Pauline was considered the most beautiful woman in all of Europe. It is not too great an exaggeration to say that in her day she was the First Empire's Lady Godiva, Marilyn Monroe and Princess Diana, all in one. Inevitably, she became fodder for the British propaganda machines which fabricated the most cruel of degradations and attributed them to her. Many of these falsehoods endured.

Of course she took lovers in her life time, the morals of the early 1800's were extremely loose, and she was utterly desirable to men. An English gentleman gives us this picture of Pauline in her early twenties:

"Her little head was molded on classic lines, her face pure oval in shape with a clear olive complexion. She had lovely hazel eyes and teeth that possessed the regularity of a string of carefully selected pearls. There was not a line in her body one would have wished different. Those who looked upon her beauty were dazzled and fascinated. It was an emanation, a radiation of something supremely lovely. Elusive, phosphorescent; such beauty refused to be caught in even the most delicate verbal description or work of art."

Marriage and Celebrity

The Bonapartes were not just a ruling family, they were celebrities who were highly visible compared with the royalty they had just replaced. Pauline, a talented actress and stage director/ manager, sought out and basked in this limelight. She attended and hosted the best salons and was usually found at the opera or theater. Men associated with the arts intrigued her.

Pauline married twice. Her first husband was General Victor Emmanuel Leclerc, eight years her senior, who had served in Italy and on the Rhine. Leclerc, who, although blond, bore a striking resemblance to Napoleon. He died of yellow fever in Haiti while leading French forces to suppress the revolt of Toussaint l'Ouverture.

Although she later was regarded as quite Libertine, Pauline was less sexually active than others in her society, including Josephine. The reason was that she was in chronic pain most of her adult life. On 20 April, 1798, ten months after her first marriage, Pauline gave birth to her son, Dermide Louis Napoleon, after a very long and difficult confinement. During the process she contracted an untreatable pelvic infection. For the rest of her life, she consulted with the greatest physicians in Europe, and undertook countless prescriptions and cures.

Second Marriage and Notoriety

Pauline, a widow at twenty-two after five years of an apparently happy marriage, would be married within the year to Prince Camillo Borghese. Although only five years older than Pauline and extremely wealthy, the Prince did not please her. He could not compare with Leclerc either intellectually or physically-evidently he was no match for Leclerc in the bedroom.

Soon after her brother's coronation in 1804 she lived apart from Borghese and began a series of sometimes flagrantly public affairs. She had as her conquests the most brilliant men of her day: Louis Stanislas Freron (the godson of King Stanislas of Poland), the poet Vincent Arnaud, Louis Phillippe de Forbin (a painter and later head of the Louvre), Pierre Lafon and Francois Joseph Talma-both actors at the Comedie Francaise, her second husband's secretary Maxime de Villemarest, Admiral Decres, and Colonel August Duchand.

And there were more caught in her spell: the composer Felice Blangini (with whom she collaborated on his most popular composition), Giuseppe Pacini (another operatic composer), and the impetuous Baron Armand Jules de Canouville, whom she truly loved.

Pauline's Feud with Josephine

A vendetta existed between Pauline and Josephine. It started when Josephine interfered in one of Pauline's infatuations when the latter was only fifteen. Josephine heard that Pauline was in love with the thirty year old Louis Stanislas Freron and informed Napoleon who immediately put an end to it. Pauline never forgave her. Josephine, for her part, may have been jealous of her sister-in-laws superior beauty, talent, and, no doubt, her perfect teeth.

There is an account of just how far their feud went. There was an official reception in 1803 at the Palace of St. Cloud honoring the newly married Borghese to "Princess" Pauline. Pauline had chosen to wear a dress of green velvet. Josephine learned of the color from her spies and, out of spite, had the reception room painted and furnished in clashing blue. A Parisian recorded the event:

"Pauline...passed into the salon and traversed its entire length with slow and languorous steps. The green velvet blazed. Diamonds worth over a million francs shone like stars....The admiration in the eyes of men, the jealousy in those of women were evident. When at last she stood before Josephine the two women exchanged gracious felicitations, then the young Princess circled the room, all eyes drinking in her beauty. Blue tapestries and furniture could not eclipse perfection."

Pauline Flaunts Her Beauty

Fickle to All Save One- Napoleon's Favorite Sibling Proves the Most Loyal in the End

The legendary Prince Metternich quoted Pauline as saying, "I do not care for crowns; if I had wished to I should have had them but I left that taste to my relatives."

And none of her relatives had what she did, a truly empathic relationship with Napoleon. He had always sent special couriers to her during all of his campaigns, but during the disastrous winter months following the Russian campaign she needed no word. Responding to her intuition, she alone sensed that her brother was in trouble. She sold jewels and assembled ready money in event of an emergency. Of this she said, "I have done only what I ought to for him."

In spite of all he had done for the other members of the family, for twenty-one days before Napoleon's abdication he was alone at Fountainbleau. During those days his mother and two of his brothers, accompanied by their wives, passed within a few miles of the palace, but none went to see him. When the family urged Pauline to flee to Rome for safety she instead settled in a farmhouse along Napoleon's route to exile.

In a letter dated 21 April, 1814, she wrote, "As the Emperor will shortly pass through here, I want to see him and comfort him. If he allows me to accompany him, I shall never leave him again. I have not loved the Emperor because he was a sovereign; I have loved him because he was my brother and I will remain faithful to him until death."

On the afternoon of 26 April, Napoleon arrived at the farmhouse. Brother and sister were reunited. It was an emotional meeting, rare because Napoleon seldom showed his feelings in public. It was observed that, "Pauline, trembling uncontrollably, held Napoleon in her arms as if she were mothering a small boy. She smoothed his hair and stroked his mud spattered cheek. They then retreated to a private room for an hour talk."

Sharing the Exile at Elba

Pauline followed Napoleon to Elba and there gave the exiled Emperor not only her money but four months of selfless devotion. During this period, the last they were destined to spend together, she staged theatricals, receptions, dances, and dinners for him.

The last time Pauline saw her brother was on Sunday, 26 February, 1815. Napoleon had just announced the time of his departure from Elba. He ended his speech by saying, "France wants me back....My friends, I leave in your care those who are most precious to me-my mother and sister." Pauline withdrew to Napoleon's apartments where Marchand was packing. He later described the scene:

"Her beautiful face was streaming with tears as she approached holding a diamond necklace. She tried to speak but the sobs choked her. I myself was deeply moved. Finally she gained control and gave me the necklace saying, 'The Emperor has sent me to place this in your charge. If things go wrong he will surely have need of it. Oh, Marchand, never abandon him. Take good care of him.' I tried to cheer her up by expressing the hope that she and the Emperor would soon be together again but her only reply was, 'I fear not.' At that moment Napoleon came in and put his arms around the heartbroken Paulette, spoke some consoling words and withdrew to the garden with her." The necklace Marchand wrote about was found hidden in Napoleon's carriage after Waterloo.

Defeat and Death

Pauline lived another ten years. After her brother's final exile to St. Helena, she never ceased petitioning the British for Napoleon's freedom, nor did she cease in her efforts to join him there even though he asked her not to come, not wishing her to see how far he had fallen and worried about how the island's weather would affect Pauline's health.

With the news of Napoleon's death on 5 May, 1821, Pauline's morale and health collapsed. Prince Borghese learned from Pope Leo XII in the summer of 1824 that his wife had only a short time to live. He gave up his mistress and welcomed Pauline to his palazzo in Florence. After giving a few receptions her constitution suffered a complete breakdown.

On 9 June, 1825, knowing death was near, she had her attendants dress her in her best court gown. Her hair was arranged with jewels as was her dress and body; powder and rouge applied to her face. She died while speaking of her brother. Camillo closed her eyes, and, following Pauline's wishes, escorted her body to Rome where it was interred in his family crypt under the Borghese Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore.

Of her life, W. N. C. Carlton wrote:

"Her genuine affection for Napoleon and the hero worship of which she made him her lifelong object absolutely excluded the petty jealousy, mercenary motives and cheap ambitions that characterized his other blood relations in their attitudes toward him and the use they made of him. Pauline, alone in the family, sensed the real greatness of her brother and it was from her deep and abiding love for him that her intuitive belief in his genius was born."

About the author:

A version of this article was presented in a dramatic and entertaining fashion at the tenth annual NSA conference held in Chicago in 1994. Diana A. Browne is a New York City stage director and member of the Napoleonic Society of America. Diana is also the recipient of a 1994 Honarary Achievement Award from the Federation of Italian American Societies of New Jersey for her efforts in "the advancement of Italian heritage and research on behalf of "Napoleone Buonaparte" and his family.

Selected Bibliography:

(More than 25 books and articles were used. The following represent the most important of those)

Brent, Harrison. Pauline Bonaparte, A Woman of Affairs. Rinehart, 1946.
Carlton, W.N.C.. Pauline, Favourite Sister of Napoleon. Butterworth, 1931.
Castelot, Andre. Napoleon. Harper, 1971.
Cronin, Vincent. Napoleon. Collins, 1971.
Dixon, Sir Pierson. Pauline, Napoleon's Favourite Sister. Collins, 1964.
Mackenzie, Norman. The Escape From Elba. Oxford, 1982.
Ortzen, Len. Imperial Venus. Stein, 1974.
Stacton, David. The Bonapartes. Hodder, 1967.
Sterling, Monica. Madame Letizia, A Portrait of Napoleon's Mother. Harper, 1961.