King Louis Napoleon and queen Hortense of Holland

[thijs]

I thought it would be a nice idea to start a topic about the real fisrt king and queen of the Netherlands. King Louis Napoleon and his wife Hortense (de Beauharnais, daughter of Empress Josephine of France). The King was a brother of Napoleon and appointed as King of Holland by him. He did his "job" too well and he was really interested in developing his country in a prosperous state. That annoyed his brother Napoleon and he "called him back to Paris". The marriage of Louis Napoleon and Hortense was a bad one. Their only surviving child became later the last French emperor Napoleon lll (with his beautifull empress Eugenie).

[Mili]

My my my, Hortense sure does resemble her mother in the second painting. Does anyone know the extent of Hortense and Louis' relationship? It may have been loveless, but it was civil. How did they get on?
Louis took his job seriously and even adopted the Dutch form of his name 'Lodewijk'. He tried to learn Dutch, but French was the official language in court.
What was he like as king? What were his policies?

[Lucien]

Yes,Lodewijk did try his best for the dutch,and used as he was to swift decisision making and the immediate execution of those decisions,that earned him a lot of respect and admiration,well,not in all ranks,but most.

From time to time,between 1806 and 1808 Hortense lived with the King and her (then) two boys,Napoléon-Charles and Napoléon-Louis,at Het Loo Palace,Huis ten Bosch Palace,the Royal Pavillon in Haarlem or at the Royal Palace in Utrecht.Their relationship never was a love-match and both felt free to have affairs while here.In 1807 their eldest son died at The Hague,Hortense returned to France,Lodewijk occasionally visited her and his son in Paris.
Hortense got pregnant again,but refused to return to Holland.In the night of april 20th 1808,at 01.00AM she delivered a son,Louis-Napoléon,the future Emperor Napoléon III.

The date,april 20th coincided with Louis-Napoléon taking up residence at was formerly the Town-Hall,from then onwards till today,the Royal Palace,Amsterdam.

Besides that he had the whole building totally refurbished and added the balcony,he made sure that his appartment,on the south-west side on the corner of the Kalverstraat(for the dutch and future tourists/visitors)and the appartment of Hortense were as far away as possible,all 80 meters of it,facing the Nieuwe Kerk in the north-east.But it wasn't until two years later,in 1810 that Hortense returned and took up residence at the Palace.For 27 days only,then she fled back to Paris,for good.Lodewijk would soon follow that very same year.

While the couple was re-united at the Palace,Lodewijk did try to make the best of his family life,playing with his children,taking them out on his arms on the balcony whenever he felt like it,causing bypassers to stand and cheer by their unexpected appearance and as a result there would be crowds within a short time.All to no avail,Hortense only complained about this that and what else.

Main reason his brother called him back to Paris was Lodewijks attitude towards the dutch and their interests,specially the dutch economy,a once thriving sea going nation,now crippled by Napoléons decision to boycot all trade with the british.Lodewijk saw the problem and "looked the other way".At first Lodewijk was summoned to Paris,then forced by his brother,as a repercussion,to sign an Act that would leave the southern parts,Zeeland,Brabant,Limburg to the Empire,cutting his Kingdom in halve.He was kept under guard while in Paris and had to stay to attend the official reception of Marie-Louise,Napoléons new bride.

He did leave us a lot,to name two,ao,the Royal Library,The Hague was his initiative,and what is now known as the collection of the Rijksmuseum the other.Only,Lodewijk had that museum on the upper floor of the Palace,now housing the private and guest appartments.Totally refurbished at the moment,lasting another two years.Incidently,that coincides with the time it took to change the Town Hall into Lodewijks Palace,200 years ago.

But to come back to your initial question Mili,their marriage was disaster,but both "found"many people passing through their bedchambers.

[Yseult]

* Daughter of Alexandre viscount Beauharnais and his wife Josephine Tascher de la Pagerie. But the mistress of her father spread rumours about her legitimacy.
* Sister of Eugene of Beauharnais.
* Step-daughter of Napoleon, he made her Imperial Highness.
* Married to Louis Bonaparte, younger brother of her step-father. The marriage was not a succesful one. They were king and queen of Holland, they had three children and they break up.
* Mistress of Charles, count of Flahaut, supposely an offspring of Charles Maurice of Talleyrand and Adelaide Filleul.
* Mother of a illegitimate son of Flahaut, Charles duke of Morny.

I think she had a life passionate and fullfilled with scandals! She was born before time, and Laure Longpré, a mistress of Alexandre of Beauharnais, spread the rumour that the baby Hortense was not his daughter but an offspring of Josephine. Hortense was nine years old when her father Alexandre was executed during the Reign of Terror. Two years later, her flamboyant mother Josephine married a young corsican general: Napoleon Bonaparte.

[Yseult]

-Baby Hortense:



-Hortense as a young woman:

[Prince_Christopher]

Nice pictures of Hortense, Yseult.

However, you have two threads with the same name, you have double posted.

[gogm]

Either Hortense had the best artists or she was the most beautiful of a set of beautiful women!

[Prince_Christopher]

I think she was considered beautiful in her own time....

[Sissi]

with her son

[britt.25]

[Lucien]

Today a exhibition opened at Het Loo Palace to honour King Louis Napoléon;"Louis Napoleon,at the Court of our first King 1806 - 1810"

The exhibition at Het Loo,emphasizes on his importance to The Netherlands and the allure of Court life during his (short) Reign.
As Het Loo Palace was his favorite among his residences,this is the perfect venue to honour him with an extensive exhibition.
Louis really made an effort to be as dutch as he could,even learning the language,and was widely loved and respected in the country.

He was the founder of the Royal Library and introduced the first uniform mint(our sadly missed florin/guilder)
The exhibition contains numerous (of his personal-) objets d'art from the Royal Collection and many private and museum collections,
the Fondation Napoléon and Fontainebleau.

[Lucien]

Correspondence between King Louis Napoleon and his brother,The Emperor:

http://www.globusz.com/ebooks/Napoleon10/00000017.htm

After Louis left,The Netherlands were annexed by Napoléon,at his fall a few years later,the country was virtually bankrupt.The once richest nation and the worlds banker during the 18th century,and one of the largest financial sponsors of the American Revolution,was as poor as a church mouse.It took the King-tradesman Willem I a Reign to start building up it's fortune again.

[basilforever]

Click to enlarge pictures of Queen Hortense:

Which one of her sons is Hortense pictured with in the first picture? Napoleon, Louis Napoleon or Napoleon III?

And she had an illegitimate son after her divorce in 1810 didn't she? What was his name?

[Lisa]

It's her first son Napoléon Charles, by Gérard, Fontainebleau.
Original title: Portrait d' Hortense, reine de Hollande avec le Prince royal de Hollande.


(Photo RMN ©Gérard Blot)

[britt.25]

The marriage of Louis and Hortense was not good at all, if I am informed correctly. Napoleon wanted Hortense, his adoptive daughter by Josephine, and Louis to marry, and as far as I know it happened that both had love affairs, but especially Hortense had lovers. There is also some doubt on the paternity of Napoleon III among some historians, as Hortense was said to have had other men around the time, when she became pregnant with Louis Napoleon, but in general there is not real proof for this, my biography on that topic says that Hortense and Louis were together around the time, when Hortense became pregnant, there are also many people, who (at that time) confirmed the similarity of Louis Napoleon to his father, even when for example Louis Napoleon´s cousin Napoleon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte (Prince Napoleón, the son of Jerome and Catharina of Württemberg) had much more resemblence with his uncle Napoleon, and once said to Louis: "You don´t have anything of the emperor!" (he spoke of Napoleon I.) and Louis Napoléon replied: "Yes, I have: I have his family!" I have also read that different members of the Bonapartes never really accepted Louis Napoleon as family member, and didn´t call him a Bonaparte! That´s strange...
All together Louis and Hortense had three sons togehter: 1) Napoléon Charles (1802-1807), he died of diphtheria, 2) Napoleón- Louis: He was born in 1804  and grew up in France. In 1809 his uncle Napoleon made him duke of Berg and Kleve. In 1827 he married his cousin Charlotte Bonaparte (she was a daughter of Joseph, king of Spain, and of Julie Clary: She later partly lived in America after the fall of her uncle and became a professional painter of landscapes and even figures). In 1831 he took part in a rebellion in the italian region Romagna and died at Forlì, probably of the measles. He did also some genealogical work about his family and other published works. The third son was the famous Louis Napoleon (=Napoleon III.) 
King Louis had one illeg. son by Jeanne Félicité Roland: His name was Louis de Castelvecchio. Castelvecchio married in 1826 Elisa Pasteur
d' Etreillis. There are still many descedants of Louis by the Castelvecchio line, especially also in Australia and America. Hortense´s son illeg. son became quite famous and was the well known Charles Auguste, duke of Morny, whose father was Charles Joseph de Flahaut (whose natural father is said to have been Talleyrand), and who lived from 1811-65.