This gifted patriot, the champion of the islanders, first against the Genoese and later against the French, desired to cement by education the framework of the Corsican Commonwealth and founded a university.
It was here that the father of the future French Emperor received a training in law, and a mental stimulus which was to lift his family above the level of the _caporali_ and attorneys with whom its lot had for centuries been cast.

His ambition is seen in the endeavour, successfully carried out by his uncle, Lucien, Archdeacon of Ajaccio, to obtain recognition of kinship with the Buonapartes of Tuscany who had been ennobled by the Grand Duke.

His patriotism is evinced in his ardent support of Paoli, by whose valour and energy the Genoese were finally driven from the island.

Amidst these patriotic triumphs Charles confronted his destiny in the person of Letizia Ramolino, a beautiful girl, descended from an honourable Florentine family which had for centuries been settled in Corsica.

The wedding took place in 1764, the bridegroom being then eighteen, and the bride fifteen years of age.