
Josephine de Beauharnais (23 June 1763-29 May 1814) was Empress consort of the French from 18 May 1804 to 10 January 1810 as the wife of Emperor Napoleon I.
Biography[]
Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie was born in Dauphin, Saint Lucia in 1763, the daughter of a plantation owner. Her family returned to France a few years later, and she married Alexandre de Beauharnais in 1779. They had two children, Eugene de Beauharnais (the future King of Italy) and Hortense de Beauharnais (the future wife of Louis Bonaparte and mother of Napoleon III). Her husband, a frequenter of brothels who abandoned the family for over a year, was executed during the Reign of Terror in 1794. Josephine went on to have affairs with several leading political figures, including Paul Barras, before becoming Napoleon Bonaparte's mistress in 1795. They married in March 1796, and he gave her the nickname "Josephine," which she adopted from then on. She was left behind in Paris while Napoleon conquered Italy and Egypt, and Josephine had an affair with hussar lieutenant Hippolyte Charles, while Napoleon retaliated by having an affair with Pauline Foures. In 1800, Josephine was nearly killed during the Plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise, an attempt on her husband's life. She became Napoleon's empress in 1804 on his proclamation of the First French Empire, and she had a court appointed to her. Her failure to produce an heir led Napoleon to annul their marriage in 1810, although they continued to love each other and read a statement of devotion to each other. Josephine resided at the Chateau of Malmaison until her death of pneumonia in 1814 shortly after walking with Czar Alexander I of Russia in the palace gardens and requesting that she be allowed to join Napoleon in exile.