The Greatest Romance Story

The story of Napoleon and Josephine is one of the great romantic stories, but what is less well known is how it all ended.

After her coronation as empress it was apparent she had reached the menopause and as Josephine’s grandson died (who was the heir apparent Napoleon was keenly aware he had founded a dynasty with no male heir. Eventually he married the much younger Austrian princess Marie-Louise of by proxy. The purposes was to conceive an heir rather than a love match and it’s interesting to note that even after the divorce Napoleon insisted Josephine retain the title of empress.

After the divorce, Joséphine lived at the Château de Malmaison, near Paris. She remained on good terms with Napoléon, who once said that the only thing to come between them was her debts.

In 1811 Marie- Louise delivered a long-awaited heir, to whom Napoleon gave the title “King of Rome”. Joséphine met the young prince in 1813 which must have been bitter sweet for her. In the first few months of 1814 contracted died of pneumonia just four days after catching cold during a walk with Tsar Alexander in the gardens of Malmaison. She was buried in the nearby church of Saint Pierre-Saint Paul in Rueil.

At this moment in time Napoleon was in exile in Elba and learned of the news not via friend or family but by newspaper. He stayed locked in his room for two days, refusing to see anyone. He claimed to a friend, while in exile on Saint Helena, that “I truly loved my Joséphine, but I did not respect her.” Napoleon would of course rally and fight the Waterloo campaign where he was beaten and sent to an island in the middle of Atlantic where he lived for the rest of his days. Despite his numerous affairs, eventual divorce, and remarriage, the Emperor’s last words on his death bed were: “France, l’armée, tête d’armée, Joséphine”. Translated that’s the slightly bizarre but romantic list of “France, the Army, the Head of the Army, Joséphine.”

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