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Who Was Empress Josephine?

Updated on January 11, 2025
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Antony and Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet, and Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII are just some of the most famous, torrid, and often tragic love affairs that are present even today in popular memory and with good reason, but one common feature we may spot in all three that all ended in tragedy with at least one side of the affair ending up dead rather than the couple enjoy a happily ever after.

One may even add that seemingly what made these love stories so memorable was the fact that they were tragic, and the fiery passion ended up burning down the affair, and in the case of Antony and Cleopatra, a lot more.

The love story of Empress Josephine and Napoleon Bonaparte is very similar in many regards. A story full of passion and love but also cheating, and selfishness, and one that ultimately came to a premature end. Before jumping into the marriage, first, let’s see who was Empress Josephine and how she even met Napoleon in the first place.

Early life

Born in 1763, the woman who today is remembered as Empress Josephine de Beauharnais was called Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie, the daughter of a minor French noble family living in Martinique, one of the French sugar colonies in the Caribbean.

Josephine’s family made a living from the plantation economy, though they were far from rich, and her father was reportedly always close to bankruptcy.

Through luck, her family came into contact with the Beauharnais, a new noble family, but a family that was much richer than the la Pageries.

In the 1770s, Josephine’s father arranged her marriage to Alexandre de Beauharnais. The marriage was held in 1779 when Alexandre was 19 and Josephine was just 16. Naturally, the couple moved to Paris, a welcomed change by Josephine, who much preferred the vibrant social life of the capital to her birthplace’s stale provincialism.

The couple went on to have two children, a son born in 1781 and a daughter born in 1783, but the marriage was far from happy, as from the start, Alexandre cheated on his wife. Later, he even attempted to throw her out of his house, but Josephine went to court against her husband and won the case, forcing Alexandre to recognize their children and support her financially.

By the time the revolution broke out in 1789, the marriage was, for all intents and purposes over. Nonetheless, thanks to Alexandres’s active support of the revolution and the fact that she shared his name, Josephine was also able to receive part of the limelight.

This, however, flipped during the reign of terror, when the paranoid government of Robespierre had Alexandre arrested, and Josephine soon followed her husband to prison.

Four days before the fall of Robespierre, Alexandre was guillotined. Josephine escaped alive from the ordeal thanks to the timely fall of the Jacobines that finally brought an end to the Reign of Terror, and the 31-year-old widow quickly became one of the household names of the post-terror years.

Thanks to her contacts, Josephine quickly became acquainted with the important members of the new Government, the Directory. Thanks to her presence and popularity in the salons of Paris’s new high society, Josephine was known as one of the celestials. One of her most important lovers was no other than Paul Barras, one of the members of the Directory.

The Directory, however, was far from safe in power.

Sure, the Jacobins fell from power in 1794, but they were not destroyed just yet, while the Royalists were also present in France, with the revolt in the Vendee still alive. The seemingly never-ending war in Germany and Italy, plus the economic chaos, did not make the new Government particularly popular either.

On 13 Vendémiaire( October 5), frustrations erupted into violence, and a large royalist mob was unleashed on the streets of Paris, threatening to overthrow the government.

The government’s forces were badly outnumbered and seemingly lacked leadership also..until Barras transferred command to a 26-year-old artillery general from Corsica. Acting with speed and decisiveness, the Corsican ordered his cavalry to retrieve the artillery from a nearby fortress and placed the guns on key roads leading to the National Convention.

By the time the mob arrived, the guns were ready. On the orders of the Corsican, the batteries unleashed a few volleys of grapeshot and sent the royalists fleeing like a flock of sheep. The young artilleryman’s name was Napoleon Bonaparte.

Alexandre de Beauharnais, the first husband of Josephine.
Alexandre de Beauharnais, the first husband of Josephine. | Source

Turbulent first marriage and meeting Napoleon

In the aftermath of the royalist uprising, the Parisians were forced to hand in their weapons. Weapons that included even symbolic familiar artifacts like the ancestral swords that noble families passed on from generation to generation.

Eugene, the young son of Josephine, met Napoleon to request his family to keep his father’s sword, and that’s how Josephine came into contact with the rising young general.

According to some, it was Barras who brought the pair together by simply passing off a lover he was growing tired of to Napoleon. The young general accepted the offer readily as the young widow was still beautiful, cultured, and in no time had the 26-year-old soldier wrapped around her fingers.

In the spring of 1796, Napoleon was made commander of the army of Italy. A few days before his departure, the general married Josephine, even though the pair only knew each other for a few months.

Why the marriage was so rushed is a matter of debate. According to some, it was Napoleon who was in a hurry to marry. Others see Josephine as the initiator, as she was already in her 30s and perhaps saw in the young general her security for the future.

Whatever the reason behind the rush, the couple got married, and only days later, Napoleon was in Italy to take command of the Army of Italy.

Despite being grossly underqualified for the position, Napoleon turned out to be an instant success as a general and defeated the Kingdom of Piedmont in three weeks, a feat his predecessors failed to accomplish in three years, and drove the Austrians back to the great fortress of Mantua.

Despite organizing a high-tempo campaign, Napoleon wrote frequently to his wife. While Napoleon was fighting, according to rumors, Josephine took on a new lover, a dashing cavalry officer called Hypolite Charles.

After months of begging from her husband, Josephine finally traveled to Italy in the summer. She chose the worst possible moment. While the French advance got bogged down by besieging Mantua, the Austrians regrouped and launched a large counterattack around Lake Garda, and roaming Austrian hussars nearly captured Josephine.

Luckily, she escaped the scary experience, but Napoleon made sure from then on to keep her away from the front line.

By 1797, her husband was victorious and brought the war to a successful conclusion. From the plunder of Italy, the French government and their associates made a fortune, and Napoleon was no exception to it. With her husband’s rise, Josephine’s financial troubles came to an end also.

The couple was separated again in 1798 when Napoleon led the French invasion of Egypt.

The invasion proved difficult, as local resistance was tough, while the British sunk the French navy at the Battle of Abukir Bay, leaving Napoleon and his army virtually the prisoners of their conquest.

Not all contacts were lost with the metropole. Correspondence with France was kept up, and Napoleon received news that his wife once again took new lovers.

Previously, he chose to believe Josephine over the rumors, but seemingly by Egypt, the general’s trust towards his wife diminished continuously, and for the first time in public, he took a lover also, the wife of an officer from the French army, who became known as Napoleon’s Cleopatra.

With no reinforcements coming and the defeat of the army of Egypt only a matter of time, Napoleon decided to abandon Egypt and return to Europe in the summer of 1799.

Once back in France, Napoleon was contacted by Emmanuel Sieyess, a member of the Directory who wanted to overthrow his own government. Sieyes already contacted other generals to assist his coup, but thus far, his offers have been turned down.

Napoleon’s private life was also quite busy, as upon his return he wanted to divorce Josephine, but his wife charmed herself back to the graces of Napoleon. The timing could not have been any better as her husband led a successful coup against the government on the 13th of Brumaire to become the new leader of France.

Rather than becoming a 36-year-old divorcee, Josephine became the wife of the dictator of France. To the great disappointment of Napoleon’s family it needs to be said. Napoleon’s mother, brothers, and sisters all disliked Josephine at best and detested her at worst.

When Napoleon returned from Egypt, Joseph personally offered to assist with his brother’s divorce but arrived a day too late. By the time he made his way to his brother’s house, he found the pair reconciled.. in bed.

A few hours of delay from Joseph perhaps saved Napoleon’s marriage, but his family remained determined to separate the pair, and when Napoleon was elected Emperor five years later, they nearly succeeded.

Though the marriage already lasted eight years, they had no children of their own, but if Napoleon was to create a dynasty, he needed offspring, sons in particular.

Still, despite pressure from his family, rather than divorce, Napoleon and Josephine decided to arrange another marriage, coupling Louis, Napoleon’s younger brother, and Hortense, Josephine’s daughter, hoping the two would have children of their own whom Napoleon could nominate as his successor.

Josephine scored another coup when the Pope arrived. When she married Napoleon in 1796, the pair only had a civil marriage but not a Church ceremony.

As Napoleon invited the Pope to Paris to crown him Emperor, he also wanted his wife to be crowned Empress, but since, in the eyes of the Church, they were not married and living in sin until they were married, the Pope refused to go ahead with the ceremony.

A final humiliation for Napoleon’s sisters came during the coronation ceremony, as they were forced to walk behind Josephine and carry her long robe.

Napoleon’s mother hoped she would not see her daughter-in-law crowned at all and decided to skip the ceremony.

Contrary to the wishes of the Bonaparte family, Napoleon did not divorce his wife. In protest Napoleon's mother did not attend the ceremony.
Contrary to the wishes of the Bonaparte family, Napoleon did not divorce his wife. In protest Napoleon's mother did not attend the ceremony. | Source

Divorce and later life

One of the main reasons why Napoleon refused to initially divorce Josephine was the fact that he believed he was infertile. Despite living an active sexual life, the couple had no children. One of them was infertile more or less for sure, but since Josephine already had two children of her own, Napoleon believed that he was the culprit.

Things changed in 1806 when Napoleon’s illegitimate son Charles was born. The mother of the child was a young woman called Eléonore Denuelle, one of Josephine’s ladies-in-waiting who ended up in the Emperor’s bed thanks to the scheming of Caroline, the younger sister of Napoleon and Murat, Caroline’s husband.

The child proved beyond doubt that Napoleon was not sterile, but initially, he still refused the divorce. It was only when the son of Louis and Hortense died in 1807 that he finally made up his mind to go through with the divorce.

Initially, the Emperor courted the Russians with a marriage proposal, trying to cajole his new ally, Tsar Alexander, to assent to the marriage of Napoleon to one of his sisters. Alexander’s mother was less than impressed by the idea. In the end, the Russian court delayed for too long, and after defeating the Austrians in 1809, Napoleon agreed to marry Mary Louise, the daughter of Emperor Francis of Austria.

Thus, in January 1810, Napoleon and Josephine signed their divorce papers, and three months later, the Emperor married the Austrian Princess.

Despite not being Empress anymore, Josephine did not want for anything as her former husband generously financed her life and visited her from time to time, even bringing his young son to his former wife.

Josephine outlived Napoleon’s fall by only a few weeks, as she caught a cold in the spring of 1814. The cold quickly developed into pneumonia that killed her on May 29, 1814, aged 51.

Her former husband learned of her death a few weeks later. According to witnesses, Napoleon was so shocked and devastated he refused to see anyone for days. Seven years later, when Napoleon died, his last words supposedly were: La France, l’armée, tête d’armée, Joséphine …”, “France, the army, head of the army, Joséphine.”

This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.

© 2025 Purple History

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