page_title: Empress Joséphine
section_title: Later life and death
hierarchical_section_title: Empress Joséphine / Later life and death
caption_attribution_description: English: Front view of Château de Malmaison.
context_page_description: Joséphine Bonaparte was the Empress consort of the French as the first wife of Emperor Napoleon I. She is often called Joséphine de Beauharnais, a name not used during her lifetime.
  Throughout Joséphine's lifetime she was a great lover of the arts. She worked closely with sculptors, painters and interior decorators to establish a unique Consular style at the Château de Malmaison that is well known. She helped establish the popularity of the Empire and Consular styles. Through her knowledge she became, in her time, one of the leading collectors of different forms of art, such as sculpture and painting. The Château de Malmaison was noted for its magnificent rose garden, which she supervised closely, owing to her passionate interest in roses, collected from all over the world.
  Her marriage to Napoleon was her second; her first husband, Alexandre de Beauharnais, was guillotined during the Reign of Terror, and she was imprisoned in the Carmes Prison until five days after his execution. Her two children by Beauharnais became significant to royal lineage. Through her daughter Hortense, she was the maternal grandmother of Napoleon III.
context_section_description: After the divorce, Joséphine lived at the Château de Malmaison, near Paris. She remained on good terms with Napoleon, who once said that the only thing to come between them was her debts. (Joséphine remarked privately, "The only thing that ever came between us was my debts; certainly not his manhood."—Andrew Roberts, Napoleon)
  In March 1811 Marie Louise delivered a long-awaited heir, to whom Napoleon gave the title "King of Rome". Two years later Napoleon arranged for Joséphine to meet the young prince "who had cost her so many tears".
  Joséphine died in Rueil-Malmaison on 29 May 1814, soon after walking with Emperor Alexander I of Russia in the gardens of Malmaison. She was buried in the nearby church of Saint Pierre-Saint Paul in Rueil. Her daughter Hortense is interred near her.
  Napoleon learned of her death via a French journal while in exile on Elba, and stayed locked in his room for two days, refusing to see anyone. He claimed to a friend, while in exile on Saint Helena, that "I truly loved my Joséphine, but I did not respect her." Despite his numerous affairs, eventual divorce, and remarriage, the Emperor's last words on his death bed at St. Helena were: "France, the Army, the Head of the Army, Joséphine."("France, l'armée, tête d'armée, Joséphine").
caption: Château de Malmaison near Paris
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