Marie Walewska Part II

Marie spent time with Napoleon as his mistress, but tried to keep their affair discreet... it soon became an open secret. In 1809, he went to Vienna; she moved into a house near Schonnbrunn palace where he was staying. Napoleon seems to have loved her as much as someone so dominated by ambition was capable of loving...and when she became pregnant, he was delighted. He had had a son with a mistress,  a lady in waiting called Eleonore Deneulle, but he had been unsure if the child was indeed his. But he knew that Marie loved him and was virtuous and he could be certain that this time, the child was his own. It drove him to consider divorce from Josephine. He had wanted a legitimate son to be his heir... since none of his family had shown any gift for ruling… But he had never had any children with any of his many mistresses so he had been wary of getting rid of Josephine when he could not sure of having an heir. Marie returned to Poland to have her baby. She had a son Alexandre and the child was accepted as the son of her husband Count Walewski, to give him legitimacy. In 1810, Marie came to Paris, leaving her husband, to be with Napoleon, though there are claims that their affair had ended by then…. Napoleon was divorcing Josephine and planning to marry Marie Louise of Austria, so Marie may have accepted that the physical side of their affair was over. He made financial provision for her and their son… and retained a respect for her. She had sacrificed a lot to become his mistress. She was seen by many as the “only woman Napoleon ever loved” (though he had certainly loved Josephine)... and the Emperors “Polish wife…” But she never was able to secure Polish independence…though her producing a son, did give Napoleon the confidence to remarry.. and father a legitimate son. She was a good hearted woman and well liked...In 1812 Marie got a divorce from her elderly husband, on the grounds that she had been forced and pressured into it by her family. When Napoleon’s empire collapsed in 1814 and he was exiled to Elba, Marie visited him, with their child, briefly... But he was too depressed to pay much attention to her. In 1816, after he had been exiled further, to St Helena, Marie married a cousin of Napoleon’s - Philippe D’Ornano, a Corsican soldier and follower of the Emperor. They lived a quiet life, but within a year Marie gave birth to another son, Rudolph D’ornano and due to a kidney disease. Her health had begun to fail after childbirth. She died in 1817 aged only 31. Her son by Napoleon, Count Alexandre Walewski, became a naturalised Frenchman and was an important figure in French politics in the time of the Second Empire.