Page 76 - All About History - Issue 52-17

Hero or Villain?
JOSÉPHINE DE BEAUHARNAIS
JOHN DEE

Though their marriage ended with this divorce
letter, Joséphine retained the title of empress,
and a place in her former husband’s heart

Although feted as one of history’s greatest Alexandre de Beauharnais died on
romances, Joséphine took frequent lovers and the guillotine, leaving his young
never returned Napoleon’s declarations of devotion widow as a very rich prisoner!

dangerous, aristo-loving Joséphine was released. It for him to keep the sword. Joséphine went to give Of course, plenty of wives don’t get on with
was a close shave. Napoleon her thanks in person and the two, the their in-laws and it’s hardly the mark of a villain.
Of course, the respective role of hero and villain legend goes, fell head over heels in love. Though Napoleon was often away on campaign and, despite
during the Reign of Terror could turn on the he was already engaged to Désirée Clary, Napoleon his loving letters and passionate pronouncements,
head of a pin. Upon her release Joséphine broke off that betrothal in favour of his new- it wasn’t enough to keep the fun-seeking Joséphine
inherited a fortune from her late found love. faithful. Not long after their wedding, rumours
husband and as France counted Joséphine and Napoleon reached Napoleon that his adored wife had taken a
the cost of revolution, this enjoyed a passionate 12-month soldier for a lover. He was devastated and retaliated
former prisoner was living Defining affair and in March 1796, by taking not one, but several mistresses of his
the high life once more. moment they were married. own. The love affair that had once burned so bright
She wasn’t lonely for long Although Joséphine’s now began to dim.
and would likely have Joséphine meets Paul Barras villainy, such as it was, If Joséphine was anyone’s worst enemy, it was
Like Joséphine, Paul Barras was a born
lived the life of a very survivor. An architect of the French Revolution, was hardly on a grand her own, and she soon found her husband’s passion
merry, if somewhat he voted to execute Louis XVI yet later turned scale, she was certainly trying. The couple argued more than they ever had
unremarkable, widow on Robespierre, cementing his own place regarded as the enemy and their mutual suspicion grew deeper and more
were it not for a chance in power. He and Joséphine were intimate by the women in her pronounced. Despite everything, however, they
friends and most likely more besides. Indeed,
meeting with a certain Barras is often credited with introducing new husband’s family. never truly fell out of love. Even when Napoleon
man named Napoleon. Joséphine to Napoleon, with one eye She was poised, schooled and Joséphine took the unhappy decision to
How Joséphine and on his own promotion, of course! in the rules of the upper divorce so that he might seek a new bride who
1794-1795
Napoleon Bonaparte met classes, half a dozen years could provide him with an heir, they remained
remains a matter of conjecture. older than Napoleon and close friends and confidantes.
The romantic, approved version is already had two children, not to Napoleon did remarry, of course, but Joséphine
that Joséphine’s son, Eugène, refused mention the awkward matter of her did not. She died in 1814, just four years after the
to surrender his late father’s sword under a run-in with prison more than a decade earlier. divorce was agreed.
new ruling which forbade citizens from keeping Sensing a woman hungry for influence and Time, however, was not kind to Joséphine. In the
weapons at home. When Napoleon learned of ambition, Joséphine’s new in-laws didn’t think years of her life and those following her death, she
Eugène’s devotion to his father, he gave permission much of her at all. was painted as a scheming, ambitious woman who
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