Hortense de Beauharnais
Queen of Holland and mother of Emperor Napoleon III.
Hortense de Beauharnais was Queen of Holland as the wife of King Louis Bonaparte. She was the stepdaughter of Emperor Napoléon I and later became his sister-in-law by marrying his brother. She was the mother of Napoleon III, Emperor of the French.
Quick Facts
- Reign
- 5 June 1806 – 1 July 1810
- Spouse
- Louis Bonaparte (1802)
- Issue
- Napoléon-Charles
- Napoléon-Louis
- Napoleon III
- Charles, Duc de Morny (ill.)
- House
- Beauharnais
- Father
- Alexandre de Beauharnais
- Mother
- Joséphine Tascher de la Pagerie
- Born
- 10 April 1783
- Birthplace
- Paris, France
Facts from the source article.
Early life
Hortense was born in Paris on 10 April 1783, the second child and first daughter of Alexandre François Marie, Vicomte de Beauharnais, and Joséphine Tascher de la Pagerie. Her father wrote to Joséphine that he knew the baby was the result of adultery. Her parents separated when she was five, and she lived in Martinique from ages five to ten. Her father was executed on 23 July 1794 during the French Revolution, and her mother was imprisoned but released on 6 August 1794 through the intervention of Thérèse Tallien. Two years later, her mother married Napoléon Bonaparte. Hortense was described as amusing and pretty with long pale golden-blonde hair and blue eyes. She was educated at the school of Madame Jeanne Campan alongside Napoléon's sister Caroline Bonaparte. She developed a love for fine art and music, becoming an accomplished amateur composer who supplied the army with marches such as Partant pour la Syrie. She excelled at billiards. In 1802, at Napoléon's request, she married his brother Louis Bonaparte, reluctantly persuaded by her mother for the family's political wellbeing.
Queen of Holland
She reacted negatively because she had to move with Louis, with whom she did not get along, and leave Parisian society. She hoped to be a queen in Paris but Napoléon disagreed. She arrived in the Netherlands on 18 June 1806. The Dutch public welcomed her warmly, and she quickly came to like the country, attending ceremonies, visiting markets, and learning water-colour painting. Her husband was annoyed by her popularity. She hated her stay due to her relationship with Louis; they lived in different parts of the palace and avoided each other, and she described herself as a prisoner. She refused to give up French citizenship. After her first son died in 1807, she stayed in France for the climate, remaining there until 1810 when Napoléon remarried. She then returned to the Netherlands to reconcile with Louis, but the Dutch did not welcome her. She considered this the end of her marriage and left for France shortly before Louis abdicated to their oldest living son.
Personal life
After her marriage effectively ended, Hortense responded to the romantic overtures of Colonel Charles Joseph, Comte de Flahaut, an illegitimate son of Talleyrand, and they became lovers. In 1811, at an inn in Switzerland near Lake Geneva, she secretly gave birth to a son, Charles Auguste Louis Joseph, later created Duke of Morny by his half-brother Napoléon III in 1862. Only her brother Eugène, her closest companions, and Adélaïde Filleul de Souza knew of the pregnancy; she used poor health to explain her prolonged visit to Switzerland. She disguised her pregnancy during the baptism of Napoléon's son, when Napoléon I made her a godmother. In 1814, Flahaut had an affair with actress Mademoiselle Mars; after reading Mars' letters, Hortense ended the affair. She remained in correspondence with him initially but then released him. When he mentioned meeting a rich young woman, she begged him to forget his promises. In October 1814 she went on a pilgrimage to Einsiedeln Abbey, presenting a bouquet of diamond hydrangeas to the Virgin and a ring for the abbot. Hortense became a self-acclaimed amateur composer during boarding school, a talented singer and pianist.
Later years
At the Bourbon Restoration in 1814, Hortense received the protection of Alexander I of Russia, and Louis XVIII granted her the title of Duchess of Saint-Leu on 30 May 1814. During the Hundred Days, she supported Napoléon, and after his final defeat, Louis XVIII banished her from France. She left Paris on 17 July 1815. During banishment, she wrote her memoirs, composed and published music, and drew and painted. Her home became a meeting place for artists and Bonapartist supporters. She remained involved in her sons' lives. After her son Napoleon-Louis died in the Italian revolt, she and her youngest son Louis-Napoleon escaped to France in April 1831. Authorities observed Louis-Napoleon meeting with conspirators planning a coup, and Hortense and her son were implicated. A crowd of Bonapartists demonstrated outside her hotel on 5 May, and the government ordered them to leave the next day. She traveled in Germany and Italy before purchasing Château Arenenberg in Thurgau, Switzerland, in 1817. She died of cancer on 5 October 1837 at age fifty-four and is buried next to her mother Joséphine in Rueil-Malmaison. Her remaining legitimate son became Emperor Napoleon III.
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