“You will sail across the seas to marry and have children, but that marriage will end in sorrow, with your husband’s death… a terrible death such as no one has ever died before… your children to be left fatherless and you, a widow. But you will marry again, and then become a queen! More than a queen!” (Mossiker, 6). Josephine, then called Yeyette, must have jumped away, startled as the fortuneteller proclaimed her impending greatness. She was still young, and had no way of knowing that the prophecy would one day ring true. While she would endure hardships and suffering, eventually she would become a great queen, rather an empress, of the powerful French Empire. Josephine Bonaparte overcame hostility, abandonment, and imprisonment to become
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She started her life on a small, French island in the Caribbean, dreaming of going to Paris. Though she was the oldest of three girls born to impoverished noble parents, she enjoyed all the wonders of island life. Josephine was well liked and popular with the men, but as she neared her fifteenth birthday, she despaired over finding a husband. She was simply getting too old to be a bride, as men found women too close to their own age unappealing. At first, her younger sister, Catherine, was to marry a man in Paris, but she died tragically of tropical fever before she got the chance. Suddenly, Josephine had the chance to live her dreams, but at the price of her younger sister’s life. After withstanding many trials, Josephine finally achieved greatness when she captured the heart of the rising general Napoleon Bonaparte, who would later become the emperor of France, making her the empress. Eventually, “she came to be associated with Napoleon’s destiny, his lucky star; she was part of its shining light” (Mossiker, 77). She stood behind Napoleon and quietly achieved greatness from her influence over his court. From her lowly childhood, Josephine had risen to become “...one of the most celebrated women of the late 19th century, playing a colorful and pivotal role in the life of her husband” (“Joséphine de Beauharnais”). Her greatness, however, came only after great
She started her life on a small, French island in the Caribbean, dreaming of going to Paris. Though she was the oldest of three girls born to impoverished noble parents, she enjoyed all the wonders of island life. Josephine was well liked and popular with the men, but as she neared her fifteenth birthday, she despaired over finding a husband. She was simply getting too old to be a bride, as men found women too close to their own age unappealing. At first, her younger sister, Catherine, was to marry a man in Paris, but she died tragically of tropical fever before she got the chance. Suddenly, Josephine had the chance to live her dreams, but at the price of her younger sister’s life. After withstanding many trials, Josephine finally achieved greatness when she captured the heart of the rising general Napoleon Bonaparte, who would later become the emperor of France, making her the empress. Eventually, “she came to be associated with Napoleon’s destiny, his lucky star; she was part of its shining light” (Mossiker, 77). She stood behind Napoleon and quietly achieved greatness from her influence over his court. From her lowly childhood, Josephine had risen to become “...one of the most celebrated women of the late 19th century, playing a colorful and pivotal role in the life of her husband” (“Joséphine de Beauharnais”). Her greatness, however, came only after great