A dysfunctional patchwork family

The celebrations for Napoleon's second marriage lasted several weeks. As per schedule, the first meeting with and solemn reception of Marie Louise was supposed to have taken place in Soissons on 27 March, but Napoleon's impatience had long since overturned his own timetable. The civil wedding took place on the first of April, the church wedding on the second; then it was daily travel, balls and receptions.

These events came to a tragic end with the ball at Prince Schwarzenberg's on the first of July 1810, when a fire broke out and killed several guests. Many more were injured. While the Emperor and Empress were brought to safety in time with relative ease, panic and commotion ensued in the timber-built ballroom as everyone scrambled towards the exit.

Also present were the Viceroy and Vice-Queen of Italy, i.e. Eugène and Auguste. Eugène's old secretary Darnay, in his »Notices historiques sur Son Altesse royale le Prince Eugène« reports only briefly:

[...] On the return from this journey, which constituted another triumph for the Emperor Napoleon, festivals resumed their course. The one of Prince Schwartemberg, intended to be the culmination, and prepared with great expense and care, had, as is only too well known, the most deplorable consequences, and caused the prince himself such cruelly painful losses. The viceroy, on this terrible occasion, had the good fortune to spare the vice queen great anxiety, by arranging for her to evacuate the room, without Her Highness ever knowing the dangers of the moment. This foresight was all the more fortunate as the vice queen, as we have seen, was entering into another pregnancy.

Other sources give more details on what happened. Apparently, Eugène had been off dancing somewhere (well, what else) when the fire broke out. When Napoleon and Marie Louise were led out of the building, and when everybody else rushed to the exits, elbowing each other out of the way, Auguste stayed behind on the platform where the imperial family had been seated, and waited until Eugène had joined her. By then, the roof had already caught fire, people panicked.

Eugène (eyeing the chandelier): I think that thing is about to come down any minute. This is a desperate situation, honey.

Auguste: I tend to agree, my dear.

Eugène: Desperate situations require desperate measures. (opens the service door from the dancing hall to the kitchen through which the servants had brought refreshments throughout the whole evening) After you, darling.

Auguste: Thank you, my love.

I didn't believe I would miss Bob Burnham's old Napoleon Series discussion forum as much as I do.

During its lengthy run, this forum averaged more than thirty posts each day on a variety of topics from almost all imaginable viewpoints and all sorts of nationalities. Additionally, the participants were historians with degrees, researchers with multilingual skills, reenactors, wargamers, uniform specialists, and artists, all of whom knew a thing or two, and were usually very happy in the weeds. Aside from arguments, some heated, some snarky [that was almost always me], some weighty and measured, we could count on the fact that we had only a minuscule number of uneducated fools to deal with. It is one thing to disagree with someone’s opinion, well-stated and well-researched, and quite another to suffer through a comment/post from someone who offers only garbage from Wikipedia or AI, too stupid to know where the inaccuracies are.

I disliked two things about Burnham, however. The first was his utterly misguided insistence on forbidding anyone to write and post book/article reviews that were analogous to the Amazon/Goodreads one- and two-star shellackings of what is, in truth, crap. This prohibition sailed much too close to the Southern grandmotherly admonition about saying nothing at all if one can’t say anything nice. Not only is that simply stupid, but it is also intellectually dishonest. The second thing is closing the forum because he claimed the original platform was past its prime, could not be sustained, was too expensive and too convoluted to change, and offered other typical excuses from men who are not tech-savvy and who no longer want the responsibility. As bad as that was, the true kiss of death was turning over the remnants of the once great forum to a thoroughly Brit-centric kid barely past acne and an advanced degree/studies centered solely on Wellington and his army, in—wait for it!—the Peninsula Wars.

The successor forum, TheNapoleonicWars.net, despite its desperate attempts to attract an audience and thus become relevant, manages on average five posts weekly from only a handful of folks who consistently play in the same anti-French, pro-British and Austrian sandbox. Its favorite experts are a Scots lass with a charming accent who does podcast episodes on the Marshalate, relying solely on questionable secondary sources; a female Dutch academic whose areas of expertise include international relations, terrorism and political violence, radicalism, and national security, and who ties herself in knots to translate some of the into a Napoleonic context – right up there with insisting Napoleon was a dictator just like Stalin and Hitler; and a military historian/psychiatrist claiming that Napoleon suffered from narcissistic derangement, probably bi-polar, and suffering from PTSD. Nothing like adding a bit of psychobabble to the witches' brew.

In fairness and transparency, the Brit-centric administrator banned me from this group after less than a year. Apparently, he disliked my demanding proof of quite a few statements by posters and arguing certain points without filters.

The other alleged Napoleonic site with a fair amount of traffic is “Generals and Napoleon,” which offers very little other than pirated filler like “OTD in History,” “Did You Know…?, and daily reprehensible AI “artwork,” about which many viewers have complained, to no avail. This site also offers episodes on YouTube, but unfortunately, borrows some of the very same [non]experts from White’s website. The administrator of the G and N clearly doesn’t vet the snippets of information he posts for accuracy; I could work full-time as an editor for him.

I did get carried away, I’m afraid, but I feel better.

Just like they did in Italy in Napoleon's previous campaign, Joséphine was supposed to join him in Egypt later, once the situation would have been cleared. But Nelson destroyed the French's ships in Aboukir Bay as soon as he found them, so Josephine never managed to do so and stayed in France.

She thus went to Plombières to enjoy spa and find some cure about her fertility issues (she would go to spas in Plombieres and Aix again and again for the same reason). One day she was called by a friend by the balcony, I believe it was because the friend saw a cute dog in the street (Joséphine was totally a dog mom). That's when the balcony collpased and she fell on the street. Thankfully it was at the first floor so the fall wasn't too fatal; she survived miracoulously, after a long convalescence.

My mother went to see her husband and son off to Toulon, where they boarded a ship bound for Egypt. She then went to the spa at Plombières to wait for the right moment to join them. A fall she suffered there nearly cost her her life. Whilst standing with a few people on the balcony of the house where she lived, the boards broke and she fell twenty feet onto the pavement. Believing she was going to die, she sent for me in Saint-Germain. I arrived promptly and my tender care restored her to health.

(Mémoires de la Reine Hortense, Vol. I, p. 58)

Because of course it would.

You can have a look at Malmaison online here:

Can anyone with access to Bertrand's journals tell me the context for this google snippet passage?

So this is the passage in the latest edition of Bertrand's "Cahiers" (Cahiers de Sainte-Hélène - Les 500 derniers jours (1820-1821), ed. Houdecek/Lentz, Perrin 2021) that related to Bernadotte becoming crown prince of Sweden und also mentioning Eugène:

It's the entry of 25 February 1821.

English translation with the help of DeepL:

Regarding Swedish affairs, the first overture made to the Emperor, as far as he could remember, took place in Donauwerth in 1809, when he was marching on Vienna. The Swedes wanted his approval so that they would have nothing to fear from Russia. The Emperor said to them: „I have many matters to attend to: Spain and a new war with Austria. We must see how this will end.“ – „Oh! It will soon be over; it will be a walk in the park,“ replied the Swedish envoys. The Emperor urged them to join forces with Denmark in order to make common cause against Russia. The following year, probably during the Emperor's wedding, Count Fersen came to congratulate him and, as far as he can remember, spoke of Bernadotte for the first time. „Since Prince Eugene cannot become a Protestant, would it suit you if we took Bernadotte?“ It seems that the Emperor had already advised them, or advised them then, to make the Duke of Sudermania regent for the king and, after him, to choose the son of Gustav, who had done nothing to lose his crown. „In this way, you will finish all your business quickly and without embarrassment, whereas changing dynasties is always a big deal.“ It seems that Bernadotte was strongly supported by Désaugiers, the Swedish consul general in Paris, who was a regular at the Manège, where he had met Bernadotte. Désaugiers made several trips to Sweden, spoke warmly of Bernadotte and assured everyone that they would be very pleased with him. By choosing Bernadotte, the Swedes wanted to secure the protection of Emperor Napoleon and hoped that his protection would facilitate the recovery of Finland. On the one hand, they were somewhat hesitant to propose Bernadotte and asked the Emperor if he was in agreement, if he did not fear that it would upset Russia by causing friction with it and thwarting its policy. They were very surprised when they saw Bernadotte adopt and follow their nation's system with Russia and England. He decided that he could never regain Finland, so he turned his attention to Norway; this was a fortunate idea for Sweden.

So according to Bertrand, Napoleon suggested that the Swedes had already asked for Eugène before they picked Bernadotte. Which seems rather unlikely, as to my knowledge there had been no contact between Eugène and Sweden before 1809. The common narrative has Napoleon trying to "offer" Eugène instead of Bernadotte and the Swedes going "Meh. Who's that guy anyway?", while another version has Eugène politely refusing when asked by Duroc. (Eugène going to Sweden might indeed have been problematic since he was related to the former kings of the Wasa family through his Wittelsbach relations.) Maybe Napoleon embellished the story a little here, or Bertrand simply misunderstood or misinterpreted something.

G. Gourgaud: „Journal de Saint- Hélène“, ed. by J. Macé, Perrin 2019, S. 446

„Prince Eugene is a stubborn man; the Italians did not like him because he was stingy. He administered Italy perfectly, I had nothing to do there. He never spoke to me about the money he owes me, even when I was on Elba. However, he took all the silverware in Milan that belonged to me, and I never mentioned it to him. He has several million.“

That's the first thing I could find. As to Las Cases, I'll just take something from the English translation (edition from 1823, Vol.II, p.75):

Napoleon's last will can be found here in English translation. The codicil that relates to Eugène having received "40 millions" from Napoleon and thus he better pay money to all sorts of people is this:

Can anyone with access to Bertrand's journals tell me the context for this google snippet passage?

So this is the passage in the latest edition of Bertrand's "Cahiers" (Cahiers de Sainte-Hélène - Les 500 derniers jours (1820-1821), ed. Houdecek/Lentz, Perrin 2021) that related to Bernadotte becoming crown prince of Sweden und also mentioning Eugène:

It's the entry of 25 February 1821.

English translation with the help of DeepL:

Regarding Swedish affairs, the first overture made to the Emperor, as far as he could remember, took place in Donauwerth in 1809, when he was marching on Vienna. The Swedes wanted his approval so that they would have nothing to fear from Russia. The Emperor said to them: „I have many matters to attend to: Spain and a new war with Austria. We must see how this will end.“ – „Oh! It will soon be over; it will be a walk in the park,“ replied the Swedish envoys. The Emperor urged them to join forces with Denmark in order to make common cause against Russia. The following year, probably during the Emperor's wedding, Count Fersen came to congratulate him and, as far as he can remember, spoke of Bernadotte for the first time. „Since Prince Eugene cannot become a Protestant, would it suit you if we took Bernadotte?“ It seems that the Emperor had already advised them, or advised them then, to make the Duke of Sudermania regent for the king and, after him, to choose the son of Gustav, who had done nothing to lose his crown. „In this way, you will finish all your business quickly and without embarrassment, whereas changing dynasties is always a big deal.“ It seems that Bernadotte was strongly supported by Désaugiers, the Swedish consul general in Paris, who was a regular at the Manège, where he had met Bernadotte. Désaugiers made several trips to Sweden, spoke warmly of Bernadotte and assured everyone that they would be very pleased with him. By choosing Bernadotte, the Swedes wanted to secure the protection of Emperor Napoleon and hoped that his protection would facilitate the recovery of Finland. On the one hand, they were somewhat hesitant to propose Bernadotte and asked the Emperor if he was in agreement, if he did not fear that it would upset Russia by causing friction with it and thwarting its policy. They were very surprised when they saw Bernadotte adopt and follow their nation's system with Russia and England. He decided that he could never regain Finland, so he turned his attention to Norway; this was a fortunate idea for Sweden.

So according to Bertrand, Napoleon suggested that the Swedes had already asked for Eugène before they picked Bernadotte. Which seems rather unlikely, as to my knowledge there had been no contact between Eugène and Sweden before 1809. The common narrative has Napoleon trying to "offer" Eugène instead of Bernadotte and the Swedes going "Meh. Who's that guy anyway?", while another version has Eugène politely refusing when asked by Duroc. (Eugène going to Sweden might indeed have been problematic since he was related to the former kings of the Wasa family through his Wittelsbach relations.) Maybe Napoleon embellished the story a little here, or Bertrand simply misunderstood or misinterpreted something.

I arrived in this city yesterday, my dear and good sister, and found the Emperor and the Empress in perfect health. Both of them have attended to my happiness, and I believe that it will be perfect with Princess Auguste. She is an angel of kindness. I am not talking about her beauty, it is beyond anything I could tell you. The only thing missing here is your presence to make me truly happy [...]

In his book, Labrelly de Fonten claims that Josephine revealed to the Russian tsar that Louis XVII had not died in the Temple, but was still hiding in the Vendée, waiting for the opportunity to claim the French throne. Deeply moved, Alexander allegedly turned to Talleyrand and proposed restoring the legitimate monarch to the throne. And then, the author writes, the Prince of Benevento sent Josephine the infamous bouquet.

Of course, this became widely known, and the December 1897 issue of the newspaper Zakonnost (Legality) printed the following: “It was I,” Empress Josephine said to Alexander, "acting in concert with Barras, who rescued the Dauphin from the Temple. We succeeded thanks to my servant, a native of Martinique, whom I managed with some difficulty to get hired as a guard at the Temple instead of Simon. Barras replaced the Dauphin with a sickly, scrofulous child and, to save him from revolutionary terror, sent him to Vendée, from where he briefly left for Brittany and then returned to his native Vendée. After four years of imprisonment in the Vincennes castle, I again helped the Dauphin escape — in this way I wanted to take revenge on Napoleon and Archduchess Marie Louise.

Alexander interrupted the empress, exclaiming: “Tomorrow I will tell Talleyrand that the French throne belongs to the son of Louis XVI, not to the Count of Provence.” And indeed, the next day, Alexander and Talleyrand had a conversation on this subject. After this meeting, Josephine received a poisoned bouquet, which caused her death three days later. Upon learning of her sudden demise, Emperor Alexander said, “This is the work of Talleyrand.”