Joséphine de Beauharnais
Joséphine de Beauharnais (June 23, 1763 – May 29, 1814) was the first wife of Napoléon Bonaparte, and became Empress of the French.
Early Life
She was born Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de la Pagerie in Les Trois-Îlets, Martinique on a slave plantation, the daughter of its owner Joseph-Gaspard de Tascher, chevalier, seigneur de la Pagerie, lieutenant of infantry of the navy, and Rose-Claire des Vergers de Sanois.
When hurricanes destroyed their estate in 1766, the family struggled financially. The sister of Joseph (Joséphine's father), Edmee, had been the mistress of François de Beauharnais, a French aristocrat. When Francois' health began to fail, Edmee arranged the advantageous marriage of her brother's daughter Catherine-Désirée to François' son, Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais. This marriage was highly beneficial for Edmee and her brother's family, keeping the de Beauharnais money in the Tascher family. However, 12-year-old Catherine died on October 16, 1777, before even leaving Martinique for France. She was replaced by her older sister Joséphine, who the shocked Alexandre eventually agreed to marry.
In October 1779, Joséphine went to mainland France with her father. She married Alexandre on December 13, 1779, in Noisy-le-Grand. Although their marriage was not extremely happy, they had two children: a son, Eugène de Beauharnais (1781–1824), and a daughter, Hortense de Beauharnais (1783–1837), who married Napoleon's brother, Louis Bonaparte, in 1802. She is a direct ancestor of the present royal houses of Belgium, Sweden, Denmark, Greece, Norway, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Portugal and Monaco. Her direct descendants also include the fashion designer Egon von Fürstenberg.
On March 2, 1794, during the Reign of Terror, the Committee of General Security ordered the arrest of her husband. He was jailed in the Carmes prison. Considering Joséphine as too close to the counter-revolutionary financial circles, the Committee ordered her arrest on April 19, 1794. A warrant of arrest was issued against her on 2 Floréal, year II (April 21, 1794), and she was imprisoned in the Carmes prison until 10 Thermidor, year II (July 28, 1794). She was freed thanks to the trial of Robespierre. Her husband, accused of having poorly defended Mainz in 1793, and considered an aristocratic "suspect", was sentenced to death. He was guillotined on July 23, 1794, together with his brother Augustin, on the Place de la Révolution (today's Place de la Concorde) in Paris.
On July 27, 1794 (9 Thermidor), Tallien arranged the liberation of Thérèse Cabarrus, and soon after of Joséphine. She attempted to rehabilitate the memory of her husband and faced financial difficulties. In June 1795, thanks to a new law, she was allowed to recover the possessions of Alexandre.
Meeting Napoleon
As a widow, Joséphine de Beauharnais was mistress to several leading political figures, reportedly including Paul François Jean Nicolas Barras. She met General Napoléon Bonaparte, who was six years younger than she, in 1795, when their romance began. He wrote in a letter to her in December "I awake full of you. Your image and the memory of last night’s intoxicating pleasures has left no rest to my senses." Joséphine was a renowned spendthrift and Barras may have encouraged the relationship with Napoleon in order to get her off his hands.
In January 1796, Napoleon proposed to her and they married on March 9, 1796. Until meeting Napoleon, she had always been Rose. Instead of calling her this name, which he apparently disliked, he called her 'Joséphine,' which she adopted from then on. A busy, but passionate man, Napoleon was not around much during the beginning of their marriage. Soon after the wedding he left to lead the French army in Italy, but sent her many intensely romantic love letters. She, on the other hand, was hardly as romantic, and sent hardly as many letters, if any, in return. Many of his letters are still intact today, while very few of hers have been found. This could be due either to the fact that he lost them, or that she did not write very many, if at all. Whatever the case, his words were undoubtedly more full of passion.
Joséphine, less in love than Napoleon, apparently began an affair with high society playboy Hippolyte Charles in 1796. Though this has never been conclusively proven, and is often believed to have been a vicious rumour started by Napoleon's family, who loathed Josephine for the influence she wielded over her husband. Whatever the truth of it, the rumour so infuriated and hurt Napoleon that his deep, loyal love changed entirely. Perhaps out of revenge, he took on his own mistress, Pauline Bellisle Foures, the wife of a junior officer who became known as "Napoleon's Cleopatra", the affair having begun during the Egyptian campaign of 1798. The relationship between Joséphine and Napoleon was never the same after her affair. His letters became entirely less loving. As far as we know, Joséphine never took on another lover, but Napoleon continued to take on mistresses. In 1804, he made the painful point to all of his women that "power is my mistress."
As Empress
While it had changed, their life together continued and they were crowned Emperor and Empress in 1804 in the Notre-Dame cathedral. This was much to the dislike of his family, especially his mother, who was not present on the day of the Coronation (December 2, 1804).
When it appeared she was unable to give him any children, she painfully agreed to be divorced so he could remarry in the hopes of having an heir to succeed him. The divorce took place on January 10, 1810, and was a grand but solemn ceremony for both lovers. It was the first under the Napoleonic Code. In 1811, Napoleon married Marie Louise of Austria, with whom he had a son, Napoleon II of France the same year.
Later Life
After her divorce, she lived at the Château de Malmaison, near Paris. She remained on good terms with Napoleon who once said that the only thing to come between them were her debts.
Josephine died in 1814 of either diptheria or septicaemia of the throat, her body lay in state and over 20 000 mourners passed through the gates of her beloved Malmaison palace to see their "good Empress Josephine" although many petioned for it she was buried as Mme de Beauharnais instead of keeping the title Empress, as well the newly restored King of France Louis XVIII issued a statment on France's loss of a great women. She was buried not far from Malmaison, at the St. Pierre and St. Paul church in Rueil. Her daughter Hortense is interred near her.
Amongst her grandchildren were a Russian grand duke, a Swedish queen, a Brazilian empress and a Portuguese prince. Another of her grandsons became Napoleon III.
The love between Josephine and Napoleon is often recognized as being one of the deepest and longest lasting in history. Despite affairs, arguments, and divorce, the bond survived without breakage. The Emperor's last words on the Island of St. Hélena were "France, the Army, the Head of the Army, Josephine."
See also
External links
- Joséphine de Beauharnais de Tascher de la Pagerie (in French). Site published by the current members of the family Tascher de la Pagerie.
- Chateau du Malmaison (in French), Josephine's residence from 1799-1814, the site of her death.
- [1] This is an informative PBS site with a plethora of translated quotes and letters.