rather than remain under the French heel. Significantly, not only did
Carlo not go with them but he immediately threw in his lot with the new
French overlords. In February 1771 he was appointed assessor of the
Royal Jurisdiction of Aj accio, one of eleven on the island. Certainly not
coincidentally, in the same year, on 13 September 1771, Carlo obtained
patents from the authorities declaring the Buonaparte family noble.
Corsican nobility did not confer many advantages: there were no feudal
privileges, no exemption from taxes, not even any particular deference
from other classes; but the advantages of the declaration of nobility for
the Buonapartes were significant in the long term.
Two aspects of Carlo's career in the 1770s are particularly noteworthy:
his litigiousness and his truckling to the French Commissioners who
ruled the island. In the eighteenth century modern notions of privacy
were still largely unknown, and Carlo was quite content to have his
cousins living on the top floor of Casa Buonaparte. He drew the line,
however, at their emptying the slop-bucket over Letizia's washing and
brought suit against them. He then petitioned for the ownership of the
Mitelli estate. This had belonged to Paolo Odone, the brother of Carlo's
great-great-grandmother, who had died childless and in a fit of piety
bequeathed the property to the Jesuits. When the Jesuits were suppressed
in 1767-69 throughout the Bourbon kingdoms and colonies, Carlo saw
his chance. The incoming French tried to expropriate the Mitelli estate as
a state asset, but Carlo brought an action to have it returned to his family.
The protracted legal wrangling occupied the rest of Carlo's life, with the
lack of clear documentary title and unimpeachable genealogical lines
telling against him.
Carlo also turned his legal guns against the Ramolinos. A clause in the
act of dowry that formed part of Letizia's marriage settlement expressly
stipulated that if the value of Letizia's property ever slipped below 7,000
livres, the Ramolinos had to make up the difference. Pressing the letter of
the law, Carlo in 1775 began proceedings against Letizia's grandfather,
the eighty-four-year-old Giovanni Ramolino. His suit was successful, but
then it turned out that Giovanni could not pay the amount owed. The old
man's meagre belongings - two good barrels, two crates, two wooden jars,
a washing bowl, a tub, five casks, six low-quality barrels, etc - were sold
at auction in Ajaccio marketplace. It is probable that Letizia, already less
than enamoured by Carlo and his conduct, was deeply angered by the
public humiliation of her impoverished grandfather; she was, after all, a
woman who believed deeply in 'face' and appearances.
Ironically, Carlo's litigiousness, which alienated Letizia, made her
more vulnerable to the charms of Carlo's protector and patron, the
marcin
(Marcin)
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