We are going through the great Napoleon story bit by bit in order to understand it better. I want the truth to be known about Napoleon, good and bad. Napoleon could be self centered and ruthless. He was driven by his passions. His behavior was often strange concerning his own family.
He really did make every attempt to be a “good husband” in spite of the fact that he just wasn’t all that happy with either of his wives. Keeping up appearances was considered a duty. He also understood that he was constantly being watched and that several of those who surrounded him were taking notes probably to eventually write their memoirs about him. Napoleon’s stepdaughter Hortense was one of the people jotting down what he was saying.
Napoleon was also known for having an AMAZING poker face yet he was very obvious in a way about what was living in his heart.
Napoleon kind of cornered Hortense and put her into a marriage with a man which she didn’t love - Louis Bonaparte. This was an extremely cruel thing for Josephine and Napoleon to do to Hortense and they both had their reasons. For Josephine, this kept Napoleon glued to her. There had been already much talk of divorce by then. For Napoleon, this kept Hortense glued to him.
When finally Napoleon divorces Josephine, he goes through paroxysms to keep Hortense near him. It must have been very difficult for him to have gotten his second wife Marie Louise to tolerate Hortense as Marie Louise’s intense jealousy of Josephine was well known.
We learn what was really going on with Napoleon by his actions. The reality is that Napoleon was always trying to portray circumstances in a certain way. He couldn’t hide the truth through.
The following quote from the Memoirs of Queen Hortense comes from after Hortense had managed to escape the reach of her psycho husband Louis. Yet, there she was still under Napoleon’s roof, sitting right next to him.
Hortense writes:
“That same evening the Emperor, next to whom I was seated, said to me very gravely "Your husband is mad. He is writing to all the French authorities. He has written you a letter which will not be delivered to you. I have kept it. He wishes to be somebody and forgets what he owes to France and to me. He deserves that I punish him by abandoning his children."
“I could not understand what these abrupt sentences meant. The last one brought tears to my eyes. The Emperor noticed it. "Fortunately I am kind-hearted," he went on, "and people always count on that. It is not the fault of those poor children. But they would deserve to be pitied if they had only their father to look after them."
For the memoirs that tell this story, click here.
