Empress Josephine Part III

Napoleon and Josephine had a civil marriage in 1796, and after a short and impassioned honeymoon, the groom left to command the French army in Italy. He never called her “Rose”... he liked the name Josephine and from then on, she began to use that name... based on her middle name Josephe.< but Josephine’s feelings for him were lukewarm. She told friends “Il et drole, Bonaparte” (He’s funny, Bonaparte) and was more interested in her social life and her children than her new husband. He would later claim to have married her for her money but in this was not true. She did not have much money, and he was rather, passionately in love. She remained in Paris while he went to war, but he wrote her passionate love letters which have become famous... and tried to persuade her, once it was safe, to come to Italy to be with him. Josephine did not want to leave her beloved Paris and her comfortable life. She was soon having an affair with Hippolyte Charles, a handsome and sophisticated Hussar officer whose charming manners were more to her taste than Napoleon’s bursts of ardour. He was never comfortable with women and was often very rude to them. Josephine put him off when he tired to persuade her to go to join him in Italy, claiming that she was pregnant and could not travel...This was either a mistake or a deliberate lie... because she and Napoleon never had any children. Napoleon was delighted to see his wife and she was treated almost as a queen in Italy. He had won great victories and was popular in France. He knew that he would probably be accepted as a ruler since people in France were increasingly fed up with the corrupt Directorate. On his return to Paris, he made of his wife’s social skills to attract supporters to his cause. Josephine continued her affair with Charles, but Napoleon was so in love that he seemed blind to it.