delusions; the evidence does not permit us to correlate it exactly with a
mysterious physical malady, from which he suffered, possibly gonorrhea,
which engendered disabling attacks of rheumatism. But it is certain that
Louis had difficulty with physical movements, had a speech impediment
and curvature of the spine.
One of the most bizarre events in the Napoleon family saga was the
marriage on 4 January 1802 of Louis and Josephine's daughter Hortense.
Cardinal Caprara, Archbishop of Milan and papal legate, officiated at the
ceremony and also bestowed on Murat and Caroline the nuptial
benediction they had forgotten two years before. It was with great
difficulty that Napoleon had got Louis, a repressed homosexual, to the
altar. When the First Consul first suggested the match, Louis panicked
and tried to bolt, but Napoleon insisted. Matters were not helped by
Hortense's reluctance to wtd this lacklustre Bonaparte scion; she
wanted to marry Napoleon's faithful aide Christophe Duroc. Napoleon
dealt with this in his usual ruthless way. He told Duroc he could marry
Hortense provided he accepted an obscure command in Toulon and
never came to court again. Duroc indignantly turned down this affront to
his 'honour' and so was forced to reject Hortense. Josephine, meanwhile,
anxious that her hold on her husband was slipping, nagged Hortense to
contract the dynastic marriage for her sa ke.
The result was the farcical marriage in the rue de Ia Victoire, where the
contracting parties were a sullen Louis and a tear-stained Hortense who
had spent the night weeping. Joseph and Lucien, abetted by their sister
Elisa, fumed at this further victory for Josephine, but they would have
been delighted by events on the honeymoon. Louis callously went
through the entire list of Josephine's known lovers and warned his bride
that if she emulated her mother in this regard just once, he would cast her
off immediately. Barred by her husband from spending the night under
the same roof as her mother, Hortense then became the butt of scandal
when Lucien started a rumour, eagerly taken up by the British, that she
had been Napoleon's lover; when she became pregnant, it was further
whispered that the child was the First Consul's.
The canard may just possibly have contained some truth. One theory is
that Napoleon, convinced that he and Josephine could never have
children yet determined to unite the blood of the Beauharnais and the
Bonapartes, fathered a child on Hortense, then married her off to Louis
when she became pregnant. The calendar seems against this, for
Napoleon-Charles Bonaparte, Hortense's son was born on ro October
r8o2 and Napoleon last saw Hortense in January. Undaunted, the incest
theorists allege that the child was born earlier and the official birth date
marcin
(Marcin)
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