Reading Napoleon Bonaparte by Vincent Cronin for our homeschool rhetoric studies introduced Josephine Bonaparte to me in a fresh way.
Taken in by her story, I came to like her a lot.
Never one to write letters, Josephine can’t keep quill in hand to write a journal.
Josephine’s first husband died by the guillotine, and she too was imprisoned, barely escaping the guillotine.
Her bad reputation came from lifestyle choices driven by survival instincts to care for her young children during the French Revolution.
Though they were not the best choices, understanding contexting helps to understand the rest of her story.
LOVE
At first, she did not love Napoleon.
Although he adored her, he left a few days after their wedding for the Egyptian campaign.
While Napoleon deeply missed the letters she did not pen, Josephine fell from a balcony.
The doctor didn’t expect her to live, since her internal injuries were so severe, yet she healed.
By the time Napoleon returned from Egypt, through a vast set of circumstances, she fell in love with Napoleon and remained by his side.
Napoleon deeply cared for her two children from her first husband, whom Napoleon brought up as his own.
EMPRESS
Josephine, who was gentle with all, was adored by the people of France.
Napoleon always said she had a good heart, since she always wanted to help other people.
Of Josephine Napoleon wrote: Dismiss this good woman because I am rising in the world? If I had been thrown into prison or exiled she would have shared my fate. Because I am becoming powerful, am I to send her away? No, that is beyond my strength.– Napoleon Bonaparte, Cronin, p246
ANNULMENT
Pressure from the building coalitions eventually drove Napoleon to focus on obtaining a male heir.
On November 30, 1809, Napoleon pronounced to Josephine: I still love you, but in politics there is no heart, only head. – Napoleon Bonaparte, Cronin, p306
Thus Napoleon was granted the annulment, because their religious ceremony before the coronoation was technically invalid.
Giving her son leave of absence from the army to comfort her, Napoleon later wrote Josephine: I much want to see you, but I must be sure that you are strong and not weak. I am a little weak too and that makes me terribly unhappy. – Napoleon Bonaparte, Cronin, p306
I’ve often wondered if the severe internal injuries incurred from her fall from the balcony left her unable to bear more children…and I’m personally convinced that Napoleon’s divorce decision began his downfall.
HEIR
The new empress, Marie Louise of Austria, bore a son within a year, Napoleon II.
This new Napoleon, his father believed, would reconcile the peoples and the kings. With French and Austrian blood in his veins, he was in a new sense a European. He was a symbol too of continuity, of the Empire as it would be tomorrow. Lastly, and most urgent, he was the living sign of that alliance between France and Austria which looked like keeping Europe as it was. – Napoleon Bonaparte, Cronin, p308
MALMAISON
She moved permanently to her beautiful mansion of Malmaison where Napoleon sometimes visited her.
They remained close throughout life, even after the divorce.
Josephine’s son Eugene faithfully fought for Napoleon in his wars.
NAPOLEON II
The people of France who long adored Josephine never came to terms for Marie Louise, who was described as nervous and silly.
In 1832, Napoleon’s heir died at the age of 21.
NAPOLEON III
Josephine’s daughter, Hortense, married Napoleon’s brother and together they ruled Holland.
Their son became Napoleon III.
