Hortense de Beauharnais

Hortense de Beauharnais ( born April 10, 1783 in Paris, † October 5, 1837 in the castle arenas mountain in the canton of Thurgau ). She was Queen of Holland and mother of Emperor Napoleon III. After the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy received the title of Duchess of Saint-Leu.

Origin

Hortense was daughter of Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais and Joséphine de la deashers Pagerie. After the execution of her father during the Reign of Terror (1794 ) and the remarriage of her mother (1796 ) by Napoleon Bonaparte, she was his stepdaughter.

Marriage and descendants

1802 left her to marry the younger brother of Napoleon Louis Bonaparte, who was raised in 1806 to the King of Holland. The marriage took place mainly at the insistence of her mother Josephine, for these had no children with Napoleon, hoping that a son of her daughter could be his legacy. Hortense gave birth to three sons.

  • Napoleon Charles Bonaparte (* December 10, 1802, † May 5, 1807 ). He died at the age of four and a half years, his body was solemnly in Notre Dame, Paris, laid out. He is buried in Saint -Leu- la -Forêt.
  • Napoléon Louis Bonaparte ( * October 11, 1804, † March 17, 1831 ), also buried at Saint -Leu- la -Forêt, was briefly King of Holland.
  • Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte ( born April 20, 1808 in Paris, † January 9, 1873 ) was from 1852 to 1870 as Napoleon III. Emperor of the French.

The chronically jealous Louis, however, did not recognize his paternity during her first son, but kept Napoleon for the father. Also, the third son, the future emperor Napoleon III. , He had doubts. The marriage of Hortense was not happy, she and her husband split up 1810.

Later life

Hortense had with her lover General Charles Joseph, Count of Flahaut a fourth son, Charles Auguste Louis Joseph (* 1811, † 1865). This was in 1862 by his half-brother of Napoleon III. raised to the Duke of Morny, after ten years earlier, 1851/1852, the emperor assisted him in his coup and its proclamation and initially served as his Minister of the Interior.

Despite the dissolution of the marriage of her mother with Napoleon ( 1809) and despite her own separation from his brother they supported Napoleon during his brief return to power in 1815. This led to their exile after his final defeat.

After traveling through Germany and Italy Hortense bought the property in 1816 until Seeheim, near Konstanz, 1817 and the arenas castle in stone on Sale submarine in the Swiss canton of Thurgau. She lived there until her death in 1837. In the castle is now home to a Napoleon Museum, which Hortense's youngest son, Louis Napoléon, later Emperor Napoléon III. , And whose family is dedicated. 1858 were the remains of Hortense on behalf of her son, Emperor Napoléon III. transferred to the church of Saint -Pierre -Saint -Paul in Rueil- Malmaison near Paris. There she was - over the grave of her mother Monument - erected a monumental marble grave monument.

That Hortense de Beauharnais, would have been the namesake of the plant genus hydrangea that came from the home of her mother and was loved passionately by this, is a legend. This name awarded, according to the botanist Philibert Jussieu Commerçon already in 1771, so many years before her birth.

Hortense was long attributed to the composition of the melody of the song pour la Syrie Partant which the Second Empire under the reign of her son Napoléon III. the function of a French national anthem fulfilled. Presumably, however, it was not the originator, but a flutist at her court, Louis Drouet.

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