Of all the people Hortense didn’t like, the Prince de Benevento was high up on her list.
Hortense’s mother, Josephine was more like a sister than a mother to her. Josephine shared all of her fears with Hortense. When Josephine had been a girl in Martinique, a psychic told Josephine that she would marry twice and that she would become more than a queen but that she should beware of a priest who meant to harm her second husband.
The next paragraph Hortense starts talking about the former priest who wished Napoleon harm - Maurice de Talleyrand, the Prince de Benevento.
Hortense shows that Talleyrand set Napoleon up to take the fall for the death of the Duke d’Enghien. In addition to the suspicious behavior of Talleyrand, a man reputed to be his illegitimate son was always chasing after Hortense. His name was Charles de Flahaut.
This situation is extremely complicated in Hortense’s memoirs. I believe this is the case because, the two of them did themselves have an illegitimate child together raised by de Flahaut’s mother. If Hortense wanted to retain any ability to interact with that child, she would’ve have had to stay on good terms with de Flahaut and his mother. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that after the fall of Napoleon, Hortense wanted to go to the county where this child was living - Switzerland.
Despite all this, Hortense really does show that de Flahaut and his mother played her when she was in the depths of suicidal misery over her abusive marriage to Louis Bonaparte. I also think she was secretly in love with her Stepfather. Since that romance was entirely out of the realm of ever happening, this probably wasn’t helping her state of mind either.
As soon as the Empire was really over, Hortense found out that de Flahaut had been cheating on her and that he had already lined up a new rich woman in the British Isles for his upcoming marriage. How very convenient.
De Flahaut and his mother always managed to stay on top, whatever the circumstances. Exactly the same way Talleyrand did!
We never really can know to what degree de Flahaut was a plant being used by Talleyrand to control Hortense through her profuse desire for love.
We do know however, that Talleyrand was a major engine of the betrayal that was going on against Napoleon for many years, perhaps his entire reign.
This is the quote from Hortense’s Memoirs about Josephine’s prophecy:
“After announcing she would marry twice a long way from home and would have two children by her first husband, the fortuneteller had added, "Your second marriage will make you more than a queen. But beware of a priest who wishes you ill." My mother pointed out that the first part of the prophecy, which she had forgotten until now, had come true, as the successes of the French armies in Italy had made her more than a queen.
“She never guessed these successes would carry her still higher. Nevertheless the latter part of the prediction frightened her in spite of herself, and she admitted she was her nervous when she saw a priest too intimate with her husband.
“Monsieur de Talleyrand, at that time Minister of Foreign Affairs, gave a great reception in honor of General Bonaparte.“
These mysterious stories are part of a great saga that can be found here.
