I say “plays” because her actions had little to do with the words we see on display here. Revolutions were taking place throughout Europe in the 1830s. Marie Louis was trying to present herself as a kindred spirit as the widow of the ultimate hero of the people. Je dis «joue» parce que ses actions n'avaient rien à voir avec les mots que nous voyons ici. Des révolutions ont eu lieu dans toute l'Europe dans les années 1830. Marie Louis essayait de se présenter comme une âme sœur comme la veuve du héros ultime du peuple.
LETTER FROM MARIE-LOUISE, EX-EMPRESS TO LOUIS-PHILIPPE, KING OF THE FRENCH.
MONSIEUR MY BROTHER.
Since divine providence and the will of the French people have just placed you on this throne, no less greater circumstances made me share with the conqueror of kings, of Europe; From me, you receive congratulations which may be from causing you something of a surprise.
Widow of the greatest mortal, of the hero whose name has filled the world, and who has no rival in history, it is also by the will of these invincible people that my husband was placed on the first throne of the universe, which it fills with its glory, henceforth it’s inseparable from that of France.
My husband fell from this throne through a combination of circumstances. Shall I accuse heaven which, uniting with the earth, had unleashed against him the elements of the frozen deserts of Russia? Already the first defenders of France had perished, when twenty kings were determined to tear out its entrails, through a million soldiers.
France is the country of the brave; she had grown up again so that my husband at the head could, by repelling the foreign invasion, triumph for the hundredth time over his redoubtable enemies. But, oh incredible circumstances! O horrible crime, betrayal! Who came to take from this noble France the fruit of twenty-five years of glory! Who came to chain military talent, untamed courage, the genius of victory, to the chariot of ignorance and barbarism! Who not only takes away the honor of his triumphs, but also robs him of this precious freedom, acquired at the price of the blood of so many brave men who died on the field of honor!
O France! O country of a being whom I adore! And may I sacrifice for your prosperity and your happiness! Would it be in vain that you would have fought for twenty-five years for the preservation of your sacred rights? The nations, bowing under the spector of your humiliated face, bring back to you this family which, accustomed to looking at the people as a vile herd of serfs, without consideration for the rights acquired, wants, by its certain science, full power and royal authority, to govern again as was done in the thirteenth century; and it's without consulting your wish, that some infamous people have prepared the trap where their guilty hands wanted to shame you!
You know, Monsieur my Brother, the marvelous history of the hundred days. You know how easily my husband, who was accompanied by the wishes of the people, returned to the throne; but fortune did not favor him for an instant. He made a huge mistake not letting the great nation rebuild itself.
Treason followed him. It appeared at Waterloo, as it had shown itself in Paris, Lyon and Bordeaux, in 1814.
Everything was lost: the best soldiers of the world died there !!! Forced to abdicate a second time, Napoleon did so in favor of his beloved son. The representatives of France recognized this child, who is also mine; but the foreign bayonets tore up the decree of the representatives of France, by forcing them to receive a second time this ignorant and fanatical family, for which the blood of three millions of men had already been shed.
My son's rights were ignored; my husband, still so great, he who had treated defeated kings with such generosity, my husband, entrusting his destiny to the regent of England, was led to a desolate rock, where the pain, and perhaps ... I dare not pronounce the word, slowly consumed his days.
A protest which I addressed at the time to the Congress of Vienna remained without effect; the irresistible force of things and the rapid march of events can sometimes put in jeopardy the policy of sovereigns; and perhaps my father did not make use, on this occasion, of all the means of influence which were completely necessary to give him the high rank which he occupies among the crowned heads.
The astonishing revolution in which the unexplained courage of the inhabitants of Paris, by reconquering the laws and freedom of France, determined for the third time the expulsion and the flight of the elder branch of the Bourbons.
This opened a free field to my just claims in favor of my son; but by remaining among the French, I had ceased to be Austrian; I had taken on all the sentiments of this country, Monsieur my Brother, when I learned of your nomination as lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and a few days after that, very gloriously, of King of the French.
I felt that the French had recognized in you the only man who, by his enlightenment of heart, his ardent love of the law and his firm will to unite and contain all the parties. Someone worthy of holding the rudder of the state vessel in the midst of the storm. I felt that my son, born French, but raised far from his homeland. How shall I say? In a spirit entirely opposed to the institutions of France, could still love his country, but it could not offer him the people’s guarantees.
Alas! my son, whose education I have not been allowed to direct, my son who, since he has been in Vienna, has not been able to be approached by a single Frenchman, perhaps barely knows his father's exploits. I am grateful to the French, many of whom have continued to show both my son and me the keenest interest. I am especially grateful to those who remember that France, under the scepter of my husband, was placed at the forefront of the nations, from which new idle Kings were able to bring it down for a moment, but where the happy reign of Louis-Philippe seems destined to replace it.
I am grateful at last to those who are still proud to have triumphed with Napoleon, at the bridges of Lodi and Arcole, at the foot of the Pyramids and in the fields of Moskowa.
Honor the memory of my husband, and believe that, whatever the wrongs that are imputed to him, his noble heart beat only for France, whose glory was his, and whose prosperity could alone created his happiness. It is by silencing the sweetest feeling of nature, by imposing on me the most painful of sacrifices, that of the interest of a son, I frankly agree, and without restriction, to the choice that comes to France, by raising the bulwark the hero, the first soldier of freedom, the one who attached his name to its triumph obtained under the three colors which have become immortal!
Monsieur my Brother, may God keep you in his holy and worthy care. Receive the assurance of the distinguished feelings which your name and your personal merit inspire. You have all my gratitude,
At the palace of Colorno, August 29, 1830.
MARIE-LOUISE.
