Joachim Murat
Joachim Murat (Labastide–Fortunière, 25 March 1767–Pizzo Calabro, 13 October 1815), the son of a hotelier, was at Napoleon’s side during all of his important military campaigns, demonstrating great courage and valour. In part in recognition of this loyalty, he was permitted in 1800 to marry the future emperor’s younger sister. Napoleon assigned the Kingdom of Naples to the couple in 1808.
Murat, together with his wife Caroline, was beloved by the Neapolitan population, who appreciated their many interventions in the economic, social and cultural arenas.
At Napoleon’s fall, Murat at first tried to enter into separate agreements with Austria, to return to the side of his brother–in–law at the beginning of the One Hundred Days. The Treaty of Casalanza in 1815 sanctioned the definitive return of the Bourbons to the Neapolitan throne, but Joachim Murat tried to reconquer Naples with a handful of faithful soldiers and counting on the help of the population: forced by a storm to disembark in Calabria, he was arrested and executed.
