Napoleon’s Private War To Conquer The Heart Of Empress Joséphine
The romance of Napoleon Bonaparte and Joséphine de Beauharnais: a whirlwind of infatuation, betrayal, and political machinations. As Napoleon ascended through the ranks of power, beginning as a promising military officer and ultimately reaching the pinnacle as Emperor, Joséphine was by his side. For almost a decade-and-a-half, they lived as perhaps the most powerful couple on Earth. But in the end, all their issues reached a breaking point — and the life they’d built together came tumbling down.
One true love
While modern historians may debate the true extent of their emotional attachment, Ridley Scott, the man behind the new film Napoleon, has unequivocally been championing Joséphine as Napoleon’s “one true love.” According to Scott, who’s been doing a lot of press in support of his movie, Napoleon was driven by his passion for Joséphine: it was an obsession that ended badly for him.
He told Deadline,“[Napoleon] came out of nowhere to rule everything, but all the while he was waging a romantic war with his adulterous wife Joséphine. He conquered the world to try to win her love, and when he couldn’t, he conquered it to destroy her, and destroyed himself in the process.”
Get a life
Scott, it seems fair to say, isn’t afraid of exaggerating for the sake of his big-budget movie’s plot. His Napoleon has been accused of several inaccuracies by experts, which, frankly, he doesn’t seem to be the least bit bothered by. In response to criticisms from the historian Dan Snow, Scott’s reply was short and sharp: “Get a life.”
So Scott probably isn’t the most reliable voice when it comes to learning about the real Napoleon and Joséphine. Can we really take him seriously when he claims she was behind his every political and military action? Do we believe his assertions about the nature of their relationship? The truth in both instances, of course, is more complicated.
A young Rose
The person history would come to know as Joséphine Bonaparte grew up with another name. When she was born in 1763 she was Marie-Josèphe-Rose Tascher de la Pagerie; she was called simply “Rose” by her loved ones. Her family, as the owners of a plantation in the French colony of Martinique in the Caribbean, had once been very wealthy. But by the time she showed up, things were taking a turn.
With a need for money at the forefront of her mind, Rose moved to Paris. There, she started to move in elite circles and learned how to deal with conventions and politics of the French aristocracy.
Resentments simmer early
In 1779 Rose took a husband in the form of Alexandre de Beauharnais, a nobleman who would one day become a politician. They lived together in Paris and had two kids, but the marriage was not a good one. De Beauharnais came to resent his wife for what he perceived to be her failure to integrate fully within the upper echelons.
De Beauharnais was so embarrassed by Joséphine that reportedly he would cut her adrift at parties. He had very snooty attitudes and his wife bore the brunt of them. Even her accent, which she’d developed upon Martinique, wasn’t sophisticated enough for him.