Napoleon and Josephine are one of the brightest couples in history. Their marriage lasted 15 years and ended in a painful divorce, which Josephine, despite not all her efforts, could not avoid. It was not marital infidelity or even the cooling of feelings that led to this: Napoleon had another reason to part with the woman he truly adored.
Napoleon was not Josephine's first husband. She first got married when she was only 16 years old. The young girl was given to Viscount Beauharnais, a wealthy aristocrat whom Josephine's parents considered the perfect match for their daughter. However, unfortunately, there was no love between the spouses. The girl tried to turn from a provincial into a Parisian socialite in order to match her husband, although this was given to her with difficulty.
The young couple tried to strengthen the marriage, deciding to have children, but even the birth of their daughter Hortense and son Eugene could not correct the situation. Josephine lived with her first husband for 6 years, after which they came to the conclusion that there was no point in correcting a failed marriage, and separated.
When riots broke out in France, Josephine, as a woman from a wealthy family and the wife of an aristocrat, was imprisoned by the mob. Fortunately, she managed to avoid the guillotine, but Josephine experienced enough grief that her strongest desire was to marry a reliable, wealthy man who would be able to protect both herself and her children. Such a man turned out to be the young General Bonaparte, who became the new chosen one of Josephine. The woman was not even stopped by the fact that the fan was 5 years younger than herself. Moreover, she could not know that a simple general would soon become a great emperor-conqueror.
In 1796 Bonaparte and Josephine were married. It was a happy union that even gossip about the love affairs of both spouses could not destroy. Bonaparte adored both his wife and her children. He tried to do everything to make his family happy, and Josephine highly appreciated this.
However, a few years later it turned out that the young woman was no longer able to bear children, which means that Eugene and Hortense would remain her only heirs. For Bonaparte, who had become emperor by that time, this was unacceptable. The spouses did everything to save their marriage: they turned to doctors, sages and even sorcerers, but everything was unsuccessful. And finally, in 1809, Napoleon was able to achieve a divorce, having withstood many scandals and reproaches and made all kinds of concessions. The love between the former spouses remained until the moment of Josephine's death, which happened 4, 5 years after the divorce.
