NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

Marie-Josephe-Rose Tascher was born to Joseph and Rose-Marie Tascher in 1763 on the Caribbean island of Martinique, and was known as Rose or Yeyette as a child. Her family owned the plantation Trois-Ilets, but hurricanes destroyed their estate in 1766 and left them struggling financially.
The Tascher family had three daughters, and it was hoped that they might make successful marriages to help their family's financial situation. The girls, however, were hampered by both a limited dowry, and a lack of a sophisticated Paris education.

Joseph's sister Edmee, who lived in France, was the mistress of Francois de Beauharnais - a man of rank and money. When his health began to fail, Edmee arranged a marriage between Francois' son Alexandre and Joseph's twelve-year-old daughter Catherine, to ensure that Francois' money would continue to support her and help the struggling Tascher family as well. Unfortunately, while the letter announcing the arrangement was en route to Martinique, Catherine died. Joseph, eager to seize the marriage opportunity regardless of Catherine's death, instead accompanied his older daughter Rose to France to marry Alexandre.

GULLAND: "When she came into the room, you'd probably be really drawn to her. She had great charisma, long eyelashes and big eyes. She wasn't a beauty, but she was really striking …She had a wonderful walk, very elegant, an indolent walk that really was enchanting. And she had a beautiful voice, what we would call a really sexy voice, very low and musical. So there was something about her aura that just enchanted people."

The substitution of brides was a shock to Alexandre, but nevertheless the ceremony took place in 1779. Theirs was not a happy marriage. Although they had two children, they spent the majority of their time living separate lives. The terror of the Revolution swept through France in 1789, and like most French nobility, Alexandre met his fate at the guillotine. Although Rose was also imprisoned and sentenced to death, she escaped death through sheer luck - Robespierre was overthrown before her day of execution arrived, and the Revolution was over.

Life after the Revolution was difficult for Rose and her two children. To survive, she became the mistress of men who were in a position to help support her. It was during this time that she met Napoleon.

CHEVALLIER: " She's a real woman and that's what Napoleon said always about her, and that she's someone who doesn't leave people indifferent."

Napoleon was a Major-General in the French Army - a man with lofty ambition. To achieve his goals, though, he needed a rich wife. Josephine in turn saw him as a possible patron, and cultivated his friendship. They became lovers in 1795.

He proposed in January 1796, and they wed on March 9, 1796, just prior to his taking command of the army in Italy. She was hesitant at first to marry him, because he was "silent and awkward with women, was passionate and lively, though altogether strange in all his person."

Napoleon had great dreams for their future, and his wedding present to Rose - whom he had renamed Josephine - was a gold medallion inscribed with the words "To Destiny."

After his repeated pleadings, she followed him to Italy. During his Egyptian campaign of 1798-99, Napoleon heard that Josephine had for some time been conducting an affair with a handsome lieutenant, Hippolyte Charles. His initial anger softened (affairs were almost expected behavior at the time), and the two were reconciled. From this time onward, however, the relationship changed from extravagant passion on Napoleon's side to a mutual affection that survived the numerous affairs that Napoleon himself had during the course of their marriage.

As Napoleon conquered Europe and came to dominate the political scene in France, so Josephine maintained his houses and state palaces--and herself--at an appropriate level of splendor. She responded to her husband's whims--his love of makeup, for example, and his horror of perfume--and he paid her enormous bills for clothes, shoes, jewelry, and objets d'art. On state visits to cities throughout the nation she was always generous, kindly, and beguiling. As Napoleon himself once said, "I only win battles; Josephine wins hearts for me."

After May 1804, when Napoleon was declared emperor, Josephine's position seemed secure. But Napoleon wanted an heir to rule after him. There was none. Josephine, increasingly fearful of being displaced as the empress, struggled against gossip and foreboding. She could be overwhelmed by weeping when Napoleon was away leading military campaigns. But Napoleon saw things very differently. From his point of view, "the wife was made for the husband, the husband for his country, his family, and glory."

On December 15, 1809, Napoleon had his marriage to Josephine annulled. She retired to Malmaison, her private and best-loved residence. The letters that Napoleon wrote to her there just after the annulment revel tenderness and his sense of loss. He told how he ad visited one of their palaces, the Tuileries, scene of the street battle in October 1795 that first brought them together: "That great palace seemed empty to me and I felt lost in it."

In April 1814 Napoleon was forced to abdicate with his dreams of empire in ruins about him. The following month Josephine died at age 51. Although Josephine came to love her husband with a singleminded devotion, the intense passion in this relationship was always Napoleon's. In his final exile on St. Helena, Napoleon wrote: "Josephine is the only woman I have ever truly loved. She reigns in my heart and I mourn for her."