JOSEPHINE (Fr. zho-ze-fen), or MARIE ROSE, empress of the French: b. Trois Islets, Martinique, 23 June 1763; d. Malmaison, near Paris, 29 May 1814. She was the daughter of Lieut. Joseph Tascher de la Pagerie and was married in 1779 to Vicomte Alexandre de Beau harnais, by whom she had two children, Eugene and Hortense. In 1794 her husband, who had been commander of the army of the Rhine, was executed by order of the Convention. She her self had a narrow escape, having been included in the list of proscription. After the fall of Robespierre she is said to have paid a visit to Napoleon to thank him for restoring the sword of her husband, and so pleased him that he soon after married her (1796). When Napoleon be came emperor in 1804 she was crowned with him. But the fact that the union was childless stood in the way of Napoleon's ambition to be come the founder of a dynasty, and accordingly in 1809 Josephine was divorced, retiring to her seat of Malmaison with the title of empress queen-dowager and an annual grant of 2,000,000 francs. Though frivolous, extravagant and flirtatious, her influence on Napoleon seems to have been on the whole for his benefit. He greatly appreciated, not only her beauty, but her tact and common sense, which he proved by maintaining friendly relations with her even after his second marriage and by treating her two children as if they had been his own. (See
FRANCE; NAPOLEON I). Consult Abbott, J. S. C., 'Kings and Queens, etc.' (New York 1848) ; id., (History of the Empress Josephine' (New York 1863) ; Aubenas, G. A., 'Histoire de l'Imperatrice Josephine' (2 vols., Paris 1858 59) ; Hall, H. F., ed., 'Napoleon's Letters to Josephine, 1796-18122 (New York 1903) ; Head ley, P. C., 'The Life of the Empress Josephine> (Auburn 1853) ; Imbert de Saint-Amant, A. L., (translated into English by T. S. Perry, 4 vols., New York 1891-99) ; Le Nor mand, M. A., Historiques et Secrets de Josephine) (2 vols., Paris 1820 • New York 1904.) ; id., (Lewes de Napoleon a Josephine' (Paris 1833) ; Masson, F., 'Josephine' (3 vols., Paris 1899-1902); Memes, J. S., 'Memoirs of the Empress Josephine' (New York 1835) ; Mineval, N. J. E. de, 'The Empress Josephine' (translated by D. D. Fraser, Philadelphia 1912) ; Ober, F., 'Josephine, Em press of the French) (London 1901) ; Pichevin, R. Josephine' (Paris 1909) ; Remusat, Madame de, (London 1880); Sergeant, P. W., 'The Etnpress Jo sephine' (2 vols., London 1908) ; Tarbell, I., 'Life of the Emperor Napoleon' (New York 1901) ; Turquan, J., 'La Generale Bonaparte' (Paris 1895) ; id., Josephine' (2 vols., Paris 1895-96) ; Welschinger, L., 'Le Divorce de Napoleon P (Paris 1889).