The Josephine B. Trilogy (144 page)

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The revolutionary government frowned on prostitution as a remnant of the corrupt Ancien Régime.

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The Queen was publicly accused, among other things, of taking her eight-year-old son into bed with her and teaching him how to masturbate, to which she responded, with tearful dignity, “I appeal to all mothers here—is such a crime possible?” She was convicted of aiding and abetting foreign powers and conspiring to provoke civil war within France.

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To further separate France from the Church, the Gregorian calendar was replaced by a “Republican” calendar, dating from September 22 of the previous year (1792), the date upon which the Republic had been proclaimed.

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Previous to the Revolution the French had over thirty feast-days a year in
addition
to Sundays and Mondays. Under the new revolutionary calendar, there was one day off every ten days plus five or six “jours complémentaires” tacked on at the end of the year—a considerably heavier workload.

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The young woman who murdered Deputy Marat.

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Some prisoners believed they were fed human flesh.

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Pickled herrings were given to the prisoners in great quantities, provided to the French government by the Dutch in lieu of payment on a debt.

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It was common for the women in the prisons to put aside their most elegant ensemble to wear on the day of their execution.

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This is Guéry, the fourteen-year-old son of one of Thérèse’s business acquaintances, released the day before from the Luxembourg prison.

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France wants her King.

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Syphillis or gonorrhea (thought at the time to be the same disease).

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Louis-Marie-Stanislas Fréron had met Buonaparte’s thirteen-year-old sister Maria-Paola in Marseille two years before. They wanted to marry, but met resistance from Madame Buonaparte. Although an educated aristocrat, turned violent revolutionary, Fréron was over thirty, inclined to drink and had had three children by an actress.

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A reference to the Republican calendar.

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Venereal disease was treated with mercury.

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Lazare Hoche would die in his bed on September 17, 1797, at the age of twenty-nine.

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Bernadine Eugénie Désirée Clary would later marry Bernadotte, who became crown prince of Sweden—making Désirée Crown Princess. Ironically, their son, Oscar I of Sweden, would marry one of Rose’s granddaughters.

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Joephine’s first husband, Alexandre Beauharnais, the father of her two children—Hortense (twelve) and Eugène (fourteen)—was beheaded on July 23, 1794, at the height of the Terror, the violent phase of the French Revolution in which thousands of aristocrats were guillotined.

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Madame Campan had been lady-in-waiting to Queen Marie Antoinette, who had been beheaded two-and-a-half years earlier during the Terror, when the monarchy had been abolished and a democratic Republic installed in its place.

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Josephine’s mother, a widow, lived on the family sugar plantation in the Caribbean island of Martinique (“Martinico”), where Josephine had been born and raised. A small percentage of the plantation’s earnings constituted Josephine’s main source of income—when she received it, that is, which was rarely. Formerly under French rule, the island was now controlled by England.

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The executive authority of the Republic was vested in a council of five directors—“five Majesties.” Director Paul Barras was considered the most powerful of the five, and hence the most politically powerful man in the French Republic.

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A new calendar had been established during the Revolution. The ten-day week ended in Décadi, the official day of rest. The names of the months were changed as well: Vendémiaire (the month of vintage), Brumaire (the month of fog), Frimaire (the month of frost) and so forth. Nevertheless, many continued to observe the old calendar, causing considerable confusion.

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Hysteric water: a mixture that was said to cure uterine disorders—“an excellent water to prevent fits, or to be taken in faintings.” It was made of a mixture of roots of zedoary (similar to ginger), lovage and peony, parsnip seeds, mistletoe, myrrh, castor oil and dried millipedes steeped in mugwort tea and brandy.

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Fanny Beauharnais, a bohemian poet, is related to Josephine through her first husband. She is Émilie’s grandmother and Hortense’s godmother. She is being sued at this time by a young woman claiming to be her illegitmate daughter.

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The List was a listing of émigrés and relations of émigrés forbidden from entering France. Having left the country because of the Revolution, émigrés and even their families were considered enemies of the Republic. Those listed lost all civil rights, had their property confiscated and risked execution if discovered on French soil. The names numbered over a hundred thousand. To be “erased” meant to have your name taken off the List.

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In addition to Josephine and Thérèse, the group included Fortunée Hamelin, Madame de Châteaurenaud (called Minerva), and Madame de Crény. Fortunée Hamelin (nineteen) is a créole like Josephine. She is famous for her wit, her daring (un)dress and her dancing. Minerva (thirty-six) is a voluptuous woman known for a mild, sweet manner and an interest in the occult. Madame de Crény (thirty-five), met Josephine when Josephine’s first husband, Alexandre, forced her to live in a convent. Thérèse Tallien (twenty-three) is one of the famous beauties of the day. A wonderful teller of stories, she describes herself as a comedian.

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Drawers—or pantaloons—were considered men’s wear, worn only by women of ill-repute.

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Josephine’s first husband had been convicted (falsely) of conspiring to get out of prison. He was executed, and his property confiscated.

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Laudanum: a solution containing opium, used widely in the eighteenth century for pain, particularly for “women’s complaints.”

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Josephine had bad teeth and was in the habit of smiling with her lips closed or behind a fan.

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Julie Careau and the great actor François Talma had lived in Josephine’s house when previously married.

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Under the purple: royal life.

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With the Revolution, the government had seized Church property, as well as the estates of émigrés and arrested aristocrats. From time to time, in order to raise money, the Republic put these properties up for sale—usually at a very good price.

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Merveilleuse: an extravagantly (and wildly) dressed woman of the period, typically of the newly rich class of profiteers, bankers and financiers.

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General Lazare Hoche had taken on the difficult task of quelling the uprisings (fuelled by émigrés and England) against the Revolution in the south of France.

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Chauffe-pieds: literally “hot feet,” the term given to the criminals who would extort what they wished by burning the feet of their victims.

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The Marquis’s son Alexandre, Josephine’s first husband, had been arrested for “allowing” the Austrians to invade Mayence (Mainz, in German), on the west bank of the Rhine River. The French traditionally believed that the Rhine River was their natural boundary.

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Churches were official sanctuaries. Any criminal who took refuge in a church could not be arrested.

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Bellissima regina: Italian for “beautiful queen.”

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Mal-aria: malaria, translated in Italian as “bad air,” which people believed to be the cause of the disease.

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La beauté du diable: beauty of the devil, or bloom of youth, the sexual appeal of a girl.

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Before the Revolution, aristocrats wore boots with high red heels.

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Aimée Hosten, a créole friend of Josephine’s with whom she was imprisoned.

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A country villa north of Milan that Josephine and Bonaparte leased for the hot summer months.

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Oh spring, youth of the year! Oh youth, springtime of life!

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Veni, vidi, fugi—
Latin for “I came, I saw, I fled”—was attributed to Napoleon in a Royalist journal in Paris. It plays on the famous line by Caesar,
Veni, vidi, vici,
meaning, “I came, I saw, I conquered.”

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Josephine’s husband Alexandre had at least three known illegitimate children, one of whom was Marie-Adélaïde d’Antigny. Josephine and Désirée jointly contributed to her support.

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Headquarters had been moved to Passariano north-east of Venice in order to facilitate the peace talks.

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Director Barras is reported to have thrown a writing desk into a mirror in his rage at discovering that Director Carnot had managed to escape so narrowly that his bed was still warm.

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General Pichegru was a Royalist agent.

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Historically, the Treaty of Campo-Formio is regarded as both spectacular and shameful. Spectacular because, among other things, the French Republic gained Belgium and the Rhineland (including Mayence), getting back its “natural frontier,” and shameful because of the sacrifice of the fledgling Republic of Venice to the Austrians.

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Napoleon had returned to Paris by way of Rastatt, Germany, where meetings continued regarding the peace accord. Josephine had left Milan at a later date, returning to Paris on her own.

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It was customary to fire servants who married or got pregnant.

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Rue de la Chantereine had been changed to Rue de la Victoire in honour of Napoleon’s victories.

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Tea made of rue, an evergreen shrub, was commonly used by women wishing to abort.

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Joseph Fouché was a radical Revolutionary with a reputation for violence (even atrocities) and a penchant for conspiracy.

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Ultimately 167 scholars were persuaded to go, forming a Commission of Arts and Science that would, in turn, be called the Institute of Egypt. Out of this campaign, a twenty-four volume
Déscription de l’Égypte
was published, upon which the science of Egyptology is founded.