Napoleon and His Adopted Son – Violette M. Montagu (1913 UK / 1914 US)
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| This image of Eugene de Beauharnais |
A wonderful, focused biography of Eugène de Beauharnais, Josephine’s son and Napoleon’s beloved adopted son. Montagu traces Eugène’s life from his childhood, his military campaigns, his role as Viceroy of Italy, and the complicated, tender, often tense relationship between him and Emperor Napoleon.
She explores Eugène’s loyalty, his successes on the battlefield, and the tragedy of his place in the line of succession for Napoleon’s Empire. Rich with contemporary letters, portraits, and period illustrations, this is a classic early‑20th‑century study of one of the most under‑rated, important figures of the Napoleonic court.
From the author's preface :
Perhaps the chief interest in Eugène de Beauharnais' life lies in the fact that, as the step‑son of General Bonaparte and the adopted son of the Emperor Napoleon, he witnessed and assisted at most of the important episodes in that wonderful man's career. Eugène only lived forty‑three years, but those years were full of events. Born in the feverishly brilliant years before the first fall of the Bourbon dynasty, he saw the great Revolution spread over France ; he watched the rising of Napoleon's star, the blossoming of the Consulship for life, the fruition of the Empire, the Hundred Days' marvel, and the eclipse of a great man's star ; his own life closed in retirement a few years before the Revolution of July overthrew the Bourbon dynasty for the third time.
These facts alone should make his life worth recounting. But there are other interesting points in his story.
Napoleon and Eugène all unconsciously influenced each other's lives in no small degree.
Those who, like Napoleon, are fatalists can find much to ponder over in the story of Eugène's first meeting with the man whose fate was to influence his own.
And Eugène's influence over his adoptive father, until that adoptive father's divorce, was considerable and, as we shall see, was the means of postponing his mother's divorce on more than one occasion. Supposing Eugène had not gone to Italy but had continued to live near his adoptive father, perhaps that divorce would never have come about. Napoleon's divorce was the outcome of a crisis ; historians have shown us whose fault it was that such a question ever came on the tapis. But when once that idea had taken root in Napoleon's brain, no feelings of remorse or regret could prevent its accomplishment.
True affection — the affection that does not need to express itself in words — is not a worthless object to be cast aside for the empty protestations of devotion uttered by obsequious friends. Napoleon would perhaps have been a happier man and been spared much mental suffering if he had been content with the successes won by his Grand Army in 1809 and if he had made Eugène his successor on the throne of France.
In conclusion let us remark that to Eugène de Beauharnais belongs the honour of having kept at his post until the very last, until his adoptive father's abdication at Fontainebleau took the burden from his shoulders and with it the reward which should have been his. His reward, however, is to be found in the concluding sentence of this biography of a good man.
Violette M. Montagu
Paris, January, 1913.
Acknowledgements: I wish to express my deep gratitude to MM. Maurice Orange, Realier‑Dumas and F. Schommer for allowing me to reproduce their pictures, and to Messrs. Walter Pulitzer, and Dodd, Mead and Co., of New York, for the permission to include in my book the three portraits which figure in the late Mr. Albert Pulitzer's invaluable work Le Roman du Prince Eugène.
📚 Highlight of table of contents
CHAPTER I – Page 21
Birth and childhood of Eugène de Beauharnais – Family dissensions – Mme. de Beauharnais prepares for the coming storm – M. de Beauharnais is thrown into prison – His wife shares his fate – Execution of the beau danseur – Mme. de Beauharnais is released from prison – The pinch of poverty – Eugène is sent to school at Saint‑Germain‑en‑Laye – General Hoche befriends him
CHAPTER II – Page 49
Eugène makes the acquaintance of his future step‑father – General Bonaparte pays court to Mme. de Beauharnais – Eugène is again sent to college – General Bonaparte marries the widow Beauharnais – Eugène becomes his step‑father's aide‑de‑camp – He visits the Ionian Isles – He receives his baptism of fire in Rome – He is ordered to accompany General Bonaparte to Egypt – A strange and embarrassing visit – The taking of Jaffa – St. Jean d'Acre resists General Bonaparte – Return to France
CHAPTER III – Page 83
Eugène obtains pardon for his mother – The 18th Brumaire – Eugène enjoys practical jokes – His portrait – His step‑father and his mother take up their abode at the Tuileries – He pays his second visit to Italy – Returns to Paris via Geneva – His first love‑affair – He meets an old friend from Rome – Third visit to Italy – Eugène is given the rank of colonel – Murder of the duc d'Enghien
CHAPTER IV – Page 106
Napoleon becomes Emperor of the French – Eugène accompanies his step‑father and his mother to Aix‑la‑Chapelle – He refuses to abandon his mother – The Emperor is crowned – Eugène falls in love for the third time – He is sent to Italy for the fourth time – He is made a prince of the French Empire – Napoleon on being crowned in Italy makes Eugène viceroy of that country – Uneasy lies the head which wears a crown – He incurs his step‑father's anger
CHAPTER V – Page 122
Eugène works too hard – He makes the acquaintance of his future brother‑in‑law – More scolding – Austria begins to give trouble again – Eugène prepares for war – Napoleon's habits of secrecy – Eugène issues a proclamation to the Italian nation – He learns of his step‑father's successes and regrets that he has no share in those successes – Ghiraldina
CHAPTER VI – Page 142
Eugène is ordered to marry the princess Augusta‑Amelia of Bavaria – He starts for Munich – Napoleon adopts him as his son – The marriage is celebrated – Some wedding guests – Napoleon's affection for his adopted daughter – The happy pair start for Italy – The welcome to the new home – Love of the Milanese for their vicereine – Napoleon's opinion of the Catholic clergy – He pays a visit to his adopted son and his bride – Eugène conducts his Court on the lines of common sense
CHAPTER VII – Page 162
Austria breaks her promises – Marmont earns for himself the title of duc de Raguse – Eugène receives an invitation to take his bride to Paris – He pays a visit to Istria – Description of a military hospital in the beginning of the nineteenth century – The Armée d'Italie ordered to seize Civita‑Vecchia – Birth of Eugène's first child – More trouble with the Pope – Birth of Eugène's second child
CHAPTER VIII
Eugène endeavours to pacify the Pope – Austria prepares for another war – Eugène receives command of the Armée d'Italie – His defeat at Sacile is followed by several successes – The Armée d'Italie joins the Grand Army – Eugène goes to Vienna and is then ordered to subdue Hungary – He does so and returns to the Austrian capital – Peace is signed between the two Emperors