Read part one here. Joséphine had to rely on a man she met while in prison, General Hoche, to rebuild her life. All her property had been taken from her. She wrote to her mother in Martinique, currently being blockaded by the British, “You have without a doubt heard about all the awful things that [read more]
Read the first part here. Hortense was now free to respond to the charms of Charles de Flahaut, a man she had long admired. She was staying in Geneva when she met him as he was part of her mother’s entourage. They could not be together long as his military duties required him to go [read more]
Hortense de Beauharnais was born on 10 April 1783 as the daughter of Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais and Joséphine Tascher de la Pagerie but by that time her parents’ marriage was already in deep trouble. When her mother wrote to her father informing him of her birth, he wrote back, “If I had written to [read more]
Oud-Amelisweerd in the Netherlands doesn’t really look like it has much of a royal connection. It was built in the 13th century, but it was destroyed by French troops in 1672. It wasn’t rebuilt until 1770. It passed through noble hands before being sold to King Louis Napoleon of Holland in 1808. He held the [read more]
Last week I was invited to view the new Alexander, Napoleon & Josephine: A Story of Love, War and Art exhibition at the Hermitage Amsterdam. The exhibition holds many art objects collected by Empress Joséphine after her divorce from Napoleon and also treasures such as Napoleon’s death mask, a briefcase used by Alexander I and [read more]
Lock of hair from Jacqueline of Hainaut, though the Rijksmuseum doubt its authenticity. It was supposedly from the excavation in the chapel in the Binnenhof, but nobody was reported to have been found, but they apparently did find this. So either the body is still there somewhere, or the lock of hair is fake. Snuffbox [read more]
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