The Tragic Fate of Napoleon's Son

This is an IiHart podcast Guaranteed human I turned off news altogether I hate to say it, but I don't trust much of anything It's the raange bit. It feels like it's trying to divise people If we got clear facts, maybe we can calm down a little NBC News brings you clear reporting. Let's meet at the facts. Let's move forward from there. NBC News, repeporting for America This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea. I'm going to be honest with you. I am online way more than I probably should be. And between me and everyone else at my house, we've got a zillion screens going on at any given moment. So when my internet slows down, it is a full crisis. That's why having fast, reliable internet that can keep up really matters and why you need optimum famously Fast fiber Internet Optimum fiber blows flaky five G out of the water and keeps it cool with the fastest and most reliable speeds that don't slow when things heat up. And right now, they have the deal of the summer, just thirty dollars a month for five years. So don't wait, callall eight eight eight for optimum. Visit optimum dot com or stop by your local optimum store today Famously fast fiber for thirty dollars a month for five years. You can't beat it Terms apply see optimum dot com for details When it comes to looking your best, Beachbum tanning does it better. Beachbum delivers advanced sun and spray tanning, luxury skincare, and an elevated salon experience designed around you. It's why so many guests trust Beachbum for flawless color and real confidence. And now Beachbum is expanding wellness services to many locations. with red light therapy and infrared sauna, with more on the way. recharge your body, refresh your skin, reset your day. Beachbum isn't just tanning, it's full spectrum wellness. Visit beachbum dot com to find a location near you Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of IHart Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Many. Listener Discretion addvised If I went up to a historically literate stranger on the street and told them I was writing an episode of this podcast on Napoleon's wife I imagine the reply would be Oh, Josephine Napoleon and Josephine Josephine and Napoleon They are considered one of history's great love stories, even by people with only a passing familiarity with European politics of the early nineteenth century In the first Sex in the City movie, for example, Napoleon's letters to Josephine are specifically referenced as an example of the height of romantic writing a famous painting of Napoleon's coronation in which the emperor raises a crown high in anticipation of lowering it onto Josephine's head who's kneeling at the center of the canvas is on display currently at the Louvre Awing visitors with its massive size, almost thirty three feet wide and more than twenty feet tall literally Josephine and Napoleon loom large But Napoleon did not end his life married to Josephine Though the two were married for almost fourteen years When Josephine reached her mid forties and the two had still not produced an heir, Napoleon was pressured to divorce her. in order to preserve the future of his empire Of course, this led to the looming question Who would Napoleon marry next Josephine he had married for love. Now as an emperor at the height of his power, He would need to be marrying for political reasons in order to position France favorably on the grand stage of Europe. marrying a princess, a daughter from a noble family, someone who would, ideally, be able to provide him a son and cement an international alliance In the end his second wife would successfully achieve the first of those goals notot quite the second Marie Louise of Austria was raised, believing in Napoleon as something of a boogeyman. Corsican ruffian leading their enemy, France Of course, it hadn't been that long ago that Marie Louise's great aunt, Marie Antoinette had come from Austria to become a French bride And look how that turned out for her But when the tides shifted and Marie Louise was told that she would be marrying Napoleon Tenage archduchess had no choice She left her home and her family. and married a stranger for the sake of her family's power as you probably know, Napoleon's reign would end abruptly Twice actually and young Marie Louise was left in no man's land Her father and his armies had ousted her husband Was her loyalty supposed to lie with her home country or with the man she had married. was an empress to an emperor deposed and in exile Marie Louise was young and alone forced to navigate a landscape that shifted under her feet like crumbling sand as the map of Europe was redrawn around her in real time she was a casualty of Napoleon's power. and then she would become a casualty of his defeat I'm Danish Schwartz And this is Noble Blood. O january twenty first, eighteen ten. With Josephine cast aside, Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte gathered a small group of important advisors together to discuss a very important question Who should his next bride be Princess of Saxony was an option. as was the Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria and Anna Pavlovna, the younger sister of Tsar Alexander I of Russia Russia was an appealing prospect. It would be good to make a diplomatic marriage with such a massive and important country. The demands they were making complicated things a bit Anna were to come marry Napoleon Russia would require that each palace had a Russian Orthodox church and that France would allow free practice of Russian orrthodoxy There was also the slight issue that Anna was only fifteen at this time And though that was certainly considered a marriageable age, The entire purpose of this marriage was be getting an heir as quickly as possible And it might be a number of years before she was able to conceive A better choice a few years older was Archduchess Maria Louisa of Austria Historically, Austria and France had not had the best relationship The last time their two nations had joined in royal marriage. had been during another brief gap in the warfare the two countries waged against each other Back then, Marie Antoinette had married the future king Louis Xteenth And you don't need me to remind you that that didn't end well for her In fact, this very meeting that Napoleon and his men were having just happened to be on the anniversary of King Louis XVI's beheading Austria wasn't thrilled at the prospect in theory of sending yet another royal daughter into the tumult of a country that beheaded its kings and which was now under the rule of a non royal upstart like Napoleon Napoleon was a hated figure in Austria especially among their royal family Napoleon's War of the Third Coalition had been devastating for Austria. And in eighteen oh five, the Austrian royal family had even been temporarily forced into exile The Bygones were bygones, and given the circumstances, the countries needed to cooperate Austria knew if Napoleon chose to marry the Russian girl Austria would be sandwiched between these two great Allied powers Defitely a bad idea Marie Louise, just eighteen years old was not thrilled about the situation herself Growing up, she had referred to Napoleon in letters as the Antichrist and Krampus framing him like a monster in the children's stories she might have read Her grandmother, Maria Carolina, had been Marie Antoinette's sister And she was very vocal about her hatred and mistrust of the French And that's in addition to the whole Napoleon and his armies caused my whole family to need to go into temporary exile thing. On january second unaware of the conversations that were happening almost simultaneously in Napoleon's private rooms Marie Louise wrote to a friend, quote Since Napoleon's divorce, I continue to open the Gazette de Frankfurt in the hope of finding an announcement of his new bride I must admit that this delay has given me much cause for worry She also wrote pity the poor princess whom he'll choose stillill, she knew what her place was. and she continued in the letter stating If misfortune so wishes it I am prepared to sacrifice my own happiness for the good of the state Marie Louise had known for her entire life that she was raised for a diplomatic marriage. Her parents had her learn multiple languages in order to broaden her marriage prospects She spoke her native German, but also French, English, Italian, Latin, and Spanish And in order to preserve the all important purity of a young lady Marie Louise had had almost no contact with men outside of her family Even her pet rabbit was required to be female On march ninth, eighteen ten, the marriage contract was signed A few days later, she set out for Austria If you're a longt timee listener of this show or maybe I should say a very, very longt time listener of this show You might recall in our very first episode, when I discussed the ceremony Marie Antoinette underwent at the border between Austria and France. in which she was required to strip out of all of her Austrian clothes. and then get dressed again in things that were entirely French Now, forty years later Marie Louise went through those exact same steps again The girl, still young was already quite tall Contemporary described her. fairly harshly, I might add, as quote not beautiful Neither her will nor her desires are expressed in her eyes, which are a very bright blue, framed by fine blonde hair She has a curvaceous figure and is slightly taller than average She was, in case you were wondering, a few inches taller than her husband, Napoleon who was not unusually short for the time at about five foot seven But Marie Louise was approximately five foot nine. The emperor was very eager to meet his new bride. Though there was an elaborate first meeting and reception planned for them Napoleon became impatient and instead rode out to meet Marie Louise and her carriage at Camppion which was meant to be a staging post stop. The couple had already been married by proxy, but the plan was that the two would sleep separately until their elaborate religious wedding ceremony planned in Paris Alas, not for Napoleon. Upon seeing Marie Louise, he declared that she was much better looking than her portraits, and they spent that very night together It seems as though they both shared a pleasant reversal of low expectations Marie Louise too, thought Napoleon better looking in person than his portraits Almost certainly, one can imagine that there was something infectious about his passion and power Soon after arriving in France, Marie Louise wrote to her family, assuring them that things actually weren't that bad She wrote, quote I find that he improves a lot on closer acquaintance There is something attractive and polite about him which is impossible to resist I am convinced that I will be able to live with him quite happily On april second, Napoleon and Marie Louise were married in the chapel at the Louvre. He was forty. She was eighteen Wearing the fur lined cloak and iron crown. which Josephine had worn just five years earlier She was now the empress of France wife to Napoleon and Hopefully, we're all involved the mother to his heir After all, that was the entire point. To Marie Louise's surprise and delight In contrast to Napoleon's ogre like reputation He was a considerate and doting husband He secretly arranged for her favorite furniture, which he hadn't been able to bring with her from Vienna to be transported to Paris for her which must have felt very welcoming for a teenage girl arriving alone in a foreign country without her family and furthering the Marie Antoinette comparisons, Back when Marie Antoinette was quQeen, she had a small picturesque false village at the Petit Tanon with artificial mountains and streams and a miniature farm, dairy and watermel Napoleon had it restored for his new wife And Marie Louise loved it writing to her father that it reminded her of the palace she had spent her childhood at Napoleon seemed to adore Marie Louise. He called her Louise and apparently would frequently kiss her, saying her name over and over again in delight She may not have been the formidable, challenging partner or lover that Josephine was But she was At least to my eyes. Beautiful Well mannered, well educated and an incredibly sheltered young woman for Napoleon to dote on And how could she not enjoy, at least to some degree, the very fact of the most formidable man in Europe doting on her Unsurprisingly, it wasn't long before Marie Louise was pregnant and the birth itself would prove a testament to Napoleon's devotion baby was finally coming It was facing the wrong way and the doctor called for forceps. Napoleon was sitting next to Marie Louise, holding her hand so tightly his knuckles turned white. The doctor whispered that they might be required to either sacrifice the mother or child in order to save the other Save the mother. Think only of her and devote all your efforts to her, Napoleon shouted For God's sake, treat her like a common townswoman of the Rue Staint Denis Fortunately, it did not come to that On march second, eighteen eleven Ab a year after Marie Louise and Napoleon were married Their son Napoleon Francis Charles Joseph Bonaparte was born immediately styled King of Rome Napoleon was overjoyed His remarriage had officially been a success, and he doted on his new son the way he did his wife One moment I find particularly charming is a story that Napoleon would take their son through the gardens in a little carriage drawn by goats Perfect family scenes of domesticity would only last for so long In eighteen twelve, Napoleon would embark on a disastrous campaign in Russia. which would change the course of French history leaving Marie Louise stranded and lost. Emperors in an enemy country The last time Marie Louise ever saw her husband was january eighteen fourteen. The previous autumn, Napoleon had entered Moscow in what would turn out to be a military disaster thanks to a horrific Russian winter and unexpected guerrilla attacks More than half of Napoleon's Grand Army was destroyed. Marie Louise had been left in France as regent, although not one making any real political decisions With France so weakened Pussia joined Russia and the UK in declaring war Austria, for the time being, did not join in the fighting But that diplomatic abstention would be short lived Napoleon lost at the Battle of Leipzig The sixixth coalition came together to defeat Napoleon. They hoped for good In the middle of the night on january twenty fifth, Napoleon rode off to try to fight the Allied forces invading France The invaders were getting closer and closer to Paris. while Marie Louise waited in the Capitol with their son and without her husband Marie Louise spent the early part of that year terrified and anxious She and Napoleon wrote to each other every day And she also received word from her father in Austria letters with an ominous condescending tone Napoleon advised his wife to remain cheerful with the servants in their household Never mentioning war Still, she knew what was coming The young king of Rome would be running around the garden, declaring that he wanted daddy's troops to defeat granddaddy's troops Finally, at the end of March, the moment Marie Louise had been dreading came Napoleon's brother arrived to tell the empress that a siege was imminent She had to stay in Paris. Of course, she had to stay She could confront the Austrian forces, her father's forces. They wouldn't dare take her or her son Meanwhile, other French aristocrats were already fleeing for the countryside. Should Marie Louise take the little king of Rome and join them The Regency Council debated the matter back and forth. But ultimately it was Napoleon who made the final decision Joseph Bonaparte pulled out a letter he had received from the emperor that said Never leave the empress or king of Rome in the hands of the enemy. He instructed that Marie Louise and the son should be sent away, along with prominent dignitaries and counselors And then he added Do not leave my son Remember that I prefer to know him in the Sen than in the hands of the enemy of France The fate of Astianac's prisoner of the Greeks has always seemed to me the saddest in history. Despite Marie Louise's instincts, she knew she had no choice but to obey her husband The council took a vote after the letter was read and fleeing one out And so Marie Louise, the King of Rome and court, fled the city. D before the Allied forces invaded Paris to her utter shock. Her home country, Austria, the kingdom of her father taken Paris and dethroned her husband Napoleon, the man her father had made her marry in the first place When she heard of Napoleon's abdication, she was dismayed My father will not stand for this. He has repeatedly told me over twenty times that he has put me on the throne of France and that he would keep me there forever, and my father is a good man With Marie Louise off in the countryside and her finances growing thin Many of her staff members muttered about missing wages and began to flee themselves Meanwhile, the leaders of Europe were determining what should be done with Napoleon The only one who considered that Marie Louise should be by his side seemed to be Marie Louise In all the chaos, she finally received a letter from Napoleon, written so quickly he didn't even sign it. quote I am waiting while matters are arranged with the Allies. Russia desires that I am granted the sovereignty of Elba and that I stay there, and that you are granted Tuscany for your son after you. which will enable you to spend as much time with me as will not bore you or adversely affect your health Marie Louise was twenty two years old at this point, and she was determined to join her husband in his exile on Elba As long as I breathe, I shall stand by Napoleon, she declared The forces moving the world now had put her beyond her depth. Her father was the enemy of France, and when Marie Louise wrote him begging to see him in person and figure this situation out. Her father wrote back simply Unfortunately, I cannot give you the comfort you seek However much I might want to Everything has been concluded between your husband and the Allies. I can only assure you, no matter what happens, I will always love you as a tender father and your child and also your husband, for he has made you as his wife happy If you need a refuge, take your people with you to my home At this point, the stress was beginning to affect Marie Louise physically. According to Deborah Jay's book, Napoleon's other Wife, She was suffering headaches, fevers, and she was spitting blood There was nothing to do except wait to see where the men in charge of various European countries would put her In the end, she did not get Tuscany. The Allies in the abdication agreement granted her the Duchies of Parma Pianchzza and Gustateella There, at least, would be a stable and pretty place to live. somewhere to pass the time when she wasn't, of course, with her husband on Elba. Despite Marie Louise's determination to get to Elba to be with Nicoleon It seems that her father and the men around him had already made a silent agreement to try to untie her from Napoleon as best they could Marie Louise no doubt felt the uncanny sensation of other people about you and making arrangements on your behalf without her knowledge Letters from Napoleon didn't contain any plans for the two to finally meet up again. Instead, Napoleon just instructed his wife that she should wait to hear from her father Marie Louise planned to finally meet the Austrian emperor in person Palace of Rambouay. From there, it was essentially over The meeting with her father at Ramboulet, she must have slowly realized It was a trap Her servants disappeared, replaced by cosscks. Marie Louis wrote to Napoleon An order has been given to restrain me by force if necessary, from joining you Care, my dear friend. for they are deceiving us And I am terrified to death for you She left for Vienna on april twenty third in a miserable haze of confusion and powerlessness. She was assured she and her son would be welcomed back in Austria as members of the family It's not as though you can call an Oopsies or a mulligan on a royal marriage But it seems like the emperor of Austria was hoping to give it a try The King of Rome, though the Austrian emperor's grandson, was also essentially a hostage though the Austrian emmperor seemed to adore the young boy whom he had just met for the first time breakingly for Marie Louise, her husband had not been writing to her She continued to write. carefully numbering each letter. unsure whether or not her letters were reaching Napoleon at all. while she was living among Viennese court, a strange refugee in her own homeland. having to turn a blind eye to all of this snickering and gossip about Napoleon's demise. Especially painful were the rumors about how Napoleon pined for Josephine. That bit of gossip would continue even after Josephine's death with various courtiers whispering into Marie Louise's ear about how heartbroken her husband was over his first wife. slowly weakening the steealy resolve Marie Louise had had earlier to come join her husband in exile Come hell or high water Marie Louise wrote, I am in a very unhappy and critical position. I must be very prudent in my conduct There are moments when that thought so distracts me that I think the best thing I could do would be to die Marie Louise still weak, ill and losing weight needed some time to recover. And she was going to take a trip to the thermal baths at Eggs It was also a chance to escape the claustrophobic prison that Vienna had become. Her father convinced her it was imprudent to travel with the young King of Rome For the sake of economy, of course, and he would conveniently, remain back in Vienna His father made another strategic chess move assigning as her escort the dashing Comte Denyurg He was adept at sympathizing with Marie Louise and seemingly sharing her admiration for her husband The C acted like he supported her plan to escape to Elba to be with Napoleon When really, the count was under orders from Vienna to make sure that she did not go When a messenger came with a secret letter from Napoleon, telling her to leave for Genoa where a ship would be waiting for her, Marie Louise asked for Count Nneppberg's advice. H Wouldn't you know it wrote to Emperor Francis of Austria, who had the messenger arrested. There were also orders in place by the Austrian, Russian, and French police to arrest Marie Louise should she try to escape to Alba. The C advised Marie Louise to write to her father and assure him that she had never actually intended on following through plan to join Napoleon For the sake of preserving her duchies, her continuous financial future and any hope of stability. especially for the sake of her son. Marie Louise remained racked with guilt and shame She replayed the moment of Paris's invasion and wished she had stuck to her initial impulse of standing in Paris as the daughter of the Austrian emperor to stay strong and try to protect the city After X, she returned to Vienna, where she and her son were treated alternately as circus attractions or spies, outcasts or objects of curiosity and ridicule. Rumors about Napoleon were largely about how much he preferred the company of Josephine and his mistress. as opposed to his wife Though Marie Louise would never divorce her husband, it's around this time that most accounts suggest that she began to fall in love with Count Nppberurg Perhaps her father's assignment of the Dashing count as her escort. had been multip purposed When Napoleon escaped from Elba in eighteen fifteen to return to France for a brief but triumphant stint as emperor before his ultimate defeat at Waterloo, Marie Louise did not attempt to rejoin him. She wrote through an intermediary I hope you will understand the misery of my position. I shall never assent to a divorce, but I flatter myself that he will not oppose in amicable separation and that he will not bear any ill feeling towards me The separation has become imperative. It will in no way affect the feelings of esteem and gratitude that I preserve. History tends to paint Marie Louise as disloyal and flighty easily seduced is one phrase that I came across And yet with someone like Count Nppberg frequently portrayed as the handsome lover she wantonly cast a Napoleon aside for It reads to me as though this was a desperate and lonely confused young woman, finding comfort in the arms of the nearest authority figure it seemed as though she could rely on. She's someone that I have sympathy for. an incredibly sheltered young woman. Pristine as a specimen in a jar away from all men. even male pets growing up. just waiting to be deployed as a diplomatic bride And like her great aunt, Marie Antoinette She suffered for the bad luck of being married to a French leader at the wrong moment. Marie Antoinette's punishment was death Marie Louise's sentence was irrelevance and humiliation. as Debah Jay wrote in her book, Marie Louise would be, quote, fugitive and exileed isolated physically, mentally, and emotionally At least, she would no longer be required to marry as a political pawn Marie Louise had two children with Nppurg out of wedlock And after Napoleon died on Staint Helena on may fifth, eighteen twenty one, Marie Louise finally married Netberurg a month later. It was a morganatic marriage, meaning that since he was of significantly lower rank Neither he nor his children would benefit from any of Marie Louise's titles. Marie Louise would outlive her second husband as well. And after he died, she would marry again Also moreganatically, this time to a French immigrant who had fought with the Austrians Serving as her grand chamberl Marie Louise lived for over fifty years and fewer than five of them were at Napoleon's side And yet, of course, he is the great event of her life high drama of being married to a recent enemy leararning to find her husband amiable and loving. bearing him a son then separating from him forever too easily overpowered by the winds of war and diplomacy In her notebook, Marie Louise wrote Love is a chapter in a man's life. The whole story for a woman end quote Perhaps she was all too aware of how her story would be told in history. It's worth noting at the end of Jay's book points out what a tremendous impact Maria Louise had in later life in her humble Duchy of Parma Creating schools for boys and girls, schools for the deaf libraries, colleges and museums. hospitals and orphanages, a vast number of public works She may not have been as charming as Josephine She was not a woman who awed historians with moments of independence or dramatic bravery Perhaps it's enough just to simply say She did the best she could in a situation far beyond her control That's the story of Marie Louise, but keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear what happened to Napoleon's son B summer pieces are the ones you end up wearing on repeat, comomfortable, versatile, and somehow right for almost every occasion. That's why I love Qintince. 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