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JOSEPHINE (MARIE ROSE JOSEPHINE TASCH...

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 516 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JOSEPHINE (See also:MARIE See also:ROSE JOSEPHINE TASCHER DE LA PAGERIE) (1763–1814) , empress of the See also:French, was See also:born in the See also:island of See also:Martinique on the 23rd of See also:June 1763, being the eldest of three daughters of See also:Joseph Tascher de la Pagerie, See also:lieutenant of See also:artillery. Her beauty and See also:grace, though of a languid See also:Creole See also:style, won the affections of the See also:young officer the vicomte de See also:Beauharnais, and, after some See also:family complications, she was married to him. Their married See also:life was not wholly happy, the frivolity of Josephine occasioning her See also:husband anxiety and See also:jealousy. Two See also:children, See also:Eugene and Hortense, were the See also:fruit of the See also:union. During Josephine's second See also:residence in Martinique, whither she proceeded to tend her See also:mother, occurred the first troubles with the slaves, which resulted from the precipitate See also:action of the constituent See also:assembly in emancipating them. She returned to her husband, who at that See also:time entered into See also:political life at See also:Paris. Her beauty and vivacity won her many admirers in the salons of the See also:capital. As the Revolution ran its course her husband, as an ex-See also:noble, incurred the suspicion and hostility of the See also:Jacobins; and his See also:ill-success at the See also:head of a French See also:army on the See also:Rhine led to his See also:arrest and See also:execution. Thereafter Josephine was in a position of much perplexity and some hardship, but the friendship of See also:Barras and of Madame See also:Tallien, to both of whom she was then much attached, brought her into See also:notice, and she was one of the queens of Parisian society in the See also:year 1795, when See also:Napoleon See also:Bonaparte's services to the French See also:convention in scattering the malcontents of the capital (13 Vendemiaire, or See also:October 5, 1795) brought him to the front. There is a See also:story that she became known to Napoleon through a visit paid to him by.her son Eugene in See also:order to beg his help in procuring the restoration of his See also:father's See also:sword, but it rests on slender See also:foundations. In any See also:case, it is certain that Bonaparte, however he came to know her, was speedily captivated by her charms. She, on her See also:side, See also:felt very little See also:affection for the thin, impecunious and irrepressible suitor; but by degrees she came to acquiesce in the thought of See also:marriage, her hesitations, it is said, being removed by the See also:influence of Barras and by the nomination of Bonaparte to the command of the army of See also:Italy.

The See also:

civil marriage took See also:place on the 9th of See also:March 1796, two days before the bridegroom set out for his command. He failed to induce her to go with him to See also:Nice and Italy. Bonaparte's letters to Josephine during the See also:campaign reveal the ardour of his love, while she rarely answered them. As he came to realize her shallowness and frivolity his See also:passion cooled; but at the time when he resided at Montebello (near See also:Milan) in 1797 he still showed See also:great regard for her. During his See also:absence in See also:Egypt in 1798–1799, her relations to an officer, M. See also:Charles, were most compromising; and Bonaparte on his return thought of divorcing her. Her tears and the entreaties of Eugene and Hortense availed to bring about a reconciliation; and during the See also:period of the consulate (1799–1804) their relations were on the whole happy, though Napoleon's conduct now gave his See also:consort See also:grave cause for concern. His See also:brothers and sisters more than once begged him to See also:divorce Josephine, and it is known that,from the time when he became first See also:consul for life (See also:August 1802) with large See also:powers over the choice of a successor, he kept open the alternative of a divorce. Josephine's anxieties increased on the See also:proclamation of the See also:Empire (May 18, 1804); and on the 1st of See also:December 1804, the See also:eve of the See also:coronation at Notre See also:Dame, she gained her wish that she should be married anew to Napoleon with religious See also:rites. Despite her care, the See also:emperor procured the omission of one formality, the presence of the See also:parish See also:priest; but at the coronation See also:scene Josephine appeared radiant with See also:triumph over her envious relatives. The august marriages contracted by her children Eugene and Hortense seemed to establish her position; but her ceaseless extravagance and, above all, the impossibility that she should See also:bear a son strained the relation's between Napoleon and Josephine. She complained of his infidelities and growing callousness.

The end came in sight after the campaign of 1809, when Napoleon caused the announcement to be made to her that reasons of See also:

state compelled him to divorce her. Despite all her pleadings he held to his resolve. The most was made of the slight technical irregularity at the marriage ceremony of the 1st of December 1804; and the marriage was declared null and void. At her private See also:retreat, La Malmaison, near Paris, which she had beautified with curios and rare See also:plants and See also:flowers, Josephine closed her life in dignified retirement. Napoleon more than once came to consult her upon matters in which he valued her tact and See also:good sense. Her See also:health declined See also:early in 1814, and after his first See also:abdication (See also:April 11, 1814) it was clear that her end was not far off. The emperor See also:Alexander of See also:Russia and See also:Frederick See also:William III. of See also:Prussia, then in Paris, requested an interview with her. She died on the 24th of May 1814. Her See also:friends, Mme de See also:Remusat and others, pointed out that Napoleon's good See also:fortune deserted him after the divorce; and it is certain that the See also:Austrian marriage clogged him in several ways. Josephine's influence was used on behalf of See also:peace and moderation both in See also:internal and in See also:foreign affairs. Thus she begged Napoleon not to execute the duc d'See also:Enghien and not to embroil himself in See also:Spanish affairs in 1808. See M.

A. Le Normand, Memoires historiques et secrets de Josephine (2 vols., 1820) ; Lettres de Napoleon a Josephine (1833) ; J. A. See also:

Aubenas, Hist. de l'imperatrice Josephine (2 vols., 1858—1859) ; J. Turquan, L'Imperatrice Josephine (2 vols., 1895—1896) ; F. See also:Masson, Josephine (3 vols., 1899—1902); Napoleon's Letters to Josephine (17996—1812), translated and edited by H. F. See also:Hall (1903). Also the See also:Memoirs of Mme. de Remusat and of Bausset, and P. W. Sergeant, The Empress Josephine (1908). (J.

HI,.

End of Article: JOSEPHINE (MARIE ROSE JOSEPHINE TASCHER DE LA PAGERIE) (1763–1814)

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