the question of succession—marriage of hortense—josephine empress of the french people—the coronation
the first real threat to josephine’s position came in a political question. in order to give an appearance of stability to the new government, it was proposed to give the first consul the right to appoint a successor. but if napoleon had this right, would he not wish for a son upon whom to confer it, would he not desire to establish a hereditary office? josephine had given him no children. he was only thirty-one; might he not, in spite of all his affection, divorce her for the sake of this succession, which, he declared, was essential to the future of the consulate. josephine turned all her power of cajoling upon napoleon. “do not make yourself king,” she begged; and when he laughed at her, and told her that securing to himself the right to appoint a successor in the consulate was nothing of that sort—only a device to prevent the overthrow of the government in case of his absence at the head of the army, or in case of his sudden death, she was not convinced. she began, indeed, to talk of the advisability of bringing back the bourbons, and called herself a royalist.
napoleon’s decision was taken, however. he must appoint a successor, and it should be one of his own family. but which one? joseph had no head for affairs. with lucien he had quarreled. but there was louis, who had none of his brothers’ faults and all of their good qualities. louis it should be. the knowledge that napoleon undoubtedly 372favored louis as his successor determined josephine to arrange a marriage between him and her daughter hortense.
at this time, 1800, hortense was seventeen years old, though the exceptional experiences of her childhood had given her a thoughtfulness quite superior to her years. she had been but ten when her mother, lest a suspicion of her patriotism might be roused because she brought up her children in idleness, had apprenticed her to a dressmaker. she was but eleven years old when her parents were imprisoned, and when in the costumes of laborers’ children she and eugène had made frequent visits to les carmes and had gone together more than once to beg of persons in authority for the lives of their father and mother. after the revolution, hortense had been placed in mme. campan’s school at st. germain—a school established to give the young girls of the better class whose parents had been scattered or guillotined in the revolution, an opportunity to learn the ways and the graces of that society which for so long the patriots had been trying to uproot. at mme. campan’s, hortense had distinguished herself by her gentleness and her goodness, by the quickness with which she learned everything taught, and by her enthusiasm and ideals. she had left the school a thoroughly charming and accomplished girl, to join her mother, now the wife of the first consul. she had all of josephine’s charms of person, her grace and suppleness, her beautiful form, her interesting and mobile face; but she was more vivacious than josephine and more intelligent. as for her accomplishments, they were many. she played the piano and the harp, and sang well. her drawing and embroidery were not bad, as many specimens still preserved show. she danced with exquisite grace; she, even at this time, had literary aspirations, and she was 373the star of the company which put on so many pieces at the little theatre at malmaison.
hortense was a favorite of napoleon. he had loved her first because she was josephine’s daughter. after she left school and was constantly of the household, he grew more and more attached to her, more and more anxious for her happiness. hortense, though she never ceased to fear napoleon, loved him with the enthusiasm of a young girl for a conquering hero. she seems never to have questioned his will—never to have doubted his affection for her.
hortense’s marriage was, of course, an important question with the bonapartes, and various suitors had been considered. the girl herself was not ambitious. neither wealth nor station obscured her judgment. she wanted to marry for love, she declared. at one time she had a strong feeling for duroc, and napoleon favored the marriage strongly. duroc was of good family and a brave soldier, and hortense loved him; what better? josephine opposed it. she had set her heart on louis bonaparte, in spite of the fact that hortense felt something like an antipathy to the young man. louis himself did not take to the marriage at first. he had imbibed from his mother and brothers the idea that the beauharnais were the natural enemies of the bonapartes, and a marriage with hortense they all declared, would be disloyal. however, in september, 1801, when louis returned to paris after several months absence and saw hortense at a ball, he was so impressed by her charm that he yielded at once to josephine’s wishes, and asked for her hand. napoleon consented with a little regret; hortense obeyed as a matter of duty, urged to it as she was both by her mother and mme. campan. the marriage took place early in january, 1802. it was a victory for josephine over the bonapartes, so her friends said, and so 374the bonapartes felt bitterly. but, alas, it was a victory for which hortense paid the price. before the end of the year, it was evident that mme. louis bonaparte was very unhappy; her husband was jealous and exacting, and constantly tried to turn her against her mother in the family feud. not even the birth of a son, in october, silenced his grievances for long, though to napoleon and to josephine the coming of the little napoleon-charles, as he was named, was an inexpressible joy. to josephine the child was a new support to her position, a new reason why a succession could be established without divorcing her and re-marrying. it was a succession through her, too, since this was her daughter’s child.
napoleon himself soon became more devoted to the child than its father ever was. in a way, his own ardent desire for fatherhood was satisfied by the presence of the baby, which he kept by him as much as he could, riding it on his back, trotting it on his foot, rolling with it on the floor, lying beside it at night until it slept—a touching proof of this extraordinary man’s passion to possess a love which was faithful and disinterested. as time went on and the question of the succession came into the senate, the struggle between the brothers as to how the heredity should be regulated reached its climax. napoleon determined to adopt hortense’s child and make him his heir. joseph, lucien, and louis himself refused to resign what they called their rights, and each had important supporters in his position. lucien, in the struggle, broke entirely with napoleon.
but if the succession was to be settled to josephine’s satisfaction, there were other matters which worried her at the beginning of the life consulate. chief among these was that napoleon insisted upon leaving malmaison for st. cloud. josephine’s interest in the former place was so great, her life there had been so happy, that she was 375violently opposed to any change. st. cloud was too large; it smacked too much of royalty, the idea of which was awaking such vague alarms in her mind; its associations were too sad. but her opposition availed nothing whatever. bonaparte felt that a larger residence was necessary. malmaison was a private home, st. cloud belonged to the state, and he, as the head of the state, wished to occupy its palaces. they had no sooner taken st. cloud than their whole mode of life changed; the simple, informal ways of malmaison were laid aside, and a rigid etiquette adopted. there is a governor of the palace, there are prefects of the palace, there are ladies of the palace. josephine and napoleon no longer receive everybody of the household at their table, but eat alone, inviting, two or three times a week, those persons whom they may care particularly to distinguish. the ladies and gentlemen belonging to the palace have tables of their own quite apart. there is a military household annexed to st. cloud, with four generals and a large guard, an elaborate suite which accompanies the first consul when he goes forth. every sunday, a great crowd of dignitaries—senators, cardinals, bishops, ambassadors, everybody of note in paris—flock to the first consul’s receptions. after paying their respects to him, they pass into the apartment of madame bonaparte. it is the former apartment of marie antoinette, and that queen herself did not receive in more state than the wife of the first consul. it is the same at the services in the chapel, which are held every sunday, and which bonaparte insists everybody shall attend. at the theatre of the palace, where the little plays which they so much enjoyed at malmaison are still repeated, there is the same increase of etiquette. josephine and bonaparte no longer are seated with their friends, but occupy a loge apart; and when they enter, the whole assembly rises and salutes. people are there by invitation, too, and no 376one pretends to applaud unless the signal is given by the first consul.
day by day josephine bemoaned this new departure; and as hostile criticisms and sneers reached her, she set her face against the changes. her protests were useless: “josephine, you are tiresome—you know nothing about these things,” napoleon finally told her, and fouché, her friend, finally silenced her by his cynical advice. “be quiet, madame; you annoy your husband uselessly. he will be consul for life, king or emperor, all that he can be. your fears disturb him; your advice would wound him. keep your proper place, and let the events which neither you nor i know how to prevent work out.”
she did accept, and took her part. if it was true that napoleon was going to make himself emperor, she must, before all, so conduct herself that he would prefer her on the throne at his side to all the world. as the weeks went on and it became evident that an empire would soon be proclaimed, josephine had increasing need of discretion. the bonaparte family had set themselves again to prevent the succession going to a beauharnais. josephine should be divorced, they said; eugène, to whom napoleon was greatly attached, should be sent off with his mother. as for his adopting little napoleon-charles, the child of hortense, neither joseph nor louis, the father, would hear to it. “why should i give up to my son a part of your succession?” said louis to his brother. “what have i done that i should be disinherited? what will be my place when this child has become yours and finds himself in a position far superior to mine, independent of me, outranking me, looking upon me with suspicion and perhaps with contempt? no, i will never consent to it, and rather than consent to bow my head before my son i will leave france; i will take 377napoleon away with me, and we will see if you will dare to steal a child from his father.”
napoleon’s sisters, particularly caroline, mme. murat, were no less determined than the brothers to secure all the advantages possible from his glory. in their eagerness, they showed such envy and bitterness that napoleon was deeply disgusted, and gave them no satisfaction as to his intentions. he even took some pains to tease them. one day when the family were together and he was playing with little napoleon, he said, “do you know, little one, that you are in danger of being king one of these days?”
“and achille?” murat exclaimed, referring to his own son.
“oh, achille will make a good soldier,” answered napoleon laughing, and when he saw the black looks of both caroline and murat, he added: “at all events, my poor little one, i advise you, if you want to live, to accept no meals that your cousins offer you.”
in spite of all the plotting and protesting of the bonapartes, josephine was proclaimed empress, and the law of succession was passed as it pleased napoleon:—“the french people desire the inheritance of the imperial dignity in the direct natural or adoptive line of descent from napoleon bonaparte and in the direct natural, legitimate line of descent from joseph bonaparte and from louis bonaparte.” napoleon was free to adopt either eugène or napoleon-charles and make him his heir. the law mentioned neither joseph nor louis as heir. josephine’s victory in this instance was as much due to the fact that she had made no protests about the succession and had asked nothing, as to anything else. her seeming confidence (as a matter of fact, she feared the worst for herself) and her generous pleasure in the satisfaction those about took in their new 378honors offered such a contrast to the jealousy and faultfinding of the bonapartes that napoleon felt more and more, as he had often said to her in family quarrels: “you are my only comfort, josephine.” not only josephine, but hortense and eugène showed themselves in all this period wise and generous. the two latter apparently felt sincerely that napoleon did more for them than they had a right to expect. the gratitude and disinterestedness they showed was indeed one of the few real satisfactions of napoleon’s life, for he seems to have believed always that they were genuine, something he never felt about the expressions of his own family.
not only was the law of succession fixed to josephine’s satisfaction; but to her unspeakable joy, napoleon finally told her that she was to be crowned at the same time as he. in the new government she had no political rights, but in this supreme ceremony she should share. here again it may have been as much family opposition as love for josephine and desire to associate her with himself in this greatest of royal spectacles that finally led napoleon to this decision. just as before the proclamation of the empire the bonapartes quarreled about the succession, now they tormented the emperor about their positions and their privileges. “one would think,” he said testily one day to caroline, when she was upbraiding him for not according to his sisters the honors due them, “that i had robbed you of the inheritance of the late king, our father.” joseph did not hesitate to say sarcastic things, even in official gatherings, about the impropriety of crowning a woman who had given her husband no successor. napoleon stood it for some time, and finally in a violent outburst of passion silenced him at least for the time. the announcement that josephine was to be crowned, and that her sisters-in-law were to carry the train 379of her robe, caused still further heart-burnings, but the fiat had gone forth and everybody finally submitted.
however, the new court was too busy in the summer and fall of 1804 to give overmuch time to quarreling. the mere matter of familiarizing themselves with the new code of etiquette sufficiently well not to incur the ridicule of those who had been brought up to court usages, was serious enough to absorb most of their time and energies. they succeeded fairly well, though the aristocrats of the faubourg st. germain told endless tales of the blunders they made, stories which were circulated industriously in the courts of europe. their failure was not for lack of effort, however. josephine and her ladies took up the code with energy—it was a new amusement, and for weeks they studied their parts and went through their rehearsals as if they were preparing a play for the stage. before the time of the coronation they had become fairly at home with court usages and were ready to take up the rehearsals for that ceremony with fresh energy.
indeed, for a month at least, all paris was absorbed in preparations for the coronation. fontainebleau was to be put in order to receive the pope. notre dame, where the ceremony was to take place, was to be superbly decorated. magnificent carriages and trappings for horses and livery were to be provided. robes and uniforms were to be made ready for the actors. all of the decorators, jewelers, costume-makers, merchants of all sorts in the city were busy night and day. as for the court itself, there one heard nothing talked but the coming spectacle. under the direction of the grand master, the ceremonies had been planned down to the most trivial detail, and everybody was busy learning and practicing his part.
380
the empress josephine.
from a pencil sketch made by david in the cathedral of notre dame at the time of josephine’s coronation, and presented to his son. the original is now in the museum of versailles.
381by the time the pope arrived at fontainebleau, on november 25, everything was practically ready. the court had gone to fontainebleau to meet his holiness, and in the few days it remained there before going to paris, josephine achieved a victory which completed her happiness for the time. no religious marriage between her and napoleon had ever been celebrated, and although it had been a part of napoleon’s policy since he came into power to restore the church, and although he had insisted on an observation of all its ceremonies, he had always refused josephine’s request for a religious marriage. now, however, she obtained a powerful advocate—the pope—to whom, at confession, she told her trouble. he declared he could not officiate at the coronation unless a religious marriage was performed. the night before the coronation, napoleon gave his consent, and the service was held at the tuileries in profound secrecy, only two witnesses being present.
december 2nd had been set for the coronation. the tuileries, from which the royal party was to go to notre dame, was astir very early, for the pope was to leave the palace at nine; the emperor and empress an hour later. the morning was given to dressing—a long task in josephine’s case, but one which justified the labor and thought which had been given to her costume. never had she looked more beautiful than when she joined the emperor and her ladies. napoleon was delighted at her appearance, and mme. de remusat declared that she did not look over twenty-five.
josephine’s coronation gown was of white satin, elaborately embroidered in silver and gold; it hung from the shoulders, and was confined by a girdle set with gems. a train of white velvet embroidered in gold and silver was fastened to this gown. the neck was low and square, and the sleeves were long. a ruff, stiff with gold, was set into the top of the sleeves, and rose high behind her head. the narrow 382corsage and the top of the sleeves were decorated with diamonds. she wore a magnificent necklace of sculptured stones surrounded with diamonds, and on her head was a diadem of pearls and diamonds. her shoes were of white velvet, embroidered in gold; on her hands she wore white gloves, embroidered in gold. the cost of the pieces of this costume are interesting—the gown is estimated to have cost $2,000; the velvet train, $1,400; the shoes, $130.
the pontifical procession had been gone from the palace over an hour when napoleon and josephine, accompanied by joseph and louis bonaparte, descended, and entered the gorgeous state carriage drawn by eight horses in rich harness. as the sides of the vehicle were entirely of glass, the spectators could look easily upon the magnificence of the party inside. from the tuileries, the party proceeded slowly to the archbishop’s palace, along streets crowded with people and decorated with every device which skill and money could provide. during the entire procession, salvos of artillery at intervals greeted the emperor. at the palace of the archbishop, the party entered, and here napoleon put on his coronation robe and josephine finished her costume by changing her diadem for one of amethysts and by fastening to her left shoulder a royal mantle of red velvet, embroidered in golden bees and in the imperial n surrounded by garlands, and bordered and lined with ermine. this mantle fell from the shoulders, and trailed for fully two yards on the floor.
these changes of toilet made, the cortège started—pages, cuirassiers and heralds, the grand master of ceremonies and his aides,—a marshal bearing a cushion on which was placed the ring for the empress, another marshal carrying the crown on a cushion. following the empress and her attendants, came the cortège of the emperor; first the marshals bearing the crown, sceptre, and sword of charlemagne, and the ring and globe belonging to napoleon; then the 383emperor, crowned with a wreath of gold laurel leaves, the sceptre in one hand, and in the other a baton—emblem of justice, his heavy royal mantle carried by several princes, a guard of richly dressed ornamental personages following.
on entering the cathedral, both the emperor and the empress were presented with holy water, and then began their slow journey up the aisle of the cathedral to the high altar, where the service took place. the sceptre, crown, sword, ring and globe of the emperor were placed upon the altar, and beside them were placed the crown, ring, and mantle of the empress. the pope then anointed the emperor’s head and hands with oil, and the same service was used immediately after in anointing josephine. the mass followed, during which the pope blessed the imperial ornaments of both napoleon and josephine.
at the close of this service, the emperor mounted the steps to the altar, on which the imperial crown was placed, lifted it, and put it himself on his head; then taking the crown of the empress in his hands, he descended the steps to the place where josephine was kneeling. with a gesture at once so gentle and so proud that it impressed the whole splendid audience, he put the crown upon her head, while the pope pronounced the orison: “may god crown you with the crown of glory and justice; may he give you strength and courage that, through this benediction, and by your own faith and the multiplied fruits of your good works, you may attain the crown of the eternal kingdom, through the grace of him whose reign and empire extends from age to age.”
384
the emperor napoleon i. bestowing the crown on the empress josephine, december 2, 1804.
385as the last words of the prayer died away the cortège turned from the high altar and proceeded slowly down the nave to the point where the throne had been placed. at the top of a staircase of some twenty-nine steps was a large platform, on which a sumptuous arm-chair, richly decorated with embroideries and golden symbols, had been placed for napoleon. to the right of this seat, and one step lower, was a smaller chair, with similar decorations, for josephine. the emperor and empress mounted the steps and seated themselves. they were followed by the pope, who blessed them, and then, kissing the emperor on the cheek, turned to the assembly, and pronounced the words, “vivat imperator in ?ternum.” the te deum, the prayers, the reading of the scriptures, the offering, followed; and then, the mass finished, the oath taken, napoleon and josephine descended and attended by their suites, left the cathedral, and entered their carriage. the ceremony, from the time of leaving the tuileries, had taken five hours. it was three and a half hours more before the long procession was ended and they were back again in the palace.
that night napoleon and josephine dined alone, the empress wearing her crown, at her husband’s request, so pleased was he with the grace and dignity with which she carried it.