JOSEPHINE (MARIE ROSE JOSEPHINE TASCHER DE LA PAGERIE) (1763-1814), empress of the French, was born in the island of Martinique on June 23, 1763, being the eldest of three daughters of Joseph Tascher de la Pagenie, lieutenant of artillery. She married in the vicomte Alexandre Beauhar nais. There were two children of the marriage, Eugene and Hortense (see BEAUHARNAIS). After a visit to her native island Josephine returned to Paris and made some sensation in society. As the Revolution ran its course her husband, as an ex-noble, incurred the suspicion and hostility of the Jacobins ; and his ill success at the head of a French army on the Rhine led to his arrest and execution. Josephine was left in a position of much perplexity and some hardship, but Barras and Madame Tallien assisted her, and she was one of the queens of Parisian society in the year when Napoleon Bonaparte's fame was begin ning. His nomination to the command of the army of Italy appears to have decided her to marry him. The civil marriage took place Mar. 9, 1796, two days before the bridegroom set out for his com mand. Josephine declined to accompany him to Nice and Italy.
Bonaparte's letters to Josephine during the campaign reveal the ardour of his love, while she rarely answered them. During his absence in Egypt in 1798-1799, her relations to an officer, M. Charles, were most compromising; and Bonaparte on his return thought of divorcing her. Her tears and the entreaties of Eugene and Hortense availed to bring about a reconciliation ; and during the period of the consulate (1799-1804) their relations were on the whole happy, though Napoleon's conduct now gave his con sort grave cause for concern. His brothers and sisters more than once begged him to divorce Josephine, and from the time when he became first consul for life (August 1802) with large powers over the choice of a successor, he kept open the alternative of a divorce. Josephine's anxieties increased on the proclamation of the Empire (May 18, 1804) ; and on the 1st of December 1804, the eve of the coronation at Notre Dame, she gained her wish that she should be married anew to Napoleon with religious rites.
Despite Josephine's care, Napoleon procured omission of one for mality, the presence of the parish priest ; hut at the coronation scene Josephine appeared radiant with triumph over her envious relatives. The august marriages contracted by her children Eugene and Hortense seemed to establish her position; but her ceaseless extravagance and, above all, the impossibility that she should bear a son strained the relations between Napoleon and Josephine. She complained of his infidelities and growing callousness. The end came in sight after the campaign of 1809, when Napoleon caused the announcement to be made to her that reasons of state com pelled him to divorce her. Despite all her pleadings he held to his resolve. The most was made of the slight technical irregularity at the marriage ceremony of Dec. 1, 1804; and the marriage was declared null and void.
At her private retreat, La Malmaison, near Paris, which she had beautified with curios and rare plants and flowers, Josephine closed her life in dignified retirement. Napoleon more than once came to consult her upon matters in which he valued her tact and good sense. She died on May 24, See M. A. Le Normand, Memoires historiques et secrets de Josephine (2 vols., 182o) ; Lettres de Napoleon a Josephine (1833) ; J. A. Aubenas, Hist. de l'imperatrice Josephine (2 vols., 1858-59) ; J. Tur quan, L'Imperatrice Josephine (2 vols., 1895-96) ; F. Masson, Jose phine (3 vols., 1899-1902) ; Napoleon's Letters to Josephine (1796 1812), translated and edited by H. F. Hall (1903) ; P. W. Sergeant, The Empress Josephine (1908) ; Gerard d'Houville, La vie amoureuse de l'imperatrice Josephine (1925).