Napoleon
and Josephine
Napoleon's greatest love would come
from the Caribbean island of Martinique. Napoleon never went there, but this
woman's father, Joseph Gaspard Tascher de la Pagerie, owned a sugar plantation,
complete with slaves, on the island. The family had significant wealth and
power, and the children led a very comfortable life in an idyllic location.
Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de la Pagerie was born on June
23, 1763. If you noticed that there is no "Josephine" in her name,
you may wonder how that name came about. Her friends and family had always
called her Rose, but Napoleon, never content to just go with the flow, called
her Josephine (from Josèphe), and that is how she will be forever known.
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Napoleon became a general at a very young age and was put in a
position of authority where the generals and almost all other officers he
commanded were older than him. He felt that this wasn't a satisfactory
situation and concluded that if he married a woman older than himself, he might
claim to be older than he actually was and thereby obtain a little more respect
from his officers. He also wanted to marry a rich, older woman.
After the battle of Toulon and after saving the Directory from the
Paris mob, Napoleon was invited to a party given by one of the Directors, Paul
Barras. In effect, Barras was the next best thing to being king of France at
the time. Barras envisioned using Napoleon's military talents for his own
political and personal benefit. Barras also had at that time a mistress that he
wanted to get rid of (Marie-Josephe-Rose de Beauharnais) because he had decided
to take her best friend as his new mistress and couldn't afford to keep both.
He knew that Napoleon was looking for a wife. He therefore decided to marry his
mistress off to Napoleon; however, he didn't tell her this. He just told her
that he wanted her to entertain Napoleon at the party and show an interest in
him and praise his military skills. Well, this was all Napoleon needed. A
beautiful woman fawning over him, apparently well to do, a member of the old
aristocracy that had escaped the guillotine, she was older than himself but not
too much (he thought), and she displayed keen interest in him (he thought). This,
and a little urging from Barras after the party, was all that Napoleon needed
to pursue her hand in marriage. Barras assured Napoleon that she had money,
that she was a good catch, and that she would make a perfect wife for him.
Napoleon began to pursue Rose. By the way, he didn't like her name
so he told her he would call her Josephine. He pursued and pursued and
Josephine kept humoring him. Finally, Barras strongly advised her to marry
Napoleon. She said she would not. Then Barras told her that he had a new
mistress, that he couldn't afford to maintain them both, that she was very
expensive to maintain, and that if she didn't marry Napoleon he would stop
providing for her and she would, in effect, be thrown out on the street. This
was the one thing that Josephine couldn't bear. She was a compulsive spender.
Another concern was her two children, Eugene and Hortense. Therefore, she gave
in and agreed to marry Napoleon. By the way, she was much older than Napoleon
thought and, although she said she was still of child bearing age, knew that
she was barren and had been so for some time.
They were married and a few days later Napoleon departed to Italy.
He genuinely loved Josephine at this time. She despised him and thought he was
a total bore. As soon as he was gone she began playing around on him. As time
went on she had a string of lovers, pretended to miss him very much in response
to his daily love letters, and did everything in her power to avoid going to
join him in Italy as he was constantly urging. She even went so far as to
pretend she was pregnant and couldn't travel. All this time she was attending
balls and parties and committing adultery. From time to time, when Napoleon
begged her to join him, she required Barras' assistance to convince Napoleon that
she should not go. During this time some of Napoleon's officers, Murat, for
example, had returned to Paris for one reason or another and had occasion to
attend one of Josephine's parties or a party that she attended. In Murat's
case, Napoleon had sent him back to Paris with the express mission of escorting
Josephine to Italy, willingly or unwillingly. This was when Josephine made up
the pregnancy story, which Murat "took" back to Napoleon instead of
Josephine. While in Paris, Murat also heard all the gossip about Josephine and
how she was making a fool out of Napoleon. Finally, it got to the point where
Napoleon was getting so edgy that Barras was afraid he would return to France
and forget about the Italian Campaign. This didn't suit Barras because he was
making a lot of money out of that campaign. So he ordered Josephine to go to
Napoleon. She did. Napoleon expected a pregnant Josephine. When she arrived she
explained to him that she had had a miscarriage. He was torn with grief over
losing his "son."
Anyway, the Italian Campaign was finally over and Napoleon
returned to Paris. Josephine had to be good (or at least try to be better)
while he was there. Then Napoleon decided to go to Egypt. Barras thought this
was a good idea because Napoleon was beginning to become too popular. When he
left, Josephine went back to her old ways. Napoleon was still genuinely in love
with her and doted over her. On 19 July 1798, while marching toward Cairo in
the scorching sun, Bourrienne, Napoleon's Secretary, out of the corner of his
eye, noticed Napoleon and Junot walking together. Bourrienne wrote,
"I noticed Bonaparte walking alone with Junot. I was only a
short distance away, but I do not know why my eyes fastened on him during that
conversation. The general's pale face was paler than ever. His features were
suddenly convulsed, a wild look came into his eyes, and several times he struck
his head with his fists!
Some fifteen minutes later, he left Junot and came toward me. I
had never seen him so distraught, preoccupied. As I went to join him, he burst
out with: "You are not genuinely devoted to me, or you would have told me
what I have just learned from Junot. There's a true friend for you. Josephine!
And I six hundred leagues away! You should have told me! Josephine--this to
have deceived me! Damn them, I shall exterminate that whole breed of fops and
coxcombs! As for her, divorce! Yes divorce--a public divorce, open scandal! I
must write immediately. I know everything. It's your fault, you should have
told me!"
Bourrienne reasoned the subject of the conversation between Junot
and Napoleon, had no personal knowledge of this himself, and was certain that
what Junot had stated to Napoleon must have been exaggerations of the truth.
They were not. The fact is that many of Napoleon staff officers were aware of
Josephine's activities and it was common knowledge in Paris. Junot, unlike the
rest of Napoleon's close friends, never achieved the rank of Marshal of France
but stopped at general. It is believed by many historians that Napoleon never
forgave Junot for telling him about Josephine and for this reason withheld the
rank of Marshal from him.
This information, once he confirmed it, totally destroyed
Napoleon's love for Josephine. From this time onward, he never really loved another
woman the way he had loved Josephine. When Josephine learned that Napoleon was
coming back from Egypt early and that he had found out about her, she panicked.
She departed with her daughter, Hortense, to meet Napoleon at the port so that
she could persuade him that she had been faithful. But Napoleon landed at
another port and got back to Paris ahead of them. When Josephine got back to
Paris, she found that Napoleon had arrived ahead of her and had secluded
himself in a room in the house. All of a sudden, after all of her affairs,
Josephine had finally fallen in love with Napoleon--very deeply. But she was
too late. He wouldn't see her until Hortense interceded and begged him to.
Basically, he informed Josephine that she had killed his heart and that he
could never love again.
They remained husband and wife but from that point onward he was
not a faithful husband. Strangely, she had become a faithful wife. The tables
had turned. Napoleon had mistress after mistress. Now, although Napoleon didn't
live Josephine, he did hold a deep devotion to her two children and he
respected her abilities as a hostess and her persuasiveness in getting people
to do things for him. He knew that while he was married to Josephine he could
not produce a legitimate heir of his own, so eventually, when Hortense and his
brother Louis had a son, Napoleon named him his heir.
Now that Napoleon had an heir he felt that he could divorce
Josephine. Then, in December 1805, he became Emperor of the French. He brought
the pope to Paris to perform the coronation. Shortly after the pope's arrival
Josephine accidentally let it slip that she and Napoleon had never had a church
wedding, only a civil marriage. In the eyes of the church, therefore, they were
not married and had been living in sin all this time. Napoleon was furious.
Josephine had trapped him. Now, in order to be crowned Emperor he had to make
the marriage respectable first and had to lay aside the design for divorce.
Time marches on and so do the French armies, triumphantly across Europe.
Napoleon still wanted an heir of his own blood. Therefore, he
began negotiations with the Czar Alexander of Russia to marry his sister. This
would serve three purposes:
t
1.
It would create a strong alliance with another major power
2. It would help to legitimize
Napoleon's somewhat shaky claim to royalty, and
3. It would give Napoleon a
young wife whom could bear his heir.
Negotiations soon fell apart. Napoleon's foreign minister,
Talleyrand, did not want this alliance and made sure it wouldn't occur by leaking
information concerning Napoleon to the Russian Court. The Czar's mother refused
to let her daughter enter into the marriage. Therefore, Napoleon turned his
sights on Austria. As you know, he arranged to marry Maria-Louisa (whom he
renamed Marie Louise because he didn't like her real name), who was the Emperor
of Austria's favorite daughter and an Archduchess of Austria. I won't go into
Marie Louise except to say that she was not at all that Napoleon had expected.
(There are books about her and maybe one of these days you can read about her
and how much of a disappointment she was.) Anyway, to marry Marie Louise he
first had to divorce Josephine, which he did. However, he had grown to love her
again--not the great love he held for her in the beginning--but a respectful
love. He insisted that she retain the title of Empress and provided for her and
her children.
In 1814, when Napoleon abdicated, Marie-Louise returned to Austria
with her father, taking her son with her. Napoleon never saw them again. Josephine
continued to love Napoleon and later in the year, as she was dying from
diphtheria, Napoleon's name was one of the last words she uttered, if not the
last. Hortense and Eugene continued to be faithful to Napoleon.
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Born: June 23, 1763, Les Trois-Îlets, Martinique
Died: May 29, 1814, Rueil-Malmaison, France
Spouse: Napoleon (m. 1796–1809), Alexandre de Beauharnais (m. 1779–1794)
( Joséphine de Beauharnais (pronounced: [ʒo.ze.fin də‿bo.aʁ.nɛ]; née Tascher de la Pagerie; 23 June 1763 – 29 May 1814) was the first wife of Napoleon I, and thus the first Empress of the French. )
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