(1778-1846)
King of Holland
1810
Prince of France 1810
Comte de Saint-Leu
Constable of France 1808.
Son of: Carlo Buonaparte & Letizia Ramolino.
Husband of: Hortense de Beauharnais, mar 1802.
"Who was this Georges Ville? When Napoleon Bonaparte apportioned the conquered countries of Europe to his brothers, Louis Bonaparte received in 1806 the newly established throne of Holland. Louis Bonaparte was married, though rather indifferently, to Hortense Beauharnais, the daughter of Josephine, Napoleon's first Empress, and her previous husband, the Vicomte de Beauharnais. Louis was not interested in kingship; he had little sympathy with his brother's efforts to form a European bloc and made the cession of Brabant to France an excuse to abdicate in 1810. Louis found greater happiness with the housemaids of Hortense and to one of these was born Georges Ville at Port Saint-Esprit (Gard), taking his name from Georges Ville, a police commissioner at Lyon who was asked to marry the housemaid. Hortense, just as unfaithful, had a lover, the comte de Flahaut, as a result of which Charles, the future duc de Morny, was born in 1811. Ville and Morny were, therefore, the half-brothers of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, a legitimate son of Louis and Hortense, who was to become Napoleon III in 1852 following a coup d'etat in 1851 which was organised by Morny. Little is known of Ville's early life except that he was one of Boussingault's students at the Conservatoire, probably in 1846, and that he left for a post at the Ecole de Pharmacie before returning to the Convservatoire in 1848 as demonstrator to Boussingault." (Boussingault: Chemnist adn Agriculturist: 110)
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(1783-1837)
Physical appearance & personal qualities.
"Bonaparte became consul in December, 1799, Hortense attaining about the same period her eighteenth year. She was at this time a very pretty and pleasing young lady. Her light silken hair played round a face of pure pink and white, though her color was slight, and her complexion therefore rather pale than florid. Her eyes were a soft and penetrable blue. Her figure was slender, and her carriage graceful. Her manner was engaging, combining the stimulating vivacity of a Frenchwoman with the languid suavity of a Creole. . . . " (Goodrich & Champagne, 1858, p. 283)
Persona or Character: ", , , She was witty, but not caustic. She cultivated flowers, and successfully transferred their color and forms to paper. She composed and sang ballads, and was an excellent amateur actress." (Goodrich & Champagne, 1858, p. 283)
"Hortense de Beauharnais, wife of Louis Bonaparte, had four sons, each by a different man but with the name Bonaparte (only the eldest by her husband), while the fourth was by her lover the Comte de Flahaut, himself the illegitimate son of Talleyrand. The son became the Duc de Morny and like his putative grandfather, foreign minister to a Napoleon. (Sainty, 2000, December 30)
"She was born in Paris, the daughter of Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais. As a child she was a great favorite of her step-father, Napoleon I, and in 1802 married his brother Louis, King of Holland (1806-1810); the youngest of their three children became Napoleon III. In 1810-1811 she was the mistress of Comte Auguste de Flahaut, their son becoming Duc de Morny. She was created Duchesse de St. Leu by Louis XVIII (1814) at Czar Alexander III's request. She was a gifted artist and composer...." (Houghton Mifflin Co., p. 129)
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| Hortense, Queen of Holland |
Her lover was:
Lover in 1810-1811
"In 1811 Hortense de Beauharnais, daughter of Empress Josephine, found herself pregnant by her lover, a handsome soldier named Charles de Flahaut. Hortense had not lived with her husband, Louis Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother, for years. Though Napoleon had made them king and queen of the Netherlands in 1806, Hortense reaped little benefit from her exalted status. King Louis forced his wife to remain in her rooms---which smelled of sewage and overlooked a graveyard---while he enjoyed palace entertainments." (Herman, 2007, p. 44)
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| Pauline Bonaparte Princesse Borghese |
Wife of: Camillo Borghese (1775-1832), mar 1803, Italian aristocrat
6th Principe di Sulmona 1800, 7th Principe di Rossano, Prince of the Empire 1805, General of the Empire, Prince of France 1804, Chief of the Imperial Guards 1806, Duca e Principe di Guastalla 1806, Governor-General of Piedmont, Genoa & Parma 1808, Supreme Commander of French divisions 1809,
Prince Borghese's physical appearance & personal qualities.
"In Paris, meanwhile, Napoleon cultivated the company of Cardinal Caprara, Pius VII's legate. It was Caprara who presented to the first consul in April 1803 Prince Camillo Borghese, a Roman citizen of high birth and great wealth, whose arrival in the French capital had already made a great stir the previous month. Although he was not tall, Prince Borghese had a neat figure, a handsome face, and exotic Mediterranean looks. "This head with coal black eyes and mane of jet black hair, it seemed to me, must contain not only passionate but great and noble ideas,' Laure Junot wrote soulfully of her first encounter with the prince. To add to his attractions, Prince Borghese paid great attention to his dress, and still more to his horses, eclipsing with his coach and four even the equipage of the Russian count Demidov, which had till then the showiest in Paris. But then Camillo Borghese had the advantage, as excited Parisians turned accountants estimated, of possessing rent roll of two million francs a year." (Pauline Bonaparte: Venus of Empire: 92)
"Rome has always absorbed her conquerors; perhaps it was this consideration that made her welcome Pauline Bonaparte as Princess Camillo Borghese. Pauline, widowed, had returned from the Indies and had been put under the strict chaperonage of one of her brothers' lest her mourning take an undesirable direction.' Camillo was dark and handsome and one of the great princes of Italy; he was also, according to both history and the tradition of his family, quite remarkably stupid. Perhaps any man would have seemed dull to her beside Napoleon, who some gossips thought was her lover. . . [T]he marriage of Pauline and Camillo was never a happy one. The Duchess d'Abrantes, in her memoirs, tells of Pauline stating that to be with her husband was to be along . . . 'That idiot!' Nevertheless she valued the marriage, since it meant being 'a real princess.' The Duchess shows her to us as queening it over her sisters-in-law, with all the Borghese diamonds sewed to her green velvet dress. She had no taste, the Duchess says, and she looked beautiful." (The Secret Archives of the Vatican: 289)
". . . Known for her beauty, her impulsiveness and her questionable moral sense, Pauline loved Napoleon and was the least demanding of all his siblings." (Shannon Selin)
Pauline's physical appearance and personal qualities:
From Madame Ducrest:
"She was the loveliest woman I ever beheld; there was not the slightest imperfection in her delicious face, to which was joined an elegant figure and the most seductive grace. She was an incomparable beauty, but she had little or no instruction, no conversational powers, and her manners were exceedingly dissolute. . . ." (The Marriages of the Bonapartes, Vol 2: 227)
Pauline's Love Life: "She [Pauline, Napoleon's favourite sister was a born cocotte. Created a princess, she lived like a courtesan, and yet of all the tribe of pinch beck kings and queens and princesses, moved over the European chess-board by a ruthless player, she is the most warmly human and vivid, with a touch of the Napoleonic fire.... She reduced her lovers to abject slaves. At a picnic she commanded one of her court to lie on his stomach that she might sit on his back, and another to lie on his back that she might rest her feet on his stomach." (Bingham: 74)
Pauline's first unknown lover.
"According to Peltier, Pauline had her first lover at Marseilles in 1794, that is to say when she was fourteen. He omits to inform us of his name, but makes up for that by telling us that she bathed stark naked in the harbour. . . ." (Fleischmann: 10)
Four Scores!: In 1812 we find Pauline with four lovers! Lieutenant de Brack, a brilliant soldier, who seems to have been well fitted to become an intimate acquaintance of the Princess' without any waste of time; Commander Durchand, whom we shall meet again about 1814; Canouville, who is far away amidst the snows of Russia; and lastly, Talma. Such is the lovers' four-in-hand that she sets herself to drive; God knows how and with what attention at awkward moments! (Fleischman: 202)
Swinging Six Weeks: "General Hardy reported to his wife in France that, at Port-au-Prince, Madame Leclerc was bored to death, and he was content to have left Madame Hardy at home. However, in the years following the expedition to Saint-Domingue, exotic rumours circulated about the six weeks that Pauline had spent in the capital without her husband, and, as her fame spread, so did the tales of her infamous doings during this period. She succumbed to the 'island vice,' runs one account, and indulged in lesbian affairs with two women at a time, then passed from their arms to those of General Jean-Francois Debelle, known as the 'Apollo of the French army.' Another lascivious report asserts: 'The tropical sun was, they say, astonished by the ardor of her passions.' A third source claims that she experimented with white and black lovers to see which she preferred. Finally there is the accusation that she conducted an affair with General Jean Robert Humbert, a notoriously cruel French administrator. Her later employment in France of a large black page to carry her to her bath and act as outrider on her carriage did nothing to dispel the rumors." (Fraser)
Russian general & ambassador
Lover in 18190-1811?.
Lover in 18190-1811?.
"Pauline's energy in these years was prodigious, and the tales of her conquests legion, featuring, among others, the wasp-waisted Russian general Prince Alexander Tchernicheff, emissary of the czar. . . . " (Pauline Bonaparte: Venus of Empire: 179)
"The Tsar was not the only person impressed. So too were the ladies. Count Chernyshev was witty, charming, extremely fastidious in his dress and manners and exactly the kind of dashing devil who set female hearts aflutter. It is rumored that, during his years in Paris, Chernyshev conquered the hearts of several ladies in Napoleon's court, including the heart of the Emperor's younger sister, Pauline Bonaparte (1780 - 1825), a young woman whose letters indicate complete fascination." (Wikitree)
His other lovers were:
"Weeks later, after completing his investigation, Savary, the French Minister of police, concluded that Chernyshev had successfully seduced the wives of Marshalls Ney, Duroc and Senator Beauharnais, and had used his agents to influence or bribe just about every minister of importance in France." (Wikitree)
2) Auguste Duchaud.
French military officer.
"Neither Pauline's concern for Jules de Canouville, her fondness for Forbin, not her current relationship with Talma precluded her finding a new admirer at the baths. Auguste Duchaud, an oversize artillery officer who had served in Spain under Suchet and Sebastiani, was convalescing at Aix-les-Bains following wounds incurred at the Battle of Valencia. With Pauline's encouragement he became a devoted visitor to the Maison Chevaley. But for some time he remained in awe of the tiny princess and her autocratic ways. One day Laure d'Abrantes found him among the company gathered at the Maison Chevaley. As Laure tells us, the short climb from the spa to the house was steep and some of it not negotiable by horse. In consequence her footwear and hose and those of other guests were irksomely dirty upon arrival, in contrast to those of their elegant hostess---and, mysteriously, those of Lieutenant Captain Duchaud. He was something of a dandy, and his unsullied knee boots were gleaming with wax." (Venus of Empire: The Life of Pauline Bonaparte: 190)
"He left for Rome one day, and did not return, being replaced by one Duchaud, who had been Napoleon's orderly officer and of whom it was said that Napoleon had wanted to be rid. Duchaud was a very handsome man and, it was rumoured, was the lover, or one of the lovers, of Princess Pauline." (With Napoleon's Guns: The Military Memoirs of an Officer of the First Empire: 42)
3) Casimir de Montrond (1769-1843)
French aristocrat & diplomat"He left for Rome one day, and did not return, being replaced by one Duchaud, who had been Napoleon's orderly officer and of whom it was said that Napoleon had wanted to be rid. Duchaud was a very handsome man and, it was rumoured, was the lover, or one of the lovers, of Princess Pauline." (With Napoleon's Guns: The Military Memoirs of an Officer of the First Empire: 42)
3) Casimir de Montrond (1769-1843)
Comte de Montrond, Comte de Mouret
Lover in 1811.
Son of: Angelique-Marie d'Arlus, Comtesse de Montrond.
Husband of: Aimee de Coigny." . . . Her son Casimir remained in Paris during the Terror, and was imprisoned at Saint-Lazare, with the Duchess de Fleury, who, after her divorce, had resumed her name of Coigny; it was for her that Andre Chenier wrote "La Jeune Captive.' She owed her life to the intervention of Montrond; for a hundred louis he obtained her liberty as well as his own. After the 9th Thermidor, he married her, and they left together for England. Their honeymoon was not long; she obtained a divorce and returned to France, where she died in 1830 at the age of forty-four. There can be little doubt that the Memoirs which she left must have been of great interest; they were probably not flattering to her husband. Unfortunately, they were confided by her to Talleyrand, and they have disappeared; Montrond evidently obtained their suppression from his powerful friend." (The Nation, Volume 60: 234)
" . . . In August, 1792, he resigned, which ultimately led to his being put under lock and key at Saint-Lazare. There he came to know that frivolous, amorous, Aimee de Coigny, a fellow-prisoner . . . We know how M. de Montrond married her, to abandon her soon afterwards, flitting from bedroom to bedroom, from Mme. Recamier's to Mme. Hamelin's, from the sentimental surrender of Lady Yarmouth, who gave him a son, Lord Seymour, to Pauline's voluptuous frenzies. . . . ." (Pauline Bonaparte and Her Lovers: 152)
Pauline's lover: " . . . That summer (1811)...Pauline embarked at Aix-la-Chapelle on an affair with 'le beau Montrond,' the fashionable diplomat and confidant of Talleyrand...."
Montrond's personal & family background.
"Montrond was a personality of the period. Philippe Francois Casimir, as his Christian names ran, was born at Besancon, on February 10, 1769, the son of an officer in the French Guards, and of a fiery royalist mother who subsequently returned from her voluntary exile pitted by smallpox and deaf. At nineteen years of age Montrond was a lieutenant in the Mestre-de-Camp Cavalry, and he took part in the early fights of the 1792 campaign, as A.D.C., successively, to Mathieu Dumas, Theodore de Lameth, and La Tour-Manbourg. His dandified ways were famous. 'What scent will M. le Comte use this campaign?' his valet used to ask before each departure. M. de Montrond avoided taking apart in those that savoured of Jacobinism. In August, 1792, he resigned, which ultimately led to his being put under lock and key at Saint-Lazare. There he came to know that frivolous, amorous, Aimee de Coigny, a fellow-prisoner . . . ." (Pauline Bonaparte and Her Lovers: 152)
4) Charles-Maxime de Villemarest (1785-1852)
Secretary of Camillo Borghese.
French writer
"If the Emperor thought nothing of the attentions paid to Pauline by Marie-Louise's uncle, the Prince of Wurzburg, if he shut his eyes to the undoubted intrigue with Maxime de Villemarest, Borghese's secretary, and subsequently hact-writer-reviser to the publisher Ladvocat, it was not the same with regard to M. Jules de Canouville who, somewhere about 1810, made the utmost of one of the Princess's amorous caprices. . . ." (Pauline Bonaparte and Her Lovers: 157)
"If the Emperor thought nothing of the attentions paid to Pauline by Marie-Louise's uncle, the Prince of Wurzburg, if he shut his eyes to the undoubted intrigue with Maxime de Villemarest, Borghese's secretary, and subsequently hact-writer-reviser to the publisher Ladvocat, it was not the same with regard to M. Jules de Canouville who, somewhere about 1810, made the utmost of one of the Princess's amorous caprices. . . ." (Pauline Bonaparte and Her Lovers: 157)
5) Conrad Friedrich.
German Lieutenant.
German Lieutenant.
Lover between 1808 & 1812.
"One of her conquests around this time was Conrad Friedrich, an impressionable young German-born lieutenant on a temporary mission to Paris to request reinforcements for Napoleon's occupying army in Italy. He visited Pauline in Neuilly in the hopes that she might influence her brother to secure the necessary troops. On their first meeting, Pauline and Friedrich enjoyed an idyllic walk in her gardens, and while she insisted to Friedrich that she had no special power over the emperor, she invited him to return the following day---for an assignation." (Royal Pains: A Rogues' Gallery of Brats, Brutes and Bad Seeds)
"One of her conquests around this time was Conrad Friedrich, an impressionable young German-born lieutenant on a temporary mission to Paris to request reinforcements for Napoleon's occupying army in Italy. He visited Pauline in Neuilly in the hopes that she might influence her brother to secure the necessary troops. On their first meeting, Pauline and Friedrich enjoyed an idyllic walk in her gardens, and while she insisted to Friedrich that she had no special power over the emperor, she invited him to return the following day---for an assignation." (Royal Pains: A Rogues' Gallery of Brats, Brutes and Bad Seeds)
"One such was a young German lieutenant named Conrad Friedrich, who had formed part of the army of occupation that Napoleon sent to Rome to arrest the pope and annex the Papal States to France. The lieutenant, in Paris to beg reinforcements and the rank of marshal for his commanding officer in Rome, went to Neuilly to inquire if the princess would use her influence with her brother to secure his objectives, and he caught Pauline's fancy. Though she smiled and said she had no influence with the emperor, she asked Friedrich to walk a little with her in the gardens, and murmured to her lady that 'for a German' the lieutenant had a good air. It finished with her making a rendezvous with him for the following afternoon at a grotto on the grounds." (Venus of EmpireBonaparte)
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| Denis Decres Duc de Saint-Germain |
6) Denis Decres, Duc de Saint-Germain (1761-1820)
Comte & Duc de Saint-Germain
French admiral & minister of the Navy:
"On her return from Hayti did Pauline find Semonville, MacDonald, and Montholon still in Paris? Did she resume her former relations with them? Information on these points is somewhat scanty. If we are to believe Semonville's confidences, the answer is---Yes. It is possible. 'La diva Paolina' never turned a wholly deaf ear to a tender 'Don't say good-bye.' In any case, she welcomed back one admirer and one lover. The admirer was by no means unworthy of her: this was Denis De Cres, the admiral, Minister of Marine. She certainly encouraged him, for she almost sent him off his head. 'He very nearly got thin in consequence,' remarks M. Masson incidentally. It was not Pauline, however, who profited by the admiral's improved figure, but Rosine de Saint-Joseph, whom he married at Paris, November 15, 1813. If Pauline ever had any regrets at having used her heedless, fascinating ways to make game of De Cres, she might have consoled herself with the thought that she had escaped a second, and speedy, widowhood. In 1813 the admiral had only seven years to live." (Pauline Bonaparte and Her Lovers: 103)
7) Doctor Peyre.
"And, in truth, it was a curious life that went on at M. Vinaille's villa facing the sea, where the Princess had taken up her quarters with her household. Its personnel took the greatest liberties and indulged in the most extraordinary etiquette. Not one of them but combined the most diverse duties. Thus Pauline's physician-in-ordinary, Doctor Peyre, who also passed for one of her lovers, undertook, in addition to his medical functions, those of steward to the Household. He was a kind of a maitre Jacques, standing fiercely on guard in front of the cash-box. . . . ." (Pauline Bonaparte and Her Lovers: 187)
"On her return from Hayti did Pauline find Semonville, MacDonald, and Montholon still in Paris? Did she resume her former relations with them? Information on these points is somewhat scanty. If we are to believe Semonville's confidences, the answer is---Yes. It is possible. 'La diva Paolina' never turned a wholly deaf ear to a tender 'Don't say good-bye.' In any case, she welcomed back one admirer and one lover. The admirer was by no means unworthy of her: this was Denis De Cres, the admiral, Minister of Marine. She certainly encouraged him, for she almost sent him off his head. 'He very nearly got thin in consequence,' remarks M. Masson incidentally. It was not Pauline, however, who profited by the admiral's improved figure, but Rosine de Saint-Joseph, whom he married at Paris, November 15, 1813. If Pauline ever had any regrets at having used her heedless, fascinating ways to make game of De Cres, she might have consoled herself with the thought that she had escaped a second, and speedy, widowhood. In 1813 the admiral had only seven years to live." (Pauline Bonaparte and Her Lovers: 103)
7) Doctor Peyre.
"And, in truth, it was a curious life that went on at M. Vinaille's villa facing the sea, where the Princess had taken up her quarters with her household. Its personnel took the greatest liberties and indulged in the most extraordinary etiquette. Not one of them but combined the most diverse duties. Thus Pauline's physician-in-ordinary, Doctor Peyre, who also passed for one of her lovers, undertook, in addition to his medical functions, those of steward to the Household. He was a kind of a maitre Jacques, standing fiercely on guard in front of the cash-box. . . . ." (Pauline Bonaparte and Her Lovers: 187)
French marshal & military leader.
Son of: Neil MacFachen
"...The Duchesse d'Abrantes declares General Etienne-Jacques Macdonald, who had fought against the Russians under Suvarov and was now governor of Versailles, to be a third lover." (Fraser, 2012, n.p.)
9) Felice Blangini (1781-1841)
"During her stay at Nice, Pauline took as her lover a young musician from Turin, Felice Blangini, who played violin in an orchestra in Paris, and who was almost more supine than Madame de Chamboudoin and the other ladies. Blangini had originally attracted the attention of Pauline's sister Caroline Murat with some Italian nocturnes and romances that he composed while in Paris. Pauline then offered him the post of chef d'orchestre at 750 francs a month, although she had no orchestra. Now she called him to Nice, ostensibly so that she could study duets with him,... And indeed study they did...." (Fraser: 161)
10) Francois-Joseph Talma (1763-1826)
French actor
Lover in 1812.
Husband of:
1. Julie Carreau, French dancer, mar 1791, div 1802
2) Charlotte Vanhove, French actress, mar 1802.
[Fam1:GeneaNet]
" . . . In 1812, he had a love affair with Princess Pauline Bonaparte (1780-1825). . . ." (Napoleonic Society)
"Three of these liaisons became known. Nobody has ever suspected the fourth, the hero of which was the tragedian Talma. And now, suddenly, we come upon a dusty bundle which has lain forgotten in a garret, from which falls a packet of letters which enlightens us as to this new adventure of Pauline's. To tell the truth, some contemporaries had guessed as much; some, indeed, knew, and knew full details; but they were discreet. Talma's wife, in a book about her husband, is the only one to drop a hint concerning the romance which to-day is placed beyond doubt. 'Talma became a lucky man all of a sudden,' she writes. 'Being pursued by women of the highest position, challenged by tjem, in fact, the idea occurred to him of achieving celebrity in this direction, damaging as that is to domestic happiness.' Furthermore, a letter from Talma himself, addressed to his brother-in-law Ducis, allows us to guess what gossip was saying at Paris concerning his liaison with Princess Borghese. Writing from Lyons, August 2, 1812, he enquires, 'What are people saying at Paris? Any scandal-mongering? For myself, I don't suppose anybody is making any remarks, and I expect that the absence from Paris of the two persons, one in one direction, one in another (nominally), will have caused all comment to cease. My wife has been writing to me on this subject, and makes out that it is still being discussed, but that I don't believe.' At this period Talma was by no means a conquest to be ashamed of. If Pauline could have owned to having a lover, he would have been the one. He had by now reached the zenith of his great reputation as a tragedian, victor in the struggles which he had had to wage against his comrades at the Comedie in days gone by, at the dawn of the Revolution. . . It was nearly three months that this liaison lasted at Aix between the Imperial Princess and him who at this period remained the last hope of the tragedy to which his genius had imparted fresh life." (Pauline Bonaparte and Her Lovers: 203)
11) Giovanni Pacini (1796-1867)
"...A young musician, Giovanni Pacini, encountered in the winter season at the Teatro della Valle, had reawakened in her the lust that had lain dormant during these years of exile...." (Fraser, 2012, n.p.)
" . . . Napoleon's death shattered Pauline's nerves, while her vanity and pride were damaged beyond repair by her last lover, a young composer, Giovanni Pacini. Flattered at first, the young man soon found her possessive, tiresome, and alas, old. She also, the lifelong invalid, became eventually a truly sick woman. . . . " (A Traveller in Rome)
12) Hugh Fortescue, 2nd Earl Fortescue (1783-1861)
British politician
Son of: Hugh, 1st Earl Fortescue & Hester Grenville
Husband of:.
1. Lady Susan Ryder, daughter of Dudley Ryder, 1st Earl of Harrowby, mar 18172. Elizabeth Geale, mar 1841
"...Earl Fortescue, of an ancient noble house, and in his youth a very handsome man, and reputed to have been a favored lover of Pauline Bonaparte, wore a dark blue coat, with spangle buttons,and the ribbon of the Garter over a white vest...." (Addams, 1890, p. 46)
13) Jacques Marquet, Baron de Montbreton de Norvins (1769-1854)
"...When Napoleon deputed Gerard Duroc, grand marshal of the Tuileries Palace, to find five chamberlains to carry out this task, Pauline's choice fell on Montbreton, her neighbor at Montgobert, brother of Leclerc's secretary and long-standing friend Norvins and, it was said, her lover when no else offered...." (Fraser, 2012, n.p.)
14) Jean-Andoche Junot, 1st Duc d'Abrantes.
(suitor)
"After Freron's dismissal, another sighing lover presents himself---Andoche Junot, the future Duc d'Abrantes. At this time he was the General's aide-de-camp, and, as for Pauline, 'he loved her passionately, deliriously.' Later, he admitted that it was not reciprocated. 'She never loved me,' he confessed to his wife somewhat pathetically. He made matrimonial overtures to Bonaparte, alleging he was going to inherit 20,000 francs upon his father's death. The General answered very wisely that Junot senior was not yet dead and that the net profit at present was nil, concluding, 'You have nothing, she has nothing; what is the total? Nothing.' And things went no further. It is curious that Junot subsequently became a member of a family which the General had, at one time, thoughts of marrying into---the Permonds. Bonaparte had, in fact, proposed to Mme. Permon that he should marry her; her son, Pauline; and her daughter, either Louis of Jerome. . . ." (Pauline and Her Lovers: 54)
15) Jean-Baptiste Cervoni (1768-?)
French general
". . . On her arrival at Aix the princess received the homage of all the old nobility military and parliamentary. General Cervoni, a companion of her childhood, was received by her on the same cordial footing as of old, and maintained the same attitude himself so naively in fact, as one day to presume to sit down in a chair near her Imperial Highness while a numerous gathering of men and ladies remained standing. One of the princess's chamberlain's (sic) considered the general's behaviour so improper that he termed it impertinent and indecent. . . When this remark reached Cervoni. . ., it made him very angry. He is said to have marched up to the group of the princess's officials saying, 'Point out this wag to me so that I can give him a thorough good thrashing.' Cervoni added that the chamberlain took to his heels. Cervoni went back to the princess, who was the first to laugh at the snub to her obsequious chamberlain; and to show how entirely she was on the general's side asked him to arrange a reception and a ball for her at his country-house near Marseilles. Cervoni, when saying good-bye, added, 'I am going to get everything ready, but mind, no chamberlains. . . . " (Fleischmann: 12)
16) Jean-Francois Debelle (1767-1802)
French general & soldier
the Apollo of the French Army.
Son of: Jean-Joseph Humbert & Catherine Rivat
17) Jean Lannes, 1st Duc de Montebello.
18) Jean-Joseph-Amable Humbert (1767-1823)
French soldier
"General Jean Joseph Amable Humbert is one of those larger than life characters thrown up b the French Revolution. A passionate republican who lead a failed invasion of Ireland, a ladies' man who romanced Napoleon's sister, an aide to Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans, a would-be invader of Mexico, and an associate of the pirates Lafitte -- there are so many tales about Humbert that it's hard to separate fact from fiction. . . Humbert was sent on the unsuccessful 1801 expedition to Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti) under General Victoire Leclerc to put down a slave revolt. On the voyage across the Atlantic, Humbert was rumoured to have had an affair with Leclerc's wife, who was none other than Napoleon's sister, Pauline Bonaparte." (Shannon Selin)
"...The city was a magnet for the beautiful people, the handsomest emigre being General Jean Robert Humbert, who had been in Leclerc's forces and then served as an escort for Leclerc's widow, the former Pauline Bonaparte, when she returned to France. Because Napoleon suspected that Humbert was one more of Pauline's innumerable lovers, he made his disgust clear, and the general left for New Orleans and remained there for life." (Cerami: 61)
" . . . Should we likewise include among their number general Jean Joseph Amable Humbert, Ponsard's 'Lion amoureux'? At the date of the Hayti expedition, Humbert was barely thirty-five years of age, having been born on August 26, 1767, in the Vosges, at Saint-Nabord-sur-Moselle. He was a handsome libertine, rubicund and powerful; so much of a ladies's man as to have lost two posts for what he did on that account. It was for libertinage that he was dismissed from the merchant's office at Nancy, where he was earning a modest living; for the same reason he was asked to leave the hat factory at Lyons, where he also worked. Thereupon he enlists in the Lyons National Guard and, as soon as he had won his sergeant's stripes, resigns and comes back to live near Remiremont, making the round of the countryside, bartering, trafficking, employing his loquacity to facilitate dealings in rabbit-skins, which were his specialty. But the taste for soldiering seized him again. It was what he was meant for, to clank his sabre on the field of battle and in public-house, to strike terror into the hearts of battalions and mothers. . . . At Rennes, accordingly . . . the red-haired giant with the broad shoulders (and proud of them), with his arms round the waists of Mlles. Ninette and Cassin, actresses at the local theatre. . . After Fructidor 18, Humbert obtains a short holiday. Then he sets out with the Legion des Francs and directs that descent on Ireland which has made him immortal, thanks to his cool audacity and patriotic gallantry. After seeing service in the Danube army, and also that of the coasts of Holland, he received a summons to take part in the expedition to Hayti. Such was the man who is said to have been Pauline's lover during the voyage, not only on the way back, but also on the way there. The actuality of these relations between them seems to be equally open to question in both cases. A ship is a small house on such occasions, little secrecy being practicable when the passengers on board are mixing freely with one another. That the possibility of Pauline having relations with Humbert on the outward voyage is clear, is undeniable; but that is a different thing from affirming that they happened. It would be necessary first to postulate Leclerc being an imbecile or complaisant. We can acquit him both of the ridicule implied by the first hypothesis, and of the insult implied by the second." (Pauline Bonaparte and Her Lovers: 97)
French general
20) John Keats.
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| Prince Jozef Poniatowski |
21) Josef Antoni Poniatowski (1763-1813)
Marshal of the French Empire
Polish leader, minister of war & army chief
"The consensus was that among the bravest, f not most reckless, of Napoleon's soldiers were always the Poles. Believing in Napoleon's promise to create a free Polish state, they performed spectacular feats of heroism. The story of Joseph Poniatowski (1763-1813), nephew of Stanislas, the last king of Poland, came to represent this legendary Polish valiance. Much of Poniatowski's life was spent moving in and out of high military posts. By 1788, he was aide-de-camp to Francis II of Austria, with whom he fought against the Turks. Next, in 1792, under King Stanislas, he spearheaded the Polish army's drive against the Russian's in Ukraine. after a brief retirement, he was appointed to the Polish provisional government as minister of war and governor of Warsaw under Prussia. When Napoleon allied himself with the Poles and defeated Prussia in 1807, Poniatowski agreed to serve under the French as commander of the First Polish Legion. Celebrated for recapturing Krakow from the Austrians, he was appointed minister of war in Napoleon's newly formed Grand Duchy of Warsaw. Called by Napoleon to participate in the invasion of Russia, he commanded the Fifth Corps of the Imperial Army at Smolensk and was by Napoleon's side at Borodino. In recognition of his services to the empire, Napoleon granted him the title of marshal of France. At the battle of Leipzig in 1813 (also known as the Battle of the Nations, with Austria, Prussia, and Russia aligned against France), Napoleon's troops were routed. Poniatowski and his Polish contingent covered the retreat, making certain the French could withdraw safely, but were pinned down between the enemy and the Elster River bridge. Refusing to surrender, Poniatowski continued to fight after the bridge was destroyed. Repeatedly wounded, he spurred his horse into the river but died before gaining the other shore. This episode captured the imagination of French soldiers and civilians alike, inspiring Beranger to write his famous Poniatowski ballad." (Franz Liszt, His Circle, and His Elusive Oratorio: 16)
"Pauline's energy in these years was prodigious, and the tales of her conquests legion, featuring, among others, the wasp-waisted Russian general Prince Alexander Tchernitcheff, emissary of the czar, and the Polish veteran general Josef Anton Poniatowski, who wore the Grand Eagle of the Legion d'Honneur and was still a spry lover at fifty. . . ." (Venus of the Empire: The Life of Pauline Bonaparte)
22) Jules de Canouville (1785-1812)
Lover in 1810.
French military officer
Bedding a lover 5 years younger.
"Shortly after her return to Paris, Pauline, now thirty years old, had taken a new lover, another soldier this time, Captain Armand-Jules Elisabeth de Canouville, five years younger than herself, aide-de-camp to Louis-Alexandre Berthier, prince de Wagram, the chief of staff of the Grande Armee. Canouville appeared to be devoted to her. . . ." (Hibbert).
Canouville's personal & family background.
“Around the year 1810 gave the Princess Borghese their favor among many other admirers, especially an officer of the General Staff Berthier. His name was Armand Jules de Canouville and had a very pleasant appearance. He was 25 years old and of ancient nobility. He was reckless and careless. This pleased Pauline. For this, the young man was a meritorious officer, whom the emperor had been repeatedly awarded. Jules and Paulette for a while really loved each other sincerely. Both did not in the least a secret of their connection that you could almost call it a marriage, for Canouville stayed stable at the beloved. There are over this romance the most delicious stories in circulation. . . .” (Aretz)
A dashing warrior, a noble swashbuckler, a consummate dandy. "But M. du Cormier and his coadjutors speedily found themselves relegated to oblivion, when Armand Jules Elisabeth de Canouville, major in the 16th Dragoons and aide-de-camp to Berthier, Prince de Neufchatel, appeared upon the scene. Never was there a more dashing warrior, or one more calculated to captivate a great lady's heart. For Armand Jules Elisabeth was no plebeian swashbuckler; he was a man of good family, of education, of refinement, as much at home in a ball-room as on the battlefield, in the boudoir as in the bivouac, an accomplished dancer, a maker of verses, a consummate dandy, one of the most distinguished of that band of aristocrats who perpetuated, in the midst of the democratic army of the Revolution, the gay and chivalrous traditions of the perfumed and bewigged warriors. . . ." (Williams. The Women Bonapartes: the Mother and Three Sisters of Napoléon I, Vol 2: 189)
Canouville died with Pauline's portrait on his body.
". . . The most conspicuous of her liaisons, coming to the knowledge of Napoleon, ended fatally for the young man who was the object of it. M. Jules de Canouville was a young, courtly and dashing colonel of hussars, and soon became the favorite of the princess. This he soon obtained, and to his heart's content. . . . M. de Canouville behaved well and distinguished himself in action. He was accidentally killed by the discharge of a cannon after a battle which would have entitled him to promotion. The portrait of Pauline, surrounded with diamonds, was found upon his person: it was converted to Murat, who returned it to his sister-in-law." (The Court of Napoleon: 201)
A locket of Pauline's picture.
" . . . In Nice . . . she bedded . . . 25-year-old Colonel Armand Jules de Canouville, aide to Marshal Berthier, Napoleon's chief of staff. Again her brother stepped in, posting Canouville to Danzig. When he died in 1812 during the retreat from Moscow, a locket carrying her picture was found hanging around his neck. She was inconsolable for days."(Cawthorne)
23) Lieutenant de Brack.
Lover in 1812.
"In 1812 we find Pauline with four lovers! Lieutenant de Brack, a brilliant soldier, who seems to have been well fitted to become an intimate acquaintance of the Princess's without any waste of time. . . ." (Fleischmann: 202)
24) Louis-Achille-Hippolyte Tourteau de Septeuil (d.1841)
Aide-de-camp to Berthier
Husband of: Pauline-Zoe-Constance Le Roy de Mondreville, a friend of Pauline's
"While M. de Canouville was risking his life in the ambuscades of the Salamanca road, Pauline was giving prompt attention to the task of finding his successor. Said Beugnot of her in 1809: "She is rapidly running through all the pleasures which belong to her age, her beauty, and her fortunate independence.' M. de Canouville found this out by experience. Pauline had selected as his rival a comrade-in-arms, Captain Achille Tourteau de Septeuil, son of a former valet-de-chambre to Louis XVI. But the young man was in love, and his affection caused him to be so little of a courtier that he refused the august proposals; he was above dividing his attentions. Pauline's disappointment straightway sound, and found, a revenge. The War Minister sent M. de Septeuil to Spain to rejoin his regiment of dragoons. On the way he met M. de Canouville who had been sent to the Peninsula a second time. As they rode side by side, therefore, they personified the extremities of favour and disgrace. One had gone too far, the other not far enough. This campaign was fatal to M. de Septeuil. On May 5, 1811, as he was charging into the fray at Fuentes-de-Onoro at the head of his dragoons, a bullet from the enemy tore off his thigh, thus setting him free to return, a cripple and an invalid, to his virtuous love-affair, and to philosophize on the unjust and spiteful devices of the little blind god. . . In spite of her manoeuvres round M. de Septeuil, she seems to nevertheless to have returned to Canouville at this date. . . ." (Pauline and Her Lovers: 162 )
25) Louis-Marie-Stanislas Freron (1754-1802)
French politician & journalist
23) Lieutenant de Brack.
Lover in 1812.
"In 1812 we find Pauline with four lovers! Lieutenant de Brack, a brilliant soldier, who seems to have been well fitted to become an intimate acquaintance of the Princess's without any waste of time. . . ." (Fleischmann: 202)
24) Louis-Achille-Hippolyte Tourteau de Septeuil (d.1841)
Aide-de-camp to Berthier
Husband of: Pauline-Zoe-Constance Le Roy de Mondreville, a friend of Pauline's
"While M. de Canouville was risking his life in the ambuscades of the Salamanca road, Pauline was giving prompt attention to the task of finding his successor. Said Beugnot of her in 1809: "She is rapidly running through all the pleasures which belong to her age, her beauty, and her fortunate independence.' M. de Canouville found this out by experience. Pauline had selected as his rival a comrade-in-arms, Captain Achille Tourteau de Septeuil, son of a former valet-de-chambre to Louis XVI. But the young man was in love, and his affection caused him to be so little of a courtier that he refused the august proposals; he was above dividing his attentions. Pauline's disappointment straightway sound, and found, a revenge. The War Minister sent M. de Septeuil to Spain to rejoin his regiment of dragoons. On the way he met M. de Canouville who had been sent to the Peninsula a second time. As they rode side by side, therefore, they personified the extremities of favour and disgrace. One had gone too far, the other not far enough. This campaign was fatal to M. de Septeuil. On May 5, 1811, as he was charging into the fray at Fuentes-de-Onoro at the head of his dragoons, a bullet from the enemy tore off his thigh, thus setting him free to return, a cripple and an invalid, to his virtuous love-affair, and to philosophize on the unjust and spiteful devices of the little blind god. . . In spite of her manoeuvres round M. de Septeuil, she seems to nevertheless to have returned to Canouville at this date. . . ." (Pauline and Her Lovers: 162 )
25) Louis-Marie-Stanislas Freron (1754-1802)
French politician & journalist
Lover in 1795.
". . . Her beauty, which was already dazzling---for Pauline was forward for her age---attracted the notice and won the heart of Louis Stanislas Freron, the agent of the Terror at Marseilles, and the willing executor of the sanguinary decrees of the Convention. Pauline reciprocated his passion, and upon the fall of Robespierre, their union was agreed upon. The correspondence of Pauline with Freron, which was published in Paris about the year 1830, indicates a precocity of sentiment and a depth of passion astonishing in a girl of fifteen years. The marriage would have taken place, had not Napoleon been informed of the engagement---intelligence of which was communicated by Freron's wife, whom he had deserted for Pauline. . . . " (The Court of Napoleon: 187)
". . . Her beauty, which was already dazzling---for Pauline was forward for her age---attracted the notice and won the heart of Louis Stanislas Freron, the agent of the Terror at Marseilles, and the willing executor of the sanguinary decrees of the Convention. Pauline reciprocated his passion, and upon the fall of Robespierre, their union was agreed upon. The correspondence of Pauline with Freron, which was published in Paris about the year 1830, indicates a precocity of sentiment and a depth of passion astonishing in a girl of fifteen years. The marriage would have taken place, had not Napoleon been informed of the engagement---intelligence of which was communicated by Freron's wife, whom he had deserted for Pauline. . . . " (The Court of Napoleon: 187)
Aftermath: "That December, Napoleon gave orders for Pauline to quit Marseille (sic) and meet him at his army headquarters in Milan. Freron was thus abandoned. He eventually wed his mistress and after a brief second act as commissioner in Saint-Domingue he slipped into poverty and obscurity, dying of yellow fever on the island in 1802." (Carroll, 2011, n.p.) [Fam1] [Fam2]
26) Louis-Nicolas-Philippe-Auguste, Comte de Forbin (1779-1841)
French painter
"A French Painter, he was a pupil of David in Paris. He lived in Rome from 1802-1805, accompanied by his friend Granet, also a painter. An intimate friend of Pauline Bonaparte, he became a soldier, rising to the rank of Colonel, but retired to Italy again after Wagram. He was an admirer from 1813-1815 of Madame Recamier, whom he met in Rome. He became Director of the Louvre under the Restoration, and travelled to the Orient 1817-1818." (Francois de Chateaubriand: Memores d'outre-tomb: Index)
Physical appearance & personal qualities.
" . . . Gifted with a versatile mind and lively imagination, he painted creditably, wrote light verse and prose with ease, and was accepted as a connoisseur in other fields. Polished and elegant in speech, adept at all intellectual games and amusements, he was an Admirable Crichton of social accomplishments. To these qualities were added the further advantages of a splendid figure and handsome face. Tall, finely proportioned, and of great physical strength, he looked, with his aristocratic features, the perfect courtier of the days of the Grand Monarch, and bore himself with the proud and easy carriage of a true grand seigneur. Women raved over him, and many had bestowed on him their ultimate favors. In 1806 he was known to be heavily in debt; hence his meeting with the Princess at Plombieres was a stroke of unexpected good fortune." (Carlton: 156)
" . . . Pauline later found what she wanted in a mightily endowed thirty-year-old painter, Louis Philippe Auguste de Forbin, with whom she copulated endlessly at the expense of her health. . . ." (Hamilton: 81)
" . . . One famous affair with a painter actually appears to have challenged ever her erotically supercharged body. Nicolas Philippe Auguste de Forbin was a talented but impoverished painter who Pauline hired as her chamberlain. But what Nicolas lacked in finances, he reportedly made up for in other forms of endowment. Pauline indulged herself with her lover for a year, but at last fell into a physical depression, which physicians diagnosed as the result of her lover's 'gigantism,' his ability to maintain an erection for long periods, and the 'undue friction' that thus resulted from their lovemaking. Pauline at last separated from her well-endowed lover, and her health returned." (Ley: 132)
"Pauline, however, managed to bounce from one extreme to the other. Back in Paris, she fell for Louis Philippe Auguste de Forbin, a society painter. He was reportedly hugely well endowed and Pauline could not get enough of hi; but his size caused her acute vaginal distress. A doctor was called in, who found the poor girl on the verge of exhaustion. Her uterus was swollen by constant excitement and her vagina was showing signs of damage due to friction. For the sake of Pauline's health, Forbin was persuaded to join the army and was posted out of harm's way." (Sex Lives of the Great Dictators: 9)
First encounter and short romance.
" . . . (H)e was in the pink of his twenty-seven years when he met Pauline at Plombieres, in 1806. At that date he had not yet attracted the notice of the public by means of literary and artistic qualities out of common. . . He found favour directly, no niggardly favour either; on October 5 following he was appointed chamberlain to the Princess. . . From start to finish this romance was not a lengthy one; it barely lasted out the year. Whether it was deception, or whether it was weariness, no one knows, but M. de Forbin did get out of hand---if we may drop into the metaphor once more. Souvenirs of this one of Pauline's adventures only survive in the shape of one love-letter, so far as he was concerned, and, in her case, debts; for 'Forbin proved expensive.' . . . ." (Pauline Bonaparte and Her Lovers: 166)
"A principal cause of Pauline's pleasurable sojourn at Plombieres had been her first meeting with a man destined to exercise considerable influence over both her heart and her intellect. Louis Nicolas Philippe Auguste de Forbin was at this time about thirty years of age. A Knight of Malta while still in his cradle, he came of an illustrious house that had given France grand seneschals, governors of provinces, ambassadors, presidents of parliament, and at least one cardinal. During the Revolution, the family properties had been confiscated; he had sen his father and uncle killed in the streets of Lyons, while he and his mother barely escaped a similar fate...."
27) Pierre Boyer (1772-1851)
French general
28) Pierre de Ruel, Marquis de Beurnonville.
" . . . The implication is that 'Ajax' was Pauline's lover and de Montaigu an aspiring admirer. As Laure offers an identity for 'Ajax'---General Pierre de Ruel, later Marquis de Beurnonville---we can add from army records and other sources that this soldier was in his late forties and had...recently been inspector of infantry with Leclerc in the Army England. She declares that Pauline was dividing her favors between Beurnonville and General Moreau. . . ." (Fraser)
29) Pierre Lafon (1773-1846)
Lover in 1796.
French actor.
" . . . Lafon, the brilliant young tragedian of the Comedie Francaise, was one of her first lovers. This connection became public then, and has become historical since." (The Court of Napoleon: 188)
"When her husband Leclerc was given command of the army sent to defeat Toussaint l'Ouverture in Haiti, Pauline was brokenhearted, for it meant saying farewell to her latest lover, Pierre Lafon, an actor at the Comedie Francaise. . . ." (McLynn)
"As for the lover, if he had the best of it, so far as personal appearances went, he was not quite such a success. He was Mr. Pierre Rapenouille, known as Lafon, actor at the Comedie Francaise, who played romantic 'heroes' and ended by aspiring to transfer to real life the adventures in which he took part on the stage in the evenings. He 'shone to as great advantage on the stage as in society,' says a Consulate pamphlet of him, although the same author denies him even physical charm. While admitting he was tall, he reproaches him with having doctored his slender figure; and as for his head, says that it was totally lacking in nobility of character. But the ladies thought exactly the reverse. 'He may be termed a pretty man,' said Mlle. George, who was, it is true, very fond of him; 'his features were very delicate, nose slightly tip-tilted, small black eyes but very keen and brilliant; immaculately elegant, an excellent voice, excellent, too at making love, at tears, at enthusiasm; his fervency most contagious, his by-play most striking, but no depth and little 'composition'; like fireworks which dazzle and compel the most enthusiastic applause.'. . . ." (Fleischmann: 105)
First encounter.
"IN 1796, at Milan, Pauline married Gen. Charles Emmanuel Leclerc . . . Pauline neither assented to the alliance, nor did she reject it; she simply yielded to her brother's desire that it should be consummated, Professing, and doubtless feeling, the most complete indifference to her husband, she soon entered upon a career of intrigue and infidelity. Lafon, the brilliant young tragedian of the Comedie Francaise, was one of her first lovers.
This connection became public then, and has become historical since." (Goodrich & Champagne: 188)
30) Victor-Emmanuel Leclerc (1772-1802)
This connection became public then, and has become historical since." (Goodrich & Champagne: 188)
30) Victor-Emmanuel Leclerc (1772-1802)
French army general
"Meanwhile, Pauline's star was on the ascent. In Milan she met one of her brother's officers, Adjutant General Victor Emmanuel Leclerc, in his mid-twenties, dashing, chiseled, and nicknamed 'the blond Napoleon.' . . . On April 20, 1797, Leclerc and Pauline announced their intention to wed. However, there is a bit more to the story than a sudden coup de foudre of attraction. After Napoleon caught his sister with Leclerc in his study having ecstatic sex behind a screen, he determined that sooner Pauline got married, the better. Leclerc had evidently loved Pauline from afar for three years. But he was hardly marrying an heiress. Her dowry was an unimpressive forty thousand francs. They were also a pair of opposites: Leclerc was as serious as Pauline was vivacious, fondly referring to him as mon joli petit gamin---'my cute little imp.'" (Royal Pains)
Leclerc's physical appearance.
"Physically Leclerc may have pleased Pauline. Appiani's fine portrait of him depicts a narrow bust, a high forehead, a delicate lip, well-shaped nose, eyes somewhat lifeless, but the general impression bears some resemblance to Bonaparte's, only fairer, more youthful, less serious. 'Small, slender, lean, with a figure slightly awry, pleasant and straightforward.' writes Desaix in his diary. Norvins, Leclerc's secretary at Hayti, completes the picture: 'General Leclerc was short but well made, and he combined strength with gracefulness; his features were attractive, his glance keen and quick, his face always lit up by expression and movement. He was a fluent speaker.' The foregoing well explains the phrase habitually used by Pauline in referring to him; she called her husband 'my little Leclerc.'"(Pauline Bonaparte and Her Lovers: 60)
Pauline's spouses & children.
Pauline's spouses & children.
She married 1) in 1796, Victor Emmanuel Leclerc; and 2) in 1803, Camillo Borghese, " . . . an attractive, dark-haired, empty-headed, elegant Italian who owned one of the world's biggest diamond collections and countless properties, including the art-laden Villa Borghese in Rome. . . ." (Wallace: 311)
Bonaparte Princes & Princesses.
(1782-1839)
Princess of the French Empire
1804
Grand Duchess of Berg & Cleves
1806
Queen of Naples & the Two Sicilies
1808
Queen Caroline's physical appearance& personal qualities.
" . . . Caroline was quite clever and would later prove her governmental abilities in Naples. She was the only fair-haired member of the family, small and slender, not as beautiful as Pauline, but with a delightful pink and white complexion and brilliant, large eyes." (Horricks, 1995, p. 41)
Queen Caroline's spouse & children.
She married, in 1800, Joachim Murat. "The question of a suitable marriage now came up. Jean Lannes had wanted to marry her; likewise Augereau; and even General Moreau had been mentioned as a possible husband. But Caroline had met and fallen for the handsome Joachim Murat on a visit to Rome, and as usual over these years she simply went to her brother and got her own way. She and Murat signed the marriage contract in the Palais du Luxembourg on January 18, 1800. The bride received a dowry of 40,000 francs and 12,000 francs worth of jewels and furs. As time went on she bore the marshal four children, but more significantly now devoted herself to obtaining ever-increasing wealth and status. She fully believed the end 'justifies' the means. If she couldn't get what she desired by pushing Murat's career or scheming with Talleyrand and Fouche, then she used flood of tears and bitter reproaches on Napoleon himself. She even slept with Junot when he was the Governor of Paris and therefore had precedence over her husband in the capital. (It got Junot the sack!) (Napoleon's Elites: 41)
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| Jean-Andoche Junot Duc d'Abrantes 19th c. |
Caroline Bonaparte's lovers were:
1) Jean-Andoche Junot, 1st Duc d'Abrantes (1771-1813).
"Caroline Bonaparte never visited Berg, but remained in Paris where she was reputedly the lover first of General Junot and then of the dashing young Austrian ambassador, Count Clemenz von Metternich...." (Davis: 141)
2) Charles Cavel
"...[h]er final lover was a young man called Charles Cavel, obviously on the make. Having failed to secure the contents of her will, he afterwards sold the family her letters for an alleged 60,000 francs." (Horricks, 1995, p. 43)
3) Francesco MacDonald
"Achille's mother, Caroline, still brooded in splendid exile. Her flirtation with Prince Metternich having gotten her nowhere, she now played out her days at a palace in Florence as a faux countess with new lover Francesco MacDonald, her deceased husband's foreign minister in the heyday of the kingdom of Naples...." (Tate, 2011, p. 151)
"Her closing years years were sad indeed. Thought politically too dangerous to be allowed near other Bonapartes, once her children had grown up and left she had as her sole companion General Francesco Macdonald (who perhaps she married secretly). . . ." (Napoleon's Elites: 43)
4) Prince Klemenz von Metternich.
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Charles, 1st Duc de Morny @Wikipedia |
Morny: a man of fashion, of pleasure, of mark.
"Among the men of mark who, in the course of the Presidency, rallied to Prince Louis Napoleon---but only after having assured himself that Bonapartism, and not Orleanism, was in the ascendant---was the Count de Morny. First, and foremost, a man of fashion and of pleasure who had flourished under the Monarchy of July, and had been a favourite in society and in the political world; who had talked politics with the King, amused himself with the princes, found favour with great ladies, and been commended for his parts by the austere Guizot, who more than once thought of offering him a Ministerial portfolio; who had, as a young man, shown extraordinary aptitude for great commercial enterprises; a wit and a man of courage, a courtier and a man of business, a dandy and a sportsman---the Count de Morny was no sentimentalist. He had not an atom of romance in his composition. . . ." (The Life of Napoleon III: Derived from State Records, Volume 3: 208)
Personal attitudes, qualities and attributes.
" . . . Amiability was part of his good manners, easily cultivated, because of his nature was not a bad one, and it asserted itself often, mitigating the sometimes icy effect of his habitual cynicism. 'In spire of his indifference,' M. Emile Ollivier remarks of him, 'he was capable of friendship. Like all men who have had many love affairs, he had no tenderness: it its stead he had grace, an easy wit, tact, cordiality, a seductive charm. There was no pose in his manner, no surliness, but a captivating spontaneity. He was always affable, and although very busy never appeared without feeling attracted at first, and then moved by apathy.' The Count had sterner and deeper qualities. 'Penetration was his dominant power, and he knew it. 'When you talk with a man,' he said one day, 'listen to what he thinks, and not to what he says.' While in most men penetration by unmasking the many sides of things, leads to indecision in M. de Morny it only made his resolution more absolute. He had the most exquisite common sense. He knew little beyond what experience had taught him, but he divined much, and when an authority argued with him he went straight to the core of the question. He did not avoid a place because it presented dangers. . . 'Where is there not danger?' he used to say. He met peril with audacity, and he was right, because he could measure and direct it. He did not confound the timidity by which everything is lost with the prudence without which nothing succeeds. He did not mistake obstinacy for firmness; he would listen to the advice of men, and use the teaching of events. Without speculative moods, his resolution was swiftly followed by action. He acted by intuition, not by principle. An object once settled, he was not nice as to the means, and looked upon everything that was useful as legitimate. He was not hard, nor cruel, not vindictive, and he was not proud of violent courses, like low minds. His life was deficient in austerity. You felt the want of moral atmosphere about him. He pretended to be only the model of an accomplished man of honour. He was insensible to the abstract right in a case, but he yielded willingly to an appeal to his generosity.'" The Life of Napoleon III: Derived from State Records, Volume 3: 208)
A hand of iron in a velvet glove.
"Much better looking and better built, more courtly, more of a grand seigneur in appearance than his half-brother Napoleon III, Morny was also the abler man of the two. Had he been honest he might have been a great one. shrewd and strong-minded, as D'Alton-Shee indicated, 'a hand of iron in a velvet glove,' he was also possessed of no little culture---real artistic perception, genuine literary ability, and great expertness of speech. But the Empire was scarcely re-established when he abruptly withdrew from office. This man, who figured in many shady financial transactions, and who had not hesitated to rob his friend, the Duke of Orleans, of various mistresses, under circumstances by no means over clean, was either genuinely disgusted by the seizure of the Orleans private property---confiscated by a decree dated January 22, 1852---or, at least, he regarded the spoliation as a stupendous political blunder The latter view is, of course, more in keeping with his character. In any case (like a few others, notably M. Rouher), he resigned, and had no share in the lavish distribution of favours which attended the re-establishment of the Empire. For some time, availing himself of the influence he retained in spire of his apparent secession, he devoted himself to speculation, and it was only in 1854 that he again came to the front politically,, this time as President of the Legislative Body." (Court Life of the Second French Empire, 1852-1870: 28)
Morny's personal & family background.
Charles was the natural son of Hortense de Beauharnais and Charles-Joseph, Comte de Flahaut. " . . . Morny's birth certificate registers his father as Auguste Demorny, a planter in the French Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue but, in fact, he was the illegitimate son of Hortense Bonaparte and Charles, comte de Flahaut. Morny boasted illustrious connections: he was half-brother to Louis-Napoleon on his maternal side, and his father was himself the issue of Talleyrand's affair with the countess Adelaide de Flahaut. . . ." (Biographies in napoleon.org)
"Finally, Lady Blessington counted among her guests Charles de Morney (sic), 'the George Anson of Paris, l'enfant gaite a la fortune, for whom the Duchess de Raguse and the Duchesse de Dino are dying, with whom Mlle. Mars is so desperately in love that she won't act--no. She has been in bead for a month, because he has quarrelled with her. And for why? He spied a chain given to him by Raguse, by him to Mars, on the waistcoat of another and resented it.' Although this latter lady was generally careful to conceal her adventures, it dow not seem that she tried very hard to keep this latter liaison secret. But Mlle. Mars was no longer in her first youth, and jokes were sometimes bandied about her expense. On hearing one day that Mornay had a portrait of the lady at twenty handing up his room: 'Yes,' Pozzi di Borgo remarked spitefully, 'he is glad to see her as she was when the other men knew her.' However this may be, there is no doubt that Mlle. Mars at that time still retained a strange attractiveness, and that to the charms of her beautiful eyes she added other qualities no less rare. . . ." (Eminent English Men and Women in Paris: 246)
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Sofia Trubetskaya |
Daughter of Ekaterina Petrovna Mussina-.Pushkina and either Prince Sergey Vasilevich Trubetskoy or Nikolai I of Russia.
"The half-brother of Napoleon III found a devoted wife in the Princess Troubetskoi. We have previously referred to her beauty---she was a Greuze---and it may be added that her training at the Court of Russia had qualified her for the highest position. Her husband was conspicuous in society and powerful in politics. It has been said of Morny that he did most things, and did them well. . . ." (The Court of the Tuilleries: 289)
Morny's spouse.
He married, in 1857, Sofia Sergeyevna, Princess Trubetskaya, daughter of Sergei Vasilyevih, Prince Trubetskoy and his wife Ekaterina Pavlovna Mussina-Pushkina. "Morny's second achievement in Russia was the discovery of a wife. He fell in love with the blond and young---she was not half his age---Sophie Troubetzkoi. Sophie had been brought up at court, as her father, Serge Troubetzkoi, had been stripped of princely title and banished to Siberia by the Czar for abducting a beautiful woman from her husband's arm.Alexander II consented to Sophie's marriage, which took place on January 7, 1857." (Gaslight and Shadows: 52)
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Charles, 1st Duc de Morny |
His lovers were:
Belgian noblewoman.
Daughter of: Francois-Dominique Mosselman, Belgian banker
Wife of: Comte Charles Le Hon, Belgian diplomat.
"Countess Le Hon, nee Mosselman, was the daughter of a ranking Belgian banker and his wife of His Belgian Majesty's first Ambassador to France. She kept up a discreet correspondence with Hortense until the latter's death, became a lioness in French society, and made important cash advances to her lover. Presumably it was her money which enabled Morny to play the stock market and to invest in a newspaper. The latter venture was not exactly a success. . . Countess Le Hon then encouraged Morny to participate directly in the sugar business. She owned land around Clermont-Ferrand, and in 1837 Morny purchased a sugar refinery in the neighboring town of Bourdon. His success was immediate; not only did he prosper, but he won the favor of his fellow entrepreneurs---men to whom he was inclined to refer as the 'considerable people.' They responded by electing him president of the beet-sugar manufacturers' association. . . ." (Gaslight and Shadow: Thje World of Napoleon III, 1851-1870: 44)
" . . . Charles de Morny alias Bonaparte had been introduced to Fanny Le Hon by his best friend, an inveterate reveller by the name of Fernand de Montguyon, his senior by three years. . . ." (The Real Traviata: The Song of Marie Duplessis: 78)
" . . . In May 1838, he left the army to pursue a business career with the capital of his mistress Fanny le Hon. Fanny was the daughter of the banker Francois-Dominique Mosselman and wife of the comte Charles le Hon, a Belgian diplomat. The liaison would prove vital for Morny's career." (Biographies in napoleon.org)
" . . . In May 1838, he left the army to pursue a business career with the capital of his mistress Fanny le Hon. Fanny was the daughter of the banker Francois-Dominique Mosselman and wife of the comte Charles le Hon, a Belgian diplomat. The liaison would prove vital for Morny's career." (Biographies in napoleon.org)
2) Julie Bernhardt
Mother of Sarah Bernhardt.
"She was born illegitimate to Julie Bernardt, the daughter of a Jewish spectacle merchant and an unknown father. Her mother who went by the name of Yule was a courtesan who counted the Duc de Morny, half-brother to Napoleon III, amongst her lover." (Scandalous Women)
3) Julie Judith van Hardt.
4) Leocadia Zelewska (1838-1924)
Daughter of: Boguslaw Zalewski.
Wife of:
1. Ernest-Aime Feydeau, French banker
2. Henri Fouquier
5) Marie Duplessis (1824-1847)
French courtesan and mistress.
Wife of: Count Edouard de Perregaux, mar 1846.
"Soon afterwards she caught the attention of th eDuc de Morny, the illegitimate son of Hortense Bonaparte, who set about transforming her into a worthy ducal consort When their relationship began, Alphonsine was barely literate. By the time in ended 18 months later, she had acquired a formidable appetite for elegant clothes and jewels, thoroughbred horses and literture -- her favorite novel was Manon Lescaut, Abbe Prevost's account of a young woman who sacrifises true live fir riches. In 1847, aged 17, she bore Morny a son who died a month later. Their affair did not long survive the chilfd's death. In 1841, age 17, who died a month later. Their affair did not long survive the shild's death. Rebranded a 'Marie Duplesis', she began
" . . . In Rome she had had a brief affair with a Swiss artist, Louis-Leopold Robert, whose studio in the Via Sistina she and her husband had often visited in the past for instruction in drawing, painting, and lithography. During the course of painting Charlotte many times, Leopold fell in love with her... She did not return Leopold's love, which perhaps accounts for her expression. Tragically, it may have been from this unrequited passion that in 1835 Leopold committed suicide. . . ." (Stroud: 151)
2) Stanislaw Potocki.
"After the death of her husband, Bonaparte lived with her mother in Florence. Among the visitors they received there was a Polish count whose lover Bonaparte is said to have become. In late 1838, finding herself pregnant, she went to Rome and then headed for Genoa. On the way she began to hemorrhage, and at Sarzana she underwent a cesarean section. The baby, however, was already dead and soon after, on March 2, 1839, Bonaparte herself died from loss of blood. . . ." (Past and Promise: Lives of New Jersey Women: 57)
"...Later a group of exiled Polish aristocrats replaced the artists at Charlotte's salon, and she fell deeply in love with one of them. Count Potocki was married, but his wife was far away in Poland. He was apparently the father of Charlotte's unborn child." (Stroud: 151)
Physical appearance & personal qualities.
" . . . Bonaparte was petite, with large dark eyes, an intelligent face, and great vivacity. She was said to be capricious and sometimes brutally frank, but her father was rich, and many suitors called at Point Breeze. . . ." (Past and Promise: Lives of New Jersey Women: 56)
Personal & family background.
"Charlotte Bonaparte was the second surviving child of Joseph and Julie (Clary) Bonaparte. Her father, the elder brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, was born in Corsica; her mother was the daughter of a wealthy merchant of Marseilles, France. Bonaparte grew up at her father's country estate in Mortefontaine and in Paris." (Past and Promise: Lives of New Jersey Women: 56) [Bio1:Napoleon Sites]
Son of: Lucien Bonaparte & Alexandrine de Bleschamp
His lover was:
Maria Testaferrata (1820-?)
(1803-1857)
2nd Prince of Canino & Musignano.
Son of: Lucien Bonaparte & Alexandrine de Bleschamp
His lover was:
Maria Testaferrata (1820-?)
Lover in 1838.
"Donna Marie Said-Testaferrata born in Santi, North of Rabat, Malta in the year of 1820 to Principe Salvatore Said and Marie Dimech-Testaferrata. She met Prince Charles Lucien Bonaparte, Principe di Canino e Musignan in 1838. Prince Charles took an instant liking to her and had placed her in his custody at his apartment where she was to be his mistress and lady of the night for his pleasures. Marie slowly sank into life in her new home and the trappings of the Italian aristocratic friends, feelings for home slowly faded and her love of Charles grew fonder. Marie was being paid to live a peaceful and colorful life with Charles. But Charles’s wife had been aware of Marie’s existence and too had taken a liking and invited her to her home from time to time. This more or less kept Charles loyal to his wife and his mistress, no different women at his bedside, one could say a complete life with one’s desires at ease. The Italian Aristocracy had always kept mistresses and it was a way of life in the 19th century. Her travels were mainly in and out of Rome to a country place, palace or mansion for the day of tea and activities, though Marie was earning the respect of her new friends as a typical role model. Marie bore four children in the five years of living in Rome, and the year 1845, Charles Lucien wanted no more, her job was done. Though her children had become part of Charles-Lucien family and even registered as born by his wife, not as Marie’s children. Her first son was Napoleon Charles Bonaparte, born 5th February 1839 , succeeded as the 5th Principe di Canino e Musignano and Principe by the Pope. He later Died 189 in Rome, and married Maria Cristina de Principi Ruspoli, and had three children." (Monarchy Forum)
"Donna Marie Said-Testaferrata born in Santi, North of Rabat, Malta in the year of 1820 to Principe Salvatore Said and Marie Dimech-Testaferrata. She met Prince Charles Lucien Bonaparte, Principe di Canino e Musignan in 1838. Prince Charles took an instant liking to her and had placed her in his custody at his apartment where she was to be his mistress and lady of the night for his pleasures. Marie slowly sank into life in her new home and the trappings of the Italian aristocratic friends, feelings for home slowly faded and her love of Charles grew fonder. Marie was being paid to live a peaceful and colorful life with Charles. But Charles’s wife had been aware of Marie’s existence and too had taken a liking and invited her to her home from time to time. This more or less kept Charles loyal to his wife and his mistress, no different women at his bedside, one could say a complete life with one’s desires at ease. The Italian Aristocracy had always kept mistresses and it was a way of life in the 19th century. Her travels were mainly in and out of Rome to a country place, palace or mansion for the day of tea and activities, though Marie was earning the respect of her new friends as a typical role model. Marie bore four children in the five years of living in Rome, and the year 1845, Charles Lucien wanted no more, her job was done. Though her children had become part of Charles-Lucien family and even registered as born by his wife, not as Marie’s children. Her first son was Napoleon Charles Bonaparte, born 5th February 1839 , succeeded as the 5th Principe di Canino e Musignano and Principe by the Pope. He later Died 189 in Rome, and married Maria Cristina de Principi Ruspoli, and had three children." (Monarchy Forum)
Elisa Bonaparte (1777-1820)
Princess of Lucca & Piombino, Grand Duchess of Tuscany.
Wife of: Felice Pasquale Bacciochi, mar 1797
Her lovers were:
1) Barone Capelle.
2) Fontanes.
Princess of Lucca & Piombino, Grand Duchess of Tuscany.
Wife of: Felice Pasquale Bacciochi, mar 1797
Her lovers were:
1) Barone Capelle.
2) Fontanes.
Justine-Eleonore Ruflin, Princesse de Bonaparte (1832-1881)
Wife of: Prince Pierre Napoleon.
Her lover was:
Prince Pierre Napoleon (1815-1881)
Lucien Bonaparte, 1st Principe di Canino (1775-1840)
Husband of:
1. Christine Boyer (1771-1800), Daughter of wealthy wine merchant
(1st wife, in 1794-1800)
Children:
Philistine-Charlotte Bonaparte (1795-1865)
Christine-Egypte Bonaparte (1798-1847)
2. Alexandrine de Bleschamp (1778-1855)
Lover, then 2nd wife, in 1802.
1. Christine Boyer (1771-1800), Daughter of wealthy wine merchant
(1st wife, in 1794-1800)
Children:
Philistine-Charlotte Bonaparte (1795-1865)
Christine-Egypte Bonaparte (1798-1847)
2. Alexandrine de Bleschamp (1778-1855)
Lover, then 2nd wife, in 1802.
French noblewoman
Children:
Charles-Lucien Bonaparte (1803-1857)
Laetitia Bonaparte 1804-1871)
Jeanne Bonaparte (1807-1829)
Paul Bonaparte (1809-1827)
Louis-Lucien Bonaparte 1813-1891)
Pierre-Napoleon Bonaparte 1815-1881)
Antoine Bonaparte (1816-1877)
Marie-Alexandrine Bonaparte (1818-1874)
Constance Bonaparte (1823-1876)
Lucien's physical appearance:
"He had a well shaped head, and well-moulded features. Though much taller than his brother Napoleon, his physique was poor and he had a spinal irregularity that caused him to stoop slightly. His hands were unusually large as were his feet and he gesticulated a great deal while talking. With women he made every effort to be at his best and when he grew excited he became somewhat feline." (Juliette Recamier: 25)
Lucien's spouse & children:
"The village of Saint Maximin-Marathon is not a magnificent residence. Lucien-Brutus soon found this out, and ennui would have overpowered him had not love come to his aid. Lucien-Brutus became enamoured, desperately enamoured, of Mademoiselle Christine Boyer, whose father was at the head of the little public-house of saint Marathon. Lucien was then young, about twenty-three; he was in love for the first time, and he loved an angel of gentleness, virtue, and candour. Christine saw herself adored by an ardent, hot-headed young man, employing against her rustic simplicity all the stratagems, all the resources, with which his short experience of the world had made him acquainted, and which his love taught him to use skillfully; and Christine was not proof against such an attack. She loved as she was loved, but she forgot her duty, and Lucien was obliged to marry her in order to be happy; he loved her too fondly to think of all the unpleasant feelings which this alliance was likely to excite in his own family. In fact, no sooner was General Bonaparte apprised of this marriage than he declared that he would never recognize the wife, and never meet his brother again. A post was then given to Lucien in Germany, and the young couple came to Paris for a short time." (The Home and Court Life of the Emperor Napoleon and His Family, Vol. 1: 179)
"The village of Saint Maximin-Marathon is not a magnificent residence. Lucien-Brutus soon found this out, and ennui would have overpowered him had not love come to his aid. Lucien-Brutus became enamoured, desperately enamoured, of Mademoiselle Christine Boyer, whose father was at the head of the little public-house of saint Marathon. Lucien was then young, about twenty-three; he was in love for the first time, and he loved an angel of gentleness, virtue, and candour. Christine saw herself adored by an ardent, hot-headed young man, employing against her rustic simplicity all the stratagems, all the resources, with which his short experience of the world had made him acquainted, and which his love taught him to use skillfully; and Christine was not proof against such an attack. She loved as she was loved, but she forgot her duty, and Lucien was obliged to marry her in order to be happy; he loved her too fondly to think of all the unpleasant feelings which this alliance was likely to excite in his own family. In fact, no sooner was General Bonaparte apprised of this marriage than he declared that he would never recognize the wife, and never meet his brother again. A post was then given to Lucien in Germany, and the young couple came to Paris for a short time." (The Home and Court Life of the Emperor Napoleon and His Family, Vol. 1: 179)
His lovers were:
1) Anna Maria Gordon.
"In the end Lucien did not actually leave, because he was taken up with writing his memoirs and having them simultaneously translated into English by a lady named Anna Maria Gordon, who for many years had been the nanny of his two youngest daughters. . . ." (Napoleon and the Rebel: 261)
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" . . . Lucien Bonaparte met her at this period at M. Sapey's, at Bagatelle, and was struck with her beauty. He asked permission to visit her at Clichy, and it was granted. The consequence may easily be foreseen. Lucien --- at that time only twenty-four years of age ---became, although married, passionately enamoured of the greatest beauty of her time, and did not scruple to declare his passion. Madame Recamier appealed to her husband, and requested that Lucien be shown the door. M. Recamier observed thereupon that to break openly with the brother of General Bonaparte might compromise him and ruin his bank. . . Madame Recamier did not like Lucien, so she acceded to the arrangement, and would sometimes laugh at this anguish, while at others she was terrified at his impetuosity. This stormy kind of relationship lasted for a year, when Lucien, weary with the ineffectual pursuit, gave it up. . . ." (The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science and Art, Volume 49: 252)
About this time Lucien Bonaparte aspired to become Juliette Recamier's lover. Though he was married already his wife was delicate, and went little in society. This combination of circumstances gave Lucien freedom to flirt with all the handsome women he met. . . Lucien was devoted to Madame Recamier, so much so in fact that he was ever ready to dance attendance on her slightest whim. She is said to have dined with him several times at the more fashionable restaurants in Paris, and even welcomed him as she did many other famous men, to a spirit of social eclat and coquetry. At this time Lucien was but twenty-five years of age, and was Secretary of the Interior." (Juliette Racamier: 25)
"The official world set the fashion of festivity, and the winter was tolerably gay. Especially successful were the balls of Lucien Bonaparte, who occupied the sumptuous Brissac mansion, as Minister of the Interior. He was then in love with the fashionable beauty, Madame Recamier, the most charming in Paris. Since her first name was Juliette, he expressed his devotion under the pseudonym of Romeo. . . It seems that Madame Recamier did not let herself be moved by Lucien, although she was much flattered by his attentions. Her husband, moreover, advised her to be gentler with the brother of the First Consul. So Madame Recamier was one of the principal ornaments of the balls given by the Minister of the Interior. The author of the delightful book, 'Recollections of Madame Recamier,' tells us that she produced a very great effect at a dinner, followed by a concert, which Lucien gave to his brother, General Bonaparte. 'She was dressed in white satin, and wore a necklace and bracelets of pearls, as if she took a certain satisfaction in covering herself with things conspicuous for their whiteness, in order to efface them by the beauty of her complexion.' Fouche, the member of the Convention, afterwards the Duke of Otranto, came behind the chair in which she sat, and said to her in a low tone, 'The First Consul finds you charming.'" (The Wife of the First Consul: 53)
3) Laure Junot, Duchesse d'Abrantes (1784-1838)
4) Madame Sari.
" Months went by fairly uneventfully, until the next spring. Lucien had started writing his memoirs as well as a pamphlet on the One-Hundred Days. . . The force inactivity was weighing on the Bonaparte brothers, who felt increasingly powerless and nervous. A woman provoked even more tension between them: Madame Sari, an attractive though manipulative Creole woman, was rumoured to be having an affair with Lucien. Her husband, a Corsican man named Mathieu Sari, who was in Joseph's service challenged Lucien to a duel. The business was settled, yet again, by Joseph's intervention. After the Saris' departure from London on May 1, 1835, Lucien announced his intention to leave for Italy, where Alexandrine was ill. . . ." (Napoleon and the Rebel: A Story of Brotherhood, Passion, and Power: 261)
5) Marguerite-Josephine Weimer (1787-1867)
French stage actress.
"This conversation between the brothers was not very edifying, but hten neither was their conduct. Mademoiselle Georges, before taking the Consul's fancy had caught this rascal Lucien's eye. He had been anxious to make her his mistress and with the end in view had entered upon somewhat discreditable negotiations with Mademoiselle Raucourt, under whom she studied, with the object of getting her to plead his cause with the pretty debutante. He had even given her, as an earnest of his intentions, a recherche supper and a magnificent present. It is further recorded that after the supper in question a contract drawn up in regular form had been duly signed, whereby Mademoiselle Raucourt undertook to Lucien therefore had ample knowledge of his subject when he told Napoleon that Mademoiselle Georges was one of the most beautiful women in Europe. 'You might,' Napoleon retorted, 'have said, I thing without much risk of error, the most beautiful woman.' . . . ." (The Love Affairs of Napoleon: 126-127)
Daughter of: Emanuel Filibert Graf von Waldstein-Wartemberg and Maria Anna Theresia Prinzessin von und Liechtenstein
Wife of: Jose Joaquin de Silva Bazan y Sarmiento (1734-1802), 9th marques de Santa Cruz de Mudela, 10th marques del Viso, mar 1784, as his 2nd wife)
" . . . When Lucien Bonaparte arrived in Madrid as French ambassador in 1800, he took over part of the Santa Cruz palace, and he and Maria Anna (his senior by 12 years) became lovers." (Neil Jeffares)
"Madame Baciocchi once passed a summer at Lucien's country house at Plessis-Chamant to act as hostess for her brother-in-law in company with the Marquise de Santa Cruz. Madame de Santa-Cruz was a young woman whom Lucien had met while Ambassador at Madrid, and whom he had brought back with him from Spain as a sort of lady companion to while away the dullness of the long journey...." (Trowbridge, 1908, p. 39)
Maria von Waldstein's personal & family background: "Mariana Waldstein (1763-1808), Marquesa de Santa Cruz, a native Austrian, was one of the most prominent women in the late eighteenth-century Spain. By her marriage she was the Duchess d'Alba's aunt and an intimate of Lucien Bonaparte." (WGA)
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Marie Bonaparte |
(1882-1962)
Princess Marie's love life.
"Princess Marie’s love life was colourful to say the least. Between 1913 and 1916 she had an affair with French Prime Minister Aristide Briand. She was great study in psychology and psychiatry and counted Sigmund Freud as her mentor. Prince George disapproved but Princess Marie declined to give up her interest in psychiatry. The couple had two children, Prince Petros and Princess Evgenia. Princess Evgenia married His Serene Highness Prince Dominic Radziwill who she divorced in 1948. He was succeeded by Prince Raymundo della Torre e Tasso the Duke of Castel. They divorced in 1965." (Henry Poole)
Princesse Marie Bonaparte's personal & family background.
Marie was the daughter of Prince Roland Bonaparte and Marie-Felix Blanc, the daughter f Francois Blanc, the principal real estate developer of Monaco and co-owner of the casinos in Monte Carlo and Homburg. Marie-Felix had a fortune of almost 14 million francs. (Scandalous Woman)
"Marie Bonaparte's paternal grandmother, Princess Pierre Bonaparte, lost all her money at the time of the Commune in 1871. To repair the family fortunes she arranged that her son, Prince Roland, should marry an heiress, Marie-Felix Blanc, whose father owned most of Monaco, including 97 percent of the Casino of Monte Carlo. Thus Marie Bonaparte, the only child of their union, became heiress to enormous wealth. In all other respects she was a most unfortunate child. Within a month of her birth in July 1882, her mother was dead of an embolism. Her father was a scholarly scientific amateur who became an expert on glaciers, but he was remote, preoccupied with study and saw little of his daughter. The household in which Marie Bonaparte was brought up by nurses and governesses was dominated by her paternal grandmother. This formidable woman considered that gregariousness pertained only to the lower orders, and so the young heiress was brought up without companions, isolated and overprotected. It is not surprising that she developed night terrors, morbid fears of illness and various obsessional anxieties." (NYT)
"Prince Roland's father, Prince Pierre Bonaparte, also married a woman who was lower-class and barely literate, but not until after she had given birth to Prince Roland and his sister Princess Jeanne. The couple were not married with Imperial consent by Napoleon III, and he refused to recognize the marriage or the legitimacy of the two children. It wasn't until the Third Republic that their marriage was recognized and his wife entitled to bear the title of Princess. Still the Princess was not recognized by Parisian society which galled her for the rest of her life. Princess Pierre arranged her son Roland's marriage to the daughter of Francois Blanc, who was the principal real-estate developer of Monaco, also co-owning the Casino in Monte Carlo as well as one in Homburg (Pierre's brother Prince Charles-Lucien Bonaparte broke the bank at Homburg winning 180,000 francs, the first person to do so.) Marie-Felix had a fortune of almost 14 million francs. She was also suffering from tuberculosis which was kept from her. The race was on to get Marie-Felix pregnant before she died. On July 2nd 1882, she gave birth to a daughter Princess Marie Bonaparte known to her family as Mimi. A month later, but not before making out a will in her husband's favor, Marie-Felix died in his arms of an embolism." (Scandalous Woman)
"Marie Bonaparte's paternal grandmother, Princess Pierre Bonaparte, lost all her money at the time of the Commune in 1871. To repair the family fortunes she arranged that her son, Prince Roland, should marry an heiress, Marie-Felix Blanc, whose father owned most of Monaco, including 97 percent of the Casino of Monte Carlo. Thus Marie Bonaparte, the only child of their union, became heiress to enormous wealth. In all other respects she was a most unfortunate child. Within a month of her birth in July 1882, her mother was dead of an embolism. Her father was a scholarly scientific amateur who became an expert on glaciers, but he was remote, preoccupied with study and saw little of his daughter. The household in which Marie Bonaparte was brought up by nurses and governesses was dominated by her paternal grandmother. This formidable woman considered that gregariousness pertained only to the lower orders, and so the young heiress was brought up without companions, isolated and overprotected. It is not surprising that she developed night terrors, morbid fears of illness and various obsessional anxieties." (NYT)
"Prince Roland's father, Prince Pierre Bonaparte, also married a woman who was lower-class and barely literate, but not until after she had given birth to Prince Roland and his sister Princess Jeanne. The couple were not married with Imperial consent by Napoleon III, and he refused to recognize the marriage or the legitimacy of the two children. It wasn't until the Third Republic that their marriage was recognized and his wife entitled to bear the title of Princess. Still the Princess was not recognized by Parisian society which galled her for the rest of her life. Princess Pierre arranged her son Roland's marriage to the daughter of Francois Blanc, who was the principal real-estate developer of Monaco, also co-owning the Casino in Monte Carlo as well as one in Homburg (Pierre's brother Prince Charles-Lucien Bonaparte broke the bank at Homburg winning 180,000 francs, the first person to do so.) Marie-Felix had a fortune of almost 14 million francs. She was also suffering from tuberculosis which was kept from her. The race was on to get Marie-Felix pregnant before she died. On July 2nd 1882, she gave birth to a daughter Princess Marie Bonaparte known to her family as Mimi. A month later, but not before making out a will in her husband's favor, Marie-Felix died in his arms of an embolism." (Scandalous Woman)
Marie Bonaparte's physical appearance & personal qualities.
"Princess Marie Bonaparte is twenty-five years old, tall, slender, graceful, with a mass of dark brown hair and a pair of big brown eyes that can by turns sparkle with merriment and swim in languorous tenderness. She has been courted by many men, but was fancy free until this blond Hercules came from Greece, wooing her against the wish of his family. He was so handsome, so big, his blue eyes were so full of tenderness and honesty that the dainty French Princess gave him her heart." (Esoteric Curiosa)
"Isolation is the breeding ground of fantasy and encourages susceptibility to romantic love. In adolescence Marie Bonaparte developed an unfortunate infatuation with a Corsican secretary of her father's who later blackmailed her successfully by threatening to publish her letters to him. Just before she was 17, her father launched her social life by giving a ball for her, but she was soon neurotically disabled by a variety of psychosomatic symptoms and became convinced that she would die prematurely like her mother. She became fascinated by the stories of Edgar Allan Poe, who later was the object of her psychoanalytic scrutiny. In 1907, when she was 25, her father chose Prince George of Greece as a suitable husband for her. She fell in love with him and had two children by him; the marriage lasted until Prince George's death in 1957, but it was a failure emotionally. George's affections were directed toward his uncle Waldemar rather than toward women, and on their wedding night, Marie Bonaparte recalled, he apologized, saying, ''I hate it as much as you do. But we must do it if we want children.'' She was driven by her unsatisfied sexual needs to take a variety of lovers, of whom the most famous was Aristide Briand, who was 11 times Premier of France." (NYT)
Her lovers were:
1) Aage af Danmark, Count of Rosenborg (1887-1940)
Lover in 1909.
Danish prince & French Foreign legion officer
Her husband's first cousin
"The marriage was distinctly odd from the beginning. The young couple visited uncle Valdemar at Bernsdorff and it became clear to Princess Marie that the bond between uncle and nephew was unnaturally close. They would spend days and nights together and when it came time for Prince George and Princess Marie to depart the former would weep inconsolably and Prince Valdemar would take to his sick bed. It was rumoured that Princess Marie also slept with Prince Valdemar and with his eldest son Prince Age." (Henry Poole
2) Aristide Briand (1862-1932)
French prime minister
3) Rudolph Loewenstein (1898-1976)
Austrian psychoanalyst
"The children of psychoanalysts often find themselves seeking, or being pushed into undertaking, analysis, and Marie Bonaparte's children were no exception. Her son, Peter, however, chose for his analyst Rudolph Loewenstein, whom he knew to be one of his mother's lovers, which is stretching unorthodoxy to the limit. Although psychoanalysis did not cure Marie Bonaparte, it certainly liberated her from the stifling conventions in which she was brought up. In 1932 she wrote to Freud seeking his guidance. She and her son had acknowledged to each other a mutual temptation to incest. Freud advised against acting out their desires." (NYT)
4) Sigmund Freud.
"But as she soon discovered, no lover could overcome her frigidity. Her search for a cure led her to become friendly with a French psychiatrist, Rene Laforgue. He referred her to Freud, remarking that she had ''a marked virility complex.'' In 1925, when Marie Bonaparte consulted him, Freud was 69 and already afflicted with the cancer that eventually killed him. They took to each other immediately. Freud, who was never good at following his own injunctions about how psychoanalysts should conduct themselves, told her about his illness and his financial difficulties and was delighted when she told him that she loved him. She soon replaced Lou Andreas-Salome in Freud's affections and became so much his favorite analysand that he gave her two hours a day of his time." (NYT)
Mathilde's physical appearance & personal qualities.
" . . . She was probably the most cultured, and in her sphere the most talented, of all the Bonapartes. Of fine physique, very good looking when young, she always remained a woman of dignified presence, in spite of the corpulent figure and the pendent cheeks of advancing years. she cultivated art in several of its branches, her ability as a painter was real, and, from the establishment of the Empire until her death in January, 1904, she surrounded herself with artists and literary men, gathering at her residence---first in the Rue de Courcelles, and later in the Rue de Berri, as well as at St. Gratien, in the northern environs of Paris---a large company of talented and eminent people, many of whom she reconciled to the imperial regime, while others were at least induced to tolerate it by the influence of her personality, which attracted, pacified, and disarmed. . . ." (The Court of the Tuileries, 1852-1870: 233-234)
"She has sovereign beauty and the beauty of sovereigns, strength and sweetness, line and expression, style and charm, a kind heart for all the world, and banter for the fools. Here is the face of Napoleon, from the slope of the forehead to the despotic chin; fine eyes, both proud and sweet; a nose which is Italian, with mobile nostrils, rather than Greek with the immobility of marble; a charming mouth, showing kindliness in the upper lip, imperiousness in the lower. That art which she worships has given a supreme touch of enlightenment to this countenance, in which the prevailing characteristic is an intelligence that is lofty, masterful, impulsive. And how proud is that carriage, which laways brings to mind the saying of a certain highly placed lady of middle-class extraction: 'You can easily see that she was born to it.'" (The Princess Mathilde Bonaparte: 16)
" . . . She was probably the most cultured, and in her sphere the most talented, of all the Bonapartes. Of fine physique, very good looking when young, she always remained a woman of dignified presence, in spite of the corpulent figure and the pendent cheeks of advancing years. she cultivated art in several of its branches, her ability as a painter was real, and, from the establishment of the Empire until her death in January, 1904, she surrounded herself with artists and literary men, gathering at her residence---first in the Rue de Courcelles, and later in the Rue de Berri, as well as at St. Gratien, in the northern environs of Paris---a large company of talented and eminent people, many of whom she reconciled to the imperial regime, while others were at least induced to tolerate it by the influence of her personality, which attracted, pacified, and disarmed. . . ." (The Court of the Tuileries, 1852-1870: 233-234)
"She has sovereign beauty and the beauty of sovereigns, strength and sweetness, line and expression, style and charm, a kind heart for all the world, and banter for the fools. Here is the face of Napoleon, from the slope of the forehead to the despotic chin; fine eyes, both proud and sweet; a nose which is Italian, with mobile nostrils, rather than Greek with the immobility of marble; a charming mouth, showing kindliness in the upper lip, imperiousness in the lower. That art which she worships has given a supreme touch of enlightenment to this countenance, in which the prevailing characteristic is an intelligence that is lofty, masterful, impulsive. And how proud is that carriage, which laways brings to mind the saying of a certain highly placed lady of middle-class extraction: 'You can easily see that she was born to it.'" (The Princess Mathilde Bonaparte: 16)
"Better known, probably, is the tribute of Sainte-Beuve, generally called 'The Portrait of the Princess.' This was published first in 1862, to accompany a photograph of her in a series of portraits and biographies of the Bonaparte family, and was included later in the eleventh volume of the Causeries du Lundi. She has a high and noble forehead, made for the diadem. Her light golden hair leaves uncovered on each side of her broad, pure temples, and sweeps round to join again in wavy masses on the full, finely shaped neck. There is no lack of decision in the firmly chiselled features. A chance mole or two shows that Nature had no intention that the classic purity of line which is hers should be confused with any other's. The well-set eyes, impressive rather than large, of a clear brown huem gleam with the affection or the thought of the moment, and are not apt to feign or conceal. Their glance is quick and piercing; now and then they turn full toward you, not so much to fathom your thought as to convey their own. The whole physiognomy indicates nobility, dignity, and, as soon as it lights up, the union of grace and power, the gladness which springs from a healthy nature, frankness, and goodness, at times also ardent spirit. In a moment of just anger, the cheek flames. The admirably poised head rises from a dazzling and magnificent bust, and is joined to shoulders of statuesque smoothness and whiteness. The hands have no equal in the world---the hands of the Bonaparte family. The body is of medium stature, but is made to look tall by its suppleness and harmony of proportion. The carriage is instinct with race, and gives an undefinable impression of sovereignty and full-blooded womanhood.'" (The Princess Mathilde Bonaparte: 16-17)
The blooming of a princess in Florence: "It was there [Florence] that Princess Mathilde grew into a beautiful and, thanks to the efforts of her mother, intelligent and educated young woman. One of her father's guests write, 'she is entirely French, heart and soul,' with dark hair and the strong features of the Bonapartes. But the gaiety and high life at Palazzo Orlandini ended when Catherine died of dropsy in 1835. Always living far beyond his means and not without his wife's annuity, Jerome was desperately short of money. He sent his offspring to relatives in Germany and moved into a villa at Quarto under Monte Morello. After he father failed to engineer a match between her and her cousin Louis-Napoleon, heir to the imperial throne, Mathilde returned to live with him in Florence." (The Florentine)
Mathilde's various suitors: " . . . Mathilde had been sought by various suitors, to whom her beauty and name were a sufficient attraction to render them indifferent to the absence of a dowry. We need not pay too much attention to the statement in Marshal Canrobert's memoirs that she was asked in marriage by numerous princes, heirs to divers thrones, including the Duke of Orleans and the Tsarevich---although, as we shall hear, she herself believed that the Tsar Nicholas desired her as a daughter-in-law. Jerome, however, certainly would not have refused her to any prince who could give her, and himself at the same time, an assured position. The suitors of whose advances there can be no doubt are less illustrious in station. Prominent among these was Count Aguado, son of the Marquis of that name, head of an immensely rich banking family of Spanish origin. With his hand Mathilde might have had ten million francs, it is said. But hse preferred to wiat, and in was not till after her twentieth birthday that she listened to an offer. Whether her wedding proceeded or followed her father's is uncertain, owing to the fact that his was secret, and the exact date of it has not been discovered." (The Princess Mathilde Bonaparte: 28-29)
The Count Aguado: "Several French writers have pointed out how curious it is that, while Napoleon III was engaged to the Princess Mathilde and afterwards married the Empress Eugenie, Aguado courted them both. When the Montijos, mother and daughter, came to Paris to lieve, they were on very friendly terms with the Aguado family there. The Count made no disguise of his feelings, and was found by a friend weeping over the Prince-President's wooing of Eugenie." (The Princess Mathilde Bonaparte: 29)
Princess Mathilde chooses to marry Anatole, Prince di San Donato: "The Princess Mathilde is said to have been attracted to Demidoff mainly because he was a Russian---in which case she was doomed to pay dearly for her gratitude towards the Tsar Alexander. His looks were not greatly in his favour, although those who describe him as ugly seem to have in mind his appearance in premature old age and to forget that when a young man, visiting Paris soon after his marriage, he was considered a striking figure in his brilliant Circassian uniform. Of the badness of his manners we shall soon hear. We cannot help suspecting that it was his income which chiefly commended the match to the young Princess, coupled with her desire to escape from Quarto. As Demidoff's wife she would be able to enter that France, which, though counted as a Frenchwoman she had never yet seen. . . ." (The Princess Mathilde Bonaparte: 32)
Princess Mathilde chooses to marry Anatole, Prince di San Donato: "The Princess Mathilde is said to have been attracted to Demidoff mainly because he was a Russian---in which case she was doomed to pay dearly for her gratitude towards the Tsar Alexander. His looks were not greatly in his favour, although those who describe him as ugly seem to have in mind his appearance in premature old age and to forget that when a young man, visiting Paris soon after his marriage, he was considered a striking figure in his brilliant Circassian uniform. Of the badness of his manners we shall soon hear. We cannot help suspecting that it was his income which chiefly commended the match to the young Princess, coupled with her desire to escape from Quarto. As Demidoff's wife she would be able to enter that France, which, though counted as a Frenchwoman she had never yet seen. . . ." (The Princess Mathilde Bonaparte: 32)
Wife of:
Russian industrialist, diplomat and arts patron
Son of: Count Nikolai Nikitich Demidov & Elisabeta Alexandrovna Stroganova.
The young man who caught her girlish fancy:
The young man who caught her girlish fancy:
"Mathilde, who mingled freely in Florentine society, was soon attracted by a foreigner, a strikingly handsome personality in his Circassian uniform. The young man who caught her girlish fancy was Count Anatole Demidoff, the Tuscan Prince di San Donato. To declare herself in his favour was to take a very bold step. She must have known that in doing so she was thwarting the secret intention of the Emperor of Russia. It is clear that the voice of passion must have been strong within her, since she might have looked far higher. In after years the Princess found pleasure in recalling this period of her youth, and in the company of a few intimate friends she often drew a comparison between what she was and might have been. Although the Tsar always affected to regard Napoleon III as a parvenu, and underneath the civilities of diplomacy to treat him as inferior to the kings and princes of older dynasties, it was his cherished plan to marry his son Alexander to a Bonaparte. And now she, on whom the honour of imperial choice had fallen, eluded him to follow an impulse which one day she would surely regret." (Women of the Second Empire: 88)
Prince Demidov had a handsome figure, noble rank and considerable wealth: "Anatole Demidoff, Prince di San Donato, in Tuscany, had more than his handsome figure and his rank to recommend him; he possessed considerable wealth. His father had been Russian Ambassador at Rome and Florence, and what was worth far more, he owned mines in the Urals---an inexhaustible source of revenue---which enabled him to surround himself with the luxury of a satrap. Count Demidoff's house was the rendezvous of foreigners. He liked to display the evidences of his wealth to a crown of spectators; it was the man's weakness to wish to dazzle society with his ponderous magnificence. His drawing-rooms were heavily gilded, filled with pictures, bronzes, and malachite. On great occasions very valuable jewels used to be exhibited in glass cases, and as he was not over-fastidious in the choice of his guests, two servants were always placed on guard to check the temptations of indiscreet amateurs. He kept in his pay a French theatrical company, whom he had originally engaged during his residence in Rome, to perform pieces from the 'Gymnase' in his residence, the Ruspoli palace. Ill, aged, and crippled, he never ceased giving entertainments, and the denser the noisy, pushing crowd which filled his rooms, the better was he pleased. His peculiarities were notorious, as was also his Asiatic ostentation---devoid alike of taste and moderation. His benevolence, however, was no less renowned; some of his generous deeds were of the most useful and enlightened description. He founded in Florence, a valuable picture gallery, a school and a richly endowed asylum. At his death public opinion decided that the services Count 'Nicolo' had rendered to the city of the Medicis entitled him to a statue, which was accordingly erected in one of the public squares. Anatole Demidoff, on whom the reigning Grand Duke had conferred the title of Prince of San Donato (from the name of his Tuscan estates), continued and even extended still further this large and luxurious way of life, amid splendour, philanthropy, and artistic interests. He showed, however, more discernment and greater culture. He had a certain amount of literary talent. We have from his pen some impressions of his travels and a series of articles, in the form of letters, on the Russian Empire, which were published in the Debats. He earned the reputation of a Maecenas. By weeding out and adding to the collections bequeathed to him he greatly raised their value. . . ." (Women of the Second Empire: 88)
A princely rank, upon marriage, fit for a Bonaparte princess: "By the way, Aurora’s son inherited his uncle’s title Prince of San Donato (as per his Villa San Donato in Florence). The title was created for Anatoly Demidov by Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, so that Mathilde Bonaparte, the daughter of Napoléon’s brother Jérôme, would not lose her title of princess when marrying him. If anyone of you has visited Portoferraio on Elba, Anatoly was the same Demidov who built the museum below Napoléon’s private house Villa di San Martino, the ghastly museum that completely ruins the site’s historical and artistic value." (Amateurs Venture on Life)
A wealthy Bonaparte princess: " . . . It is a fact that financially her position was enviable. In 1860 her income---already very ample---was increased by the award of an annual subsidy of 300,000 francs, which, added to the 200,000 of her dowry that had been returned to , and the income she drew yearly from Demidoff, made up her total revenues to 700,000 francs---a handsome sum with which to maintain the position of a princess!. . . These special grants ended with the Empire which awarded them. Princess Mathilde's fortune during the last years of her life consisted almost exclusively of the Demidoff allowance, an annuity of 200,000 francs (not 200,00o roubles), which she spent lavishly in keeping up her position, indulging her hospitable tastes, and in private charities. Beyond her collections of pictures, jewels, and other valuable objects, she left no capital worth speaking of." (Women of the Second Empire: 99-100)
Marriage dowry?: "As was expected the marriage of Mathilde and Demidoff was unhappy from the very outset. There were scenes and disputes resulting from the gross misbehaviour of her husband, and from the stinging reproaches of the high-spirited wife. It was after one of these quarrels that Demidoff presented to the Princess as a peace offering a magnificent gold casket in which there were some valuable jewels. While they were admiring it together he pointed out to her a spring which opened a secret drawer. In in she found the memorandum of her father's immense debt to her husband, and the former's letter accepting Demidoff's offer of marriage as a cancellation of the debt." (A Lady of Trance @ Otago Witness)
Prince Demidov's peculiarities: " . . . But he had not inherited the tastes and wealth of his father without some of his peculiarities. He was abrupt in action, capricious in mood, and despotic in temper. He was especially subject to fits of violent jealousy, though the license he permitted himself in the matter of conjugal fidelity hardly warranted his attitude. He was ardent in the pursuit of pleasure, and lived at a reckless pace. With his natural gifts, his noble blood, and his elegance, it might have been supposed that he yielded to some compelling passions, inspired even in the frivolous circles which were the scene of his excesses. But this was not the case; it was known that the demi-mondaines to whom he sacrificed one of the handsomest princesses in Europe cost him exceedingly dear. . . ." (Women of the Second Empire: 90)
Marital breakdown, separation and settlement: ". . . One day, however, he chose to consider that his exclusive rights had been infringed, and showed his displeasure in a manner so truly barbaric as to render a separation inevitable. The pair had just returned from Paris, where the Count and Countess Demidoff occupied a magnificent house in the Rue St. Dominique. On the occasion of their return to Florence the reception-rooms of the San Donato palace were the scene of a brilliant gathering. The dancers were moving in a maze of light and music. Suddenly, in the midst of this animated scene, before some hundreds of spectators who watched in dumb amazement, the Prince, in a fit of savage and unreasonable jealousy, walked straight up to his young wife and slapped her on both cheeks. Beneath this public insult she remained speechless; then quickly regaining her self-possession, she withdrew to her own apartments. In the morning, without seeing her husband again, she made her way to St. Petersburg, confident of finding protection and justice with her maternal uncle, Nicholas I. The Emperor was the more inclined to accord her both, because he was attached to her, whereas, on the contrary, he had no liking whatsoever for Prince Demidoff." (Women of the Second Empire: 90-91)
The imperial deed of separation: "A Russian subject was in question, most of whose property was in Russia. Nicholas could therefore speak and act with authority, for he held in his hand a guarantee for the man's submission. He (Nicholas I) undertook himself to make a settlement of the property, which should secure for his niece, the Princess Mathilde, a handsome independence. He authorized the deed of separation, ordered Demidoff to pay her 8,000 pounds a year, and forbade him to occupy the same place of residence as this wife. The Prince di San Donato, headstrong as he was, found himself compelled for once to yield to a stronger will than his own. . . ." (Women of the Second Empire: 91)
Who was really responsible for marital rupture beyond repair?: " . . . In the private history of Princess Mathilde, Anatole Demidoff has always borne the entire responsibility for the rupture. All the gifts and advantages of his brilliant education were neutralized by his violent temper and unbridled dissipation. Yet he was alone to blame? Were his jealous rages purely the outcome of his imagination? It is but just to plead the extenuating circumstances of the case. Mathilde was handsome, with the kind of beauty that calls forth homage and devotion; in Florence she was surrounded by admirers, some of whom, such as the Baron de Poilly, Captain Vivien, and Nieuwerkerke, were extremely pressing. Any man in Demidoff's circumstances might have felt a breath of alarm. In all justice he might have been treated a little less severely. He certainly contributed handsomely to the prince stae kept up by the wife he had wedded, whom he was forbidden ever again to see. It was not till long afterwards, when Demidoff, worn out by pleasure, was merely a living wreck, that this injunction was withdrawn. 'What does it matter now?' said Alexander II. He had tried to open up a way of reconciliation by touching the most sensitive chord in Mathilde's heart---her cult of the past---by parading the warmth of his Bonapartist convictions in the purchase of the villa in Elba where Napoleon had spent his exile, and in the collection of relics at extravagant prices. In vain. The blow his hand had dealt still burnt her cheek, and the remembrance was like a wound in the proud heart of Mathilde." (Women of the Second Empire: 91-92)
"By the time the Demidoffs received the Tsar's permission to leave Russia, their marriage was already in trouble. First they attempted to maintain appearances in public. Both were guilty of adultery, but strangely enough, Mathilde was not prepared to bear the huge expenses of Anatole's infidelities, rather than the fact of their existence. Once Mathilde stooped to insulting Anatole's mistress in public at a fancy-dress ball. Anatole, in his turn, did not find anything better to than slap his wife across her face. After that he became 'a monster', 'a brutal savage' and so on in the eyes of the refined French public. In September 1846 Mathilde, determined to separate from Anatole, fled from his hotel with her lover, the Comte de Nieuwerkerke, taking back her family jewelry, which her father had sold to Anatole, and corresponding moral corresponding moral compensation from Anatole's family jewelry. In this moment of crisis Mathilde turned for help to her cousin, Tsar Nicholas I. She sent him correspondence explaining the basis of her momentous decision. Tsar Nicholas was only glad to oblige. Unfortunately, Anatole and his behavior were 'blackened' and most likely beyond all recognition in the correspondence. Anatole pleaded for Mathilde to return and, in co-ordination with his father-in-law offered her lodging at Jerome's residence. His personal letters to Mathilde were short on tact and understanding. Anatole lambasted her decision to move our of her lover's residence and into a religious convent while she awaited the Czar's instruction as 'the most ridiculous combination of decisions of our tines. . . ." (Anatole and Mathilde: Story of their Marriage @abcgallery.com)
Her lovers were:
1) Alfred Emilien, Comte de Nieuwerkerke (1811-1892)
French sculptor & civil servant
Lover in 1845-1869.
"At the same time she was a Bonaparte, the daughter of old Jerome, the hero of a hundred gallantries; and after brushing mere scandals aside, it must be said that her name was a associated with those of two men of her time, first Alfred Emilien, Count de Nieuwerkerke, and secondly Claudius Popelin. Nieuwerkerke, Superintendent of Fine Arts under the Empire, a tall, handsome, bearded man, was of Dutch origin, but was born in Paris in 1811. He married a Mlle. de Montessuy (who predeceased him), and survived until 1892, when he died at Lucca. During the Empire his relations with Princess Mathilde were matter (sic) of common notoriety. His official functions frequently exposed him to attack, but she upheld him against all comers, and at one time had a very serious dispute respecting him with her brother, Prince Napoleon, who, in order to annoy her, had omitted Nieuwerkerke's name from some artistic commission which he had been selected to appoint." (The Court of the Tuileries, 1852-1870: 236)
"Princesse Mathilde's is illustrative of how a 'salon' in the best-understood sense of the word could operate. The Princess, niece of Napoleon I and separated from her Russian husband Count Anatole Demidoff, whose fortune from the mines of the Urals bolstered her own, held both literary dinners and Sunday evening salons from 1851. She played no small role in promoting the cause of her cousin, the future Napoleon III, after he returned from exile in 1848.The Princess was nicknamed 'Notre Dame des Arts' by Saint-Beuve; her niece Princesse Caroline Murat, described her salon as 'a court in itself' which 'had no equal in the nineteenth century for length of ascendancy' and was 'the home and centre of Parisian intellect'. During the Second Empire her sculptor lover Comte Alfred-Emilien de Nieuwerkerke became director of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts through her influence, and her salon became the centre of an informal network of patronage. She manipulated elections to the Academie francaise and helped Saint-Saens to avoid military service. According to the violinist Eugene Sauzay, her 'music salon' consisted of four rooms, of which two had pianos, a third was reserved for string chamber music, and the fourth a chamber organ; when serious performances were given, she imposed silence on her guests, something rarely experienced in public concerts. after 1870, the Princess's political influence diminished, her imperial pension stopped and mansion in the rue de Courcelles expropriated, but she maintained her salon in barely less grand surroundings in the rue de Berry. She still attracted composers including Bizet, Gounod and Vicomtesse de Grandval, and writers such as Coppee, Flaubert, Edmond de Goncourt, Hugo, Renan, Taine and, in the early 1890s, Barres and the young Proust, in whose A l'ombre des jeunes filles en fleurs she appears in person." (French Music Since Berlioz: 102-103)
"Back in Paris [after her separation from her husband, Prince Anatole Demidov], she sought solace in the arms of her own lover, the French sculptor, Count Emilien de Nieuwerkerke, whom she had met a year earlier at Villa San Donato, her palatial marital home in Florence. She also set about helping her cousin Louis-Napoleon, in his bid to be elected president of France, putting her jewellery up as a collateral to finance his successful campaign. following a coup d'etat in December 1851, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte became Napoleon III, ruler of the Second French Empire, making Mathilde, after Eugene, the emperor's wife, the second most important woman in France. A patron of the arts and literature, Mathilde soon established a glittering saon in Pris, frequented by, among others, Marcel Proust, Gustave Flaubert and Jean-Auguste Ingres." (The Florentine)
2) Charles Giraud (1802-1881)
French lawyer & politician.
2) Charles Giraud (1802-1881)
French lawyer & politician.
Minister of Education.
3) Claudius Popelin (1825-1892)
French painter, engraver & enameller
"Later, Claudius Popelin, the painter, engraver, and enameller, took Nieuwerkerke's place beside the Princess. The son of a Paris merchant, and born in 1825, Popelin was a widower at the time, having lost his wife in 1869. Ten years later the Almanach de Gotha stated the Princess Mathilde and M. Paupelin (sic) had been married in England in December, 1871. It is certain that the Princess was in England at the date mentioned, but subsequent tot he statement of the Almanach de Gotha a paragraph signed A. Renal was published in Le Figaro declaring, on the Princess's behalf, that the assertions respecting the marriage was (sic) untrue. Nevertheless, down to the time of Popelin's death in 1892, the Princess's intimates were certainly under the impression that he was at least morganatically her husband. On the whole, whatever lapses there may have been in the Princess Mathilde's life, we feel that they may be more readily condoned than those of any other member of the imperial family. . . ." (The Court of the Tuileries, 1852-1870: 236-237)
Princesse Mathilde's husband's lovers were:
1) Ernestine Duverger.
French actress.
"It is strange indeed that the death of Ernestine Duverger should have remained so entirely unnoticed by the French foreign press. For, the daughter of a washerwoman, she achieved fame at the age of 15 as the heroine of a most sensational escapade in connection with the late Duke of Orleans, eldest son of King Louis Philippe, and then heir to the throne of France, and not long afterwards became the final cause of the separation of Princess Mathilde Bonaparte from her Russian husband, Anatole Demidoff, Prince of San Donato, who, when he died at Paris in 1870, left untold wealth to Ernestine, the latter subsequently developing into an eccentric and miserly old woman, whose sole enjoyment used to be to empty the contents of her many safes on the carpet, and then to plunge her bare her arms among the jewels of every description which she possessed in untold quantities. Yet Princess Mathilde felt no grudge against Ernestine Duverger, and perhaps, on the whole, was rather grateful to her having furnished her with a cause of separation from Demidoff." (A Lady of Trance @ Otago Witness)
2) Fanny de La Rochefoucauld (1807-1848)
Daughter of: Francois XIII, 8th Duc de la Rochefoucauld & Marie-Francoise de Tott
Wife of: Armand Alexis, Comte de Montault mar 1828.
3) Juliette Drouet (1806-1883)
French courtesan & actress.
Daughter of: Julien Gauvain, French tailor & Marie Marchandet. French housemaid
"Juliette Drouet was twenty-six. She had had many lovers, by one of whom, the sculptor Charles Pradier, she had had a daughter. Her chief protector, at the opening of 1833, was the Russian prince Anatole Demidoff, who supported her in a luxury appropriate to her astonishing beauty. Although she was an indifferent actress, her looks had already made her celebrated -- a figure whose classical proportions had inspired the sculptures of her lover Pradier, an oval face whose delicate features and gentle eyes showed no trace of the hardness that might be expected in one whose career had been that of a courtesan. And in fact, launched into the demi-monde almost by accident, after a convent upbringing, Juliette had never acquired the cynicism appropriate to her role. 'It seems to me,' she had written to a lover, 'that my soul has its desires as well as my body, and a thousand times more ardent. . . I would leave you, I would abandon you, the world and life itself, if I could find a man whose soul would caress my soul, as you caress and love my body.'" (The Young Romantics: Writers & Liaisons, Paris 1827-37: 92)
4) Maria Kalergis (1822-1874)
Polish countess, pianist & patron of the arts.
Daughter of: Comte Charles-Camille de Saint-Aldegonde & Adelaide-Josephine de Bourlon de Chavagne.
Wife of: Alexandre-Edmond de Talleyrand-Perigord, 3rd Duc de Dino, mar 1839.
" . . . As it happened, she made a most unhappy marriage. Born at Trieste in May, 1820, she was wedded at Florence, on November 1, 1840, to Prince Anatole Nicolaievich Demidoff, of San Donato, who was her senior by seven years. One is reminded of the irony of life on reading the effusive letters by which that young Russian millionaire announced the consent of the Princess's father to other members of the Bonaparte family. His dearest wish was about to be gratified, his happiness knew no bounds. Five years alter he and his wife were separated. He had treated her with great cruelty, and it was the Emperor Nicholas who insisted on the separation. According to one account, the Czar discovered the situation during a stay he made at Florence---probably after his visit to London in 1844. In any case the separation was effected by his authority, and the Prince Demidoff, whose income was then about 90,000 pounds a year, was ordered to pay his wife 20,000 pounds annually, and to abstain from going at any time to any place within a hundred miles of where she might be living. Demidoff was compelled to obey, for fear lest all his property in Russia should be confiscated. It is thus an autocrat is able to enforce his decision, which, in the case in point, was a just one.
Prince Demidoff survived until May, 1870, and for a good many years Princess Mathilde enjoyed the jointure fixed by the Czar, in addition to her civil-list allowance. this enabled her to live in dignity, entertain freely, assist many struggling artists and writers, and do no little good unostentatiously in various ways. She was long the providence of the village of St. Gratien, where she had her country seat." (The Court of the Tuileries, 1852-1870: 235-236)
Princess Mathilde Bonaparte's Lifestyle.
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| Veranda of Princesse Mathilde Bonaparte's Hotel @ Rue de Courcelles |
Princesse Mathilde's collection of pictures, jewels & other valuable objects.
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| Diamond Rose Brooch |
" . . . Created for Napoleon's niece by Theodore Fester in 1855, the gold-and-silver setting rose has 250 carats of diamonds. Mathilde ran one of Paris' most distinguished literary and artistic salons. When she died in 1804, the Rose was auctioned and sold by Cartier to Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt III, who wore it at the waist or bodice for portraits and other formal occasions in her role as 'Queen of Society.'" (Pinterest)
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| Historic Pink Diamond |
" . . . [T]he Historic Pink', a ring with a fancy vivid pink diamond weighing 8.72 carats and with a classic non-modified cushion, which is estimated to sell between 14,000,000 to 18,000,000 US dollars, during a preview at the Sotheby's auction house in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, May 6, 2015. This auction will take place in Geneva on May 12, 2015." (Global News)
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| Blanche d'Antigny |
His lovers were:
1) Blanche d'Antigny (1840-1874)
French actress and courtesan.
Daughter of: Jean Antigny, a sacristan at a local church & Eulalie-Florine Guillermain.
"Blanche (born Marie-Ernestine Antigny), is widely believed to have been the inspiration for Emile Zola’s infamous courtesan, Nana. She certainly met Nana’s physical description, burnt through money at the same rate, and died a similar death to the heroine at the young age of 33. A part-time actress, she could list a Russian prince, Maharajahs and French bankers amongst her conquests. She kept a magnificent set of rooms in Paris, draped with turquoise satin and populated by liveried footmen, where she threw extravagant parties for her friends. She is infamous for appearing in public draped in diamonds." (Decadent Handbook's Blog) [Bio3:Amis et Passiones] [Bio4:Amis] [Bio5:Mossman] [Bio6] [Bio7:Blanche d'Antigny Blog]
" . . Blanche d'Antigny was 'imported' to Russia by its (sic) Prince only to be exported by the Empress, whom she had offended by buying a dress which was supposed to have been reserved for her Royal Highness. She is considered to be the model on whom Emile Zola based his famous courtesan Nana. . . ." (Writing with a Vengeance: n.p. )
2) Charlotte de Carbonnel de Canisy.
Lover in 1873.
3) Cora Pearl.
4) Marie-Anne Detourbay.
Lover in 1858.
5) Rachel Felix.
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