When Alexandre de Beauharnais was sixteen years of age, in December 1776, he received through the favor of the Duc de La Rochefoucauld a commission as sous-lieutenant in his regiment of the Sarre-infanterie. At this time he abandoned the courtesy title of chevalier, then given to the younger sons of noble families, and assumed that of vicomte, to which he had no valid claim. Dressed in his handsome new uniform of white cloth, with facings of silver-gray, the young vicomte proceeded to Rouen, where his regiment had just arrived in garrison. Here he went through his military exercises, and perfected himself in mathematics and horsemanship. At this time he was far from thinking of marriage, but he did not know the plans of that “high and mighty dame,” his godmother.

When he returned home to pass a six months’ leave of absence, Madame Renaudin played her cards so well that Alexandre readily assented to her ideas, in order more quickly to enjoy his fortune. On the 23 October 1777, the marquis wrote the following letter to M. de la Pagerie:

“Each of my children has at present an income of forty thousand livres. It is in your power to give me one of your daughters to share the fortune of my chevalier. The respect and attachment which he has for Madame de Renaudin make him ardently desire to be united to one of her nieces. I assure you that I only acquiesce in his wishes in asking you for the second, whose age is the most suitable for him.

“I deeply regret that your eldest daughter is not a few years younger: she certainly would have had the preference, for I have formed an equally favorable opinion of her; but I must admit that my son, who is only seventeen and a half years old, thinks that a young lady of fifteen is too nearly of his own age. There are occasions when sensible parents are forced to yield to circumstances.”

As Alexandre, besides the income of 40,000 livres from the estate of his mother, had expectations of 25,000 more, the marquis did not request M. de la Pagerie to furnish any dot. He only asked that the father make haste to bring his daughter to France; or, if he could not come himself, to send her with a trustworthy companion, by a commercial vessel, as “she would have a more comfortable and agreeable voyage.”

When this letter of the marquis reached Martinique, the second daughter of M. de la Pagerie, Désirée, was dead, of a malignant fever, at the age of thirteen; and the youngest daughter, Françoise, was not yet twelve years old. In January, the father writes that, in default of the second daughter, he is willing to offer the third, but that it would be better to accept the first. He says that she (Joséphine) has a very fine complexion, and very beautiful arms, and that she is very anxious to go to Paris.

Madame Renaudin’s plan was that Alexandre should marry one of her nieces: she did not care whether it was the youngest or the oldest. Therefore, without wasting time in vain regrets over the death of Désirée, she wrote her brother, in March 1778, “Come with one of your girls, or two; whatever you do will be agreeable to us. We must have one of your children.”

In reply to this letter, M. de la Pagerie wrote, the last of June, that his youngest daughter had been ill for three months, and was in no condition to travel, and that he would bring Joséphine. When received, in September, this information was communicated to Alexandre, who was then stationed with his regiment near Brest, and he accepted the substitution with good grace, though with little enthusiasm.

Before M. de la Pagerie could sail, however, France and England were again at war, and his departure was delayed for more than a year. Finally, in October 1779, Madame Renaudin received a letter from her brother, announcing that he and his daughter had arrived at Brest, after a terrible voyage, and that he was detained there by illness. She at once set out with Alexandre to join them.

This was the first encounter between Alexandre and Joséphine since their childhood days, as she was only six years old when he left Martinique. To judge by his letters to his father at this time, he was far from enthusiastic over his Creole fiancée. He said that she was not as pretty as his father might expect, but that the sweetness of her character surpassed anything that had been said of her.

The party of four travelled slowly to Paris, where they arrived the middle of November, and joined the marquis in his hôtel, Rue Thévenot, where he was just installed. The banns had already been published three times in Martinique in April, and they were now published again in Paris. Madame Renaudin at once occupied herself with ordering the trousseau, for which she expended the large sum of twenty thousand livres.

On the 10 December the contract was signed at the hôtel of the marquis in the presence of all the male members of the family, no ladies being present! Of the family of the bride, there was present, aside from M. de la Pagerie and his sister, only a very distant cousin.

As Alexandre had so large an income, the marquis did not make any settlement on him at the time of the marriage. The dot of the bride was furnished by her aunt. Besides the trousseau, already mentioned, Madame Renaudin gave her a house at Noisy-le-Grand, in the vicinity of Paris, which she had purchased in October 1776, for the sum of 33,000 livres, and had furnished at a further cost of about 30,000 livres. To use the expression commonly employed by ladies in those days (and perhaps since), when they did not care to state from what source their money was derived, these funds were doubtless the “proceeds of her diamonds.”

Three days after the signing of the contract, on the 13 December 1779, the marriage was celebrated in the church at Noisy, in the presence of nearly the same persons who witnessed the signing of the contract. No woman signed the register!

Immediately after the marriage, the young couple took up their residence in the sombre hôtel of the marquis in Paris. For the young Creole it was a sad change from the brilliant sunshine, the entire liberty, and the dolce far niente of the Antilles. The Beauharnais had few friends in Paris, and Joséphine had not even an acquaintance. In the spring, Alexandre returned to his regiment at Brest, and Joséphine remained in Paris with her father-in-law, her aunt, and her father, who was still ill.

Returning to Paris, when his regiment was ordered to Verdun, Alexandre made no effort to introduce his wife in society. He thought her awkward and ignorant: even worse, she seemed to him plain, devoid of grace and tournure, with ridiculous ideas of conjugal love, tenderness and jealousy. He had married to be free to enjoy his fortune, and he had no intention of being tied down to his wife. It was difficult enough to secure entry to the Court for himself alone, and he owed his position there mainly to the fact that he was a fine dancer. He could never hope to introduce a wife who had neither money, nor friends, nor social position. In fact, despite the legends to the contrary, Joséphine was never presented at the Court of Marie-Antoinette.

While Alexandre visited from château to château, his wife continued to lead the same quiet, uneventful life at Noisy or at Paris. On the 3 September 1781, she gave birth in the hôtel, Rue Thévenot, to a son, who the following day was baptized in the church of Saint-Sauveur, and received the name of Eugène.

The first of November, Alexandre left Paris for a trip to Italy, from which he did not return until the end of July. For a short time after his return, he was more attentive to his wife, but the improvement in their relations did not last long. One who knew him well has said that he was “d’une grande coquetterie avec les femmes,” and such he remained until the end of his life. Joséphine was naturally of a jealous temperament, and she certainly had reason enough to “faire des scènes.”

Alexandre was hardly back a month in Paris before he was thinking of leaving again. At that time M. de Bouillé, the governor of the Windward Islands, was in France with the object of persuading the Government to authorize an expedition against the English. Warmly supported by his old patron, M. de La Rochefoucauld, Alexandre tried, but in vain, to secure the position of aide de camp to Bouillé. He was so determined to leave, however, that on the 26 September 1782 he sailed for Martinique as a simple volunteer, having obtained an indefinite leave of absence from the Minister of War. He arrived at the island in the month of November, but found no chance to distinguish himself, as the war was drawing to a close. The preliminaries of peace were signed the 20 January 1783, and all hostilities ceased in the Antilles as soon as the news was received.

On the 10 April 1783 a daughter was born to Joséphine in the new hôtel of the marquis, Rue Saint-Charles, and was baptized the following day as Hortense-Eugénie. In the certificate the father is described as “Vicomte de Beauharnais, Baron de Beauville, capitaine au régiment de la Sarre, actuellement en Amérique pour le service du Roi.”

At that time it took at least two months for a letter to go from Paris to Martinique, and Alexandre did not receive the news before the middle of June. After waiting three weeks, he wrote Joséphine as follows:

“If I had written you in the first moment of my anger, my pen would have burnt the paper ...; but for more than three weeks I know, at least in part, what I wish you to understand. In spite then of the despair of my soul, the rage which suffocates me, I shall know how to restrain myself; I shall know how to tell you coldly that you are in my eyes the vilest of human beings; that my stay here has enabled me to learn of the abominable life you led here; that I know, in the fullest particulars, your intrigue with M. de B., officer of the Régiment de la Martinique, also that with M. d’H....; I know finally the contents of your letters and I will bring with me one of the presents you made.... I do not ask you for repentance: you are incapable of it; a person who, while making her preparations to depart, could receive her lover in her arms, when she knows that she is destined for another, has no soul; she is lower than all the coquines on earth.... What can I think of this last child, born more than eight months after my return from Italy? I am forced to accept it, but I swear by the Heaven which enlightens me that it belongs to another, that it is the blood of a stranger which flows in its veins.... Make your own arrangements accordingly; never, never, will I put myself in a position to be abused again, and as you are a woman to impose on the public if we live under the same roof, have the goodness to retire to a convent, as soon as you receive my letter; it is my last word, and nothing on earth can make me change it. I will go to see you on my arrival in Paris, once only: I wish to have a talk with you and to give you something.”

It is impossible to read this letter without feeling that Alexandre at the time sincerely believed that he had been wronged by Joséphine both before and after their union. During his stay in Martinique, he had begun, as usual, to “courir les femmes,” and had formed a liaison with a young woman who was an enemy of the Taschers, jealous of the fine marriage which Madame Renaudin had arranged for her niece, and ready to employ all means to disturb the peace of the family. It was from her that Alexandre obtained the information as to Joséphine’s early love affairs.

After arranging to meet his mistress in Paris, Alexandre sailed the middle of August, and arrived in France six weeks later. He found awaiting him at the port letters from his father and Madame Renaudin, attempting to bring about a reconciliation. En route for Paris he wrote Joséphine that he was surprised to learn that she was not yet in a convent, and that his decision was unalterable. On receiving this letter at Noisy, Joséphine rushed to Paris, to meet her husband on his arrival, but Alexandre did not go to his father’s house.

Every possible effort was made by the marquis and Madame Renaudin to effect a reconciliation, but the vicomte remained inflexible. After a month of fruitless attempts, Joséphine retired, with her aunt, to the Abbaye de Panthémont, Rue de Grenelle, and early in December began a formal action for separation. In her complaint she sets forth in the greatest detail the existence which she has led; the indifference of her husband, who in nearly three years of married life has passed less than ten months with her. In conclusion she states the formal refusal of her husband to resume their life in common, and files a copy of the letter quoted above, which constitutes her principal grievance against him.

It is certain that if Alexandre had any proofs of the misconduct of Joséphine subsequent to their marriage, he would not have hesitated at this time to bring them forward. The allegation regarding Hortense is disproved by a simple examination of the dates. As for the other charges, fifteen months later he voluntarily and explicitly withdrew them. In March 1785, he met Joséphine in the office of his notary and consented formally to a separation. All the provisions of this act are greatly to the honor of Joséphine, and prove conclusively that there was no basis for the grave charges Alexandre had made when under the spell of an ignoble woman.

Joséphine was to live where she pleased; to receive from her husband an allowance of 5000 livres a year; to have the custody of Eugène until he was five years old; to keep Hortense, for whose maintenance her father was to pay 1000 livres quarterly in advance until she was seven years old, and 1500 livres after that age. Alexandre further agreed to pay all the legal expenses of the suit. Such was the end of this famous action, from which Joséphine carried off all the honors of war.

The sojourn of Joséphine at Panthémont was of great advantage to her in every way. The Abbaye was like an immense furnished hôtel, of the highest respectability, open only to women of “la première distinction,” and there Joséphine for the first time had an opportunity of meeting women of her own social rank. She was received as the Vicomtesse de Beauharnais, an unfortunate, irreproachable young woman, the victim of a cruel husband.

For a woman of the world, Joséphine already possessed two of the essential requisites: she was a coquette and she knew how to lie. In these two respects, her husband undoubtedly had a grievance against her. And to these two qualities, Joséphine adds, by the faculty of assimilation which is one of her strongest traits, that physical education which in a new society is to place her in a class by herself. Little by little a transformation is effected in her personality, which changes the heavy and awkward Creole into a being delicate and souple, a being desirable above all, who knows how to attract and to hold. From every point of view this retreat of fifteen months was profitable to her.

On leaving the Panthémont early in 1786 Joséphine, at twenty-three years of age, found herself free, with an income of 9000 livres for the support of Hortense and herself. At this time she sold the estate at Noisy, and with the proceeds she bought at Fontainebleau a little house, where she went to live with her aunt and the marquis. They had a few friends in that locality, and in their society the days passed pleasantly. At that time the Court was obliged to practice the strictest economy, and for two years the royal hunt was abandoned.

In September 1786, under the terms of the act of separation, Eugène was sent to his father, who placed him at school. Hortense was brought home from Chelles, where she had been for two years with a nurse, and was at once inoculated, by orders of the marquis, who was a great believer in all innovations.

Abandoned at twenty-three years by her husband, whose liaisons with other women were open and notorious; attractive, passionate, extremely coquette, is it probable that Joséphine did not have a lover? Several names have been mentioned in this connection, but we have no proofs. All we know is that in June 1788 Joséphine suddenly sailed for Martinique, taking Hortense with her. None of her biographers has ever been able to find a satisfactory explanation of this voyage. It has been surmised that it was either for the purpose of concealing the results of her imprudence, or else was on account of the pressing need of money. But, if the latter, was it not easier to await at Fontainebleau the remittances from her father, who acted as agent of the marquis, than to go three thousand miles in search of them? In default of any documents we are reduced to conjectures, and with our knowledge of Joséphine can only imagine one of two reasons: debts or love. The biographers friendly to Joséphine attribute her journey to the former cause; but it is rather strange that her enemies have not seized on the fact that Decrès, writing by Napoleon’s orders in 1807, spoke of “the demoiselle of eighteen years, whom Madame de la Pagerie has adopted.” Had this girl, known as Marie-Bénaquette Tascher de la Pagerie, been really only eighteen years of age at that time, she must have been born early in 1789, that is to say during this visit of Joséphine, and not in March 1786, as stated in the document of doubtful authenticity already mentioned. Therefore, on the ground of date alone, there was no reason why “Marie-Joseph-Rose,” as stated in the certificate, could not have been the mother, instead of Marie-Françoise. Turquan, who is always unfriendly to Joséphine, does not hesitate to insinuate that Joséphine had a daughter during this visit to Martinique in 1789, six years after her separation from her husband, and gives as his authority a study of M. Frédéric Masson upon Joséphine avant Bonaparte, published in the Revue de Paris. This girl, Marie-Bénaquette, was married in March 1808 to the private secretary of the captain-general of Martinique, a Monsieur Blanchet, and her dot of sixty thousand francs was provided by the Emperor, doubtless at the request of Joséphine. The whole episode is a curious one, to say the least.

Whatever her motive may have been, Joséphine was in great haste to leave France at the earliest possible moment. Finding on her arrival at Havre that the government vessel which she had expected to take could not sail for two weeks, she engaged passage for Hortense and herself on a private ship, and sailed at once.

The voyage was pleasant and rapid. Arrived at Martinique Joséphine went directly to Trois-Îlets, where she remained nearly two years. We have no record of this visit, but her life must have been very dull. The family was very poor, and both her father and her sister Françoise were ill.

Her father died in November 1790, two months after Joséphine’s departure, and her sister a year later.