Encyclopedia > Joséphine de Beauharnais

  Article Content

Joséphine de Beauharnais

Josephine de Beauharnais (June 23, 1763 - May 29, 1814), Empress of France.

She was born Marie Joséphine Rose Tascher de la Pagerie in Troits-Ilets[?], Martinique.

In 1779 she married the French army officer Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais; he was guillotined during the Reign of Terror in 1794. With him she had a son, Eugène de Beauharnais (1781-1824), and a daughter, Hortense de Beauharnais (1783-1837).

As a widow, Joséphine de Beauharnais was mistress to several leading political figures. She met General Napoleon Bonaparte and married him in 1796. Josephine is said to have had regular affairs with other men, which almost led her to a divorce in 1799.

She became Empress of France in 1804 when Napoléon was crowned at Notre-Dame.

When it appeared she was unable to give him any children, she agreed to be divorced so he could remarry in the hopes of having an heir to succeed him. The divorce (January 10, 1810), was the first under the Napoleonic Code. After their divorce, she lived at the Chateau de Malmaison, near Paris. When she died in 1814 she was buried not far from there, at the St. Pierre and St. Paul church in Rueil[?]. Her daughter Hortense is interred near her.



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Springs, New York

... the population is spread out with 22.3% under the age of 18, 6.3% from 18 to 24, 31.0% from 25 to 44, 26.9% from 45 to 64, and 13.5% who are 65 years of age or older. The ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 40 ms