Napoleon was madly in love with his new wife and constantly wrote her steamy love letters from Italy. He was desperate for her to join him there. Josephine, however, was in no hurry.
Through Napoleon’s brother-in-law, she had met Hippolyte Charles, a handsome young officer with a wicked sense of humour. They began an affair immediately, in spite of the fact he was ten years younger than Josephine and she had just married Napoleon.
Napoleon’s urgent pleas for Josephine to join him in Italy were ignored. She kept finding excuses, feigning illnesses and even pregnancy. The Directory (French government of the time) were worried that Napoleon might leave Italy if Josephine did not join him there. His military campaign in Italy had been successful way beyond anything they had imagined and Paul Barras (who had himself been Josephine’s lover before her marriage to Napoleon) ordered her to join her new husband.
Josephine finally headed off to Italy—with Hippolyte Charles in her entourage. She had not seen Napoleon for four months.
Napoleon seemed to be oblivious to what was going on. At the end of the following year he returned to Paris a hero. The street where he and Josephine lived was renamed “rue de la Victoire”. Three months later Napoleon bought the house which was now known as “Hôtel Bonaparte”.
The next purchase was to be a weekend residence out of Paris. They saw the old Chateau of Malmaison but the owners were asking more than Napoleon’s budget of 250,000 francs so Napoleon left for the campaign in Egypt without making the purchase.
Josephine was still involved with Hippolyte Charles, including in a business which was to prove to be problematic.
Napoleon was finally confronted with the truth about the affair while he was stranded in Egypt, two years after Josephine had arrived in Italy with the young man. Junot, one of Napoleon’s generals, confirmed the gossip about the affair was true.
Napoleon decided to divorce Josephine and sent a letter to his brother Joseph. Josephine’s son Eugène had accompanied his stepfather on the expedition to Egypt. He also wrote to his mother to warn her what had happened.
Neither Joseph nor Josephine received the letters. They were among thousands of letters on a ship captured by the English admiral Nelson. He passed them on to the Morning Chronicle newspaper in London who printed parts of them November 24 1798.
Having been confronted with the truth about Josephine’s affair with Hippolyte Charles, Napoleon was no longer under any illusions. He set out to have an affair himself. The local women in Egypt were not to his taste but he became involved with the wife of one of his soldiers.
Pauline Fourès was on her honeymoon when her husband was called up for service with Napoleon’s army in Egypt. Not wanting to be parted, she dressed as a soldier and managed to sneak on board the boat with her husband.
She initially rejected Napoleon’s approaches, along with others. It became apparent to Napoleon that she may react differently if her husband was out of the picture. He sent her husband on a mission to France. Pauline’s husband boarded the boat and that evening she dined at Napoleon’s residence with a group of officers and ladies.
During the dinner, water was “accidentally” spilt on Pauline’s dress. Napoleon took her to his bedroom where it took an hour to “repair the damage”. The next day Napoleon set Pauline up in a villa near his residence.
Lieutenant Fourès returned sooner than expected after his ship to France had been intercepted by the English and he was returned to Egypt. (It is very likely the English knew what was going on and were amused to inconvenience Napoleon this way). He was furious when he found Pauline had moved out and reacted violently. She demanded a divorce which happened extremely quickly.
Pauline went back to her maiden name, Bellisle and became known as “Bellilote”. She acted as Napoleon’s hostess and Napoleon’s men referred to her as “La Générale” or “Bonaparte’s Cleopatra”.
Josephine’s son Eugène was well aware of what was going on. With the mail being cut off by the English, Josephine was in the dark and still involved with Hippoltye Charles.
Seven months later Napoleon escaped from Egypt. Pauline remained there in the “care” of General Kleber and they became lovers.
By the time Pauline returned to Paris, everything had changed for Napoleon and she did not see him again. He did organise a mansion for her and a marriage was arranged to a retired officer.*
When the news reached Egypt that the government of the Directory was in trouble in France, Napoleon decided the time had come for him to return.
Because the British were patrolling the Mediterranean, it took him 47 days to arrive in France.
A week later Napoleon arrived at his Paris residence, determined to go ahead with his plans to divorce Josephine. The pleas of Josephine’s children, along with her tears, softened Napoleon and he forgave her.
He did not try to take any revenge on Hippolyte Charles, which says a lot about his character. Josephine never strayed again. Napoleon, on the other hand, continued to have affairs. It was the price Josephine paid.
Napoleon had another surprise waiting for him. In spite of having been told Malmaison was too expensive, Josephine had bought the chateau six months earlier while Napoleon was stranded in Egypt.
Napoleon went ahead and paid the loan Josephine had taken for Malmaison.
Beside anything else, Napoleon had bigger things on his mind. Three weeks the return to Paris and the scene with Josephine, Napoleon was involved in the coup d’état that overthrew the Directory. Two days later a new government, the “Consulate” was formed. Napoleon was one of the three Consuls.
Josephine had seen the work of architects Percier and Fontaine when they worked on her neighbours’ residences in Paris. They had both studied in Rome and specialised in the neo-classical architecture and decor which was to become the “Empire style”. Napoleon gave them the assignment to do the extensive renovations needed on the old chateau of Malmaison.
Percier and Fontaine demonstrated their skill transforming the old residence in double quick time to meet the needs of Napoleon, who was a man in a hurry.
Napoleon and Josephine moved to the Tuileries Palace but came to Malmaison each “weekend”.
Between 1800 and 1802, Napoleon as First Consul, used the Tuileries as his Paris residence but he came regularly to Malmaison and it functioned as another seat of government where his ministers met regularly.
The Revolutionary calendar was still in use, meaning the “weeks” were ten days. This meant that as they tackled various areas while Napoleon and Josephine were in Paris, the architects had ten days to complete the work. This was the case with Napoleon’s council room and his library. Each of them was totally renovated and refurnished in ten days.
When Napoleon and Josephine moved into Malmaison early in 1800, her son Eugène was 18 and daughter Hortense was 16. It was the perfect place for all the members of the family to entertain their guests. A theatre seating up to 200 people was built in the garden and it was not unusual to have 40 people for dinner.
Josephine created a beautiful garden with plants from around the world as well as 250 species of roses. The artist Pierre-Joseph Redouté who painted her flowers wrote in the foreword of his 1803 book on the Garden of Malmaison:
You have gathered around you the rarest plants growing on French soil…as we inspect them in the beautiful gardens of Malmaison, an impressive reminder on the conquests of your illustrious husband..”
The gardens and château also welcomed a wide range of animals, from Swiss cows to provide the dairy products for the kitchen and 1200 merino sheep to zebras, llamas and a tame orangutang (who ate at the table with a knife and fork!). The French expeditions to Australia in 1803 and 1804 returned with kangaroos, emus and black swans as well as more than 200 species of plants for the garden at Malmaison including wattle and eucalyptus.
Among the variety of exotic birds were talking cockatoos. In her memoirs, Madame Avrillon, Josephine’s première femme de chambre, tells the story of one of them who regularly interrupted Napoleon’s meetings in the council room calling out “Bonaparte, Bonaparte” until he was identified and kept at a distance during meetings. After five years and the growing expenses, Napoleon had Josephine reduce the number of animals kept at Malmaison and the majority were sent to the menagerie in the Jardin des Plantes of the Museum of Natural History in Paris.
In spite of the shaky start to the marriage and many challenges including Napoleon’s affairs, he and Josephine were happily married. Five years after the purchase of Malmaison Josephine was at Napoleon’s side as the new Empress.
*Pauline became an artist and musician and wrote a novel. Pauline died in Paris at the age of 91 and is buried at Père Lachaise.
