Dermide Louis Napoleon Leclerc was the only child of Pauline Bonaparte and her first husband, French Army general Charles Leclerc.
13 Facts About Dermide Leclerc
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In 1802, during the Haitian Revolution, Dermide Leclerc arrived on the island-colony of Saint-Domingue with his parents, as part of the Saint-Domingue expedition.
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Always a frail child, Dermide Leclerc died of a fever at the age of six, three months after his uncle became Emperor and two years before his mother's proclamation as Duchess of Guastalla.
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Dermide Leclerc was the first and only child of his parents, Maria Paola di Buonaparte and Charles Victoire Emmanuel Leclerc, a general in the French Army.
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Dermide Leclerc's birth was a difficult one, and its effects would be visible in Pauline's health for many years.
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Dermide Leclerc was christened Dermide Louis Napoleon, after a character in the epic Gaelic poems of Ossian, at the request of his uncle, general Napoleon Bonaparte, who greatly admired Ossian's works.
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Dermide Leclerc was the eldest surviving son born to one of the Bonaparte siblings.
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Consequently, on 14 December 1801, Dermide Leclerc embarked on the flagship L'Ocean at Brest with his wife and son, and sailed for Saint-Domingue, which they eventually reached on 28 January 1802.
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Dermide Leclerc was apportioned to a grenadier at Port-au-Prince and spent much of his time playing.
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Dermide Leclerc had his own carriage, drawn by six horses, which he shared with his governess, Madame Ducluzel, and with his mother's lectrice, Jenny Saint-Maur.
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Dermide Leclerc captivated Lucien and his wife, Alexandrine de Bleschamp, and the couple observed that Borghese was not very affectionate towards Pauline's son.
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Dermide Leclerc came to blame Borghese for his decision to send Dermide to Frascati and called him "the butcher of my son", believing that, had it not been for her husband, her son "would still be alive".
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Dermide Leclerc's inheritance reverted to his father's family and, in spite of her wishes to be buried beside her son and first husband at Montgobert, Pauline was buried at the Saint Mary Major Basilica in Rome upon her death in 1825.