
