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