Theo Aronson - Napoleon & Josephine: A Love Story

NAPOLEON

AND

JOSEPHINE

A Love Story

Theo Aronson

First published by John Murray (Publishers) Ltd. in 1990

Copyright The Estate of Theo Aronson 1990

This edition published in 2021 by Lume Books

30 Great Guildford Street,

Borough, SE1 0HS

The right of Theo Aronson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

For

Brian Roberts

Table of Contents

Authors Note

This book is the result of a life-long fascination with the Napoleonic saga. Ever since, in my early twenties, I visited Napoleons first grave on the island of Saint Helena, I have been obsessed with the turbulent story of the Bonaparte family. It would not be too much to claim that the sight of that simple grave in Geranium Valley served as a turning point in my life. I became a writer because of my interest in, initially, the exile and death of Napoleon and then in the chequered history of his dynasty.

In the years following the first of my three visits to Saint Helena, I have seen almost all the places connected with the Napoleonic saga: birthplaces, palaces, places of captivity, houses of exile, battlefields, tombs and monuments. I have researched and studied the subject extensively. My first published book was The Golden Bees: The Story of the Bonapartes ; since then I have written two more books on the dynasty: The Fall of the Third Napoleon and Queen Victoria and the Bonapartes . So, in writing this book on Napoleon and Josephine, I am returning, after having written many biographies on other royal subjects, to my first love.

Surprisingly, there has been no recent book published in English devoted entirely to the relationship between Napoleon and Josephine. There have, of course, been individual biographies on them but it is over twenty-five years since the publication of Frances Mossikers Napoleon and Josephine ; while Margaret Laings Josephine and Napoleon , published seventeen years ago, is more in the nature of a short biography of the Empress. Neither of these books is in print. On the premise that every generation thrills again to the Napoleonic story, I have decided that the time is ripe for a fresh look at one of the most fascinating aspects of that story.

In writing the book, I have kept the two principals firmly centre-stage. What I am presenting is domestic history: the great political, economic and military events of the period are heard dimly, as noises off. Only where these events directly affect the relationship between Napoleon and Josephine are they dealt with in any detail; otherwise they are simply mentioned en passant . With Napoleon in his many-faceted role as soldier, administrator, politician and empire-builder, I have not concerned myself. There is no shortage of books covering these aspects of his career. This book is the biography of a marriage; in it I have gone, in the words of that talented Bonaparte biographer, Dormer Creston, in search of two characters.

In researching this book I have made use, wherever possible, of contemporary sources. However, several of the memoirs, on which biographers of Napoleon and Josephine usually rely, must be treated with extreme caution. Most of these books were published after the fall of Napoleons empire at a time when it was, to say the least, inadvisable to speak favourably of him. For this or for other reasons, such as self-justification, self-aggrandisement or simply sensationalism, few of these memoirs can be regarded as accurate or impartial. The accounts of people like Josephines ladies-in-waiting, Claire de Rmusat and Georgette Ducrest, her friend Laure Junot, her maid Mademoiselle Avrillon, her ex-lover Barras, Napoleons secretary Bourrienne and his valet Constant, are all suspect to a greater or lesser degree. Where they are valuable, however, is in evoking the flavour of the period and in providing information which they had no reason to distort.

On the other hand, there are many other far more reliable memoirs which can be used with confidence. The most trustworthy of contemporary material is, of course, the letters. In addition to the massive, thirty-two volume Correspondance de Napoleon 1er , which includes letters to his family, there are hundreds of letters between Napoleon, Josephine and her two children Eugne and Hortense. There are also her recently discovered love letters to Hippolyte Charles. These published letters, as well as all other books consulted, are listed in the Bibliography.

I am indebted to the Archives Nationales, the Bibliothque Nationale and the Fonds Masson in the Bibliothque Thiers, Paris; the British Library, London; the Bristol Reference Library; the Napoleon Collection at the Bath Reference Library; and, as always, to Mrs S. Bane and the staff of the Frome Library for their helpfulness.

I must also thank, in alphabetical order, those many people who, to a greater or lesser extent, have helped me in the researching and writing of this book. They are: Dr Anna Benna, Miss E. H. Berridge, M. Pierre Blanchard, Mr Andr Bothner, Mr Mervyn Clingan, Mr Ronald Duff, M. Louis Durand, M. Paul du Toit, Mlle Louise Duval, Mr David Griffiths and Mrs Angela Griffiths, Miss A. T. Hadley, Mrs Phyllis Huie, Miss Sue Manby and Mrs Betty Ross. As always, my chief thanks go to Mr Brian Roberts who has not only endured but encouraged my Napoleonic obsession for over thirty years.

PROLOGUE

Malmaison

The time to see Malmaison is in late September. This season seems to capture, more than any other, something of the bitter-sweet quality of the story of Napoleon and Josephine. On the one hand, Josephines famous rose gardens still retain some of their summer opulence; on the other, the leaves of the chestnut trees are already turning brown. There is, in spite of the sunshine, a slight melancholy in the air, a presage of winter to come.

The Chteau of Malmaison, far more than the palaces of the Tuileries, Saint-Cloud or Fontainebleau, was the setting of some of the couples happiest, most intimate times together. It also saw them in periods of their deepest tristesse . Josephine bought the little manor house not long after their marriage; both during the Consulate and the Empire it represented the only place in which they were able to live a life relatively free of the constraints and formalities of their position. It was the one spot that they could call their own; it was their only real home. After their divorce, Josephine spent most of her time at Malmaison; she died there, in her gilded swan bed, four and a half years later. Napoleon enjoyed his last days as a free man at Malmaison, roaming through the gardens and expecting, as he put it, to see Josephine come gliding along its paths at any moment. Wouldnt it be delightful, he sighed, if he could remain here forever?

Much has changed at Malmaison since those days. For almost a century after the fall of the First Empire, the house suffered from either neglect or insensitive restoration. The huge park has been whittled away by the spread of suburbia; only a fragment of those leafy grounds remains. Josephines romantically landscaped English garden is a faint echo of what it once was. Her famous picture gallery has gone; her matchless conservatories are empty; most of her treasures have been dispersed. Only in the twentieth century has a costly, conscientious and continuing programme of restoration been undertaken. It has now become possible to recapture something of the look and spirit of the place as it was at the time of Napoleon and Josephine.

Malmaison is unlike any other royal, or imperial, home in France. Built of silvery-grey stone and rising from a gravelled forecourt set with clipped bay trees in tubs, it has a lightness and a simplicity lacking in the great French palaces. And once inside the house, all feelings of melancholy disappear. Its air is redolent of new beginnings: of a new century, a new regime, a new way of life. In contrast to the overwhelming sumptuousness and traditionalism of the palaces of the former kings of France, Malmaison is decorated in the then fashionable neo-classical and Empire styles. Everything from the striped fabrics of the tented rooms to the Roman-like busts of the members of Napoleons family (looking more dignified in marble than ever they did in the flesh) reflects an elegant, contemporary taste. It reflects, also, the youth of its owners; for even in the last year of his fourteen-year-long marriage to Josephine, Napoleon was still only in his thirties.