Joséphine

(1763-1814) (Marie-Josèphe-Rose Tascher de la Pagerie, Joséphine de Beauharnais)

   empress of the French

   Born Marie-Josèphe-Rose Tascher de la Pagerie in Trois-Îlets, Martinique, Joséphine, as she is known, in 1779 married the French army officer viscount Alexandre de beauharnais. He was sympathetic to the revolution of 1789, but in 1793 he was forced to resign as general of the Army of the Rhine because he was a nobleman. He later died in the terror, leaving Joséphine with their two children, hortense (later queen of Holland) and eugène de beauharnais (later king of Italy). In 1795, through an introduction by paul barras, Joséphine met Napoléon Bonaparte (see napoléon i), whom she subsequently married on March 9, 1796. Much taken with his wife, Napoléon was strongly under her influence. Joséphine was crowned empress in 1804, but, unable to provide her husband with an heir, she was divorced from him in 1809. she retired to Malmaison, while continuing a correspondence with the emperor. During her life at the Tuileries, Joséphine was a popular figure and, as leader of the imperial court, attracted to it the most brilliant of French society.