Josephine Boneparte

Napoleon Bonaparte met Josephe Rose de Beauharnais who soon became his "incomparable Josephine."

Josephine was born in Martinique, she had married Viscount Alexandre de Beauharnais, who was beheaded during the Reign of Terror. She had two children Hortense and Eugine. The pretty Creole widow, though no longer young, had all the graces and coquetry of the old regime. She herself had narrowly escaped the guillotine, so she was living life to the fullest in her search for a rich and powerful protector. Napoleon forgot poor Desiree and fell hopelessly in love with Josephine, who stood for everything feminine and elegant. Even though Josephine did not think much of the young General Napoleon Bonaparte, she flirted with him anyway, just as she did with many others, including General Paul Barras. Barras was an important member of the Convention who had helped to bring about Robespierre's downfall and had subsequently been appointed commander of Paris.

Napoleon Bonaparte and Josephine married at the town hall on March 9, 1796, in a civil ceremony. On the marriage certificate, Napoleon wrote that he was two years older than he actually was, and Josephine took four years off her real age, of 33.

Love Letter From Napoleon to Josephine

I don't love you, not at all; on the contrary, I detest you. You're a naught, gawky, foolish girl. You never write me; you don't love your own husband; you know what pleasures your letters give him, and yet you haven't written him six lines, dashed of so casually!

What do you do all day, Madam? What is the affair so important as to leave you no time to write to your devoted lover? What affecton stiffles and puts to one side the love, the tender constant love you promised him? Of what sort can be that marvelous being, that new lover that tyrannizes over your days, and prevents your giving any attention to your husband? Josephine, take care! Some fine night, the doors will be broken open and there I'll be.

Indeed, I am very uneasy, my love, at recieving no news of you; write me quickly for pages, pages full of agreeable things which shall fill my heart with the pleasantest feelings.

I hope before long to crush you in my arms and cover you with a million kisses as though beneath the equator.
- Napoleon Bonaparte

Recommended Reading:

Josephine: Napoleon's Incomparable Empress by Eleanor P. Delorme