#aiglon

Hi and thanks for the Ask! I'm probably not the best person to answer as I've only read up on Marie Louise in passing. But maybe somebody else will be able to add more to the bit I have to offer.

First of all, I take it that with "her son" you mean little Napoleon Franz, King of Rome-turned Duke of Reichstadt. I understand Marie Louise had two more sons from Adam Neipperg (only one of them reached adulthood though). The answer to your question will depend a lot on who you ask, as there is a long standing tradition especially in France to put all the blame on Marie Louise.

Were Marie Louise and the Duke of Reichstadt close? No, surely not, but from what I have read it was also not that cold and distanced relationship that Marie Louise is often accused of. Mostly, it's an interesting detail that in Paris she seems to have been kept deliberately at a distance: The boy's governess, Madame de Montesquiou, "Maman Quiou", took precedence over the empress in the child's rooms. (I understand that was one cause for the state of constant warfare between Madame de Montesquiou and the Duchess de Montebello Louise Lannes.) When Marie Louise wanted to see her son, she had to ask for permission.

I'm not quite sure what to make of "Maman Quiou", frankly. I have come across some journals by Dietrichstein and other future tutors of the Duke of Reichstadt who do not treat her kindly. But considering the animosity between French and Austrian court, that is to be expected.

In her letters to Napoleon, Marie Louise almost always talks about their son (or, as Napoleon put it "my son"). It seems she also regularly wrote to others about him and claimed to miss him dearly, so she cannot have been utterly indifferent. But she was an empress, and as such she had a job to do and was often away from the baby. Not as often as Napoleon, but quite some time.

But of course it was only after the Vienna Congress that relations with her child became truly estranged. After the Hundred Days, in 1816, Marie Louise left her five-year-old son in Vienna, in order to rule over the Duchy of Parma. She has been - rightfully - blamed for it. But to be fair: she actually took possession of Parma in order to secure it for her son. It was only in 1817 when the powers decided that the Duke of Reichstadt would not inherit and that the throne of Parma would fall to another branch of the Bourbons. Who merited another throne because... because... Anyway.

Besides their correspondence, Marie Louise returned to Vienna to visit her son several times: 1818, 1823, 1826, 1828, 1830 and 1832. That's not much, as maternal affection goes, but I believe little Franz still saw his mother more often than Napoleon Bonaparte had seen his after he had been sent to France? I have not checked, though.

La Mode illustrée, no. 46, 18 novembre 1900, Paris. Costume de patinage. Modèle de la Maison Choque et Collignon, rue Auber, 16. Ville de Paris / Bibliothèque Forney

Description de la gravure coloriée:

The army takes an oath to the Emperor after the distribution of eagle standards on 5 December 1804, by Jacques-Louis David, 1810