‘Arch-duchesses have always been disastrous for France’, Napoleon once remarked.
Yet in 1810 he married the Arch-duchess Marie Louise, the eighteen-year-old daughter of his persistent enemy, the Emperor of Austria.
On the 5 January, 1810, she had read in the newspapers of the act of separation between Napoleon and his wife and wrote to her father, ‘I must admit, dear Papa, that I am very disturbed by this news.’ And to her friend Victoria de Poutet she wrote the next day, ‘I pity the unfortunate woman on whom his choice falls; that will certainly put an end to her fine days.’
Though their union was a political expedient, Napoleon lived happily and proudly with ‘my good Louise’ until defeat sent him to Elba and she returned to Vienna, to become eventually the sovereign of an Italian duchy.
Alan Palmer gives the first detailed portrait of this extraordinary episode in Europe’s history.
He traces the changing fortunes of France and Austria through the years of Napoleonic ascendancy and its eventual eclipse.
By using extracts from Louise’s letters and travel diaries, he throws light on the conflicting worlds and torn loyalties which perplexed France’s young, and often courageous, Empress.
Personal touches are many and amusing, as in Louise’s letters to her mother telling of their travels through sleet and rain and miles and miles of muddy roads. Overnight stops were made at wayside taverns ill-suited for families of distinction — one evening there was an insect hunt in an infested bedroom, with Louise claiming than she had swatted the largest bug of all, whom she dubbed ‘Napoleon’.
Alan Palmer also examines the controversial years in which their son was raised to manhood in Vienna while Louise, with her secret second family, reigned in Parma as a benevolent Duchess, whose cultural legacy has survived into the twenty-first century.
‘Alan Palmer writes the sort of history that dons did before “accessible” became an insult...Cool, rational, scholarly, literate.’ – Sir John Keegan
Alan Palmer was head of the History Department at Highgate School from 1953 to 1969 when he gave up his post to concentrate on historical writing and research. His many books include ‘Metternich: Councillor of Europe’; ‘Alexander I: Tsar of War’ and ‘Bismarck’.
Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.
Yet in 1810 he married the Arch-duchess Marie Louise, the eighteen-year-old daughter of his persistent enemy, the Emperor of Austria.
On the 5 January, 1810, she had read in the newspapers of the act of separation between Napoleon and his wife and wrote to her father, ‘I must admit, dear Papa, that I am very disturbed by this news.’ And to her friend Victoria de Poutet she wrote the next day, ‘I pity the unfortunate woman on whom his choice falls; that will certainly put an end to her fine days.’
Though their union was a political expedient, Napoleon lived happily and proudly with ‘my good Louise’ until defeat sent him to Elba and she returned to Vienna, to become eventually the sovereign of an Italian duchy.
Alan Palmer gives the first detailed portrait of this extraordinary episode in Europe’s history.
He traces the changing fortunes of France and Austria through the years of Napoleonic ascendancy and its eventual eclipse.
By using extracts from Louise’s letters and travel diaries, he throws light on the conflicting worlds and torn loyalties which perplexed France’s young, and often courageous, Empress.
Personal touches are many and amusing, as in Louise’s letters to her mother telling of their travels through sleet and rain and miles and miles of muddy roads. Overnight stops were made at wayside taverns ill-suited for families of distinction — one evening there was an insect hunt in an infested bedroom, with Louise claiming than she had swatted the largest bug of all, whom she dubbed ‘Napoleon’.
Alan Palmer also examines the controversial years in which their son was raised to manhood in Vienna while Louise, with her secret second family, reigned in Parma as a benevolent Duchess, whose cultural legacy has survived into the twenty-first century.
‘Alan Palmer writes the sort of history that dons did before “accessible” became an insult...Cool, rational, scholarly, literate.’ – Sir John Keegan
Alan Palmer was head of the History Department at Highgate School from 1953 to 1969 when he gave up his post to concentrate on historical writing and research. His many books include ‘Metternich: Councillor of Europe’; ‘Alexander I: Tsar of War’ and ‘Bismarck’.
Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.
