Napoleon and Josephine

Walter Geer’s Napoleon and Josephine has a foreword saying the Empress Joséphine is crowned with a halo of goodness which makes the task of her biographer one of peculiar difficulty. The text says that from a marriage there was born on the 23 June 1763 a daughter, who five weeks later received in baptism the names of Marie-Joseph-Rose: this was Joséphine.

Rose-Claire is described as born in August 1736, already past her twenty-fifth birthday, and very glad to find a husband. The text says Lucien refused absolutely to divorce his wife, and declined to be separated from his children: that was his last word. The text says Napoleon exhausted all of his resources, both in the way of threats and of promises, in the effort to frighten or persuade his brother to comply with his wishes. The text says that in the midst of his triumphs Bonaparte was far from happy, and that his adored wife failed to respond to his letters praying her to join him in Italy.