Pauline Bonaparte Part IV 1814-1825

Pauline was now over 30 and her brother’s empire was approaching its twilight years.  He now had a male heir, but he had over stretched himself.   He was still a military genus, but in invading Russia, he had gone a step too far.  His despotic rule over much of Europe had won him enemies, and in Spain, an Anglo Irish general, Arthur Wellesley, was beginning to defeat his marshals who were fighting there.   In France, his wars were much less popular than they had once been, because he was now calling up young boys, to feed his army’s need for soldiers.

Pauline took little interest in politics, except in terms of generally supporting her brother.  It was almost the only thing that she and Camillo agreed on…
Mostly  her lovers were  artists,  she seemed fond of musicians.   She was also said to have had an affair with the famous Parisian actor Talma.

Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow, and the defeats in Spain were the beginng of the end, and in 1814, he was forced to abdicate.    He fled south and met with his sister – who initially refused to kiss him because he was wearing a foreign uniform, being in fear of his life from the mob.   He had become so unpopular with the French people.  Pauline’s best qualities were brought out by her brother’s’ fall.  He had been generous to his family, albeit dictatorial...  However he had showered gifts and kingdoms on them, yet when the empire collapsed, most of them were mainly involved with saving their own skins.  Josephine and her 2 children were more loyal to him than his own siblings were…

Pauline and Letizia, his mother remained loyal and devoted.  They moved to Elba when he was allowed to live there as its sovereign... and tried to comfort him for the loss of his title and powers.  Letizia Bonaparte, his tough elderly mother, was not displeased by Elban exile.. It was an Island and she had never lost her affection for her native Corsica…

Napoleon hoped to have his Austrian wife come and visit him, with their son, but Marie Louise soon lost interest in the husband she had been forced to wed – she began an affair with an Austrian nobleman, Adam von Neipperg.  Napoleon relied on his Mother and sister for support and for a time busied himself with making various reforms in Elba.

Pauline saw her brother leave the island however in early 1815, for his attempt to win back his empire... but it ended in failure and disaster at Waterloo.   She had sold her Paris home, the Hotel de Charost, to the British government, and it was used by the Duke of Wellington during his time there.  She then moved back to Italy, and devoted much of her time to trying to make Napoleon’s exile to St Helena more bearable.  She settled in Rome, under the protection of the Pope, who was clearly fond of her.   Her Mother also settled in Rome, and since the Bonaparte clan was banned from living in France, many of them moved to Italy as well. 

Pauline’s husband Camillo, moved away, to distance himself from her and he began an affair with a cousin of his.  Pauline was still attractive but she was getting older and her health was worse.  She had a few affairs, but much of her interest in life was trying to help her brother.  She received many English visitors in her home, trying to use her charms to persuade the Whig aristocrats who were travelers in Italy, to make Napoleon’s life in St Helena more comfortable.  Many for them had sympathized with his cause and did not want him to be too harshly treated.
Her mother fell under the influence of a bogus mystic, who told her that Napoleon had escaped from St Helena and that the British were keeping this a secret.  As a result, when the old lady had a chance to send a doctor and a cook to the far away island, to help her son, she took no interest in whether the doctor was qualified…. because she believed he wasn’t actually there.  Pauline fell out with her mother over this issue, and was angry that her brother did not have a good doctor….

In 1821, Napoleon died, far from his family and France.  Pauline was broken hearted.  She had probably loved him more than anyone else in her life.  She was fond of some of her many nieces and nephews and spent time with them, since she had no children of her own.  Gradually, her health got worse….and she began to think about reconciliation with her husband.   The Pope persuaded Camillo to return to his wife, in her last months.   Camillo was reluctant but he saw the rightness of leaving his mistress to care for his wife and for her to die reconciled to him…

Their relationship was not unfriendly, and within 3 months Pauline died.  She left a reputation as a scandalous but beautiful and charming woman….

Pauline Bonaparte Part III

Some of Pauline’s lovers were said to be nervous that if they attracted Napoleon’s attention, they would end up being sent on a military posting, to get them out of her way.  She was seen as attractive, but selfish and shockingly promiscuous.  She was often the one who made advances towards men, and that was considered scandalous and unfeminine.

Napoleon tried to get her to settle down as Camillo’s wife and a Roman society hostess, but Pauline disliked Rome… she increasingly disliked her husband.   She was not especially clever, though she had a sharp tongue and a good deal of common sense… but Camillo was indeed a stupid man.  She sneered at him, for his lack of intelligence or manly drive.

 She did have health problems, though she didn’t let them get in the way of her pleasure seeking.  Flora Fraser her biographer notes that when she was in “spa” mode, she did dedicate herself to a quiet life, seeking rest and recuperation.    Fraser also says that it is probably that she had gynecological problems after the birth of her son, when she was very young and that this may have left her with pelvic pain… which made her need to rest and not walk very far...

   She may also have had infections resulting from her sexual encounters…

But Pauline was thoughtless and selfish in her treatment of many of her staff, showing an utter lack of concern for their dignity.  Her exploits could be amusing, but she clearly considered that her desire for comfort, must take precedence over any inconvenience she caused to others.

However she loved Napoleon dearly, and was close to him, even though there were at times issues and quarrels between them.

Pauline like the rest of the Bonaparte clan was unkindly pleased when Napoleon finally found the will to decide that he had to divorce Josephine, to get an heir.  She and the family had always hated the charming, beloved sweet natured Empress, who was much more popular with the people than they were.    In the period before the divorce, Pauline was especially close to Napoleon at this stage (leading to rumors that he and she were actually lovers).  She provided him with a mistress from one of the ladies in her entourage, Christine de Mathis, and supported him, when he made plans to put his wife aside.

However, she was ambivalent about Marie Louise, Josephine’s replacement.  The new empress was not pretty but very young and fresh and Napoleon was very much attracted to her, though he still cared for his first wife.   Pauline was not greatly taken with her new sister in law, who was a Hapsburg Princess, descended from even grander ancestors than the Creole aristocrat Josephine.    So this caused tension again between brother and sister….

Pauline Bonaparte Part II

Napoleon was uneasy about Pauline because he knew how volatile she was, and he was eager that his family, who were now almost   a royal family, should cause no scandal.   So he wanted her to remarry.  He made suggestions of various Italians who might marry her, men who would be political allies, in French occupied Italy.   Pauline settled for Prince Camillo Borghese, a pro Bonapartist Italian noble… whom she married in August 1803.  Napoleon was furious because he had insisted that widows should wait for a year after their husband’s death, to remarry...

She moved to Rome with her new husband and the child Dermide…and tried at first to fit in to Roman noble society.  The Bonaparte’s were still Italian in many respects and she was a Catholic. 

However she did not always enjoy Roman society, and at times longed for Paris.  She began to cultivate “ill health” which was probably partly genuine and partly hypochondria.  He little son died in 1804, and Pauline grieved. 

By now, her second marriage was proving less than successful.   She and Napoleon were fond of each other but Pauline had never been friendly with Josephine...  She like all the other Bonaparte siblings had always been jealous of Josephine’s sophistication and charm - even though she was an older woman. Pauline had in earlier days been guilty of a great deal of childish, vulgar rudeness to her sister in law, which affected her relationship with Napoleon.

In 1806, the emperor made his sister Princess of Guastalla, a small Italian principality.  He was then placing his brothers and sisters on various thrones throughout Europe, and expecting them to rule their countries but to support French interests.  Pauline however was not interested in politics, and her husband was not a very clever man.  She soon sold the principality to her sister Elisa for hard cash, as she was quite shrewd about financial matters... She kept the title of Princess – but did not care about having a state to rule…

 She and Camillo were increasingly bored with each other, and Pauline took a series of lovers. Elisa and Caroline were both ambitious and interested in politics and both were eager to show Napoleon that they could rule as well as their menfolk… Elisa’s husband Felix Bacchiochi was an amiable nonentity - and Joachim Murat - Caroline’s husband -was a brilliant army officer,  but far from intelligent.

Pauline was not intelligent or interested in politics or intellectual matters.  She took a certain interest in the arts, but her main interests were her health and her lovers.  She and Camillo drifted apart, she began to dislike him.  Napoleon was annoyed by her lovers but there was little he could do about her promiscuity

Pauline Bonaparte Part I

Pauline Bonaparte was born in Corsica, in 1780. She was the middle sister of Napoleon and generally felt to be his favorite, who was most loyal to him….

She was named Maria Paola, as the family were Italian speaking... and called Paoletta as a child.  Later, she and her siblings used French versions of their names or adopted new names that were French... in order to pursue a new life in France.  Her youngest Sister, Annunziata  used the name Caroline, as an adult.. and the eldest Maria Anna, was called Elisa…or Elise…

The family moved to France in 1793.  They were not well off.  They had been minor gentry, with some property but their wealth had diminished after the death of Carlo, their father.  Then the English occupation of Corsica had cut off the income that they had had from their vineyards.  Napoleon studied to join the arm.  His brother Joseph married Julie Clary, daughter of a wealthy merchant.  But the family struggled to survive on a small income… Their mother Letizia was shrewd and frugal… However, the daughters were allowed to grow up with minimal education.  Later, Elisa would become something of a scholar.. but it was generally not felt necessary for Corsican women to be well educated.

Pauline was growing into a beauty as a teenager but she was wild and wilful, and highly sexed.  Napoleon had old fashioned ideas about women, and their place and had been somewhat scandalised by the freedom that French society women had, running salons, living separate lives to their husbands etc.  He too did not see any great need for women to have much education.. seeing women as housekeepers and mothers of families….

He arranged a marriage for his sister when she was 17, to General Leclerc, who became commander of the French army in Italy….A year later, she had a son Dermide – a French form of the Irish name Dermot…

Napoleon seized power from the corrupt Directorate and made himself First Consul and virtual dictator of France.  He was not just an excellent soldier but a highly intelligent administrator and he worked hard at reforming the government.  However, he was a dictator who had no real intent of giving up his power, and ultimately he was committed to war, since his popularity sprang to an extent form his military victories.

In 1801, Napoleon ordered his brother in law to Saint Dominique (now Haiti) where the island was in rebellion against French rule.  He wanted Leclerc to restore order there. Slavery had been abolished in the island but the locals feared it might be re-established and rebellion continued.  Leclerc defeated the rebels, but the island was ravaged by yellow fever,.  The  strain of life there, plus the fever, undermined Pauline’s health.  However she did enjoy being the Governor General’s wife…

There were rumours that she took lovers but it seems unlikely at that time; she was fond of her husband and was also often in poor health… 

1n 1802, Leclerc caught yellow fever and died, and Pauline and her son came home to France with his remains.   She was genuinely grieved at the loss of her husband, but she was a young woman – only 23, and soon she began to find the strict code of mourning for widows which was prescribed in Napoleonic France….tiresome and irritating.  She began to long for social life again

Rough Music story on Amazon

Rough Music is a “band” story set in the US, in the late 1970s.  I wanted to write about this era as I remember it as a kid and I love the music from it.  It was a time when country was very exciting, still and when Southern Rock was going strong...

It is the story of a country rock band and its 2 lead singers and how they cope with life on the road.  It’s not a conventional love story, but more a life story, about marriage, life in the music world and life in the later 1970’s.  the 2 lead singers are friends, who are starting to find that life on the road is getting harder as they get older and that increasing success is making it difficult for them to decide how far they compromise their desire to write good music, with the demands of success and fame...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rough-Music-Nadine-Sutton-ebook/dp/B01AEQS0G0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452977780&sr=8-1&keywords=nadine+sutton

Jimmie Rodgers, the “Singing Brakeman

Jimmie Rodgers, the “Singing Brakeman”, was born in the south, in 1897, probably In Mississippi.  His family was poor, and his mother died when he was a small child. At the age of 13, his father got him a job on the railway, as a water boy.  He met with rail workers and hoboes, some of them African American, and listened to their working songs.

There was TB in the family, which had caused his mother’s death, and in time Jimmy found that his health was failing and the strenuous life on the railroads was making him very ill.   He gave up the railroad work and became an entertainer again in 1924, organising a travelling road show.   He tried railroad work again, but his health was very poor.   By 1927, he had a wife and child and he moved to Tennessee, to try his luck with singing again.  He recorded a few songs, and began to work at song writing with his sister in law, Elsie McWilliams... who co-wrote many songs with him.

His career as a singer and song writer began to blossom, but his TB was not cured.  His constant touring and working made it less and less likely that he would ever recover from the illness.  He was making good money, enough to buy a house for his wife and family in Texas….

But in 1932, at the age of 35, he was getting sicker and had to lie down, in the recording studio, to rest between sessions.   He died of a hemorrhage in his hotel….

His influence on country music was enormous, rather like Hank Williams, who also died young.   Most of the great country singers acknowledge him, and have covered some of his songs, or tried to imitate his style of yodeling.  One of his most famous songs is “IN the Jailhouse now…”  and another was T for Texas.  He also influenced many blues artists….

Story on Amazon

Beds and Blue Jeans is set in present day America.  It is about a love affair between a young couple who drift into living together and having a baby, and how they make things work. It is a realistic story, and not  a happy ever after romance

http://www.amazon.com/Beds-Blue-Jeans-everyday-mayhem-ebook/dp/B01370SMFO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1443265304&sr=8-2&keywords=nadine+sutton