I’ve never heard of that being a thing at that time. These letters really do say a lot about Napoleon. This letter states that he is transferring his love to her children. I certainly believe that happened more than anyone could’ve imagined.
My theory is that Josephine was an unstable person with a cratered sense of self. The Revolution and her near execution traumatized her and left her to fend for herself. She took what she had - her ability to transform herself into whatever a man wanted - into a life of being a courtesan to perhaps a few very rich men. When Napoleon came along, she mirrored back to him, himself. He fell madly in love because he liked what he saw in the mirror: he really was brilliant, kindhearted and great. No where in these letters do we see much merit in Josephine herself. It’s all about his illusions and his feelings. Not to say Josephine didn’t have merit - she did. I just don’t really see him talking much about her.
When Napoleon looks back on Josephine after her death, the word “coquette” frequently arises. Then he says tends to say Marie Louise wasn’t a coquette, she was innocent. I think Marie Louise mirrored Napoleon too and he fell hard for the same act. The idea of innocence coming from the court of the Hapsburgs sounds a bit far fetched to me. Marie Louise’s diary reveals a big disconnect between what she was telling herself and what she was telling Napoleon in her letters. In her letters, she’s boundless devotion and a caring mother. In her diary, her son never comes up and if she says something nice about “the Emperor” it’s that he did a public work or something. Napoleon is told on St. Helena that Marie Louise bragged that she could get Napoleon to do anything if she merely started crying. Napoleon seemed a bit exposed at this and he turned it around on the ladies present - saying that all women pull this trick.
No, they don’t. Napoleon was a bit helpless when it came to women.
We will get to Napoleon’s reminiscences of his wives soon in the Las Cases memoirs. These are Napoleon’s own memoirs as recounted to Count Las Cases. Let’s see what we discover.
I present to you another one of Napoleon’s letters.
