Princess Mathilde Bonaparte

From the abcgallery:

Mathilde married in 1841 and separated from her husband in 1846.  As Prince Christopher said, the Demidoff family welcomed the match as it would raise their position in the society and bring them closer to the Romanovs.  

Even though Tsar Nicholas I liked his cousin very much, he was not too happy about her marriage to Anatole (maybe he thought he wasn't good enough).  The court would honor Mathilde and humiliate Anatole at the same time by inviting her but not her husband to receptions.  Mathilde didn't know and attended.  Demidoff was angry and soon returned to unmarried style of life.  

When Mathilde fled her husband with her lover, she took her family's jewels, which were sold to the Demidoffs, as well as Demidoff's diamonds.  

The stolen diamonds would play an important part in the return of the Second Empire.  In November 1848 Mathilde placed Anatole’s diamonds as collateral for a bank loan of FF 500,000 with the proceeds given to her cousin, Louis-Napoleon, in his bid to win the election for the Presidency of France. The Bonapartes were returned to power and Mathilde was elevated to the second most important lady of the Second Empire under Napoleon III.

I had no idea Catherine was such a cold person.  She is always portraited as a loving and loyal wife who didn't abandon her husband after the fall of the French Empire :-/

She is described differently by different people.  I'm really not so sure about her character myself.

Her husband described her as a "noble woman, one of the finest figures of the Imperial epoch."  Although his judgement was clouded by the pensions she received from the Tsar and from the King of Wurttemburg.

From The Bonapartes by David Stacton:

Mathilde had a sharp eye and an even sharper tongue.  One of her recreations was to describe in her journal the minute details of her mother's physical decay, the wrinkling face, the breasts that were beginning to slop down, the increasingly deformed body, and the symptoms of a cardiac condition.  "I knew little of her," said Mathilde after her death, "and she, nothing of me."

Napoleon III on the hand always seemed to get rejected!  He proposed to QV's step niece, Adelheid of Hohenlohe and got rejected too.

Jerome with his daughter Mathilde

From what I've read, Mathilde always kept a soft spot in her heart for Napoleon III.  When the engagement was being spoken about by the adults around them, Louis, who was 13, gave Mathilde a small turquoise and silver ring for her 16th birthday, which she kept for the rest of her life.

She also never cared much for Empress Eugenie, referring to her, in her presence, simply as elle.

Thanks guys for all your pictures and info.  

From what I've read, Mathilde always kept a soft spot in her heart for Napoleon III.  When the engagement was being spoken about by the adults around them, Louis, who was 13, gave Mathilde a small turquoise and silver ring for her 16th birthday, which she kept for the rest of her life.

She also never cared much for Empress Eugenie, referring to her, in her presence, simply as elle.

Wait, who is Louis?  You mean Napoleon III?  He is younger than Mathilde?

Wait, who is Louis?  You mean Napoleon III?  He is younger than Mathilde?

Oops!  Sorry!

Thanks for pointing out the mistake, Crazy Wing.  I was typing with one hand and holding the book with the other, and reading at the same time.

"Louis" was referring to Napoleon III.  In the book I was reading, he was being referred to as "Louis Napoleon", and I got carried away.

Mathilde was not older than Napoleon III, he was born in 1808 and she in 1820.  In the paragraph I was reading, it also talked about Mathilde's 13-year-old brother, "Plon Plon", and I got the line of thought confused.

Thank you for clearing up.  I always had the feeling that she was close to NIII's age.