On 15th December 1809 Napoleon Bonaparte divorced
his wife of 13 years, Josephine de Beauharnais, so that he could marry a
younger woman who might be able to produce an heir for him. She was 46 at the
time, whereas Napoleon was only 40 and he had his eye on an 18-year-old
Austrian princess, Marie Louise, who was unaware of his plan until it was
presented to her as a done deal.
Although the marriage of Napoleon and Josephine appeared happy
enough on the surface, Napoleon refused to let sentiment rule reality. As he
said to Josephine: “In politics there is no heart, only head”. He announced his
intention to her over dinner, just a few weeks before the divorce took place.
Josephine screamed in horror at the idea, but had no choice but to comply with
the wishes of the most powerful man in Europe.
The divorce papers were signed in Napoleon’s study, after
which a tearful Josephine left on the arm of her daughter (by her first
marriage) Hortense. She moved to the palace of Malmaison where she died five
years later.
An ironical aspect of Napoleon’s somewhat cynical move is
that his wish to ensure that another Napoleon became the Emperor of France was
fulfilled not by any heir born to Marie Louise but by a grandson of Josephine
de Beauharnais. This was Napoleon III, the son of Hortense, who became ruler of
the Second Empire in 1852 and was eventually overthrown in 1870 after the
Franco-Prussian War.
© John Welford
No comments:
Post a Comment