Josephine de Beauharnais - Passing

On 29th May 1814, Empress Josephine passed away. Even though Napoleon divorced her so he could have a child, hence a heir, she remained the love of his life and years later during his exile, he often spoke of her: "Josephine was the embodiement of grace, she awoke with grace, she fell asleep with grace, she did everything with grace..."

The circumstances of her passing are puzzling: after the French army had been defeated and Napoleon had been sent to his first exile on the island of Elba, Russian Tsar Alexander Ist was in Paris and wanted to pay a visit to Josephine. The Tsar, like many other men at that time, was intrigued and curious to meet the lady who had conquered the heart of a conquerer...

Josephine agreed to welcome him at her home in Malmaison, outside of Paris. She showed him around her beautiful gardens and caught a cold that got worse and developped as a pneumonia. Two years before, the Russian ❄️winter had gotten the best of Napoleon's army and now, the Russian Tsar caused Josephine to get sick...