Monday, January 7, 2013

Napoleon's wives and lovers.

Napoleon frequently said that “The battles against women are the only which can be won fleeing” and this is because he was surrounded by so many women during all his life: his mother Letizia, his sisters, Josephine Beauharnais, all his lovers and then Marie Loise of Habsburg, the woman who gave him the son that he wanted for his succession.

Letizia, Napoleon's mother

He went usually to Madame Recamier’s salon, where he knew very important women. To reach to the support of one of the most important French revolutionaries, first he had to take interest in Theresa Tallien, she was known in Paris like Notre-Dame the Termidor. Also there (in 1795), he met Josephine Beauharnais ,his first wife and future empress. She was Paul Barras´mistress, but she married Napoleon in 1796 because he was younger and more handsome.

Empress Josephine

Thérèse Tallien

In 1796 Napoleon went to the conquest of Egypt, he really loved Josephine, but one of his lovers, Pauline Bellisle went with him dressed as a man, she was known as the French Cleopatra. Some time later, he came back to France with Josephine. She couldn’t have children, so she accepted divorcing (1810)Napoleon in order that he could get marriage again and had a successor.

Pauline Bellisle


In 1811 Napoleon married with Marie Loise of Austria, daughter of the emperor Francisco and niece of the last queen Maria Antoinette. She gave him a son in that same year. The baby was called Francisco-Carlos-José-Napoleon, and he received the title of King of Rome immediately, but he never reigned, because he died of tuberculosis at an early age.

Marie Loise of Austria

Napoleon II

It is said that Napoleon had four bastard sons, one with the countess Marie Waleska, and about the other three there is not so many information.

Marie Waleska



Although Napoleon had many mistresses, Josephine was the woman who marked Napoleon’s life. Rumours say that Josephine chose Napoleon´s mistresses after their divorce and some of the conspiracies against Napoleon were broken because she obtained the information sleeping with the conspirators.

Napoleon and her sons

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Paqui!! I'm waiting your corrections!! :D

Paqui Pérez Fons said...

Hello,

These are my corrections:

- All the names have to be in English, not in Spanish.

- Don´t use different colours nor underline names. If you want, you can create some links to the most important figures or the ones you prefer.

These are the grammar corrections:
-.. surrounded by
- "Whorehouse" is a vulgar expression. You can write brothel instead.
- ... where he met very important women
- Notre Dame de Thermidor. This has to be written in French
- ..in 1795 he met Josephine Beauharnais, his first wife and future empress. she was Paul Barras´mistress. Use "mistress" instead of "lover". It´s more polite.
- ... She married Napoleon.
- ...he really loved Josephine or he was really in love with...
- ...she couldn´t have children, so she accepted divorcing Napoleon, in order that he could get married... and have a successor.
-.. married Marie Louise .
- ... she gave him a son
-... he never reigned... he died of tuberculosis at an early age
- It is said...
- Although Napoleon had many mistresses, Josephine was ...who marked...
- Word order: Rumours say that Josephine chose Napoleon´s mistresses after their divorce

That´s all. Congratulations for your initiative. I´m going to upload interective exercises I´ve prepared about the FRench Revolution, just in case you want to review ;)

Unknown said...

Pilar,very good post!!
And I think that you like so much this type of information... jaja!

Roxana said...

Pilar, you wrote Napoleon and her sons and I think that it is Napoleon and HIS sons...

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

thanks for both, in special for Roxana for the correction! :)

Unknown said...

Madame Recamier did not run a brothel, she ran a SALON. She invited literary people and political figures. It was an occasion for sparkling conversations and political discussions.

Paqui Pérez Fons said...

Thanks for your correction. I didn't notice the mistake when I corrected this post. I've already changed it.