Giustina Pecori-Suárez

Justine Bartolini-Baldelli (née Pecori-Suárez; ; 27 November 1811 in Florence, Italy – 30 January 1903 in Florence) was an Italian-born French princess, being the spouse of Prince Jérôme Bonaparte, heir presumptive of France during the Second French Empire. Life Giustina Pecori-Suárez was the daughter of conte Bernardo Pecori-Suárez (later Pecori-Giraldi), a descendant of Florentine courtier Baldassare Suárez de la Concha, and his wife Giulia Niccolini Sirigatti (dei marchesi [of the Marquesses] di Ponsacco e Camugliano). She was first married in March 1829 to marchese Luigi Bartolini-Baldelli, who died in 1838. They had a son, who died young in 1844, and a daughter Giulia Bartolini-Baldelli, who married conte Arturo degli Alberti Mori Ubaldini [without issue ?]. Giustina's elder sister, Marianna Pecori-Suárez (b. 1810), was married in 1826 to marchese Alessandro Feroni, of whom she had only one surviving child Giulia Feroni (who married the military officer Costantino Cerrina and whose descent started the house of the marchesi Cerrina Feroni). Furthermore, through their mother, Giustina and her sister Marianna descend from Leonardo da Vinci's model Lisa del Giocondo, the famous Mona Lisa. In her second marriage, Giustina became the third wife of Jérôme Bonaparte, the former King of Westphalia, youngest brother of Emperor Napoleon I and widower of Princess Catharina of Württemberg. They married first in a religious ceremony in Florence in 1840, and a second time in a secret civil ceremony on 19 February 1853 in Paris, France. Her spouse was during their marriage the heir presumptive to the throne of France of his nephew Napoleon III, placing her in a position to become the next Empress of France. At the time of her second marriage, she was a rich widow and Jerome heavily indebted, and the marriage enabled him to pay his debts and continued his luxurious lifestyle in Florence. It was a morganatic marriage upon the request of Jerome, who did not wish to recognize her officially and insisted upon calling her Madame la Marquise and have her referred to as such by others. Baron du Casse described her as beautiful, distinguished, sweet and interested in charity, but also as indolent and languid in her habits.