Napoleon and Josephine: Passionate Feelings, Power Above All

When it became known that Vanessa Kirby would play Josephine in Ridley Scott's film "Napoleon," it surprised historians. Kirby is significantly younger than the actor playing the lead role, Joaquin Phoenix (he is 14 years older than her), but in reality, Josephine was six years older than Napoleon. The film portrays Napoleon as Scott describes him: "he conquered the world to win her [Josephine] in love, and when he couldn't, he conquered it to destroy her and destroyed himself in the process." The director later responded to historians who corrected the film's inaccuracies to "get a life," but the age difference between Napoleon and Josephine had significant implications for how their lives and love developed.

Widowed during the French Revolution and with two small children, Marie-Josephine-Rose de Bonaparte (the woman Napoleon called Josephine) faced an uncertain future.

She could not access her family's wealth from the sugar plantations in Martinique or the property of her executed husband. By that time, she was in her thirties and was no longer considered young, but she did everything she could to become part of fashionable Parisian society, offering her services in return and developing a friendship with the leading politician Paul Barras.

She was persuaded to marry a young and promising general from Corsica, Napoleon Bonaparte, who was infatuated with her.

Just a few months after meeting Josephine - and almost immediately after their wedding in March 1796 - the general was sent to command the Revolutionary Army in Italy.

From Italy, he wrote her dozens of passionate letters. They are so filled with controlling and emotional threats that the repeated declarations of love seem not romantic, but frightening. "You never write to me, you don't care about your husband," he exclaims in one of the letters. "I don't hear from you at all and I'm sure I no longer love you," he complains in another. And: "Every day I list your transgressions. I have tormented myself with rage to stop loving you. But, don't I love you even more?"

When Josephine joined him in Italy, she had to endure his control over every move she made and the opening of her letters. However, by the time they met, he was less enchanted with her—though he still controlled her. Napoleon recognized the usefulness of his wife's connections and seemed to accept the inequality in their feelings. His early romantic displays of emotion were replaced by a completely different tone by 1797, and by 1800 he had become cold. The letters became practical, with clichéd farewells like "thousands of tender thoughts."

As the wife of a famous military hero, Josephine used her political connections for personal gain, possibly as a way to resist the control that Napoleon exerted over the rest of her life. Aware of how effective they could be as a team, his opponents, including Napoleon's own family, eagerly spread rumors to tarnish Josephine's reputation. Josephine's letters to her lover Hippolyte Charles allow us to imagine the kind of vulnerability that awaited her.

When Napoleon was in Egypt during the campaign, he was provided with evidence that she was having an affair. A letter in which he mentioned this to his brother was intercepted and published by the British, quickly becoming known in France. At first, he was furious, but he forgave her when he returned to Paris, and she supported the political maneuvers that led to his rise to power after the coup of 1799.

He needed her soft diplomacy and her aristocratic background to smooth over the factionalism that characterized the Revolutionary decade.

She enjoyed the superiority that came with her involvement in the creation of a new France. After initially being reluctant to join her husband in Italy in 1796, she accompanied him everywhere. It was very important that he not be distracted by a younger woman.

In 1807, he did not allow her to accompany him to Poland, where he was having a long affair with the noblewoman Maria Walewska, although his letters show that they were still in an intimate relationship. However, the risk of divorce was increasing.

When Napoleon established a hereditary empire in 1804, his family increasingly insisted on the need for an heir.

The divorce was presented as a sacrifice for the good of the nation. Napoleon continued to visit Josephine and write to her until his marriage to the Austrian archduchess Maria Louise. Josephine congratulated Napoleon on the birth of his son in 1811, telling him that she would always be happy for his happiness, as their fates were inextricably linked.

Napoleon visited her in Malmaison, her preferred refuge near Paris, before starting his Russian campaign in 1812. He would never see her again, as she died in 1814. After his defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon spent time in Malmaison before being finally exiled to the island of Saint Helena.

It's difficult to establish their true relationship because very few letters from Josephine have survived to present her perspective. Did she love Napoleon at the beginning? Probably not. But did she love him after that? Probably yes.

Napoleon allowed her to overcome age and criticism and took care of her children, Hortense and Eugène. Ultimately, both Josephine and Napoleon loved power more than each other. They understood the advantages of working together and achieved dizzying success. In the end, Napoleon's need for an heir undermined their regime and their marriage, but his visit to Malmaison on his way to exile shows how much Josephine meant to him. She remained devoted, though not always faithful, and was a happy talisman. Shortly before his death in 1821, Napoleon dreamed of her. His devoted grand marshal recalled: "He said he saw Josephine and spoke with her." He hoped they would be together again soon. Looking for something good? Cut out the noise with a carefully curated selection of new releases, live events, and exhibitions, delivered straight to your inbox every two weeks on Fridays. Subscribe here.