Joséphine de Beauharnais

Hello! My name is Joséphine, and I want to tell you my story. I wasn't always an empress. I was born on a sunny island called Martinique on June 23rd, 1763. My family called me Rose. I loved running through fields of sugarcane and smelling the sweet tropical flowers that grew everywhere. Life was simple and warm, and I never dreamed that one day I would leave my island for a faraway land called France.

When I was a teenager, I sailed across the big ocean to Paris. It was a very different world from my island home. In 1779, I married a man named Alexandre de Beauharnais. We had two wonderful children, a boy named Eugène and a girl named Hortense. I loved them more than anything. But soon, our country went through a scary time called the French Revolution. It was a time of great change, and sadly, my husband Alexandre was taken away. I had to be very brave for my children and find a way to keep us safe during this difficult period.

After those difficult years, I met a clever and ambitious general named Napoleon Bonaparte. We fell in love and got married on March 9th, 1796. Napoleon was becoming very important, and soon he became the leader of France. Our lives changed forever. On December 2nd, 1804, in a grand cathedral filled with people, Napoleon became Emperor, and he placed a beautiful crown on my head. I was now Joséphine, the Empress of the French! It felt like a fairy tale coming true.

Even as an empress living in a grand home, my greatest joy was my garden at our home, the Château de Malmaison. I wanted to have every kind of plant in the world! I collected hundreds of flowers, especially roses of every color. I loved them so much. I also had a zoo with interesting animals that people in France had never seen before, like kangaroos, black swans, and llamas. My garden was a magical place full of life and beauty that I shared with everyone who visited.

My marriage to Napoleon eventually came to an end in 1810, but we always remained dear friends. I stayed at my beloved Malmaison, surrounded by my flowers and my children. I lived to be 50 years old, passing away in 1814. Today, people remember me as France's first empress, but I hope they also remember my love for nature and the beautiful roses I helped bring to the world.