Hortense de Beauharnais

Hortense Eugénie Cécile Bonaparte (; , ; 10 April 1783 – 5 October 1837) was Queen of Holland as the wife of King Louis Bonaparte. She was the stepdaughter of Emperor Napoléon I as the daughter of his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais. Hortense later married Napoléon I's brother, Louis, making her Napoleon's sister-in-law. She became queen consort of Holland when Louis was made King of Holland in 1806. She and Louis had three sons: Napoléon-Charles Bonaparte; Napoleon III, Emperor of the French; and Louis II of Holland. She also had an illegitimate son, Charles, Duke of Morny, with her lover, the Comte de Flahaut.

Early life

Hortense Eugénie Cécile Bonaparte was born in Paris, France, on 10 April 1783. She was born as the second child and first daughter to Alexandre François Marie, Vicomte de Beauharnais, and Joséphine Tascher de la Pagerie. Alexandre assumed her legal paternity, but when Joséphine announced him the birth of Hortense he wrote her that he knew for certain that baby was the result of adultery. Her parents separated when she was five years old and, between the ages of five and ten, she was sent to live in Martinique. Her father was executed on 23 July 1794, at the time of the French Revolution, a few days before the end of the Reign of Terror. Her mother was imprisoned in the Carmelites’ prison, from which she was released on 6 August 1794, due to the intervention of her friend Thérèse Tallien. Two years later, her mother married Napoléon Bonaparte.

Hortense was described as having been an amusing and pretty child with long, pale golden-blonde hair and blue eyes. She received her education at the school of Madame Jeanne Campan in St-Germain-en-Laye together with Napoléon's youngest sister Caroline Bonaparte, who later married Joachim Murat. She was sent to boarding school when her mother, Josephine, decided that she did not have enough time to raise children. They soon became lovers.

In 1811, at an unspecified inn in Switzerland, close to Lake Geneva, Hortense gave birth to a son by Comte de Flahaut secretly,

Charles Auguste Louis Joseph ( 21 October 1811 - 10 March 1865), created Duke of Morny by his half-brother, Napoléon III, in 1862. In October that year she went on a pilgrimage to the Benedictine shrine of Our Lady of the Hermits at Einsiedeln Abbey in the Swiss canton of Schwyz. After renouncing her claims on Charles, she presented a bouquet of diamond hydrangeas to the Virgin and a ring for the abbot, having been blessed, she wrote, with "so many consolations, such happiness at Einsiedeln not to wish that my memory remain there after I had left."

Composer

thumb|[[The Divorce of the Empress Josephine by Henri Frédéric Schopin, 1846. Hortense accompanies her mother for the signing of the official divorce from Napoleon in 1809.]]

Hortense de Beauharnais found love for music during her time in boarding school and she became a self-acclaimed amateur composer there (Beaucour, 2007). Though she did not have any known education in composition, it is said that she was a very talented singer and pianist. Fétis wrote about her in his article, Biographie Universelle des Musiciens, the following lines:

: “Plantade was Queen Hortense’s singing-master when she was at Mad. Campan’s school; what her Majesty gained more especially from her lessons was a great capability of stint, she composed several pieces of this kind, among which is the one beginning with the words: ‘Partant pour la Syrie.’ This romance, which enjoyed a great vogue about 1810, again became popular in France after 1852.” While her stepfather, Napoleon, ruled over France, she wrote marches and the French Troops sung some of her songs.

Hortense was banished when Napoleon was defeated and there she wrote numerous pieces, mostly notably her 12 Romances she wrote for her brother Eugene. Although she was banished, Hortense’s home exemplified the spirit of French art culture. There she presented her arts for her many visitors. Famous contemporary artists like Franz Liszt, Alexandre Dumas, and Lord Byron came to visit and listen to her piano performances. Hortense’s most famous composition ‘Partant pour la Syrie’ became the national hymn of France after her son Emperor Napoleon III instated it as such. (Last FM, 2010). French composer Camille Saint-Saens quotes “Partant pour la Syrie” in “Fossils” from his Carnival of the Animals.

A collection of some of her writing, art, and compositions can be found in her “Livre d’art de la reine Hortense.”

Charities

Hortense donated to the poor often and was also known to be a favourite amongst them.

During her banishment, Hortense began to focus on writing her memoirs, composing and publishing her musical works, drawing, and painting. Her home became a center for French art and culture. Established artists, composers, and writers were all fascinated by the banished queen in Switzerland.

Despite residing in Switzerland, Hortense remained involved in her sons’ lives. When one of her sons, Napoleon-Louis (Louis II of Holland), died in the Italian revolt against Austrian rule, she and her youngest son Louis-Napoleon escaped to France in April 1831. They reached Paris later that month, where Hortense discreetly contacted the new King of the French Louis-Philippe asking for passports so that she and her son could travel on to England. Louis-Philippe received her warmly at the Tuileries Palace and agreed to secure the passports. He told her that, for the time being, the Law of Exile against the Bonapartes would be upheld, assuring her that "the time is not too distant that there will be no more exiles." Hortense and her son were both implicated in the scheme. To further complicate the situation, rumor of Hortense's presence in Paris began to spread, and on 5 May a crowd of Bonapartists came to demonstrate outside her hotel on Place Vendôme, shouting "Vive l'Empereur". The new Orléanist government ordered Hortense and her son to leave France the next day.

She traveled in Germany and Italy before she purchased the Château Arenenberg in the Swiss canton of Thurgau in 1817. She lived there until she died of cancer on 5 October 1837, at the age of fifty-four. She is buried next to her mother Joséphine in the Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul church in Rueil-Malmaison. After her death, her remaining legitimate son, Charles-Louis Napoleon, returned to Paris, where he became Emperor Napoleon III.

A portrait of Hortense hangs at James Monroe’s Highland, the Virginia plantation home of James Monroe, fifth President of the United States. It was one of three portraits Hortense gave to Monroe's daughter Eliza, with whom she attended school in France. (The other two portraits are of Hortense's brother Eugène de Beauharnais and of Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan, the headmistress of the school Hortense and Eliza attended.) Eliza named her daughter, Hortensia Monroe Hay, in honour of her Godmother Hortense.

Issue

thumb|301x301px|Hortense with her son [[Napoleon Charles Bonaparte|Napoleon Charles (portrait by François Gérard, 1806)]]

With Louis Bonaparte, she had three sons:

Napoléon Louis Charles Bonaparte (10 October 1802 - 5 May 1807), who died when he was four years old.
Napoléon Louis Bonaparte (11 October 1804 - 17 March 1831), who married Charlotte Napoléone Bonaparte on 23 July 1826.
Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, later Napoleon III (20 April 1808 - 9 January 1873), who married Eugénie de Palafox, Countess of Montijo on 29 January 1853. They had one son.

With Charles Joseph, Comte de Flahaut, she had one son:

Charles Auguste Louis Joseph (21 October 1811 - 10 March 1865), whom his half-brother Napoléon III created Duke of Morny in 1862.

Television

Sorcha Cusack in Napoleon and Love (1974)
Liliana Komorowska in Napoléon et l'Europe (1991)
Ludivine Sagnier in Napoléon (2002)
Yulia Mayboroda in Aide-de-camps of Love (2005)
Lily Taïeb in Carême

References

External links

Hortense - La Reine d'Hollande
Queen Hortense - A Life Picture of the Napoleonic Era - 1910 book by L. Mühlbach, as an eText from Project Gutenberg
Spencer Napoleonica Collection at Newberry Library