Napoleon and Josephine
Napoleon became a general at a very young age and was put in a
position of authority where the generals and almost all other officers he commanded were
older than him. He felt that this wasn't a satisfactory situation and concluded that
if he married a woman older than himself, he might claim to be older than
he actually was and thereby obtain a little more respect from his officers.
He also wanted to marry a rich, older woman. After the battle of Toulon and
after saving the Directory from the Paris mob, Napoleon was invited to a party
given by one of the Directors, Paul Barras. In effect, Barras was the next best thing to
being king of France at the time. Barras envisioned using Napoleon's military talents for
his own political and personal benefit. Barras also had at that time a
mistress that he wanted to get rid of (Marie-Josephe-Rose de Beauharnais) because he had
decided to take her best friend as his new mistress and couldn't afford to keep both.
He knew that Napoleon was looking for a wife. He therefore decided to marry his
mistress off to Napoleon; however, he didn't tell her this. He just told her that he
wanted her to entertain Napoleon at the party and show an interest in him and praise
his military skills. Well, this was all Napoleon needed.
A beautiful woman fawning over him, apparently well to do,
a member of the old aristocracy that had escaped the guillotine,
she was older than himself but not too much (he thought),
and she displayed keen interest in him (he thought).
This, and a little urging from Barras after the party, was
all that Napoleon needed to pursue her hand in marriage.
Barras assured Napoleon that she had money, that she was a good catch,
and that she would make a perfect wife for him. Napoleon began to pursue Rose.
By the way, he didn't like her name so he told her he would call her
Josephine. He pursued and pursued and Josephine kept humoring him. Finally,
Barras strongly advised her to marry Napoleon. She said she would not.
Then Barras told her that he had a new mistress, that he couldn't
afford to maintain them both, that she was very expensive to maintain,
and that if she didn't marry Napoleon he would stop providing for her and
she would, in effect, be thrown out on the street. This was the one thing
that Josephine couldn't bear. She was a compulsive spender.
Another concern was her two children, Eugene and Hortense.
Therefore, she gave in and agreed to marry Napoleon.
By the way, she was much older than Napoleon thought and,
although she said she was still of child bearing age,
knew that she was barren and had been so for some time.
They were married and a few days later Napoleon departed to Italy.
He genuinely loved Josephine at this time.
She despised him and thought he was a total bore.
As soon as he was gone she began playing around on him.
As time went on she had a string of lovers, pretended to miss
him very much in response to his daily love letters, and did
everything in her power to avoid going to join him in Italy as
he was constantly urging. She even went so far as to pretend she
was pregnant and couldn't travel. All this time she was attending
balls and parties and committing adultery. From time to time,
when Napoleon begged her to join him, she required Barras
' assistance to convince Napoleon that she should not go.
During this time some of Napoleon's officers, Murat, for
example, had returned to Paris for one reason or another
and had occasion to attend one of Josephine's parties or
a party that she attended. In Murat's case, Napoleon had
sent him back to Paris with the express mission of
escorting Josephine to Italy, willingly or unwillingly.
This was when Josephine made up the pregnancy story,
which Murat "took" back to Napoleon instead of Josephine.
While in Paris, Murat also heard all the gossip about
Josephine and how she was making a fool out of Napoleon.
Finally, it got to the point where Napoleon was getting
so edgy that Barras was afraid he would return to France
and forget about the Italian Campaign. This didn't suit
Barras because he was making a lot of money out of that
campaign. So he ordered Josephine to go to Napoleon.
She did.
Napoleon expected a pregnant Josephine. When she arrived
she explained to him that she had had a miscarriage.
He was torn with grief over losing his "son." Anyway,
the Italian Campaign was finally over and Napoleon
returned to Paris. Josephine had to be good
(or at least try to be better) while he was there.
Then Napoleon decided to go to Egypt. Barras thought
this was a good idea because Napoleon was beginning to
become too popular. When he left, Josephine went back
to her old ways. Napoleon was still genuinely in love
with her and doted over her. On 19 July 1798, while
marching toward Cairo in the scorching sun,
Bourrienne, Napoleon's Secretary, out of the corner of
his eye, noticed Napoleon and Junot walking together.
Bourrienne wrote, "I noticed Bonaparte walking alone
with Junot. I was