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The Good Life France's podcast
The Good Life France's podcast
#53 - Empress of Style: the Life and Legacy of Josephine Bonaparte
Step back in history to look at the life of a women who helped to shape the history of France.
She is remembered for her personal style and influence. She was an icon of fashion, a patron of the arts, and the first Empress of France. She was married to one of the most powerful men in the world. And from humble beginnings on the island of Martinique to her days in the opulent halls of French power, her life was one of resilience – a real rags to riches story.
Legend has it that when she was ten years old, she was told by a fortune teller that she would be unhappily married, widowed, and then become Queen of France. “More than a queen,” she was told, precisely, “but only for a short time.”
Discover the life and legacy of Josephine Bonaparte.
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Transcript podcast 53 - Empress of Style: The Life and Legacy of Joséphine Bonaparte
Janine: Bonjour and very big welcome to the Good Life France podcast – everything you want to know about France and more. I’m Janine Marsh, your host. I’m an author, travel writer, and maid to 4 dogs – 2 Labradors and 2 Australian Shepherds, 6 cats, all strays who turned up at the back door, and 46 chickens (several of them also turned up at the back door), ducks, geese and a dove called Doris who can’t fly as she damaged her wing. I bought a house in northern France 20 years ago so I feel almost French though you might be able to tell from my accent, I’m from London, UK. I travel all over France, all year round so I can share my discoveries with you on my website called thegoodlifefrance.com and in the Good Life France Magazine (it’s free I’ll give you details at the end of the podcast). When I’m not travelling, writing or being an animal butler, I love to chat to you on this podcast with my podcast partner Olivier.
Oli: Bonjour tout le monde, welcome, welcome to this podcast. Yes, I am Olivier, Oli for short and I’m French though you may find that hard to believe with my English accent after living in the UK for 20 years! I live in sunny Lyon in the far south of France, and when I’m not chatting to you here, I’m a radio presenter – the drive time slot on a big radio station in Lyon, and I also have a radio station called Paris Chanson where I play vintage songs that tell stories.
So that’s us, your Anglo-French hosts who love to share with you everything about France. So, let’s do just that! Janine, what are we going to be talking about today?
Janine: Today we’re going to step back in history to look at the life of a women who helped to shape the history of France. She is remembered for her personal style and influence. She was an icon of fashion, a patron of the arts, and the first Empress of France. She was married to one of the most powerful men in the world. And from humble beginnings on the island of Martinique to her days in the opulent halls of French power, her life was one of resilience – a real rags to riches story. Legend has it that when she was ten years old, she was told by a fortune teller that she would be unhappily married, widowed, and then become Queen of France. “More than a queen,” she was told, precisely, “but only for a short time.”
She is of course Josephine Bonaparte.
Oli: Yes indeed, her life was one that was full of ups and downs, her tale is of a woman who had to be strong and bloody minded to survive, and it’s a fascinating story. Let’s find out more…
She was born Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie on June 23, 1763, on the island of Martinique. Her family owned a sugar plantation, but they were not wealthy, in fact her father, though an aristocrat, was pretty much penniless as he liked to gamble and wasted the family’s money. When she was 16, her father took her to Paris for an arranged marriage to a wealthy 19-year-old Viscount called Alexandre de Beauharnais.
Janine: He was supposed to marry her younger sister Catherine, but she died of tuberculosis. Then the family proposed another sister - Manette, who was even younger. But she got sick too. ‘What about Josephine?’ asked her dad.
Oli: “Bring anyone” came the answer. How charming – not. The viscount’s father just wanted his son married off as he had to be married to inherit a fortune and Josephine’s aunt was one of his best friends and kept on at him to marry into the family.
Janine: It wasn’t a happy marriage. The viscount already had a mistress he was besotted with. She was 11 years older than him, and allegedly related to Josephine. Although young, he was considered very sophisticated and said to be the best dancer in Paris. He spent as little time as possible with Rose or Marie-Rose as she was called by everyone then. She wasn’t very pretty by the standards of the day, she had very bad teeth, hardly any education, and was a bit plump, he thought she was a bit of a country bumpkin, and she was compared to the sophisticated aristocrats of Paris.
Oli: Nevertheless, she had two children with him, a boy and a girl. The couple pretty much lived separate lives after a couple of years, and had little to do with each other, and in that time, Josephine learned to be charming and cultured, sophisticated and witty. But then the French Revolution came along.
Janine: Alexandre de Beauharnais was all for the French Revolution despite being an aristocrat but as happened to many – whether they were for or against – he got on the wrong side of Maximilien Robespierre, nicknamed the terror of the Revolution because it seemed he liked nothing better than chopping heads off.
Oli: In 1794, that’s just what happened to Josephine’s husband. He had been thrown into prison and Josephine had too, an overcrowded former Carmellite convent, where they were kept in filthy conditions.
Janine: Josephine was lucky though. Robespierre himself was led to the guillotine just 5 days after her husband and things started to calm down in Paris, Josephine was freed just one day before she was due to lose her head. She had even cut her hair short to make sure it didn’t get caught in the blade. Though she was free, she had no money, no home, nothing - and two children to care for. But she had one thing in her favour, she was brilliant at making at friends and building a network. And it’s said she became the mistress of a man called Paul Barras, a prominent leader of the new French ruling party.
Oli: She got even luckier! She met Napoleon Bonaparte. There are several accounts of their first meeting. That she met him at a dinner party is one. The other is that when the citizens of Paris were ordered to give up their weapons, Josephine’s teenaged son begged Napoleon to let him keep his father’s sword and Napoleon was so impressed he asked to meet the boy’s mother.
Janine: Others say they met at a so-called “Victim’s Ball” a party where those who had been condemned to go to the guillotine but survived would wear red ribbons around their neck.
Oli: We’ll never know for sure. But at the point where they became an item, she was 32 years old. He was 26. And he fell head over heels, crazy in love with her. His passionate letters to her prove that he was utterly besotted. He didn’t like her being called Rose, he called her Josephine and that is how she has been known ever since.
Janine: Napoleon was a rising star in the French military. He was captivated by Josephine’s charm and sophistication and decided she was the one for him, and within weeks, he asked her to marry him. Some historians say she didn’t really love him. Some say she grew to love him. We’ll never know for sure but married they were in 1796 after knowing each other for just a few months. Both of them altered their birthdates on the marriage certificate, Josephine took off four years, and Napoleon added 18 months so that they wouldn’t have such a big age difference, which it wasn’t but in those days people were a bit weird about such things. Napoleon’s mum and dad didn’t like her at all. She was an older woman, had no money, had kids, liked to spend money – too much they thought, and she was a sophisticated socialite who dressed in an immodest way. In fact his parents never liked her the whole time they were together. The couple weren’t rich at all at this time. Their wedding contract stated that they would equally share living expenses and equally share the cost of the wedding. And not only that, Napoleon was two hours late for the wedding. I’m not sure I would have waited that long, but Josephine did.
Oli: Well Napoleon’s star rose higher and higher, and we’ll talk about him in a future episode of the podcast. As he rose to the heights of power, he took Josephine with him. But their union wasn’t just a personal alliance but a strategic one that provided Napoleon with a connection to established French aristocracy. They had a tumultuous relationship, but Josephine played a crucial role as a consort, advisor, and confidante during Napoleon's rise to power. Three years after they married, he became the most powerful consul of France. And 5 years later, he was proclaimed Emperor of France, and Josephine became Empress. But first they got married again! Napoleon wanted the Pope to make his coronation a religious affair, but the Pope wasn’t happy that Napoleon and Josephine had married in a secular ceremony – the French Revolution meant that church ceremonies were out of favour. So, the couple got married again – this time with religious vows.
Janine: Their coronation took place at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. And Napoleon insisted that Josephine tone down her fashion style. He actually chose her dress for her, very different from her usual style, a big gown, lace around her neck, a long ermine-lined train – she had to look like a real queen for this event. No doubt if the tabloids were then like they are now, their names would have been combined to create the perfect power couple portmanteau - JoBo.
Oli: As Empress of France, Joséphine not only supported her husband but also became a significant cultural and fashion icon. When she had come out of prison, she and her best friend who had also been in prison with her, turned their short hair into a fashion trend. Just a few years before the aristocracy were sporting huge hairdos, so this was very different. They made their prison dresses into fashion items, threw out their corsets and huge pannier skirts. They favoured dresses that were more fluid and comfortable – we get Empire style dresses from Josephine. And the pair made handbags fashionable!
Janine: Up until then women had tie on bags that they hid in their petticoats, but there were no big petticoats with the new style of dress which were made from flowing fabrics like chiffon and muslin. So handbags became an item to be seen. And let’s face it ladies – we’ve never looked back. Josephine and her friends set trends, other women copied, not just in Paris but beyond.
Oli: Being married to Napoleon didn’t stop her being a trend setter, in fact it gave her even more opportunity. When he was fighting in Italy, she went with him and bought a cameo there. She attached it to her revolutionary headband, and this led her to commission a tiara starting yet another trend.
Janine: Napoleon and Josephine lived in the former homes of the royals, so much for the French Revolution making everyone equal! But that’s a whole other topic. But in 1799, while Napoleon was fighting in Egypt, she borrowed 300,000 Francs, the currency of the day (about 450,000 us dollars in today’s money) and bought a small castle near Paris called the Chateau de Malmaison.
Oli: When Napoleon came home, he wasn’t exactly happy with her. First she had spent all that money, and second she had been unfaithful to him, and he was furious that she’d made a fool of him. But she managed to win him round and he thought of her has his lucky star, he really believed she bought him good luck.
Janine: Josephine spent a fortune updating Malmaison, and loved the gardens where she grew roses and exotic plants. Napoleon ordered his army to bring back seeds and plants from their travels. She even had a glass house in which she grew 300 pineapple trees. And she kept a menagerie of exotic animals including kangaroos and emus as well as an orangutan she called Rose that she treated like a child, dressing it up, teaching it to eat with a knife and fork and, rumour has it, even letting it sleep in the marital bed. A steady stream of dressmakers, jewellers, milliners, and perfume makers made their way to Malmaison to tempt her – she loved fashion, and clothes, and in one year alone it was claimed she bought 985 pairs of gloves, 520 pairs of shoes, and 136 gowns, and the dressing room, wardrobe room and boudoir must have been bursting at the seams. In fact it was rumoured she spent even more money than Queen Marie-Antoinette. And she even bolstered the national economy, preferring French silk and fabrics to English which had previously been fashionable.
Oli: Unfortunately for Josephine, The good times didn’t last. Josephine’s inability to produce an heir (by now a son born to Napoleon’s mistress was proof he was fertile), made him resolve to divorce in 1809. Their marriage was annulled, and Josephine wore a white dress, like a bride’s dress to the official event. Three months later Napoleon married Marie Louise of Austria (1791-1847) although he’d never met her in person!
Janine: Napoleon gave the Chateau de Malmaison to Josephine and was a regular visitor there. He also continued to support her financially (more than 30 million francs over a decade).
Oli: She was also a patron of the arts, amassing a significant collection of paintings and sculptures and you can see several pieces she once owned in the Louvre Museum.
Janine: Josephine died of pneumonia in Malmaison on 29th May 1814 just 26 days before her 51st birthday, a month after her ex-husband’s defeat at Waterloo and his abdication. Exiled on the island of Elba he was distraught at the news and on returning to France, one of his first visits was to Malmaison. And when he died in in 1821, it was said the last word he uttered was Josephine.
Oli: Joséphine Bonaparte's legacy is a fascinating tale of overcoming the odds, a journey from poverty to the opulent salons of Parisian society where she helped to influence an era. A remarkable woman who continues to inspire to this day.
Janine: We hope you enjoyed this episode, join us for the next one as we dig deep into the culture and history of France.
We just want to say a huge thank you to all of you listening to our podcast and to everyone for sharing it too. We really love sharing the France we know and love with you, the authentic and real France with its wonderful history, culture, gastronomy, wine and more. It always amazes us that people are listening in about 150 countries around the world!
Janine: Yes thank you so much everyone, wherever you are, we really appreciate it. You’ve been listening to me Janine Marsh and Olivier Jauffrit. You can find Oli at parischanson.fr playing heaps of great music, and you can find me and a ton of information about France – where to visit, culture, history, recipes – everything France - at thegoodlifefrance.com where you can subscribe to the podcast, a weekly newsletter about France and my totally brilliant, completely free magazine which you can read at magazine.thegoodlifefrance.com.
But for now, it’s au revoir from me.
Olir: And goodbye from me.
Janine: Speak to you soon!
