Empress Joséphine | Happily Ever After | Elusive Story

Empress Joséphine is most often known as the wife of French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. And the patron saint of roses. And a biologist. And a self-taught master at manipulating society.

You get the picture.

She started as a carefree, happy child on the island of Martinique. But her father became financially desperate when a hurricane wiped out much of the family’s plantation. So, he decided to start arranging marriages for his daughters to wealthy French men. His goal was to have his daughters tithe enough money back to the plantation to bail him out of financial misery.

Joséphine’s younger sister was first in line for an arranged marriage to a French man. But when she became ill and died, Joséphine was given the “opportunity” to step in and take her place. Something she absolutely didn’t want to do.

Yet, off to France she sailed with her father, which led to her bombastic life of great wealth, power, and ultimately, sadness after Napoleon, her second husband, divorced her.

But what if she had escaped the plantation and traveled to the new world to begin a new life? Would that have given her what she sought–a life where she lived Happily Ever After?

 

Empress Joséphine | Happily Ever After

Elusive Magazine | 2023 July

 

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Photography by Filipe Almeida

 

 

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