Empress Josephine

Good morning we are continuing our way through the women who made history and today we are going to explore Empress Josephine.  The run time for this documentary is 52:17.

Empress Josephine was Napoleon Bonaparte’s, great love.  During the Time of the French Revolution, everyone knows Marie Josephe Rose Tascher de Le Pagerie.  History would know her as Josephine.  The Reign of Terror has just ended and she had just barely escaped the guillotine.  She would meet a Corsican general who was just beginning his career.  This general was six years younger than her but he fell madly in love with her.  The pair would eventually marry and would write world history.

Josephine came from a noble background, even though she had connections with a variety of people including the revolutionaries.  She loved clothes and jewelry and would love to spend money.  She had been married before and had two children.  She would marry Napoleon after a few months.  Did she need a protector or was she a schemer?  Napoleon loved the military and Josephine loved luxury.  From the outsider, they seemed to be an unlikely pair to change the course of history.

The story of Josephine begins on the island of Martinique.  She grew up on a sugar plantation, but never really talked about her childhood or life on the island.  Her family belonged to the low nobility.  At the age of 16, she sails to France to marry Alexandre de Beauharnais.  His family was part of the ancient aristocracy.  Josephine hoped that she would find herself in the lap of luxury.  Alexandre was not a good husband to Josephine and he constantly neglects her.  He also has a variety of mistresses.  He eventually becomes convinced that Josephine cheated on him and throws her out of the house.  Josephine fights back and returns home.  She decides that she needs to rely on herself.  Society turns its back on Josephine and so she is never received at court in Versailles.

Then the French Revolution happened.  Josephine and her family are swept up in the Revolution.  Her husband is guillotined during the Reign of Terror.  Josephine, even though she had connections among both revolutionaries and royalists, was looked at with suspicion.  She was eventually arrested and imprisoned.  When the Reign of Terror ended, she was freed.

Josephine would become known as an “it girl.”  She hosted parties for the elite.  She made many friends and she benefits from the opportunities after the Reign of Terror.  Through her friendships, she was able to recover her husband’s fortunes and take her place in French High Society.  Even though she was in her thirties, she was still a beautiful woman.  She enjoyed a life of luxury and power in Paris.  The press kept an eye on her.

It was at that time, that Napoleon arrived in Paris.  He was a capable military man the ruling class wanted to use him in their fighting.  At twenty-six years old, he put-downs an uprising and he is named Colonel in Chief of the State Army.  He meets Josephine.  He is a small man and Josephine is the toast of high society.  They were an unlikely pairing.  Napoleon was in love; however, Josephine’s feelings are unclear.  Although there is evidence that she was the driving force behind the marriage.  Five months after they meet, they marry much to their friends’ surprise.  Even historians today cannot understand why they rushed into marriage.  After they marry, Napoleon rushes off to war in Italy.  Josephine would remain behind in Italy.

What was it about Josephine that allowed her to make her mark on history?  How would she feel about Napoleon’s rise to the Imperial Throne?  Who is the real Josephine?  Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more.

The introduction to Josephine’s story was very long and bounced between the timeline of Josephine’s story.  I felt confused at times watching the introduction.  It was also a long introduction to the documentary.  I think I would have made the introduction shorter and then went into her childhood, first marriage, and how she navigated the French Revolution.  This would be a good documentary for research purposes on Josephine or Napoleon and if you have a student working on a paper about them then you can point them to this documentary.