What a beautiful and "ravissante" woman, Eugenie of Montijo! She was born at Granada, daughter of Cipriano Palafox de (of) Guzman y (and) Portocarrero, count of Teba, and his wife, half-scottish and half-spanish, Maria Manuela Kirkpatrick. A sister of Eugenie, Francisca, was married to the duke of Alba.
If there are two spanish woman with really unexpected but wonderful marriages, there are Eugenie of Montijo and Anita Delgado, later maharani of Kapurthala.
i agreee with you, but not completely.... Eugénie did, indeed, make a wonderfully glamorous marriage; but from what i've read, it wasn't quite the "wonderful" marriage she'd hoped. for instance, NIII continued with his mistresses; she even went so far as to (photographically, at least) imitate one of her rivals....the comtesse de Castiglione. there's a
wonderful book out now that documents the comtesse's
prolific obsession with photography. and in it, the author has included a few photos in which Eugénie has copied the comtesse's "sultry" & "picturesque" poses (sultry for the 19th century, anyway), done, i believe, as an attempt to compete for her husband's attention (i could be mistaken about her motives, though. she may have merely admire the images).
and then there's the english woman that NIII bought a chateau for and then made her a countess to go with it (i refer to the comtesse de Beauregard....i can't recall her english name. for her part, if i'm not mistaken, she would one day return the favor, in a way. when the Second Empire began to falter, she loaned and/or gave him vast sums of money when he found himself & his empire "strapped for cash".)
however, i do believe that NIII saw & appreciated Eugénie's innate abilities, including her talents as a diplomat. it's also obvious he appreciated her expertise as a consort.
i also believe their relationship deepened significantly once they entered exile. i think NIII came to rely on her utterly and she, i firmly believe, found a strength i doubt anyone knew she had. as she aged, the nobility already present in her character (much more so than her husband) found it's foothold, and flourished in the dubious freedom of exile. throughout the Second Empire, but especially as it's end descended upon them (with all the tradgedies it carried) she showed herself to be a truly remarkable woman, indeed.
definately, a
most remarkable woman.
(i did sort of stray from my point, didn't i? sorry bout that....)
