{This is a response to a prompt from What Pegman Saw. Today we are visiting the island of St Helena, to which Napoleon was sent in exile, after his defeat at Waterloo.
Having just watched the new edition of Vanity Fair on Amazon Prime, I was very much in the mood for a Napoleonic saga (War and Peace ain’t half bad, either.) We’ll have to settle for a rather silly poem.
Napoleon calls to my mind, the Empress Josèphine of France, Napoleon’s wife. She was called Rose, or Marie, before he gave her the name Josèphine, and was from the Caribbean. She was Creole, the term used for “mixed race” in those days, I believe.
Napoleon was Josèphine’s second husband. Her first husband was executed during the Reign of Terror, and her connection with him resulted, in her spending some time in jail. When Robbespierre, himself, was executed, Josèphine was released and her possessions returned to her.
She married Napoleon sometime after her husband’s death. She was six years older than Napoleon and had already had two children, by her first husband.
Josèphine never bore any children to Napoleon, and he divorced her, for that reason, in a rather romantic ceremony, in which they exchanged love letters, in 1809. He then married a more fecund princess from his frequent opponent in war, Austria. They had a son.
Josèphine is famous for loving roses. She hired several English and Scottish gardeners, botanists and horticulturalists to help her collect and care for them. Dupont was one of these, and he developed 25 new types of roses. A process used for breeding new hybrid roses is credited to his work at Malmaison.
Malmaison, outside Paris, was Josèphine and Napoleon’s home for many years, and her residence after their divorce. Neither party was especially faithful. Divorce was made legal under the Napoleonic Code, one of Napoleon’s positive contributions to history.
By 1900, there were at least 8000 types of roses, as compared to Malmaison’s original group of 200. Several roses from this original group were collected by Napoleon, for his beloved Josèphine, in far-flung regions of the globe.
Napoleon III erected a statue of his grandmother, in 1859, in LaSavane Park in Fort-de-France, Martinique. Martinique is the Caribbean island, where Josèphine lived as a girl.
In the early 1990’s, this statue’s head was broken off, and never found again. The statue was also splashed with blood.
These acts were apparently in protest, against Josephine’s role, in convincing Napoleon to reinstate slavery in all the French colonies. Years before, in the aftermath of the the French Revolution, France had already abolished slavery in the colonies, though Martinique never complied with this edict.
I thought it ironic, that both Josèphine and her first husband were beheaded, at some point. Also, that a person of mixed-race ancestry would promote the enslavement of races, which she might, to some degree, call her own.
Of course Josephine is not alone, in having done this, and, likely, her family in Martinique had financial interests, in continuing the practice of slave labor on the islands
Napoleon, dying in exile on St. Helena (1815-1821), a then-British island, off the West Coast of Africa, is said to have expressed his strong feelings for Josephine. I have taken the liberty of paraphrasing his statement.
Josephine died in 1814. Napoleon died in St. Helena on May 5, 1821, at the age of 52.
Here is my sing-songy poem. For some reason, the meter fits the hymn “Oh God, our help in ages past,” and I could not help but find myself singing it. I am indebted to Wikipedia and the Encyclopedia Britannica, for the many facts cobbled together here. Please let me know which ones I got wrong.}
A Creole, shipped from windswept isles,
A child bride at sixteen,
Born Rose, you rose in rank, to be
The Empress Josèphine.
First husband met the guillotine.
You spent some time in jail,
Before ambitious Bonaparte
Ensnared his Holy Grail.
He honeymooned in Egypt, far.
You purchased Malmaison,
And cultivated love and roses,
Sans Napoleon.
DuPont created twenty-five
New roses while with you.
Eight thousand types, by century’s end,
From hundreds: only two.
He won, and lost, both hearts and wars.
Divorced, for lack of spawn.
Who knew, you’d lose your head, persuading
Brave Napoleon?
Your statue, in La Savane Park,
Installed by your grandson,
Had overlooked the greenery
Since 1859.
The 1990’s disagreed
With Third’s most glowing praise:
Beheaded and defaced in blood,
For all your winning ways.
St. Helena, his banishment,
And you, stiff in the grave.
“I loved her, but… respected? Not.”
Was all the General said.
Copyright 2019 Andrea LeDew
For the tale of another ill-fated statue, read Statues.
This was a very informative post! I didn’t know much about Josephine, and now I feel enlightened. Your poem has a nice “flow” to it.
Thank you Debra!
Quite interesting historical satire When I hear Napoleonic Code all I can think of is A Streetcar Named Desire.. Your poetry was flawless. So enjoyed it all..
I didnt know about that scene from Streetcar, but just pulled up the clip. Time to re-watch I guess. ?. I know in law school we talked alot about civil vs common law, with common law being English (and later American and other once English-colonized areas)and civil being mostly European in origin. I want to say the Napoleonic code started it all off, on the civil side, but dont quote me on it!?. And of course theres plenty of law all over the world that predates both systems!
Nice idea! A ballad sounds more lively than a hymn thats for sure. I was definitely concentrating more on jam-packing the facts to fit the meter, than on creating the more memorable phrasing of a serious poem. Even in poetry, there is a time and a place for everything!
I like this poem. It almost sounds like a ballad. Maybe you need to set this to music!
I always felt sorry for her for getting put aside because she didn’t give him children, but you show she had many sides to her, sympathetic and definitely not so much. Thanks for the history notes at the start – fascinating. The poem worked very well, at once light and lilting and dark too. Nicely done
Thank you Lynn! So glad you like the poem.
I knew very little about Josephine as well, before researching online for inspiration.
My daughter, who is interested in plants, went to France last year, and was considering visiting Malmaison among her other horticultural destinations. That was how I learned about her connection with roses.
Apparently at some point the residence was abandoned and fell into neglect, so Im not sure how much of the original roses or their descendents are still there.
Here is a link to the chateau which is now a Musee Nationale de France,
https://musees-nationaux-malmaison.fr/chateau-malmaison/
and here are 250-some botanical illustrations of roses and other plants in her garden, which Josephine had commissioned to be made by Pierre -Auguste Redoute.
https://musees-nationaux-malmaison.fr/phototheque/oeuvres?authors=Pierre-Joseph%20Redouté
At this link you can go on a virtual tour (visite virtuelle) but not on a cellphone, only on a laptop or computer. Enjoy!
https://musees-nationaux-malmaison.fr/chateau-malmaison/actualite/c-auguste-garnerey-vues-du-jardin-de-josephine
Thanks for the links Andrea. You really have done your research 🙂
Nicely done. It starts out so pretty and lilting and, ouch, turns appropriately nasty at the end!
People, whether characters or real people from history, are multi-faceted, with much, both to praise, and to criticize.
Well-put, Andrea — agreed!
Lyrical, informative, and entertaining. I knew very little of Josephine. My favorite part is the quote you’ve put in Napoleon’s mouth “I loved her, but… respected? Not” — for it’s conciseness, rhythm, and provocative sentiment.
Unrelated to that, is Vanity Fair worth watching?
I heard it got panned, but I loved it! But then, I’m a patsy for a costume drama!
🙂 Rereading all my Jane Austen and in a mood myself.
This one’s by William Thackery played by Michael Palin of Monty Python fame in each episodes intro. Quite a bit of snide anachronism throughout!
Yep my Austen is due a reread, too.
I never knew about Josephine’s ancestry, or her connection with roses. I once learned from an opera program booklet that in several languages (including English, of course) ‘rose’ is an anagram of ‘eros’.
https://operasandcycling.com/two-marthas-in-detmold/
WOW. Putting history to poem, great.
Between, I absolutely love your cover image.<3
Thank you still loved! It would make for an interesting hymnal–historic figures set to music. Speaking of music, Josephine’s past reminds me of that of Hamilton.
And by cover image –as opposed to “cover,” as in my version of the hymn–did you mean the blue apple picture?
That was taken at a nearby food forest (most varieties of apple don’t readily grow in Florida.) I played with it with different filters and frames on adobe Photoshop and got what you see.
As for symbolism, I thought what could be better for a Blog entitled “For Random Learning Comes” than a shot of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? ?.
Thanks for reading!