When Vanessa Kirby was announced to play Josephine in Ridley Scott's Napoleon, it surprised historians. Kirby is considerably younger than the actor in the title role, Joaquin Phoenix (14 years her senior), but Josephine was actually six years older than Napoleon.
The film portrays Napoleon as someone who, according to Scott: "he conquered the world to try to win her [Josephine's] love and when he couldn't, he conquered it to destroy her and destroyed himself in the process." Vanessa Kirby discusses her role as Josephine.
Since then, the director told historians that were correcting the film's inaccuracies to "get a life," but the age difference between Napoleon and Josephine was a major factor in how their lives—and their love—turned out.
The love of Napoleon
Widowed during the French Revolution and with two young children, Marie-Josèphe-Rose de Beauharnais (the woman Napoleon called Josephine) faced an uncertain future. She could not access her family's wealth from sugar plantations in Martinique or from the estate of her husband who died by guillotine.
In her thirties, she was no longer considered young, but she did her best to become part of fashionable Parisian society, soliciting favors and cultivating the friendship of leading politician Paul Barras.
She was persuaded to marry a rising young Corsican general, Napoleon Bonaparte, who was intoxicated by her. Just a few months after meeting Josephine – and almost immediately after their marriage in March 1796 – the general was sent to lead the Revolutionary Army in Italy.
From Italy, he wrote to her dozens of passionate letters. They are so full of controlling, emotional blackmail that repeated declarations of love seem menacing rather than crazy.
“You never write to me. you don't care about your husband,” she exclaims in one. "I haven't heard from you and I feel sure you don't love me anymore," he laments to another. And: "Every day I count your words. I'm whipping myself into a rage so I can't love you anymore. Nah, don't I love you more?'
When Josephine joined him in Italy, she had to put up with him watching her every move and opening her letters. By the time they were reunited, however, he was less in love – though he still controlled her. Napoleon recognized the utility of his wife's connections and seemed to accept a mismatch in their feelings. His earlier novelistic outpourings were replaced by a very different tone as early as 1797, and by 1800 he had become rather cold. These letters are practical, with typical cues such as "a thousand tender things."
As the wife of a would-be war hero, Josephine took advantage of her political connections for her own gain, perhaps as a way to resist Napoleon's control over the rest of her life.
Aware of how effective they could be as a team, critics, including Napoleon's family, delighted in spreading rumors to tarnish Josephine's reputation. Josephine's letters to her lover Hippolyte Charles give an idea of how precarious the situation was for her.
Napoleon was on a campaign in Egypt when he was given proof that he was having an affair. A letter to his brother in which he speaks of this was intercepted and published by the British and quickly became known in France. Enraged at first, he forgave her when he returned to Paris and she supported the political maneuvers that led him to power after a coup in 1799.
He needed her smooth diplomacy and aristocratic background to help smooth over the factionalism that had characterized the Revolutionary decade. She enjoyed the prominence her role in helping to create a new France gave her. While she was reluctant to join her husband in Italy in 1796, she began to accompany him everywhere. It was in her best interest not to be distracted by a younger woman.
In 1807, he did not let her accompany him to Poland where he had a long-term affair with the noblewoman Maria Valevska, although his letters show that he was still on close terms with Josephine as well. However, the risk of divorce was increasing.
The divorce
Once Napoleon instigated a hereditary empire in 1804, his family pressed him more and more about the need to produce an heir. Josephine couldn't give him one. One of her maids, Mademoiselle Avrillion, wrote a narrative about how, in the period leading up to their divorce, the couple had become less close. But Josephine was still devastated when her fate was confirmed in 1809.
Divorce was framed as a sacrifice to the needs of the nation. Napoleon continued to visit and write to Josephine before his marriage to the Habsburg archduchess Marie-Louise of Austria. Josephine congratulated Napoleon on the birth of his son in 1811, telling him that she would always share his happiness as their destinies were inseparable.
Napoleon visited her at Malmaison, her favorite retreat just outside Paris, before starting his Russian campaign in 1812. He would not see her again as she died in 1814. After his defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon spent time at Malmaison before permanently exiled to Saint Helena.
Ascertaining their true relationship is difficult because so few of Josephine's letters survive to offer her side of the story. Did she love Napoleon at first? Probably not. Did she come to love him? Probably yes.
Napoleon enabled her to defy age and her critics and took good care of her children, Hortens and Eugene. Ultimately, both Josephine and Napoleon loved power more than each other.
They recognized the benefits of working together and achieved a dizzying rise to the top. In the end, Napoleon's need for a son destabilized both their regime and their marriage, but his visit to Malmaison en route to exile shows how much Josephine meant to him.
She had remained loyal, if not always loyal, and was a lucky charm. Shortly before he died in 1821, Napoleon dreamed of her. His faithful grand marshal write down : "He said he had seen Josephine and spoke to her." He hoped they would be together again soon.
*Cover photo: Vanessa Kirby and Joaquin Phoenix as Josephine and Napoleon. Courtesy of Apple
Source: theconversation
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