When Napoleon was in his mid twenties, on the verge of greatness, he took over the care of an entire family ruined by the Revolution. The head of that family, Alexandre de Beauharnais, had been executed and he had been a great French patriot. The fact that Napoleon took great care of this fallen hero’s children says a lot about Napoleon. He was at first passionately in love with his wife who was 6 years older than he was.
Not too long into the marriage, he realized that the match wasn’t that terrific for him. He stuck with the marriage for 15 years until he viewed divorce as the only way to bring peace to France - through an alliance with one of the countries who were always starting up wars against him. Napoleon figured if one of his enemies’ heirs stood to gain France that the attacks would stop. Napoleon was wrong about that.
This letter shows the misery Josephine went through concerning this situation:
Dear Eugène,
Paris, this 10th of February [1808].
I write to you, my dear Eugene, because of the opportunity afforded to me by the departure of M. de Lauriston. I have wished to give you news of myself, but I have been continually prevented from doing so. At first, the return of the Emperor occupied me very much; then the care of my health, which has been for some time bad enough but which is beginning to recover. You can easily guess that I have had many sources of grief, and I still have the noises that ran during the absence of the Emperor that have not ceased upon his return and have, in this moment, more people gossiping about it than ever. (Napoleon’s affair with a Polish lady, M. Walewska, who became pregnant.)
It is true that their proclaimers have not been punished; on the contrary, it has been noticed that those who sought to deny these rumors have received a colder welcome.
For the rest, I leave it to Providence and the will of the Emperor; my only defense is my conduct, which I try to render irreproachable. I do not go out any more, I have no pleasure and I lead a life to which we are astonished that I can bend, having been accustomed to being less dependent and seeing a lot of people; I console myself by thinking that this is me submitting myself to the wishes of the Emperor. I see my stature drop every day while others increase in credit. All the favor is for Prince Murat and the princess his wife, for M. de Talleyrand and Berthier. You know that he will become your first cousin if he marries Princess Elizabeth, daughter of the Duchess of Bavaria; the request was made yesterday and accepted.
How thrones render one unhappy, my dear Eugène! I would sign tomorrow, without any trouble, abandoning everything. The Emperor's heart is everything to me. If I have to lose it, I have little regret for everything else; this is my only ambition and my heart as it is. I know that it is not with this frankness that one succeeds, and, if I could, like many others, be only fake, I would find myself much better off, but I prefer to keep my character. I at least have the esteem of myself. For you, my dear son, be always what you have always been; continue to make yourself worthy of the Emperor's friendship, and the future will be what it will be. I will never complain of my fate as long as you are happy and as long I am sure of your tenderness.
JOSEPHINE.
The entire story is here.