He was the son of an indigent nobleman of Italian descent, Carlo Maria Buonaparte, and his wife, Letizia. He had seven siblings, four brothers (Joseph, Louis, Lucien, Jerome) and three sisters (Carolina Bonaparte-Murat, Pauline Bonaparte-Borghese, and Eliza Bonaparte-Baciocchi). The Buonaparte family lived in Corsica in a family home called Maison Bonaparte.
