Napoleon’s Wife

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6626, 12 August 1931, Page 10

Napoleon’s Wife

Who: EMPRESS JOSEPHINE. Where: Franch. When: Eighteenth to nineteenth centuries.

Why famous: The wife of Napoleon I, hence Empress of the French'. Sho was born on the island of Martinque, one of the daughters of a lieutenant in tho army; and, when still a girl, was married to a young nobleman, the Vicomto Alexandre Beauharnais. The mother of two children, Eugene and Hortense Beauharnais, Josephine lived in Paris and playod no inconspicuous part in the social life of tho capital. Then came tho Revolution and certain unfortunate circumstances which brought upon her husband tho enmity and suspicion of the Jacobin Party. After his arrest and execution, his wife remained for a time under the shadow; but tho skies soon cleared for her, sho was befriended by influential persons and reinstated in her former social prominence. Then, toward tho beginning of his career, Napoleon met and fell m lovo with her. Their civil marriage took place in March of the same year and almost immediately after Napoleon left to command the army in Italy. Tho fact that Napoleon's letters were frequent and affectionate, coupled with the fact that Josephine rarely replied to them, lends colour to the theory that sho care,d more for power than for romance. Thenlife together was tempestuous, misunderstandings and reconciliations followed upon each other’s heels. JNapolcon appears to have long considered the possibility of a divorce. When he became First Consul in 1802, when the Empiro was proclaimed in 1804, when the coronation was to take place in the cathedral of Notre Dame on December Ist of the samo year, Josephine’s anxiety know no bounds. Bho soeured her triumph, however, for her religious marriage to Napoleon occurred on tfie eve of his coronation.

After that, friction between the Emperor and Empress only increased; until in 1809 Napoleon announced his decision to divorce Josephine. This fie proceeded to do in spite of all her pleadings. Josephine was thereafter rather a pitiful figure, living in her exquisite house of La Malmaison, not far from Paris, but no longer that splendid figure, an Empress, moving always in a blaze of light.