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
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