Napoleon and Josephine

On Thursday the 5 June 1806 at the Tuileries Louis Bonaparte was proclaimed King of Holland. He seems to have accepted his new dignity with much reluctance, not that he felt unequal to the position—for he believed himself superior to any task—but because he feared the dominating force of his brother. That the Emperor, in sending Louis to Holland, intended to make that country in fact a part of the Grand Empire, clearly appears in his formal address. In effect he said to Louis: “You are first of all a Frenchman; you are Constable of the Empire; you are the guardian of my strong-places; the interest of France commands, you must obey.” Louis, in substance, replied: “I am a Hollander; the people who acclaim me look to me for their happiness.”

If Louis was not fully satisfied, for her part Hortense was in despair. She felt that it was almost an act of suicide for her to leave Paris to go to this distant country, so cold and damp, to be shut up with a husband she detested.

After their marriage in January 1802 Louis and Hortense had resided in the little hôtel loaned them by Napoleon in the Rue de la Victoire. Almost from the first day they quarrelled over Joséphine, whom Louis disliked, and whom he wished as far as possible to keep separated from her daughter. He soon left Paris and was absent for many months. Practically abandoned by her husband the second month of her marriage, Hortense spent most of the spring and summer with Napoleon and Joséphine at the Tuileries and Malmaison. During the three weeks that her mother went to Plombières, Hortense did the honors of the Château. The situation was rather equivocal, and naturally gave rise to scandal. It was at this time that rumors were first circulated regarding the relations of Napoleon and Hortense. That there was no foundation for these reports may be stated most positively. Even Bourrienne, who cannot be accused of any great good-will towards Napoleon, declares: “I am happy to be able to give the most formal and positive denial to the infamous supposition that Bonaparte ever had for Hortense any other feelings than those of a step-father for a step-daughter. Authors without belief have attested without proofs not only the criminal liaison which they have imagined, but they have even gone so far as to say that Bonaparte was the father of the eldest son of Hortense. It is a lie, an infamous lie!”

These reports, first put in circulation by the Royalists, were repeated by members of the Emperor’s own family, and soon reached his ears. Under the circumstances Napoleon thought it advisable for Hortense to have a permanent home of her own. The last of July, accordingly, he purchased in the name of Louis and Hortense, and presented to them, a fine mansion near their temporary residence. Here on the 10 October 1802 was born their first child, Napoleon-Charles. In response to a formal order from his brother, Louis returned to Paris just in time to be present on the interesting occasion.

The birth of this child brought about a temporary reconciliation between Hortense and her husband, but Louis soon became uneasy again and left Paris for another absence which lasted until September 1803. Then for a short time they lived together at Compiègne where his brigade was stationed.

In the spring of 1804 Louis bought a large hôtel in Rue Cerutti, now Rue Laffitte, a most pretentious, but very gloomy house, without a ray of sunlight. At the same time he acquired at Saint-Leu, about twelve miles from Paris, a very beautiful country estate. For these two properties he paid approximately a million francs. Hortense spent the summer at Saint-Leu, which is very near Malmaison. On the 10 October 1804 she returned to her Paris house, where on the following day was born her second son, Napoleon-Louis. This was the child who was baptized with so much pomp by the Pope himself at Saint-Cloud just a week before his return to Rome.

During the campaign of Austerlitz, Louis was governor of Paris, and displayed so much zeal and activity in his new post that he won the enthusiastic approval of the Emperor, who always showed for him a strong partiality. After his great victory of the 2 December 1805, Napoleon began to carry out his projects for family alliances, and for the formation of a ring of buffer states surrounding the French Empire. Pursuant to this policy he arranged the two marriages spoken of above, and now he appointed Louis King of Holland.

Under the orders of the Emperor, Louis should have set out for Holland at once, but upon one pretext or another he deferred his departure for a week. On the 18 June the new King and Queen of Holland arrived at The Hague, where they passed the night in the old royal villa known as the House in the Wood (Huis ten Bosch), about a mile and a half from the city. Five days later they made their solemn entry into the capital, escorted only by native troops.

On the first day of July, Louis wrote the Emperor that as soon as his affairs were in good order he should leave The Hague for a month or six weeks to visit the baths. Exactly a month after his arrival, therefore, he set out for Wiesbaden accompanied by Hortense. Not satisfied with this course of baths, a month later he proceeded to Aix-la-Chapelle. While Prussia was arming, and Russia preparing for war, the new King of Holland continued conscientiously to take his cure.

At first Hortense seemed quite contented at The Hague. Her vanity was flattered and her imagination carried away by the glamour of royalty. In departing for Wiesbaden she took with her the little crown-prince who was her favorite child, but left the younger boy in Holland. She was on better terms with her husband than at any period since their marriage. She was also looking forward to going to Paris for the fête of the Emperor, when she expected to meet Eugène—“only to think of it was happiness.”

At daybreak on Thursday the 25 September 1806, accompanied by Joséphine, the Emperor left Saint-Cloud to put himself at the head of his army. They dined at Châlons, and continued their route during the night. At two o’clock the next afternoon they reached Metz, where the Emperor passed six hours in inspecting the fortifications. At ten o’clock they resumed their journey, and arrived at Mayence on the morning of the 28 September.

It is not easy to explain why Joséphine wanted to accompany Napoleon to Mayence and take up her residence there during the campaign. The Emperor certainly wished her to remain at the capital and fulfill her obligations there. Her thought seems to have been to keep as near as possible to Napoleon, in the hope that he would send for her, as at Strasbourg, as soon as his affairs would permit.

Napoleon remained only four days at Mayence, leaving on the evening of the first of October. When the hour for departure came he embraced Joséphine, who was in tears, and did not seem able to tear himself away from her. With one arm around his wife, he drew Talleyrand to him with the other, and cried: “It is very hard to leave the two persons that you love the most!” Then, after once more embracing Joséphine very tenderly, he departed.

Hortense and Stéphanie both came to Mayence to keep Joséphine company. The two cousins were not sorry to be separated for a time from their uncongenial husbands. As at Strasbourg the previous year, Joséphine held a miniature court, and received the homage of the princes of the Confederation of the Rhine.

The sadness of Napoleon was not of long duration: once more in his element, at the head of his troops, he regained his habitual composure. As usual his correspondence kept Joséphine fully informed of his movements:

To the Empress, at Mayence

At Sans-Souci the Emperor found the chamber of the great Frederick in the same condition that he left it at the time of his death, and still cared for by one of his old servants. On Sunday he visited the Garrison Church, where in a vault under the severely plain Lutheran pulpit is the marble sarcophagus which contains the ashes of the King. He ordered sent to the Hôtel des Invalides at Paris the sword and hat and sash of the great warrior which lay upon his tomb. Departing now for the first time from his usual practice, on Monday the 27 October Napoleon entered Berlin in triumph and took up his residence in the Royal Palace.

Meanwhile, at Mayence, Joséphine was sad and uneasy because the Emperor still failed to send for her. Napoleon writes:

To the Empress, at Mayence

Napoleon, who rightly held Queen Louisa largely responsible for the war, and for the disasters which had overwhelmed her people, in his bulletins had referred to the unfortunate woman in terms which were hardly chivalrous. Joséphine was struck by his lack of delicacy, and ventured to reproach him for his references to the Queen. This called forth the following reply:

To the Empress, at Mayence

To explain this episode, it should be stated that Prince de Hatzfeld, the Prussian governor of Berlin, had been allowed to retain his position upon his promise, under oath, that he would attend solely to the safety and welfare of the capital. A letter from him had been seized, in which he gave information of the positions of the French army around Berlin. This, by the laws of war, was military treason, and the penalty was death, if found guilty by a military commission.

This short campaign is without parallel even in Napoleon’s marvellous career. The pursuit of the defeated army by Murat was the most remarkable on record. With his cavalry, in three weeks he literally galloped from the Saale to the Baltic, sweeping up the remnants of the Prussian army and capturing the fortresses as he passed.

To the Empress, at Mayence

In his final letter from Berlin, on the 22 November, Napoleon wrote Joséphine that he would make up his mind in a few days either to send for her or to have her return to Paris. Four days later, from Kustrin, he told her to be ready to start, and that he would let her know in two days if she could come.

To the Empress, at Mayence

The following day, from the same place, Napoleon wrote two long letters, one at noon, and the other at six o’clock:

To the Empress, at Mayence

The Emperor remained at Posen two weeks longer, and during that period he wrote Joséphine again four times. Her jealousy was far from being calmed by his letters, but to show her affection, and her thought of him “alone” during the “long nights,” she sent him a rug as a present.

To the Empress, at Mayence

The Emperor left Posen before daybreak on the 16 December and arrived at Warsaw at one o’clock on the morning of the third day, having made two stops en route. Learning that the Russian army was at Pultusk, about thirty miles to the north, he at once headed his corps in that direction, and started for the front. The battle fought on the 26 December proved indecisive. The French, under the command of Lannes, were inferior in numbers, and could make little progress against the stubborn resistance of the Russians. The weather was frightful, and the roads almost impassable. The short day was made even shorter by the premature darkness due to the stormy cloudy weather. The Emperor, with his Guard, lost the way, and arrived on the field of battle long after the affair was over. In three letters to Joséphine, Napoleon tells of his arrival at Warsaw and the events which followed: