04 November 2023 , 14:57
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The romance between Napoleon Bonaparte and his beloved Empress Josephine has gone down in history as one of the greatest love stories of all time.
But a new $130million movie about the legendary French leader looks set to throw a cannonball into the works. Napoleon, starring Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix and The Crown’s Vanessa Kirby, examines the dictator’s performance both on the battlefield… and in the bedroom. When he wasn’t invading countries such as Prussia and Portugal, Napoleon was at his happiest with the beguiling beauty that captured his heart. But the new film epic – directed by Ridley Scott – suggests there was plenty of hostility in the famous couple’s love life, too.
Napoleon wrote up poetry for Empress Josephine, who may have been overwhelmed (De Agostini/Getty Images)
An expert now believes Josephine was a 'massive contradiction' for Napoleon (Heritage Images/Getty Images)Scott reveals: "Napoleon came out of nowhere to rule everything, but all the while he was waging a romantic war with his adulterous wife Josephine. He conquered the world to try to win her love and when he couldn’t, he conquered it to destroy her – and destroyed himself in the process." Actress Kirby, who plays feisty Josephine in the film, says her research into the role revealed just what Napoleon was up against. "What was so challenging – and kind of elusive – about her was that every single book I read, whether it was first-hand accounts, third-hand stories, testimonies, Napoleon’s letters… every one was completely different," she says.
"Josephine was just this massive contradiction." And she was too hot to handle even for a man as powerful as Napoleon. The lieutenant in the French Army soared through the ranks to general during the French Revolution. He seized power in France in a 1799 coup and crowned himself Emperor in 1804 – and for the next eight years, he set about expanding his empire. But author David Bell, a Napoleon expert, claims that nowhere did his passions run as high as in the bedroom.
Napoleon met Josephine at a society ball in 1795 when he was a 26-year-old general and she was a single mum of two, aged 32. They married the following year. She had escaped jail during the Revolution’s Reign of Terror, which saw a series of massacres and executions of the nobility take place – including that of her first husband. "Napoleon was so in love with her but very anxious and fearful about her loyalty,” says Bell, a professor of history at New Jersey’s Princeton University. "It was an odd match. She was older than him and had children, but she had this seductiveness. He was completely taken by her."
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Joaquin Phoenix is starring as NapoleonNapoleon famously wrote her erotic letters as he went off to war. "I shall be alone and far, far away," he said in one. "But you are coming." "You are going to be here beside me, in my arms, on my breast, on my mouth?" In another, he wrote about giving Josephine "a kiss on your heart – and one much lower down". But his devotion did not inspire loyalty in his wife, who had an affair while he was away conquering Italy – as well as building up debts.
Prof Bell says: "Josephine was of the French nobility, which never put much emphasis on marital fidelity. There had been dalliances in her past before Napoleon so I think they had different conceptions of marriage. She probably also felt overwhelmed by the floods of passion from him." Josephine’s infidelities almost led Napoleon to divorce her, but the couple got past the affair. "He went off and had a few of his own," says Prof Bell. "They were complicated personalities. He was demanding and impatient, but she was strong-willed… a real survivor."
Prof Bell says Napoleon had also tried to fashion his wife into the woman he wanted her to be. "Her name was Marie-Rose, not Josephine, but he called her that," he explains. "Yet she was devoted to him too. She realised her fate was bound up with him and she was desperate to protect her children, whose futures depended entirely on him." Andrea Stuart, author of The Rose of Martinique: A Life of Napoleon’s Josephine, says the Empress knew exactly how to keep her husband happy. She explains: "She had an amazing talent for pleasing."
Prof Bell says Josephine also helped improve Napoleon’s image. "In those early years, he was described as thin, sallow, with greasy hair and having a heavy accent. She advised him on how to speak and present himself." But sadly, "true love" wasn’t enough to keep the couple together. Napoleon’s worry over his wife’s inability to produce an heir led to their divorce in 1810. "He was very concerned for the future of the dynasty,” says Prof Bell. “It was a very painful decision but the empire was more important."
Napoleon went on to marry Marie-Louise, the Archduchess of Austria, who gave him a son. But he never stopped loving Josephine. "He was so devoted to her that even after the divorce, he looked after her and her children, Eugene and Hortense," says Prof Bell. But Napoleon’s star fell after a disastrous invasion of Russia. It led to his abdication in 1814 and exile to the Mediterranean island of Elba. He escaped and returned to France to seize power again – but lost to the British at Waterloo in 1815 and was exiled again to the Atlantic isle of Saint Helena. He died of cancer in 1821 – with his last word famously said to have been: "Josephine."