Joséphine de Beauharnais
Queen · 1804-1809 · born on 23 June 1763, died on 29 May 1814
Widow of General de Beauharnais, guillotined in 1794, Joséphine de La Pagerie, a Creole from Martinique, married General Bonaparte in 1796, of whom she was the elder. Empress of the French in 1804, she was crowned at Notre-Dame beside Napoleon.
An elegant and influential figure of the imperial court, she kept a renowned salon and tempered, with her charm, the excesses of her husband. She had no children with Napoleon, which led him, anxious to found a dynasty, to divorce her in 1810.
Retired to Malmaison, she cultivated her passion for gardens and roses there, and died in 1814, a few weeks after Napoleon’s abdication. Her trajectory, from the guillotine to the imperial throne, makes her one of the most romantic destinies of the Empire.
In the tree of power
- Spouse: Napoléon Ier (1804-1814/1815)