Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 February 1917 — SECOND WIFE OF NAPOLEON [ARTICLE]

SECOND WIFE OF NAPOLEON

Austrian Archduchess Never Felt Much Affection for, the Great Man Who Married Her. Archduchess Maria Louisa, the Hapsburg princess who was the second wife of Napoleon, was born 125 years ago. It was in 1809 that the great warrior, then at -the- zenith of hla glory, determined to put aside Josephine and to take a new wife. He loved Josephine, though often unfaithful to her, but she had given him no son to Inherit the imperial throne. Having arrived at that decision Napoleon proceeded with his customary ruthlessness. The civil marriage was speedily dissolved and obsequious bishops found sufficient reasons for abrogating the religious marriage. “The young princess,” says Thiers, “was eighteen years of age, of a good figure, a fair German complexion; and in the enjoyment of excellent health. She had been carefully educated, had some talent and was of a placid disposition; in short, sne possessed the qualities desirable In a mother. She was surprised and pleased, but far from being dismayed at going into that France where, but lately, the monster of the revolution had devoured kings; and where a conqueror, mastering the revolutionary monster, made kings tremble in bls turn. She accepted with becoming reserve, but with much delight, the brilliant lot offered her. She consented to become the consort of Napoleon, and mother to the heir of the greatest empire In the world.” Napoleon had little affection for Maria Louisa except as the mother of his son, the ill-fated duke de Reichstadt. When he fell she refused to accompany him to Elba, but retired to Parma with her son, having obtained, by treaty with the allied powers, the duchies of Parma and Placentia, in Italy. She died at Parma in December, 1847.