Josephine
Lots of information here, kids. And more on the referring pages. So, let us try to hit the high points for you. Josephine was married previously and gave birth to a son and a daughter. After her 2nd marriage to Napoleon, she was unable to conceive. Napoleon, desiring an heir, divorced Josephine (more or less against her wishes) and remarried. With his 2nd wife, Napoleon had a son. Unfortunately, his son died at the age of 21 of tuberculosis. Meanwhile, Josephine's daughter (from the first marriage) grew up and married Napoleon's brother. They had a son. And, ironically, it was this child that was to inherit the titles Napoleon left behind. So, if you've been paying attention, you'll notice that in actuality it was Josephine's grandchild that became heir to the throne, rather than a child of Napoleon's own seed.
(1763-1814)
As the wife of Napoleon
Bonaparte, Josephine became empress of the French in 1804. A widow after her first husband
was guillotined during the French Revolution, she reluctantly agreed to marry Bonaparte,
at the time a little-known artillery officer.
Josephine Tascher de la Pagerie was born on June 23, 1763, in Martinique, in the French
West Indies. She went to France in 1779 after marrying a rich young army officer, Viscount
Alexandre de Beauharnais. After he was killed, she was left to raise their two children.
Her grace and charm attracted Bonaparte and in 1796, after he had been appointed commander
of the Italian expedition, they married. When Napoleon was proclaimed emperor of the
French at Notre Dame cathedral, Josephine was crowned empress.
The marriage was childless, and Napoleon wanted a son. In 1810 he arranged for the
nullification of his marriage to Josephine on the grounds that a parish priest had not
been present at the ceremony. Soon thereafter he married Archduchess Marie Louise of
Austria. The French Senate awarded Josephine a large annuity, and she retired to the
château at Malmaison, near Paris. Napoleon visited her there.
Josephine's children by her first marriage were named Eugène and Hortense. Eugène proved
an able and loyal general under Napoleon and was for a time viceroy of Italy. Hortense
married Louis Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother, and became the mother of Napoleon III.
Josephine died at Malmaison on May 29, 1814. (See also Napoleon I. )
From:
JOSEPHINE
Pius VII informed Josephine herself, on the eve of the day set for the coronation of the empress, that she had not been married to Napoleon in accordance with the rules of religion. To the great annoyance of the emperor, who was already contemplating a divorce, in case no heir were born to him, and was displaying a lively irritation against Josephine, Pius VII insisted upon the religious benediction of the marriage; otherwise, there was to be no coronation. The religious marriage ceremony was secretly performed at the Tuileries, on the first of December, without witnesses, not during the night, but at about four o'clock in the afternoon, by Fesch, grand almoner of the imperial household. As Welschinger has proved, Fesch had previously asked the pope for the necessary dispensations and faculties, and the marriage was canonically beyond reproach.
It was in the midst of bitter conflicts with the church, Napoleon, desiring an heir, resolved to divorce Josephine. On 12 December, 1807, Lucien Bonaparte had vainly endeavored to obtain from Josephine her consent to this divorce; some time after, Fouché had made a similar attempt with no better success. In December, 1809, at Fontainebleau, in the presence of Prince Eugène, Josephine's son, the emperor induced her to consent; on 15 December, this was solemnly proclaimed in the throne room, in the presence of the Court, in an address delivered by Napoleon, and another read by the unhappy Josephine, who was prevented by her tears from finishing it. The Court of Vienna required that the spiritual bond between Napoleon and Josephine should be severed.
This bond the pope alone was competent to dissolve; Louis XII had had recourse to Alexander VI; Henry IV to Clement VIII; but Napoleon, excommunicated by his prisoner Pius VII, could not apply to him. Cambacérès, the arch chancellor, sent for the diocesan officials of Paris and explained to them that the marriage of Napoleon and Josephine had been invalid in consequence of the absence of the parish priest of the two parties and of witnesses. In vain did they object that only the pope could decide such a case; they were told to commence proceedings, and be quick about it. On 26 December, the promoter of the case, Rudemare, begged Cambacérès to submit the matter to the ecclesiastical council over which Fesch presided. On 2 January, 1810, Cambacérès sent a request to the official, Boislesve, for a declaration of nullity of the marriage, alleging, this time, that there had been absence of consent on Napoleon's part. On the next day the ecclesiastical council replied that if the defect of Napoleon's consent could be proved to the officiality, the marriage would be null and void. Cambacérès wished to produce Fesch, Talleyrand, Duroc, and Berthier as witnesses. The testimony of Fesch was very confused; he explained that the pope had given him the necessary dispensations to bless the marriage; that two days later he had given Josephine a marriage certificate; that the emperor had then upbraided him, declaring to him that he (the emperor) had only agreed to this marriage in order to quiet the empress, and that it was, moreover, impossible for him to renounce his hopes of direct descendants. The other two witnesses told how Napoleon had repeatedly expressed the conviction that he was not bound by this marriage and that he regarded the ceremony only as "a mere concession to circumstances [acte de pure circonstance] which ought not to have any effect in the future".
On 9 January the diocesan authorities declared the marriage null and void, on the ground of the absence of the lawful parish priest and of witnesses; it pronounced this decision only in view of the "difficulty in the way of having recourse to the visible head of the Church, to whom it has always belonged in fact to pronounce upon these extraordinary cases." From: The Catholic Encyclopedia
Unfortunately for the Bonapartist cause, the young man (Napoleon's son and heir) died of tuberculosis at age 21 on July 22, 1832, in Vienna. In 1940, after the German conquest of France, Adolf Hitler had the remains transferred to Paris, and they were buried near his father in the Hôtel des Invalides. The Bonapartists had to wait another 20 years for the arrival of Napoleon III, a nephew of the first Napoleon, to return to power. From: Compton's Encyclopedia Online
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Josephine