WEBVTT - Napoleon's Forgotten Wife 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:04.560 Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of iHeartRadio and Grimm 0:00:04.640 --> 0:00:11.600 and Mild from Aaron Mankey Listener discretion advised. If I 0:00:11.680 --> 0:00:15.200 went up to a historically literate stranger on the street 0:00:15.320 --> 0:00:17.919 and told them I was writing an episode of this 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:24.600 podcast on Napoleon's wife, I imagine the reply would be, oh, Josephine. 0:00:25.320 --> 0:00:32.160 Napoleon and Josephine. Josephine and Napoleon. They are considered one 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:37.160 of history's great love stories, even by people with only 0:00:37.240 --> 0:00:42.320 a passing familiarity with European politics of the early nineteenth century. 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:45.760 In the First Sex and the City movie, for example, 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:51.559 Napoleon's letters to Josephine are specifically referenced as an example 0:00:51.640 --> 0:00:56.280 of the height of romantic writing. A famous painting of 0:00:56.440 --> 0:01:00.840 Napoleon's coronation, in which the emperor raised is a crown 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:05.839 high in anticipation of lowering it onto Josephine's head, whose 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:09.880 kneeling at the center of the canvas is on display 0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:15.240 currently at the Louver, aweing visitors with its massive size, 0:01:15.680 --> 0:01:20.000 almost thirty three feet wide and more than twenty feet tall. 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:28.400 Quite literally, Josephine and Napoleon loom large, but Napoleon did 0:01:28.440 --> 0:01:32.600 not end his life married to Josephine, though the two 0:01:32.640 --> 0:01:37.280 were married for almost fourteen years. When Josephine reached her 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:40.960 mid forties and the two had still not produced an air, 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:45.960 Napoleon was pressured to divorce her in order to preserve 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:50.480 the future of his empire. Of course, this led to 0:01:50.840 --> 0:01:57.680 the looming question who would Napoleon marry next. Josephine he 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:01.760 had married for love, Now, as an emperor at the 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:04.720 height of his power, he would need to be marrying 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:10.360 for political reasons in order to position France favorably on 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:14.560 the grand stage of Europe. He would be marrying a princess, 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:19.200 a daughter from a noble family, someone who would ideally 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:23.359 be able to provide him a son and cement an 0:02:23.360 --> 0:02:29.160 international alliance. In the end, his second wife would successfully 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:33.560 achieve the first of those goals. Not quite the second 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:40.000 Marie Louise of Austria was raised believing in Napoleon as 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:45.040 something of a boogeyman, the Corsican Ruffian leading their enemy France. 0:02:45.639 --> 0:02:49.000 And of course it hadn't been that long ago that 0:02:49.080 --> 0:02:55.080 Marie Louise's great aunt, Marie Antoinette, had come from Austria 0:02:55.120 --> 0:02:58.640 to become a French bride, and look how that turned 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:04.239 out for her. But when the tides shifted and Marie 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:08.360 Louise was told that she would be marrying Napoleon, the 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:13.480 teenage archduchess had no choice. She left her home and 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:17.200 her family and married a stranger for the sake of 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:23.320 her family's power. But as you probably know, Napoleon's reign 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:29.800 would end abruptly twice actually, and young Marie Louise was 0:03:29.880 --> 0:03:34.720 left in no man's land. Her father and his armies 0:03:35.080 --> 0:03:39.280 had ousted, her husband. Was her loyalty supposed to lie 0:03:39.360 --> 0:03:42.640 with her home country or with the man she had married. 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:47.640 What was an empress to an emperor deposed and in exile, 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:53.000 Marie Louise was young and alone, forced to navigate a 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:58.240 landscape that shifted under her feet like crumbling sand, as 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:02.520 the map of Europe was redrawn around her. In real time, 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:07.560 she was a casualty of Napoleon's power, and then she 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:12.160 would become a casualty of his defeat. I'm Danish schwartz 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:22.719 and this is noble blood. On January twenty first, eighteen ten, 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:28.400 with Josephine cast aside, Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte gathered a small 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:33.679 group of important advisors together to discuss a very important question. 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:38.560 Who should his next bride be. The Princess of Saxony 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:42.279 was an option, as was the Archduchess Marie Louise of 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:47.320 Austria and Anna Pavlovna, the younger sister of Sar Alexander 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:52.120 the First of Russia. Russia was an appealing prospect. It 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:55.599 would be good to make a diplomatic marriage with such 0:04:55.680 --> 0:04:59.920 a massive and important country, but the demands they were 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:04.360 making complicated things a bit. If Anna were to come 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:08.920 Mary Napoleon, Russia would require that each palace had a 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:13.560 Russian Orthodox Church, and that France would allow free practice 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:18.080 of Russian Orthodoxy. There was also the slight issue that 0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:22.159 Anna was only fifteen at this time, and though that 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:27.240 was certainly considered a marriageable age, the entire purpose of 0:05:27.320 --> 0:05:31.520 this marriage was begetting an air as quickly as possible, 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:34.880 and it might be a number of years before she 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:39.520 was able to conceive. The better choice, a few years older, 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:47.200 was Archduchess Maria Luisa of Austria. Historically, Austria and France 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:52.040 had not had the best relationship. The last time their 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:56.119 two nations had joined in royal marriage had been during 0:05:56.200 --> 0:05:59.840 another brief gap in the warfare that two countries waged 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:04.839 against each other. Back then, Marie Antoinette had married the 0:06:04.880 --> 0:06:08.719 future King Louis the sixteenth and you don't need me 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:12.159 to remind you that that didn't end well for her. 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:16.479 In fact, this very meeting that Napoleon and his men 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:20.320 were having just happened to be on the anniversary of 0:06:20.480 --> 0:06:26.000 King Louis the sixteenths beheading. Austria wasn't thrilled at the 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:30.560 prospect in theory of sending yet another royal daughter into 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:34.840 the tumult of a country that beheaded its kings and 0:06:34.960 --> 0:06:37.960 which was now under the rule of a non royal 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:43.719 upstart like Napoleon. Napoleon was a heated figure in Austria, 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:49.239 especially among their royal family. Napoleon's War of the Third 0:06:49.360 --> 0:06:54.479 Coalition had been devastating for Austria, and in eighteen oh five, 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:59.919 the Austrian royal family had even been temporarily forced into exile. 0:07:00.800 --> 0:07:05.760 But bygones were bygones, and given the circumstances the countries 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:10.760 needed to cooperate, Austria knew if Napoleon chose to marry 0:07:10.880 --> 0:07:15.040 the Russian girl, Austria would be sandwiched between these two 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:21.520 great allied powers. Definitely a bad idea. Marie Louise, just 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:26.040 eighteen years old, was not thrilled about the situation herself. 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:30.400 Growing up, she had referred to Napoleon in letters as 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:35.320 the Antichrist and Crampus, framing him like a monster. In 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:40.080 the children's stories she might have read. Her grandmother, Maria Carolina, 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:44.560 had been Marie Antoinette's sister, and she was very vocal 0:07:44.640 --> 0:07:48.320 about her hatred and mistrust of the French. And that's 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:52.120 in addition to the whole Napoleon and his armies caused 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:55.440 my whole family to need to go into temporary exile. Thing. 0:07:56.440 --> 0:08:00.960 On January twod, unaware of the conversation that were happening 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:07.000 almost simultaneously in Napoleon's private rooms, Marie Louise wrote to 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:12.200 a friend, quote, since Napoleon's divorce, I continue to open 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:15.320 the Gazette de Frankfort in the hope of finding an 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:19.120 announcement of his new bride. I must admit that this 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:23.760 delay has given me much cause for worry. She also wrote, 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:29.200 I pity the poor princess whom he'll choose. Still, she 0:08:29.360 --> 0:08:33.840 knew what her place was, and she continued in the letter, stating, 0:08:34.520 --> 0:08:39.319 if misfortune so wishes it, I am prepared to sacrifice 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:43.840 my own happiness for the good of the state. Marie 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:46.720 Louise had known for her entire life that she was 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:51.000 raised for a diplomatic marriage. Her parents had her learn 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:55.720 multiple languages in order to broaden her marriage prospects. She 0:08:55.840 --> 0:09:02.120 spoke her native German, but also French, English, Italian and Spanish, 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:06.560 and in order to preserve the all important purity of 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:11.280 a young lady, Marie Louise had had almost no contact 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:15.400 with men outside of her family. Even her pet rabbit 0:09:15.960 --> 0:09:20.960 was required to be female. On March ninth, eighteen ten, 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:25.080 the marriage contract was signed. A few days later, she 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:29.160 set out for Austria. If you are a long time 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:32.600 listener of the show, or maybe I should say a 0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:36.880 very very long time listener of the show, you might 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:41.960 recall in our very first episode when I discussed the ceremony, 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:46.480 Marie Antoinette underwent at the border between Austria and France, 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:49.880 in which was required to strip out of all of 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:53.679 her Austrian clothes and then get dressed again in things 0:09:53.720 --> 0:09:59.160 that were entirely French. Now forty years later, Marie Louise 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:04.760 went through those exact same steps again. The girl, still young, 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:10.840 was already quite tall. A contemporary described her fairly harshly, 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:16.160 I might add as quote not beautiful. Neither her will 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:20.040 nor her desires are expressed in her eyes, which are 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:24.080 a very bright blue framed by fine blonde hair. She 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:28.360 has a cravaceous figure and a slightly taller than average. 0:10:29.440 --> 0:10:32.559 She was, in case you were wondering, a few inches 0:10:32.679 --> 0:10:38.360 taller than her husband, Napoleon, who was not unusually short 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:41.680 for the time at about five foot seven, but Marie 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:48.360 Louise was approximately five foot nine. The emperor was very 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:52.000 eager to meet his new bride. Though there was an 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:57.960 elaborate first meeting and reception planned for them, Napoleon became 0:10:58.080 --> 0:11:02.280 impatient and instead rode out to meet Marie Louise and 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:06.040 her carriage at Compien, which was meant to be a 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:10.920 staging post stop. The couple had already been married by proxy, 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:14.079 but the plan was that the two would sleep separately 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:19.880 until their elaborate religious wedding ceremony planned in Paris. Alas 0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:24.720 not for Napoleon. Upon seeing Marie Louise, he declared that 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:27.719 she was much better looking than her portraits, and they 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:32.280 spent that very night together. It seems as though they 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:38.240 both shared a pleasant reversal of low expectations. Marie Louise, too, 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:43.559 thought Napoleon better looking in person than his portraits. Almost 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:47.640 certainly one can imagine that there was something infectious about 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:52.760 his passion and power. Soon after arriving in France, Marie 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:56.679 Louise wrote to her family, assuring them that things actually 0:11:56.679 --> 0:12:00.720 weren't that bad. She wrote, quote, I find that he 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:05.400 improves a lot on closer acquaintance. There is something attractive 0:12:05.480 --> 0:12:09.440 and polite about him which is impossible to resist. I 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:11.960 am convinced that I will be able to live with 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:16.880 him quite happily. On April second, Napoleon and Marie Louise 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:20.240 were married in the chapel at the Louver. He was forty, 0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:24.920 she was eighteen, wearing the fur lined cloak and iron 0:12:25.040 --> 0:12:30.200 crown which Josephine had worn just five years earlier. She 0:12:30.400 --> 0:12:35.079 was now the Empress of France, wife to Napoleon, and, 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:41.200 hopefully for all involved, the mother to his heir. After all, 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:48.679 that was the entire point to Marie Louise's surprise and delight, 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:55.079 in contrast to Napoleon's ogerlike reputation, he was a considerate 0:12:55.200 --> 0:13:00.000 and doting husband. He secretly arranged for her favorite friend 0:13:00.000 --> 0:13:02.400 furniture which she hadn't been able to bring with her 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:06.480 from Vienna, to be transported to Paris for her, which 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:10.400 must have felt very welcoming for a teenage girl arriving 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:14.959 alone in a foreign country without her family, and furthering 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:20.079 the Marie Antoinette comparisons. Back when Marie Antoinette was queen, 0:13:20.520 --> 0:13:25.040 she had a small, picturesque false village at the Petitrenon, 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:30.120 with artificial mountains and streams and a miniature farm, dairy, 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:34.920 and watermill. Napoleon had it restored for his new wife, 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:39.160 and Marie Louise loved it, writing to her father that 0:13:39.240 --> 0:13:41.839 it reminded her of the palace she had spent her 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:47.400 childhood at. Napoleon seemed to adore Marie Louise. He called 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:51.640 her Louise and apparently would frequently kiss her, saying her 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:55.120 name over and over again in delight. She may not 0:13:55.320 --> 0:14:01.440 have been the formidable, challenging partner or lover that Josephine was, 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:06.640 but she was, at least to my eyes, beautiful, well mannered, 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:11.920 well educated, and an incredibly sheltered young woman for Napoleon 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:15.840 to dote on. And how could she not enjoy, at 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:19.000 least to some degree, the very fact of the most 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:24.000 formidable man in Europe doting on her. Unsurprisingly, it wasn't 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:28.040 long before Marie Louise was pregnant, and the birth itself 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:32.440 would prove a testament to Napoleon's devotion. When the baby 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:35.720 was finally coming, it was facing the wrong way and 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:39.520 the doctor called for forceps. Napoleon was sitting next to 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:43.960 Marie Louise, holding her hand so tightly his knuckles turned white. 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:48.080 The doctor whispered that they might be required to either 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:52.400 sacrifice the mother or child in order to save the other. 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:56.320 Save the mother, think only of her, and devote all 0:14:56.400 --> 0:15:00.480 your efforts to her. Napoleon shouted, for God's sake, treat 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:03.120 her like a common townswoman of the Rue Saint Denis. 0:15:04.080 --> 0:15:08.640 Fortunately it did not come to that. On March second, 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:13.360 eighteen eleven, about a year after Marie Louise and Napoleon 0:15:13.440 --> 0:15:19.560 were married, their son, Napoleon Francis Charles Joseph Bonaparte, was born. 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:27.720 Immediately styled King of Rome, Napoleon was overjoyed his remarriage 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:31.680 had officially been a success, and he doated on his 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:35.520 new son the way he did his wife. One moment 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:40.040 I find particularly charming is a story that Napoleon would 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:43.480 take their son through the gardens in a little carriage 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:49.280 drawn by goats. But the perfect family scenes of domesticity 0:15:49.720 --> 0:15:55.000 would only last for so long. In eighteen twelve, Napoleon 0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:59.720 would embark on a disastrous campaign in Russia which would 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:04.520 change the course of French history, leaving Marie Louise stranded 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:11.760 and lost empress in an enemy country. The last time 0:16:12.040 --> 0:16:16.200 Marie Louise ever saw her husband was January eighteen fourteen. 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:20.720 The previous autumn, Napoleon had entered Moscow in what would 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:24.640 turn out to be a military disaster. Thanks to a 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:30.160 horrific Russian winter and unexpected gorilla attacks, more than half 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:34.520 of Napoleon's Grand Army was destroyed. Marie Louise had been 0:16:34.600 --> 0:16:38.040 left in France as regent, although not one making any 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:44.080 real political decisions. With France so weakened, Prussia joined Russia 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:48.280 and the UK in declaring war. Austria for the time 0:16:48.320 --> 0:16:52.320 being did not join in the fighting, but that diplomatic 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:57.360 abstention would be short lived. Napoleon lost at the Battle 0:16:57.400 --> 0:17:02.800 of Leipzig, the Sixth Coalition came together to defeat Napoleon. 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:06.480 They hoped for good. In the middle of the night 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:10.080 on January twenty fifth, Napoleon rode off to try to 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:14.520 fight the Allied forces invading France. The invaders were getting 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:19.040 closer and closer to Paris, while Marie Louise waded in 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:23.480 the capital with their son and without her husband. Marie 0:17:23.520 --> 0:17:27.359 Louise spent the early part of that year terrified and anxious. 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:31.280 She and Napoleon wrote to each other every day, and 0:17:31.359 --> 0:17:35.600 she also received word from her father in Austria letters 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:41.560 with an ominous, condescending tone. Napoleon advised his wife to 0:17:41.680 --> 0:17:46.119 remain cheerful with the servants in their household, never mentioning war, 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:50.600 but still she knew what was coming. The young King 0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:53.919 of Rome would be running around the garden declaring that 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:59.080 he wanted Daddy's troops to defeat Granddaddy's troops. Finally, at 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:02.439 the end of March, the moment Marie Louise had been 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:07.320 dreading came. Napoleon's brother arrived to tell the Empress that 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:10.920 a siege was imminent. She had to stay in Paris. 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:15.000 Of course, she had to stay. She could confront the 0:18:15.040 --> 0:18:20.080 Austrian forces her father's forces. They wouldn't dare take her 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:25.000 or her son. Meanwhile, other French aristocrats were already fleeing 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:28.800 for the countryside. Should Marie Louise take the little King 0:18:28.840 --> 0:18:32.879 of Rome and join them? The Regency council debated the 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:36.720 matter back and forth, but ultimately it was Napoleon who 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:41.320 made the final decision. Joseph Buonaparte pulled out a letter 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:45.120 he had received from the Emperor that said, never leave 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:47.719 the empress or King of Rome in the hands of 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:51.800 the enemy. He instructed that Marie Louise and the son 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:56.720 should be sent away, along with prominent dignitaries and counselors, 0:18:57.200 --> 0:19:00.680 and then he added, do not leave my son. Remember 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:03.760 that I prefer to know him in the Seine than 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:07.359 in the hands of the enemy of France. The fate 0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:11.639 of Astianax, prisoner of the Greeks, has always seemed to 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:17.240 me the saddest in history. Despite Marie Louise's instincts, she 0:19:17.320 --> 0:19:20.280 knew she had no choice but to obey her husband. 0:19:20.880 --> 0:19:23.399 The council took a vote after the letter was read, 0:19:23.800 --> 0:19:28.440 and fleeing one out, and so Marie Louise, the king 0:19:28.480 --> 0:19:32.360 of Rome and court, fled the city the day before 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:37.800 the Allied forces invaded Paris. To her utter shock, her 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:42.000 home country Austria, the kingdom of her father, had taken 0:19:42.119 --> 0:19:46.840 Paris and dethroned her husband, Napoleon, the man her father 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:49.879 had made her marry in the first place. When she 0:19:50.080 --> 0:19:55.040 heard of Napoleon's abdication, she was dismayed. My father will 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:58.400 not stand for this. He has repeatedly told me over 0:19:58.520 --> 0:20:01.399 twenty times that he has put me on the throne 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:04.000 of France and that he would keep me there forever. 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:08.320 And my father is a good man. With Marie Louise 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:12.720 off in the countryside and her finances growing thin, many 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:16.919 of her staff members muttered about missing wages and began 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:21.600 to flee themselves. Meanwhile, the leaders of Europe were determining 0:20:21.720 --> 0:20:25.560 what should be done with Napoleon. The only one who 0:20:25.600 --> 0:20:30.119 considered that Marie Louise should be by his side seemed 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:34.240 to be Marie Louise. In all the chaos, she finally 0:20:34.280 --> 0:20:37.800 received a letter from Napoleon, written so quickly he didn't 0:20:37.840 --> 0:20:41.600 even sign it. Quote, I am waiting while matters are 0:20:41.680 --> 0:20:45.440 arranged with the Allies. Russia desires that I am granted 0:20:45.480 --> 0:20:48.159 the sovereignty of Elba and that I stay there, and 0:20:48.200 --> 0:20:51.320 that you are granted Tuscany for your son after you, 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:54.159 which will enable you to spend as much time with 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:58.000 me as will not bore you or adversely affect your health. 0:20:58.520 --> 0:21:02.239 End quote. Verrie Louise was twenty two years old at 0:21:02.280 --> 0:21:05.480 this point, and she was determined to join her husband 0:21:05.640 --> 0:21:09.280 in his exile on Elba. As long as I breathe, 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:13.560 I shall stand by Napoleon, she declared. But the forces 0:21:13.720 --> 0:21:17.600 moving the world now had put her beyond her depth. 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:21.639 Her father was the enemy of France, and when Marie 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:25.119 Louise wrote him begging to see him in person and 0:21:25.240 --> 0:21:30.199 figure this situation out, her father wrote back simply, Unfortunately, 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:33.840 I cannot give you the comfort you seek, however much 0:21:33.920 --> 0:21:37.720 I might want to. Everything has been concluded between your 0:21:37.800 --> 0:21:41.120 husband and the Allies. I can only assure you no 0:21:41.119 --> 0:21:44.159 matter what happens, I will always love you as a 0:21:44.280 --> 0:21:48.359 tender father and your child, and also your husband, for 0:21:48.480 --> 0:21:51.679 he has made you as his wife happy. If you 0:21:51.800 --> 0:21:55.600 need a refuge, take your people with you to my home. 0:21:56.200 --> 0:22:00.959 End quote. At this point, the stress was beginning to 0:22:01.040 --> 0:22:06.440 affect Marie Louise physically. According to Debor Jay's book Napoleon's 0:22:06.480 --> 0:22:10.359 Other Wife, she was suffering headaches, fevers, and she was 0:22:10.400 --> 0:22:14.760 spitting blood. There was nothing to do except wait to 0:22:14.840 --> 0:22:19.200 see where the men in charge of various European countries 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:23.320 would put her. In the end, she did not get Tuscany. 0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:27.960 The allies in the abdication agreement granted her the duchies 0:22:28.000 --> 0:22:33.000 of Parma, Pianceza and Gusta Tella. There at least would 0:22:33.040 --> 0:22:36.960 be a stable and pretty place to live, somewhere to 0:22:37.119 --> 0:22:40.160 pass the time when she wasn't, of course, with her 0:22:40.280 --> 0:22:45.919 husband on Elba. Despite Marie Louise's determination to get to 0:22:46.000 --> 0:22:49.679 Elba to be with Napoleon, it seems that her father 0:22:49.920 --> 0:22:53.160 and the men around him had already made a silent 0:22:53.320 --> 0:22:57.800 agreement to try to untie her from Napoleon as best 0:22:57.920 --> 0:23:02.760 they could. Marie Louise no doubt felt the uncanny sensation 0:23:03.040 --> 0:23:07.680 of other people talking about you and making arrangements on 0:23:07.720 --> 0:23:13.080 your behalf without her knowledge. Letters from Napoleon didn't contain 0:23:13.200 --> 0:23:17.080 any plans for the two to finally meet up. Again. Instead, 0:23:17.160 --> 0:23:21.159 Napoleon just instructed his wife that she should wait to 0:23:21.280 --> 0:23:25.920 hear from her father Marie Louise planned to finally meet 0:23:25.960 --> 0:23:29.919 the Austrian Emperor in person at the palace of Ramboulay. 0:23:30.760 --> 0:23:35.080 From there, it was essentially over. The meeting with her 0:23:35.119 --> 0:23:39.719 father at Ramboulay, she must have slowly realized was a trap. 0:23:40.280 --> 0:23:46.240 Her servants disappeared, replaced by Cossacks. Marie Louise wrote to Napoleon, 0:23:46.760 --> 0:23:50.200 an order has been given to restrain me, by force, 0:23:50.320 --> 0:23:54.359 if necessary, from joining you. Take care, my dear friend, 0:23:54.680 --> 0:23:57.800 for they are deceiving us, and I am terrified to 0:23:57.880 --> 0:24:02.600 death for you for Vienna. On April twenty third, in 0:24:02.640 --> 0:24:07.320 a miserable haze of confusion and powerlessness, she was assured 0:24:07.640 --> 0:24:11.080 she and her son would be welcomed back in Austria 0:24:11.520 --> 0:24:14.919 as members of the family. It's not as though you 0:24:15.040 --> 0:24:19.120 can call an oopsie's or a mulligan on a royal marriage, 0:24:19.560 --> 0:24:23.280 but it seems like the Emperor of Austria was hoping 0:24:23.440 --> 0:24:26.520 to give it a try. The King of Rome, though 0:24:26.520 --> 0:24:32.040 the Austrian Emperor's grandson, was also essentially a hostage. Though 0:24:32.080 --> 0:24:35.440 the Austrian Emperor seemed to adore the young boy whom 0:24:35.440 --> 0:24:39.800 he had just met for the first time, heartbreakingly for 0:24:39.960 --> 0:24:43.800 Marie Louise her husband had not been writing to her. 0:24:44.320 --> 0:24:49.960 She continued to write, carefully, numbering each letter, unsure whether 0:24:50.080 --> 0:24:53.520 or not her letters were reaching Napoleon at all, while 0:24:53.600 --> 0:24:58.240 she was living among Viennese court, a strange refugee in 0:24:58.320 --> 0:25:02.000 her own homeland, having to turn a blind eye to 0:25:02.080 --> 0:25:07.080 all of the snickering and gossip about Napoleon's demise. Especially 0:25:07.119 --> 0:25:12.600 painful were the rumors about how Napoleon pined for Josephine. 0:25:12.640 --> 0:25:16.600 That bit of gossip would continue even after Josephine's death, 0:25:17.080 --> 0:25:21.680 with various courtiers whispering into Marie Louise's ear about how 0:25:21.760 --> 0:25:27.720 heartbroken her husband was over his first wife, slowly weakening 0:25:27.760 --> 0:25:31.960 the steely resolve Marie Louise had had earlier to come 0:25:32.080 --> 0:25:35.639 join her husband in exile. Come hell or high water, 0:25:36.640 --> 0:25:40.719 Marie Louise wrote, I am in a very unhappy and 0:25:41.080 --> 0:25:45.720 critical position. I must be very prudent in my conduct. 0:25:46.320 --> 0:25:50.119 There are moments when that thought so distracts me that 0:25:50.200 --> 0:25:52.399 I think the best thing I could do would be 0:25:52.560 --> 0:25:57.960 to die. Marie Louise, still weak, ill and losing weight, 0:25:58.560 --> 0:26:01.959 needed some time to recover, and she was going to 0:26:02.000 --> 0:26:05.639 take a trip to the thermal baths at x It 0:26:05.800 --> 0:26:09.639 was also a chance to escape the claustrophobic prison that 0:26:09.760 --> 0:26:14.200 Vienna had become. Her father convinced her it was imprudent 0:26:14.400 --> 0:26:17.359 to travel with the young King of Rome for the 0:26:17.440 --> 0:26:21.679 sake of economy, of course, and he would conveniently remain 0:26:21.920 --> 0:26:26.760 back in Vienna. Her father made another strategic chess move, 0:26:27.240 --> 0:26:32.720 assigning as her escort the dashing Comte dinneypurg He was 0:26:32.880 --> 0:26:37.640 adept at sympathizing with Marie Louise and seemingly sharing her 0:26:37.720 --> 0:26:42.320 admiration for her husband. The Count acted like he supported 0:26:42.400 --> 0:26:46.040 her plan to escape to Elba to be with Napoleon, 0:26:46.520 --> 0:26:50.280 when really the Count was under orders from Vienna to 0:26:50.440 --> 0:26:54.679 make sure that she did not go. When a messenger 0:26:54.800 --> 0:26:58.199 came with a secret letter from Napoleon telling her to 0:26:58.320 --> 0:27:01.240 leave for Genoa, where a sho would be waiting for her, 0:27:01.680 --> 0:27:06.760 Marie Louise asked for Count Nepberg's advice. He wouldn't you 0:27:06.840 --> 0:27:10.280 know it, wrote to Emperor Francis of Austria, who had 0:27:10.440 --> 0:27:14.680 the messenger arrested. There were also orders in place by 0:27:14.720 --> 0:27:19.400 the Austrian, Russian and French police to arrest Marie Louise 0:27:19.760 --> 0:27:24.040 should she try to escape to Elba. The Count advised 0:27:24.160 --> 0:27:27.640 Marie Louise to write to her father and assure him 0:27:27.960 --> 0:27:31.879 that she had never actually intended on following through with 0:27:32.000 --> 0:27:35.879 the plan to join Napoleon for the sake of preserving 0:27:35.960 --> 0:27:41.280 her duchies, her tenuous financial future, and any hope of stability, 0:27:41.920 --> 0:27:46.400 especially for the sake of her son. Marie Louise remained 0:27:46.640 --> 0:27:50.679 racked with guilt and shame. She replayed the moment of 0:27:50.840 --> 0:27:55.160 Paris's invasion and wished she had stuck to her initial 0:27:55.240 --> 0:27:59.280 impulse of standing in Paris as the daughter of the 0:27:59.320 --> 0:28:03.520 Austrian emperor to stay strong and try to protect the city. 0:28:04.440 --> 0:28:08.120 After x she returned to Vienna, where she and her 0:28:08.160 --> 0:28:14.159 son were treated alternately as circus attractions or spies, outcasts, 0:28:14.359 --> 0:28:19.960 or objects of curiosity and ridicule. Rumors about Napoleon were 0:28:20.200 --> 0:28:23.960 largely about how much he preferred the company of Josephine 0:28:23.960 --> 0:28:28.320 and his mistress as opposed to his wife, Though Marie 0:28:28.400 --> 0:28:32.480 Louise would never divorce her husband, it's around this time 0:28:32.600 --> 0:28:35.800 that most accounts suggest that she began to fall in 0:28:35.880 --> 0:28:40.760 love with Count Nepperg. Perhaps her father's assignment of the 0:28:40.840 --> 0:28:45.720 dashing count as her escort had been multi purposed. When 0:28:45.840 --> 0:28:50.080 Napoleon escaped from Elba in eighteen fifteen to return to 0:28:50.160 --> 0:28:54.560 France for a brief but triumphant stint as emperor before 0:28:54.600 --> 0:28:59.120 his ultimate defeat at Waterloo, Marie Louise did not attempt 0:28:59.160 --> 0:29:03.680 to rejoin him him. She wrote through an intermediary, I 0:29:03.720 --> 0:29:07.120 hope you will understand the misery of my position. I 0:29:07.160 --> 0:29:10.520 shall never assent to a divorce, but I flatter myself 0:29:10.560 --> 0:29:14.800 that he will not oppose inamicable separation, and that he 0:29:14.840 --> 0:29:18.800 will not bear any ill feeling towards me. The separation 0:29:19.000 --> 0:29:22.680 has become imperative. It will in no way affect the 0:29:22.720 --> 0:29:30.480 feelings of esteem and gratitude that I preserve. History tends 0:29:30.520 --> 0:29:36.280 to paint Marie Louise as disloyal and flighty. Easily seduced 0:29:36.760 --> 0:29:39.800 is one phrase that I came across, and yet with 0:29:39.960 --> 0:29:44.760 someone like Count Nepperg frequently portrayed as the handsome lover, 0:29:45.000 --> 0:29:48.920 she wantonly cast a Napoleon aside for and reads to 0:29:48.960 --> 0:29:53.360 me as though this was a desperate and lonely confused 0:29:53.400 --> 0:29:56.920 young woman finding comfort in the arms of the nearest 0:29:56.960 --> 0:29:59.800 authority figure. It seemed as though she could rely on. 0:30:01.000 --> 0:30:05.080 She's someone that I have sympathy for an incredibly sheltered 0:30:05.160 --> 0:30:09.080 young woman, kept pristine as a specimen in a jar, 0:30:09.680 --> 0:30:14.320