La Rose de Malmaison

 

Viger du Vigneau,Jean Louis

'The Rose of Malmaison' (Josephine Beauharnais, first wife of Napoleon I),around 1867. Canvas

Musee National du Chateau, Rueil-Malmaison, France

Les Loisirs de la Malmaison.

Leisure at Malmaison 

Giclee Print

by Jean Louis Victor Viger du Vigneau L’impératrice Joséphine accueillant avec ses enfants à Malmaison le tsar Alexandre Ier, Jean-Louis-Hector Viger du Vigneau, Rueil-Malmaison, Musée national des châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau © S P Rmn-Grand Palais / Daniel Arnaudet     Josephine-la-Suede-et-la-Russie

Eugène de Beauharnais

“Prince Eugène de Beauharnais”
One of the earliest representations of Eugène, it depicts him at age 18 as Napoléon’s aide-de-camp in the Egyptian campaign. Napoléon was close to both of his stepchildren. He adopted Eugène in 1805, and then made him a prince and later Viceroy of Italy. 
Historical Provenance - Joséphine Bonaparte family collection
Oil on canvas

Eugène Rose de Beauharnais, Prince Français, Prince of Venice, Viceroy of theKingdom of Italy, Hereditary Grand Duke of Frankfurt, 1st Duke of Leuchtenberg and 1st Prince of Eichstätt ad personam (3 September 1781 – 21 February 1824) was the first child and only son of Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais and Joséphine Tascher de la Pagerie, future wife of French Emperor Napoléon I.

He was born in Paris, France and became the stepson and adopted child (but not the heir to the imperial throne) of Napoleon. His natural father was executed during the revolutionary Reign of Terror. He commanded the Army of Italy and was viceroy of Italy under his stepfather.

In 14 June 1804 he was made an official member of the imperial family as His Imperial Highness, French Prince (Prince français) Eugène de Beauharnais. By a statute of 5 June 1805 the Emperor added Viceroy of Italy to his titles.

Prince Eugène was adopted by Napoleon on 12 January 1806; while excluded from the French empire's succession, he was given presumptive rights for him and his descendants in the male line to the throne of Italy in the absence of a second son of Napoleon on 16 February 1806, and hence on 20 December 1807 given the title of Prince de Venise ('Prince of Venice'), which had been instituted by article 9 of the decree of 30 March 1806 (when the former Austrian province of Venice was united to Bonaparte's kingdom of Italy) for the Heir Presumptive to Napoleon in Italy.

His stepfather also made him heir to the Grand Duchy of Frankfurt in 1810 and hence he technically succeeded as Grand Duke to Archbishop Karl Theodor Anton Maria von Dalberg, the Prince-Primate of the Confederation of the Rhine, upon the latter's abdication in 1813.^{[dubious – discuss]} This position, however, was purely theoretical, as Dalberg's abdication was due to his Grand Duchy's imminent conquest by the Allied armies.

Princess Augusta of Bavaria

painting by Joseph Karl Stieler c. 1820

In 1806, Eugène married Princess Augusta Amalia Ludovika Georgia of Bavaria (1788–1851), eldest daughter of Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria, and his royal father-in-law made him Duke of Leuchtenberg and gave him the administration of the Principality of Eichstätt on 14 November 1817. 

He died on 21 februari 1824

                      Tomb of Eugène de Beauharnais,  St. Michael (München)

Finding Napoleon

 I found an interesting blog

 mrodenberg/ Finding Napoleon

This website follows my adventures and thoughts as I write a novel told from Napoleon’s point of view.In 2011, research took me to Paris (of course!), Corsica (Napoleon’s birth place), and St Helena (an island—still without an airport—in the middle of the south Atlantic Ocean where Napoleon died in exile). Now, in 2012, I'm completing my manuscript and hope to have it presented to publishers before the year is over. Come along on the adventure and add your opinions to my blog.

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/

 

Marie Louise of Austria

Marie Louise of Austria (Maria Ludovica Leopoldina Franziska Therese Josepha Lucia von Habsburg-Lothringen; 12 December 1791 – 17 December 1847) was the second wife ofNapoleon I, Emperor of the French and later Duchess of Parma. As such, she was Empress of the French from 1810 to 1814, and subsequently ruler of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla from 1814 until her death. She was an obedient wife and was adored by Napoleon, who had been eager to marry a member of one of Europe's leading royal houses to cement his relatively young Empire. She bore Napoleon a son, styled the King of Rome at birth, later Duke of Reichstadt, who briefly succeeded him as Napoleon II. Marie Louise was married by proxy to Napoleon on 11 March 1810 at the Augustinian Church, Vienna.^[18] Napoleon was represented by Archduke Charles, the bride's uncle.^[19]According to the French ambassador, the marriage "was celebrated with a magnificence that it would be hard to surpass, by the side of which even the brilliant festivities that have preceded it are not to be mentioned."^[20] She became Empress of the French and Queen of Italy.

Marie Louise departed Vienna on March 13,^[21] probably expecting never to return.^[22] She met Napoleon for the first time on March 27 in Compiègne,^[23] remarking to him: "You are much better-looking than your portrait."^[23]
 

This diamond and Persian turquoise studded crown or "diadem" was part of the "parure" (pah-rur), or suite of royal jewelry that was a wedding gift from Napoleon to his bride Empress Marie-Louise. The crown originally contained emeralds instead of Persian turquoise. The crown was taken to Austria by Marie-Louise after the fall of the empire, and the abdication of Napoleon in 1814, and remained in her collection through her rule as the Duchess of Pharma. Empress+Marie-Louise

first empire/Biographies/Marie_Louise

The civil wedding was held at the Château de Saint-Cloud on 1 April 1810.^[24] The next day, Napoleon and Marie Louise made the journey to Paris in the coronation coach.^[25] TheImperial Guard cavalry led the procession, followed by the herald-at-arms and then the carriages.^[25] The Marshals of France rode on each side, near the doors of the carriages.^[25]The procession arrived at the Tuileries Palace,^[26] and the Imperial couple made their way to the Salon Carré chapel (in the Louvre) for the religious wedding ceremony.^[26] The ceremony was conducted by the Cardinal Grand Almoner of France.^[27]

 

Napoleon was totally attentive to Marie-Louise, barely leaving her side for the first month of the marriage. Within a year of the wedding, she was delivered of a boy, titled the King of Rome. The famous portrait of Marie-Louise holding the child.
 

Cradle of Napoleon II, Duke of Reichstadt: a gift of the City of Paris to Napoleon I and Empress Marie Louise.

 

“Duke of Reichstadt” Louis Léopold Boilly, after Daffinger - c. 1830After Napoléon’s downfall, his son was taken back to the court of his grandfather, Francis II, in Vienna. There he was renamed Duke of Reichstadt and carefully tutored in Hapsburg history and culture. Although he hoped to someday have a realm of his own, he was to die of tuberculosis in July 1832 at the age of 21.Historical Provenance - Monstesquiou collection.Indian ink on paper

But love, real though it was, was short-lived. It would not survive Napoléon’s defeat and abdication. For a while the idea of a regency, with Marie-Louise herself as regent during the minority of her son, seemed the most likely outcome. This was the solution favored by Alexander I, Tsar of Russia. But other forces were at work. England preferred to see the Bourbons restored. Fouché, Bonaparte’s minister of Police and most implacable enemy, saw to it that Marie-Louise returned to her native Vienna with her son, and the King of Rome never stepped onto any throne. Napoléon and Marie-Louise would never see each other again.

 Back in Austria, still married to Napoléon, Marie-Louise would bear more children and, once widowed, she would marry again twice. And a dying Napoléon would call out Joséphine’s name. What politics had joined together, politics put asunder.  catherine delors

 

The Palace of Colorno was given to Napoleon’s second wife Empress Marie Louise, who thought of it as her favorite home away from home (see Napoleon's Fontainebleau Palace) and lived there until her death as the Grand Duchess of Austria (see Habsburgs Kaisers Tomb Vienna) after Napoleon met his Waterloo. Marie Louise reshaped the garden in the English style park it is today.


After the end of Napoleon I’ s rule of France and the collapse of empire, the remaining Bonapartes fled from Paris. The Empress Marie Louise departed to Italy (see Palace Colorno). Napoleon’s adopted daughter of Josephine, Hortense de Beauharnais was offered refuge with her son Louis in Switzerland on the shores of Lake Constance opposite the Isle of Reichenau at a villa built in the 16th Century by the previous mayor of Constanz, above the lakeside town of Ermatigen. They moved in to the mansion (called a castle, though hardly) in 1818, where Madame de Beauharnais pursued extensive renovations, including a garden designed in accordance with the philosophical romantic concepts of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (seeChateau Chillon).

 

skyscrapercity

 

Roger & Gallet viert 150 jaar met uniek keizerlijk flacon

Dit jaar viert Roger&Gallet zijn 150e verjaardag met een nieuwe versie van de beroemde Flacon-Rouleau de l’Empereur. Het is een ode aan de geschiedenis van het beroemde en legendarische merk.

Op 10 april 1862 richtten parfumeurs-apothekers Armand Roger en Charles Gallet het bedrijf Roger&Gallet op dat sindsdien symbool is voor savoir-faire, authenticiteit en kwaliteit. Een merk dat geschiedenis gaat schrijven is geboren.

Maar de geschiedenis begint eigenlijk een 50-tal jaar vroeger.

Napoleon I ontdekte destijds de weldaad van de eau de cologne van Jean Marie Farina. Heel zijn hofhouding gebruikte het geurwater en op 18 augustus 1810 werd het goedgekeurd door de Commission des Remèdes Secrets. Ook Josephine de Beauharnais was dol op het geurwater en om haar liefde voor Napoleon te bewijzen vroeg ze de parfumeur een flacon te bedenken dat de keizer overal kon meenemen. Zo werd de beroemde langwerpige flacon de Rouleau de l’Empereur, die de keizer in zijn laarzen kon stoppen en die hem telkens deed denken aan zijn geliefde, geboren.

Dank zij Napoleon werd Jean Marie Farina, rue Saint Honoré 331 Parijs, beroemd in heel Europa en werd hij steeds vaker aangezocht als hofleverancier.

De originele Eau de Cologne is een licht citrus parfum dat in Keulen door Giovanni Maria Farina in 1708 gecreëerd werd en waarvan hij zelf zei dat het een geur was die hem deed denken aan een Italiaanse lentemorgen. Hij noemde zijn geur Eau de Cologne, ter ere van zijn nieuwe woonplaats.

Later opende een nazaat van Farina in Parijs een bedrijf en werd met de Eau de Cologne van Jean Marie Farina leverancier van Napoleon. Nadien werd dit bedrijf verkocht aan Roger&Gallet die nog steeds de Eau de cologne Roger&Gallet Jean Marie Farina produceert.

Ter ere van hun 150 jarig bestaan werd nu een tijdelijke collectie op de markt gebracht, de Flacons-Rouleaux met als geur Eau de Cologne Jean Marie Farina, Eau fraîche bois d’orange en Eau fraîche fleur d’Osmanthus. editie pajot

Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon I - detail Napoleons brothers and sisters - 1805-1807 David, Jacques-Louis

Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon I - detail Napoleons brothers and sisters - 1805-1807

David Jacques-Louis

Désirée Clary

Early life and family

Désirée Clary was born in Marseille, France, the daughter of François Clary (Marseille, St. Ferreol, 24 February 1725 – Marseille, 20 January 1794), a wealthy silk manufacturer andmerchant, and his second wife (m. 26 June 1759) Françoise Rose Somis (Marseille, St. Ferreol, 30 August 1737 – Paris, 28 January 1815). He had been previously married at Marseille, 13 April 1751 to Gabrielle Fléchon (1732 – 3 May 1758), without issue. Her sister, Julie Clary, marriedJoseph Bonaparte, and later became Queen of Naples and Spain. Her brother, Nicholas Joseph Clary, was created 1st Count Clary and married Anne Jeanne Rouyer, by whom he had Zénaïde Françoise Clary (Paris, 25 November 1812 – Paris, 27 April 1884), wife of Napoléon Berthier de Wagram, 2nd duc de Wagram (10 September 1810 – 10 February 1887), son of MarshalBerthier, and had issue.

Désirée received the convent schooling usually given to daughters of the upper classes in pre-revolutionary France, but, during the Revolution of 1789, convents were closed^[3] and Désirée returned to live with her parents. Her education was described as shallow.^[4] She was to be very devoted to her birth-family her entire life. In 1794, her father died. Her brother was arrested by the revolutionary government, and she was later to say that he was released by Joseph Bonaparte on her intervention, after which Joseph was presented to her family and married her sister. Désirée was presented to Napoleon Bonaparte, to whom she became engaged on 21 April 1795; but upon becoming involved with Joséphine de Beauharnais, whom he married on 9 March 1796, Bonaparte broke off his engagement with Désirée.

In 1795–1797, Désirée lived with her mother in Genoa in Italy. In 1797, she went to live with her sister Julie and her brother-in-law Joseph, who was the French ambassador to Rome. Her relationship with Julie was always to be very intense and deep. She was briefly expected to marry the French General Léonard Duphot,^[5] but he was killed in a riot in Rome in December 1797, on the eve of their marriage.

Madame Bernadotte

After her return to France, she met her future husband, the French General Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte. They were married at Sceaux on 17 August 1798. In the marriage contract, Désirée was given economic independence.^[6] In 1799, she gave birth to their only child, a son, Oscar, but the couple lived more or less separate lives afterward.

Her husband was a leading general in the French Napoleonic army, and normally absent from Paris. Désirée had a good relationship with the Bonaparte Imperial family, as well as with the Empress Joséphine, and declined taking sides in the conflicts between Joséphine and the Bonaparte siblings. She had a place in the coronation ceremony in 1804. Désirée lived a comfortable social life in Paris during her husband's long absences, though she preferred an informal family life to that of the Imperial court. It is believed that she may have had a romantic relationship with the Corsican Ange Chaippe, who often acted as her escort.^[7] In 1804–1805, Bernadotte was made governor of Hanover, and Désirée and her son moved to Hamburg; but she soon returned to Paris. She was not happy living anywhere but Paris. When her spouse was made Prince of Pontecorvo in 1806, Désirée worriedly asked if she would be forced to leave Paris, but was happy when she was assured that she would not.^[8] In 1807, she visited Bernadotte in Spandau.

Désirée was not interested in politics, but her good connections made her a puppet in the hands of her husband and Napoleon, who both used her to influence the other and to communicate with each other with her as a messenger.^[9]

In 1810, Bernadotte was elected heir to the throne of Sweden. Désirée initially thought this was to be similar to the position of Prince of Pontecorvo, and was depressed when she found out that this time she was expected to leave Paris.

Crown Princess

Désirée visited Sweden for the first time in 1810 but could not adapt to the demands of formal court etiquette. She was said to have been treated with a certain snobbery by the court and especially the Queen, though the Dowager Queen was kind to her. The climate was also a shock; she arrived during the winter, and she hated the snow so much that she cried.^[10] She had never wished to be a queen and did not want to move so far away from her family. The queen found her spoiled and undignified, and Désirée's French entourage, especially Elise la Flotte, made her unpopular by encouraging her to complain about everything.^[11] The Queen described her as good-hearted, generous and pleasant when she chose to be and not one to plot, but also as immature and a "spoiled child",^[12] who hated all demands and was unable to handle any form of representation.^[13] She described Desiree as "a French woman in every inch," who disliked and complained about everything which was not French, and "consequently, she is not liked."^[14]

She left Sweden in 1811 under the name of "Countess of Gotland", officially because of her health, and returned to Paris. There she stayed for twelve years, leaving her husband and her son behind. She herself said that the Swedish nobility had treated her as if they were made of ice: "Do not talk with me of Stockholm, I get a cold as soon as I hear the word."^[15] She resided incognito in Paris, thereby avoiding politics during the difficult period when Sweden was at war with France. However, her house at rue d'Anjou was watched by the secret police, and her letters were read by them. When Napoleon was defeated in 1814, her house was a refuge for her sister Julie. Bernadotte met her in Paris, but returned to Sweden without her. She was ridiculed by the court of Louis XVIII of France as an upstart, but had her own little court where she held receptions. In 1816, she made plans to return to Sweden, but she wished to bring her sister, Julie; her husband thought this unwise, as Julie was a member of the Bonaparte family and her presence might be taken as a sign that he sided with the deposed Napoleon, and in the end, this came to nothing.^[16]

Désirée's husband had employed a Count de Montrichard at her household (1817) as his spy to report to him if she did anything which could affect him.^[17]
 

 

Queen

 

In 1818, her husband became king of Sweden; but she remained in Paris, officially for health reasons, which was discussed in the papers in Paris and by her visitors. In Sweden, her husband took a mistress, the noble Mariana Koskull. Désirée held receptions in Paris as the queen of Sweden on Thursdays and Sundays, though she still used the title of countess. She fell in love with the French minister, the duc de Richelieu, and followed him on his travels until his death in 1822.^[18] In 1822, she met her son in Aachen.

In 1823, Désirée returned to Sweden together with her son's bride, Josephine of Leuchtenberg; the visit was initially to be but a short one. On 21 August 1829, she was crowned Queen at her own request. She also talked about a coronation in Norway, but the Norwegians found it impossible because of her religion. She was, in fact, not religious, but was forced to attend mass and confession by her daughter-in-law.^[19] 

She was the first commoner to be a queen since Karin Månsdotter in 1568. The 1830s were a period when she did her best to be active as a queen, a role she had never wanted to play.

 The decade is described as a time of balls and parties, more than had been seen at the Swedish court since the days of King; Gustav III, but Désirée soon grew tired of her royal status and wanted to return to France. However, her husband did not allow it.

There is nothing to indicate that she ever had any political influence. She spent her summers atRosersberg Palace, and often visited Swedish spas, such as [21]She went to bed late, and woke up late.

She never became very popular at the royal court and never learned to speak Swedish, and there are many anecdotes of her attempts to speak the language. She kept her French personal staff: during the first years, her niece, countess Marcelle Tascher de la Pagerie, was her lady-in-waiting. Among her other more known ladies-in-waiting were the Norwegians Kathinka Falbe and Jana Falbe; because of Desiree's eccentric habits, they were known as "Strapatsfröknarna" (approximately "Mlles. Calamity")

During her stays at Rosersberg Palace, she took walks in the parc by night, and as she had a fear of being attacked by bats, she instructed her ladies-in-waiting to walk in front of her dressed in white to attract the bats from her.

In 1844, her husband died. In 1853, she wished to return to Paris, but her fear of sea travel made it impossible. After becoming a widow, she grew more and more eccentric. She went to bed in the morning, got up in the evening, ate breakfast at night, and drove around in a carriage through the streets, in the courtyard, or wandered around the corridors of the sleeping castle with a light.^[24] An anecdote illustrates this: in 1843, a palace guard saw the queen fully dressed on the palace balcony in the middle of the night. When he came home to his wife, he told her that she was lazy in comparison to the queen, who had gotten up hours before sunrise.^[25] He thought Queen Désirée was up earlier than anyone else in town, but in fact, she had not yet gone to bed-–she would eventually get up from bed at three or four in the afternoon. She enjoyed making unannounced visits, and sometimes she would take in children from the streets to the palace and give them sweets; she was not able to engage in any real conversation, but she would say "Kom, kom!", which is Swedish for "Come come!"^[26]

There are other stories about people having been awakened by her carriage when she drove through the streets at night; the carriage sometimes stopped. She would sleep for a while, and then she would wake and the carriage would continue on its way. Sometimes she drove in circles around the royal palace: this habit was called "Kring Kring", one of the few Swedish words she learned, which means "around and around".^[27] On the last day of her life, she entered her box at the Royal Swedish Opera just after the performance had ended. Désirée died in Stockholm on 17 December 1860.[edit]
 

[edit]Désirée Clary in fiction

Désirée Clary is the subject of a popular novel, a mock autobiography by Annemarie Selinko, Désirée, 1951; and of two films:

• Le Destin fabuleux de Désirée Clary (1942) a French film made by Sacha Guitry

 

• Désirée (1954), an American film based on Selinko's book, with Jean Simmons and Marlon Brando
• The Selinko book mentioned above was originally published in 1951 in German, by Kiepenheuer & Witsch, and quickly rose to the best-seller lists around the world. It has been translated into many languages, including English, French, Spanish, Turkish, Greek, and Chinese.

Clary and Marie Tascher, better known as Joséphine de Beauharnais, the future wife of Napoleon and first empress of France, were also the subjects of a screen treatment written by John B. Langan and published in 1918, The Bernadotte Album, which purported to be "Founded on the memoirs of Marie Tascher and Désirée Clary."

en.wikipedia/Clary

28 Rue d'Anjou, Paris, (ancien n^o 36) : Hôtel datant du xviii^e siècle de la marquise de Nicolaï. L'ambassade de Hollande s'y installa après elle et y aménagea une chapelle protestante. L'hôtel fut ensuite acquis par le général Moreau. En 1804, Napoléon I^er le lui racheta pour 400 000 francs⁴⁶ et l'offrit⁴⁷ au maréchal Bernadotte et à sa femme née Désirée Clary. Celle-ci y habita dix-huit ans, y demeurant bien après que Bernadotte eut été appelé au trône de Suède. Le comte Joachim Clary (1802-1856), capitaine de cavalerie, sénateur, y mourut en 1856. L'hôtel a été détruit lors du prolongement du boulevard Malesherbes en 1861.