NAPOLEON’S UGLY SISTER

Otago Witness, Issue 3804, 8 February 1927, Page 75

NAPOLEON’S UGLY SISTER

Napoleon’s eldest sister Elisa, was called the Ugly Duckling of the family (says a writer in an English exchange). Despite the fact that her nature was as ugly as her looks, she found no difficulty in providing herself with the lovers so indispensable to the women Bonapartes. Like her sister, she was a prodigious coquette. Harsh of voice, long of limb, flat of chest, wilful, disagreeable, and exacting—such was the woman whom Talleyrand dubbed ‘ The Semiramis of Lucca.” Mme. Junot declares that “Never did a woman seem so utterly devoid of the charms of her E ex; one would have said she wore a mask. And, again—“Such things as arms and legs were attached to her body as they chanced.” Maybe it was her fine black eyes and her clear white skin that attracted Cerami and her other lovers. She was christened Marianna, but this was subsequently discarded in favour of Elisa, and at the same time she forced her husband to change his name from Paschal to Felix—a most unhappv choice, as events were to prove. Of her childhood we know nothing, save that upon one occasion she willingly suffered Napoleon to he mercilessly thrashed for a crime of which he was innocent and she herself guilty. The little -Napoleon endured his whipping cheerfully, for he was fond of his sister, but hers was not the nature to regret the occurrence, or to feel gratitude‘'towards him. It is, therefore, hardly surprising that she was highly unpopular amongst her fellow-pupils at the aristocratic seminary of Saint-Cyr, where she received a comprehensive, "if unabsorbed education until sh e was fifteen. At that tender age her relations with old Admiral Truguet were such that her mother confidently expected that marriage would r . G j ’ , but a hastv summons enabled the Admiral to abandon this incongruous romance. What an escape! Five, years later Marianna was married to Paschal Baciocchi, a retired Corsican officer, a nonentity in every sense of the word. The .civil marriage'' took place at Marseilles without Napoleon’s consent. Upon Bonaparte’s subsequent reluctant acquiescence, the religious ceremonv was performed in the Chateau of Monbello in the midst of the celebrations of his Italian victories. The gav life there pleased the bride so much that, in the words of her brother Lucien, “she was from that moment determined to be rid of her husband.” She succeeded. He was sent by Napoleon to Spain 1 The marital yoke "never rested heavily upon the angular shoulders of Marianna. Thus freed completely from it for a while, she retired to Paris with the intention of gaming an instant reputation as a patroness of the Arts. To her salon there did indeed flock manv of the great men of the dav. But she was overbearing with them all, lecturing her friend Fontanes on poetry, dictating to her visitor Chateaubriand regarding literature, instructing the great Prud’hon in painting! Lucien declares Elisa is altogether taken up with savants. . Her house is a tribunal where authors come to be judged.” If her ignorance was great, her energy was stupendous. She wrote a novel; formed a women's literary club over which’ she presided like a tvrant; patronised nil the artistic lions of the day ; and pushed herself into prominence in amateur theatricals. Her rendering of the role of Alzire lashed Napoleon into fury. “What!” he cried. “When my first duty is to reestablish public decency, must my sister appear, almost naked on a mountebank stage!” Nor were her amorous proclivities dornrffnt. Unfortunately’, Baciocchi returned from Spain, but Elisa was soon able to procure him a distant appointment elsewhere.

Such an existence did not satisfy Elisa. She, like her sisters, desired power and, above all, a title. It was in answer to their complaints upon this-- score that Napoleon retorted, “‘To hear your pretensions one would suppose that we inherited the crown from the late king, our father 1” . .Nevertheless, she received the Principalities of Lucca, and Piomhina, and the title of Grand Duchess of Tuscany. So Elisa and “Prince Felix” hastened to Italy. their domestic arrancements were curious. Elisa held her own Court, appeared on horseback in full uniform to review her tiny army, posed as natroness of all the .Arts, and ruled her Ministers, her Council, and her subjects with an iron and" unpopular rod. Hhe husband lived in a separate palace, held his own Court, and lived his own insignificant and amorous life. Yet, for the sake of appearances, the pair drove to the theatre each evening together. After the performance they parted. Elisa to return to her lovers, Felix to his mistresses. Thus passed the years—at Pisa in the summer, at Florence in winter. Never was so complaisant a husband—so indifferent a wife !

Napoleon was bv no means pleased with his sister as a ruler. . His wrath knew no bounds when he learned that her troops were trained to shout "Long five Elisa!” in place of “Long live Napoleon!” She, for her part, was already plotting with Fouche against her brother. But her schemes proved of no avail. With the Napoleonic debacle, she fled from Florence, leaving poor Felix to prove the irony of his name. Yet even in flight she found a lover After a period at Brunn as prisoner of the Austrians, she retired to Trieste to die of fever at the early age of forty-two. “At San Petronio,” says Mounier, “one of the chapels has been bought by that idiot Baciocchi, who is rebuilding and decorating it at huge expense to deposit there the ashes of his faithful wife!”