Empress Josephine Part II First Marriage

Within a few years, the marriage of the young couple ended in a legal separation. Josephine went to live in a pleasant convent... where she received some training and education in the social graces. Alexandre continued his own life with mistresses.. He was sympathetic like many young upper-class men, to the French revolution, favouring liberal ideas and the cause of reform. Josephine sympathised with her husband’s ideas. Alexandre was part of the Revolutionary army. However as time went on, aristocrats came under suspicion from the more radical revolutionaries. He was suspected of not having defended Mainz in 1793 and was arrested and executed. Josephine was also arrested and spent time in prison but when Robespierre died, she was freed with other aristocratic prisoners. In 1794, she resumed her old social life, with her children and tried to have her husband’s properties restored to her. She acted as hostess and Mistress to Paul Barras, an important figure in the Directorate and a man of large fortune. Barras kept her and she hosted his parties. Josephine was always extravagant and frivolous...and Barras was tiring of her. She started an affair with Napoleon Bonaparte, who was 6 years her junior and who was showing signs of being a military genius. Barras gave the young man the command of the armies of Italy, hoping that he would win victories which would shore up the shaky Directorate. Napoleon was passionately in love with Josephine and wanted to marry her, in spite of her shady past, her children, and her age.