Divorse Napoleon and Josephine.

 

Divorce Statement of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and Empress Josephine 9th January 1810 eu.art

Joséphine is now in her forties, she is as graceful as ever, but she has given up hopes of presenting her husband with the heir he so wants to ensure the continuity of the Empire. Her daughter Hortense has – very reluctantly – married Louis Bonaparte, Napoléon’s brother. The new Emperor is giving serious thought to the adoption of the couple’s eldest son, who is both his nephew and Joséphine’s grandson (gossip even has it that Napoléon, not Louis, is in fact the father, but this has never been proven). In any case this plan collapses, along with Joséphine’s hopes, when the child suddenly dies at the age of seven. By then Napoléon no longer shares his wife’s bed, and he resolves at last on a divorce. The Senate decree that effects it is but a formality, and the religious marriage, contrary to Joséphine’s expectations, turns out to be no hurdle. An annulment, of dubious validity under Canon law, is granted by the diocesan tribunal of Paris in a matter of weeks. 

Joséphine retires with sadness and dignity to her country house of Malmaison. She follows from afar the arrival of the new Empress, Marie-Louise of Austria, the birth one year later of Napoléon’s long awaited heir blog.catherinedelors.com/josephine-and-bonaparte-a-romance/