MAZE

 

PEACE FOR ISRAEL, PALESTINE, UKRAINE, RUSSIA - THE WORLD

So very many ways to love others, including the people of other nations, people who are different than us. I, like so many other people on this earth, am gravely concerned.  Rules of War disregarded... 

BLAME IT ON MY YOUTH : CHET BAKER

MARIA LACZYNSKA WALEWSKA and NAPOLEON'S EX WIFE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE BECOME FRIENDS : NAPOLEON GOES INTO EXILE and MARIA DIES

Josephine, Napoleon's now ex wife extended an invitation to Maria Walewska that they should meet.  Obviously during her passionate romance with the Emperor, Maria had hoped to someday, perhaps when her man was done with war, to have a domestic life with him, to become his wife perhaps.  Whatever her feelings for Josephine, she had avoided contact with her. Now the two women had Napoleon's ongoing influence in their lives in common.  And so Maria went, with the small son that she had with Napoleon to meet Josephine.

Excerpt page 192:...  Mademoiselle Avrillon, Josephine's lady-in-waiting, recalled in her memoirs that 'the ex-Empress developed great affections for Madame Walewska.  She often talked of her unusual qualities and went to great lengths to stress that this woman, so essentially kind and good-natures, had never caused her any pain.  She set her frequent small gifts and showered presents on the little boy, whose features so reminded her of the Emperor.'

Josephine was only to live another year, and Maria would live another four.  But before she passed, Maria met a cousin of Emperor Napoleon's Philippe Antoine Ornano, a newly appointed general, age appropriate, good looking, a charmer with a good character. She would marry him.

Napoleon was finally defeated enough to be forced to abdicate and had to go into exile in Elba, Italy. He'd tried to commit suicide with poisons before he signed the agreement and Maria had traveled to see him in Elba. She intended to live there with him and their son if he would allow it and even brought her jewels in order to provide money.  The lovers once again had a romantic interlude but when the word got out, Napoleon panicked and sent Maria away.

Eventually Naples became the place that Maria lived.  It was a part of Europe that was enjoyed by many of European's nobles and aristocrats, because of the weather and because they could meet up with each other. The winter warmth, boating, hunting, and celebrations abundant.

In 1815 Anastase Walewski died.  Napoleon fled Naples.  Maria went back to Paris with their son.  She married Ornano in early September 1816 and was soon pregnant. In January 1817 she arrived back at Walewice, Poland and there was found to be seriously ill with kidney disease. She had been warned in her previous two pregnancies not to breast feed because of this kidney problem but had anyway.  Now her health was precarious.  She gave birth in Liege in 1817 to Rodolphe Auguste Ornano, her third son.  She died at thirty one, in December of 1817.

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A FOREST FLOOR WITH ROSES AND A BUTTERFLY by JOSEF LAUER

 

Josef Lauer was born 1818 in Vienna. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in the class of Sebastian Wegmayr, Joseph Mössmer, Thomas Ender und Franz Steinfeld. Lauer focused on painting still lifes with flowers and fruits, where he was the first depicting floral still lifes integrated in landscapes. His first exhibition was 1840, then he showed his works in different exhibitions also at the Austrian Kunstverein. Since 1861 he was also a member of the Viennese Künstlerhaus. He lived and worked solely in Vienna.  Josef Lauer died 1881 in Vienna.

MARIA LACZYNSKA WALEWSKA and NAPOLEON BONAPARTE : THE BEGINNING OF THE END

After  months with Napoleon in Austria at the Schonbrunn estates, the time came for Napoleon to move on.  She was pregnant with his child, and he was ready to quickly divorce Josephine.

Excerpt page 139:  On the last day before her departure from Schonbrunn she presented Napoleon with a ring, a gold and enamel band with a lock of her hair entwined under the surface and inscribed: "When you have stopped loving me, remember that I love you still.' It did not cross her mind that their idyll was nearing its end.

***

Maria was depressed and near a nervous breakdown, her pride wounded too, when she realized Napoleon's machinations.

There is no doubt in my mind that Maria's husband must have been contacted.

Except page 143: In April (1810), in a ceremony of golden splendour, the Emperor (Napoleon I) married Marie Louise of Austria.  Maria Walewska learned about the event from the newspapers. She was back in Poland by then, living at the castle of Walewice (her home as the wife of the owner), as in the first years of her marriage - invited there by her husband, to await the birth ' of a Walewski descendant.'

How had this surprising reversal come about?  Walewie was the last place Marie had expected to return to for the birth of Napoleon's child.  She had planned to have the baby in Paris, but after a few weeks in the French capital she sadly came to the conclusion that it would be less painful for her to withdraw from the scene and return home to Kiernozia.  The truth was that she had become an embarrassment to Napoleon...

Maria had known that he was divorcing Josephine but... Napoleon had an intermediary speak to Maria's husband, who was seventy-three years old, and was open to doing Napoleon a favor. Her family luckily greeted her with open arms.  She gave birth to Alexander Florian Joseph Colonna Walewski on May 4, 1810, and he would become the Foreign Minister of France decades later.  The birth record states the Walewski is the father and is signed by the doctor.

Alerted that he had a son, Napoleon sent a gift of lace but then for three months she heard nothing from him.  Napoleon finally wrote to her, but he called her Madame. He asked her to come to Paris and assured her of his affections.

***

Maria had been married when she became the mistress of a married man, who had now remarried.  In November of that year, Maria took her two sons with her as well as maids, cooks. nurses and other servants and traveled to Paris.  The Parisians had liked Josephine and their attitude was that Napoleon should have just stayed married to her.  Napoleon did not want her womanly love any more.  Paris was to be her permanent home and this time around she would not shy away from society.

***

Excerpt page 152-153:  He ordered that she be received at Court and treated as a distinguished foreign friend, and of course it was right, according to the custom of the day, that he should handsomely provide for her and their son.

As if to compensate Maria for the change in their relationship Napoleon saw to it that she was installed in Paris in princely fashion.  The house i the rue de la Houssaye was refurnished in elegant Empire style, and a country residence was acquired for her ... Free tickets to all Paris theaters were put at her disposal, and she had her own special box at the Opera and the Theater re Francais.  She was also granted free entry to the various museums in tow,... According to the records of Napoleon's Private Purse, she received a monthly allowance of ten thousand francs, a handsome allowance by all standards... Sometime in 1811, Maria was presented at Court and had to meet Napoleon's wife. Soon Napoleon would war with Russia. He was in his early 40's and was showing his age.

***

In 1812 Napoleon decreed that the estates situated in the Kingdom of Naples would be given to his son, Count Alexander Florian Joseph Colonna Walewski...  In his way Napoleon I did in fact take care of his ex mistress and his son. In fact she was now a rich woman, rich enough to provide funds to the Polish military. In this way, her allegiance to the Polish nation which had been an impetus for her involvement with Napoleon.  However, after Napoleon was forced to abdicate the King of Naples took back the lands so that this son was left without estates. In 1814, however, the lands were returned to Alexander.

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STAR LIGHT STAR BRIGHT WHO WILL BE MY LOVE TONIGHT?

 

MARIE IS INSTALLED IN THE CASTLE and THEN FOLLOWS NAPOLEON TO HIS HEADQUARTERS IN PRUSSIA and THEN TO PARIS

Napoleon and Marie corresponded. Her letters have not survived. But from his, which he often signed Napole, we know that there was love and that he was capable of tenderness.  As word got out that she was Napoleon's mistress, Marie had many visitors who wanted to meet her.  Her life became being at home with her husband and going to the castle to see Napoleon, where she went with his full knowledge. Her mother was fine with her daughter's involvement.  Her brother was assigned to be her escort.  It's said she was the only one who felt guilty about breaking her marriage vows.  However, I think it's possible that she was simply trying to save her reputation. She reminded of his promises to Poland.  After a terrifying battle in defense of the fortress of Konigsberg that ended with over 15,000 dead or wounded, it was decided that he would retreat to his new winter quarters at Osterode in east Prussia, and he suggested soon she would come to see him.  The place was called Finkenstein.  However, once there, it soon became clear that to be summoned to his Napolen's Paris resident was the key to the survival of their relationship.

Excerpt page 84:  For Marie, the decision to rejoin Napoleon at Finkenstein must have been an act of supreme courage.  The risk involved was enormous.  In Warsaw the 'affair" could still be contained as long as appearances were kept up. She was protected by the solidarity of her class and the universal patriotic fervor for the French.

Excerpt page 93 : Marie was twenty years old and had not, until now, known the meaning of love.  Whatever romantic stirrings she might have felt for young Suvorov must have gradually been erased by her three years of marriage to an old man. In Warsaw she had suffered from shock, when her long-idolized hero was suddenly transform to a  aggressive lover.  Though her newly awakened body had instinctively responded to him, it nevertheless took a long time for her mind to catch up.  There was also the feeling of guilt towards her son and her husband, and the knowledge that she had sinned in the eyes of her Church. It was all very confusing.  (Suvorov was the young man she had romantic feelings for as a girl, before her arranged marriage.)

Excerpt Page 103: On 29 July he found time to write to Marie.  Her nameday and the day of her patron saint, the Virgin Mary, fell on 15 August.  This was also the day of his thirty-eight birthday.  He wrote a tender and affectionate letter, telling her how much she was being missed and that he would 'soon' ask her to join him in Paris. With the letter he send a diamond and sapphire bracelet and - an even more precious present - a medallion with his portrait on it. Marie deposited the bracelet in a drawer but pinned the medallion on her dress, where she would be conscious of it all the time  He confidence was restored. She now knew that it was only a question of time before she would be summoned to Paris.

Marie was summoned to Paris in the new year of 1808.  She stayed about six weeks before returning to Poland for a spell. Paris required that the shy and quiet Marie become more fashionable and up to Napoleon's taste for his entourage. She was not known for her love of splendor. She saw him here and there.  She had become a woman who waited for her man's attentions. Yet she also knew that he was away at war and that various military campaigns were being fought.

She lived for two years at a small eighteenth century house at rue de la Houssaye in the Notre Dame de Lorette quarter of Paris.  It was her residence until 1814 and then moved on to the rue de la Victoire.  However, her days as Napoleon's mistress would come to an end .

POPPIES

The poppy is Poland's National Flower

 

THE SEDUCTION OF MARIE WALEWSKA BY NAPOLEON I and THE POLISH UNDERSTANDING OF MISTRESSES

Marie begged off going to Tallyrand's ball, which would be a second opportunity to meet the great military leader Napoleon I, who the Polish people believed would be the country's salvation.  He was her hero. But she was overwhelmed with shyness. Well, they went.

Excerpt page 65 -66:  It soon became clear that Napoleon was enchanted with Marie, her exquisite grace, wide blue eyes, blond curly hair and youthful fire; he found beguiling the mixture of innocence and melancholy she conveyed.  He stayed unusually late at the ball and it was noticed that he observed her from a distance.  To her dismay she became the center of attention, of much whispering behind the fans, the target of countless monocles and lorgnettes. jealous looks from the women and admiring glances from the men.  The valiant General Bertrad and handsome Louis de Perigord, scion of a great family, paid her particularly assiduous court - a mistake on their part which they duly repented. Years later Napoleon himself recounted the incident in his Memoirs dictated to Montholon on St. Helena.

Anastase, burning with self-importance, escorted Marie home. At noon the next day a carriage drew up in front of the Walewski's house in Bednarska Street.  Out came Marshal Duroc, Chief of the Imperial Household, carrying a gigantic bouquet of flowers and a heavy parchment letter with imperial green seals: he was there to deliver a message to Marie from his master.  The contents of the letter shook the young woman to the core: 'I saw no one but you, I admired only you: I want no one but you; I beg you to reply promptly to calm my ardor and my impatience.'

Marie sent word that there would be no reply. But Napoleon tried again.  This next letter was more romantic. He said, 'I beg you to give a little joy to my poor heart, so ready to adore you. Is it so difficult to send a reply?' (page 67)  But again she did not answer.

Excerpt page 67: Poor Marie.  For a woman of her sensitivity and pride, this abrupt transformation of her legendary hero into an ordinary mortal, inflamed with desire, ashamedly suggesting a lover's meeting, must have been a brutal shock.  How could the great Emperor have misunderstood so completely the noble feelings she held for him? He demanded sacrifices from her country.  Like most of her compatriots she prepared to give him anything - her possessions, money, jewels, even her life if need be - all expect this one thing he so obviously wanted from her.

***

Marie had been married barely three years and was tempted to experience love but it's suggested it was her love for her country, Poland that gradually allowed her to accept that she should meet up with Napoleon.  Some individuals were also encouraging her to go to him, thinking it would do the cause good to have a Polish woman 'installed in the castle." 

Excerpt age 71:  It is hard to believe that distinguished 'high-ranking Poles; would have talked about an 'official favorite' at the castle.  The position of a favorite - a maitresse en titre - was never part of a Polish tradition.  There had never been an equivalent of a Pompadour, a du Barry, or, for that matter, a Potemkin at Warsaw Court.  The king's mistress, if there was one, was regarded as his own private affair with no right to political patronage; she would have lived quietly, pretending to be sharing a house with her husband, and she would have been received in society according to her husband's rank.  Adultery o the part of the woman (standards were different for me) had always been frowned upon.  The beautiful Madame Grabowska (ELizabeth Sobolewska's mother), a long time mistress and eventually the morganatic wife of the last king of Poland, whose children by the king were all brought u at the castle, was -- even after a passage of years --- still officially regarded as the wife of the good General Grabowski, and all the king's children by her bore the name of her husband.  It was the Polish way of doing things, and it is very unlikely that such as argument would ever have been used.  Nevertheless the pressure on Marie continued, and finally she agreed to go.

***

Marie was escorted to the castle but was apparently frightened and crying. So it's said that she and Napoleon only talked that visit. But the next? Marie is said to have possibly been raped. Unwilling, is what she implied.  But then, why would she have stayed with him?

Excerpt page 75: The imperial romance was conducted against the background of a complex political situation.....

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THE MEETING OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE and THE BEAUTIFUL MARIE WALEWSKA : THE WHO IS SHE MOMENT

Excerpts pages 58-59:

Wednesday 7 January was set as the day on which a reception was to be held at the castle by the Emperor to meet Warsaw society; eagerly sought invitations were delivered by uniformed footmen to each name on the list, complied by Talleyrand with the help of Countess Trszkievicz, Prince Joseph Poniatowski's sister.  At Napoleon's request it was a fairly extensive and representative list: not only the nobility and the clergy but writers, poets, and prominent Warsaw merchants were included.

Though Napoleon had been her idol, Marie had a bad case of nerves and even suggested to her husband that they decline their invitation to meet him.  Her husband insisted they go and also to dress well.  She ordered a dress and wore the family diamond and sapphire necklace.  Warsaw was deep with snow as the carriages proceeded to make it to the royal palace where the reception was to take place. It was as if the fate of Poland rested in Napoleon's hands.

Page 61-62  

Suddenly the room stirred.  Two footmen flung open the doors, and Napoleon appeared in the doorway with Talleyrand and Marshal Duroc behind him.  He paused in the doorway for a moment - as if contemplating some inner, far-away vision.  Was he thinking of Paris, where he would have wanted to be in this New Yea?  The vision receded, and he moved forward at a brisk pace.

The Emperor came into the room, as if this was a review field-fast and with a slightly bored expression.  But as he looked around, his face gradually softened, the powerful brow relaxed... as he surveyed us with evident approval. .....

It can be easily believed that, as the chronicler says,"Napoleon's face softened into a smile.' for here in front of him, pink with emotion, stood an enchanting child-woman - blond, white skinned, with an exquisite figure and the most extraordinary beautiful eyes.  There was something infinitely sweet about her - it was not the gaily challenging face of a coquette he knew well or the face of a sophisticated society woman, secure in the knowledge of her charm; melancholy and innocence and goodness and great tenderness, all mingled in her expression and must have appealed to the Emperor.

On rising from her courtesy Marie met the full force of the famous 'infinitely powerful gaze.' No word was exchanged between them. He lingered for an imperceptible  moment, and moved on...

age 63

Marie went home that evening unaware of the impression she had made; her mind was in a turmoil. It did not seem quite real that, after years of worshiping at Napoleon's shrine, admiring his portraits, poring over his writings, dissecting the legends about him, she had actually seen her idol in the flesh.  She had been much too overwhelmed with emotion to take in the details of his face yet, like all those who came into contact with Napoleon...

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AND THEN THERE WAS NAPOLEON : THOUGHT TO BE A HERO BY THE POLES

Excerpt page 40-41 

At this critical stage of his wars Napoleon was thirty-seven years old.  He was no longer the slender, intense, youthful general of the days of Rivoli and Mantua, "burning  eyes in a worn-out uniform," the passionate lover writing ardent letters to Josephine, his unfaithful bride of a few weeks. "Rome had now replaced Sparta," as Victor Hugo was to write years later, the young prodigy of the Italian campaigns had become the Emperor, the law-giver, the new Caesar.  Though he now had most of Europe at his feet, he was still contemplating mew conquests. His powerful imagination - that 'gout de l'iossil' as he called it - roamed all over the world.

Physically, he was at his peak.  His powerful, broad-chested body exuded energy. He was always standing, walking, or riding, but rarely seated, and his capacity for work was prodigious. The pale olive complexion was clear and smooth, the brow wide and high, the blue-grey penetrating and unflinching. He had to watch his weight when in Paris but was always extremely fit on campaign.  Though only five feet seven inches tall - the average height for Frenchman in those days  he emanated dynamic self-assurance.  Massena used to say that 'he seemed at least two feet higher, when he put on his general's hat.'

In 1896 Napoleon's troops arrived in Warsaw Poland to excitement and cheers.

Excerpt: 45-46:

As it happened, Marie had already met with French Troops at Walewice (the estate her husband owned) and had formed an unexpected friendship which was to lead to dramatic developments in her life.

On the march towards Warsaw, when Marshal Davout's troops occupied the town of Lowicz, the nearby castle of Walewice became the headquarters of the Guards Brigade staff.  The Walewskis, who since September had been spending most of their time in Warsaw, much to Marie's satisfaction, had come down a few weeks before to be with Benedict, Marie's brother who was quietly recruiting volunteers in the province for service in Napoleon's army. ....

***

Marie's son was about a year and a half years old ad was fussed over by elderly female relatives but he was not the most sturdy child.

Through introductions, the seventeen year old Marie, was escorted around by a twenty-two year old Charles de Flahaut, who was the son of Talleyrand and Adelaide de Flahaut, lover of Queen Hortense... 

***

Excerpt page 53:

According to the usually reliable memoirs of the Countess von Kielmansegge, when Tallyrand and his son discussed Warsaw society, Charles de Flahaut mentioned the beautiful chatelaine of Walewice. Father and son both agreed that 'there was at least one compensation for the terrible climate of this otherwise dismal country - the number of attractive women about, who in their education ad manner resembled the best of the French. Countess Kielmansegge also noted that Marie and Anastase dined with Talleyrand and Flahaut... a few days after the foreign Minister's arrival, and that Talleyrand appeared to have been much struck with Marie's beauty and also her intelligence....

Excerpt page 54-55:

Torch parades moved across town; bonfires were lit round the castle; hand-made Napoleonic golden eagles adorned houses and shops, ad the two principal theaters, the National and the Francuski, held open performances for the public.

All these preparations were, however, frustrated by Napoleon's unexpected arrival late in the  night of 18 December. (1806) As the main raid to Warsaw was virtually impassable because of accumulated mud and raging floods, he arrived on horseback, to change mounts.  ....

***

The joy of Napoleon coming to the aid of the Poles was soon tempered by the anxiety and tension of battles being fought.  Marie threw herself into tending to the wounded. 

Excerpt page 57:

... Women gathered together to sew hospital linen, turn sheets into bandages, stockpile medicines. Families vied with each other in offering food and hospitality to the wounded.

It was in this hectic half war, half hospital atmosphere that Marie spent the last week of the year...

Excerpt page 58:

One afternoon in December, on their way back from the hospital, Elizabeth (Grabowska - Sobolewski)  stopped the carriage in front of the Zamek.  Workers were putting finishing touches to the gilt work in the great assembly-room on the first floor, where it was hoped Napoleon would attend a reception. 'We walked up to the huge empty ballroom.' Marie recalled in her Memoirs. 'I was stunned by the thought that quite soon I might see him in this very room, in the flesh.  An inexplicable fear seized me, I called for my carriage and went home.'

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LOVE FROM POLAND

 

The Polish people have done so much to help refugees from Ukraine.

So here's to Poland!

ANASTASE COLINNA WALEWSKI, the NOBLE OLD HUSBAND OF MARIA LACZYNSKA

Excerpts: Pages 28-29;

Anastase Colonna Walewski lived less than an hour's drive by carriage from Kiernozia - a pleasant enough journey in the summer on the sandy road. Ornate and massive, with pediment-ed porticoes, spreading balustraded wings and a colonnaded entrance hall, Walewice was an imposing mansion, a mixture of eighteenth century French and American Southern plantation style. It was designed by a Polish architect who had fought in the American War of Independence......

The owner of this splendid domain, then sixty-eight years of age, had been married twice; first at the age of twenty-three, then at thirty.  He had been a widower for ten years..... 

It was rumored in Warsaw that the esteemed Chamberlain had undergone a mysterious rejuvenating cure ' in the hands of a special masseur, while in Paris.  His clothes fitted him to perfection.....

Walewski's tastes, unlike those of most of the Polish aristocracy, were essentially urban.  After the death of Stanislaus Poniatowski, the last king of Poland, whose friendship he had enjoyed for so long, and in view of the tragic political situation in the country, he had deemed it "essential and proper: to retire to his rural seat to cogitate....

Stuck in the country, even with his massive library to keep him occupied the noble Walewski grew bored. Perhaps this is why he decided to marry again and pursue the young neighbor girl who was a beauty.

He threw a ball in Marie's honor at her coming of age.  She was not attracted to the old Anastase Colinna Walewski, but she decided to marry him thinking of the welfare of her family. She was either sixteen and a half or seventeen and a half and married him in either 1803 or 1805. What followed was some time at home followed by a long honeymoon in the warmer weather of Italy, where they included Rome.

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NAPOLEON I

N Laugier, graveur; Charles de Steuben, editeur, baron (1788–1856)

Location : Musée Carnavalet

He was about five foot six, but then men were not as tall as they are now generally.  There was even talk that he's special parts were insignificant.  He was also compartmentalized.  He was a natural leader and he changed history.  Thousands fought with him and for him, believing his military campaigns would benefit their countries or their politics.  Thousands died on the battlefields as soldiers but also as civilians.

Interested in all things Napoleon?  Learned that there is an online website devoted to him and here's the link: NAPOLEON ORG and FOUNDATION OF NAPOLEON

MARIA LACZYNSKA - WALEWSKA : MARRIED POLISH MISTRESS OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE FROM 1806 TO 1810

MARIA LACZYNSKA - WALEWSKA

1786 - 1817

When you hear of legendary lovers, you hear "Napoleon and Josephine."  However, Josephine (Marie Josephe Rose Tascher de la Pagerie) was the history making military leader Napoleon's first wife whom he married in 1796, but divorced.  Possibly this was because she had not become pregnant with him, though she had children in her first marriage. When married, both Napoleon and Josephine had affairs and he had children with mistresses. Her affairs were blamed or tolerated because he was gone so much on his military campaigns. The widowed mother of a son by her first husband, Josephine was the sentimental favorite but discarded wife. Perhaps the idea that she was his true love also comes from the rumor that her name was upon his lips when he died.

While Napoleon considered Maria to be his "Polish wife," he left Josephine behind and sought his next wife, Marie Louise, Archduchess of Austria, whom he married on March 11, 1810 by proxy: He was not actually there and had a stand in. Marie Louise was nineteen at the time.  This marriage raised Napoleon's status further because Marie Louise was also a great-niece of Marie Antoinette, the Queen. Napoleon, born in 1769, would remain married to this second wife for the rest of his life, till 1821. 

Marie Laczynska - Walewska, our Mistress of the Month, came from a noble Polish background. She was married to a nobleman, Anastase Colonna Walewski, a noble of of Italian and Polish heritage, when she was either sixteen and a half or seventeen and a half. He was about fifty years her senior and was a widower who had grandchildren older than Marie. Her mother was delighted when the teenager who Marie liked went away into the military and this old neighbor came calling. Old Walewska began his pursuit by throwing her a party to celebrate her completion of what was a finishing school for noble young women, a kind of debut. Marie was persuaded to marry him to do right by her family, whose fortunes were of concern after her father died. Although she took to being the lady of a beautiful palace, the marriage left much to desire.

Although the relationship between Maria and Napoleon was well known, even decades later when their son rose to prominence in France himself, and people mentioned how much he looked like his father, he would say how much he looked like Anastase Colonna-Walewska.  Their son was named Alexandre Joseph Colonna- Walewski.

Marie was already the mother of a son, about a year and a half years old, when she took up with Napoleon.  She divorced Anastase Colinna-Walweska in 1812. after having been Naoleon's mistress.  Her relationship with Napoleon was intense but in it she also experienced long periods of time when he was away.  In 1816 she married Phillipe Antoine d'Ornano, and her third son with him, named Rodolphe d'Ornano.

Now, according to the book by Christine Sutherland, which is the primary reference for this month's posts, Marie Laczynska was one of seven children and a beauty.  It feel upon her to rescue her family financially by marrying old Anastase Colinna Walewski.

When she was eight, her father was killed in a ferocious battle in Praga with the Russians that left 12,000 people (including civilians) dead. Of a noble family, her father's death left her mother to send the sons to private schools for good educations and the daughters to what we could call 'finishing schools" so they would be ready to assume the role of an elite wife.  Her mother hoped that the marriage she contracted for her daughter would preserve and replenish the Laczynska estates.

One description of her went like this. ...  (Madame Laczynska) had a very beautiful teenage daughter, Marie, with incredibly large blue eyes, blonde hair which she wore down to her waist, and a particularly sweet expression on her face.  She made me think of an angel or a wood nymph." (Page 23)

Soon after she turned fourteen, Marie was sent to the Convent of Our Lady of the Assumption in Warsaw, to finish her education.  Not far from the Vistula river, a royal palace had been built by King Sigismund III.  She returned home at sixteen in 1803, with high recommendations about her personality and character.  But it was her beauty was most remarked upon in society.  Besides her thick curly hair worn to the waist, her teeth were even and white, her skin very light white, her eyes cornflower blue, her lashes long.

At the time, a marriage that would benefit the whole family was a more important consideration than the wishes of individuals.  Anastase had been the Chamberlan to the last King of Poland and owned a castle called Walewice. He was the biggest landowner in the province. He was too old to fight, and though he had accomplished much in his lifetime, he retired.  So, he arranged a party in her honor upon her return from school.

It took Marie some time to adjust to her marriage but she had a son with Anastase. Living in luxury, and part of elite social circles that believe Napoleon's military leadership would serve Poland, she had every reason to put the hero in her sights. But when it came time to actually meet him, she asked her husband if they could skip the event.  He insisted that they go and that she be well dressed and bejeweled.  At first Anastase's ego was burnished when Napoleon took an interest in his wife, then he had no choice but to let her to to the man...

One of the most interesting aspects of the relationship of Maria and Napoleon for me is that this military leader strategically lead battles that resulted millions of deaths.  According to Wikipedia, Civilian deaths are impossible to accurately estimate.  While military deaths are invariably put at between 2.5 million and 3.5 million, civilian death tolls vary from 750,000 to 3 million. Yet he seems to have been able to also compartmentalize his personal life, enjoying gossip with Marie and entertaining a romantic correspondence. Yet, there were many times when he had to have left their bed to gather the troops and she might have always wondered if he would return alive.

Marie did divorce the old husband she had married so young and did remarry but not to Napoleon.  There is reason to believe that Napaleon was the love of her life but she married a cousin of his.  In 1815 Anastase Walewski died.  Napoleon fled Naples.  Maria went back to Paris with their son.  She married Ornano in early September 1816 and was soon pregnant. In January 1817 she arrived back at Walewice, Poland and there was found to be seriously ill with kidney disease. She had been warned in her previous two pregnancies not to breast feed because of this kidney problem but had anyway.  Now her health was precarious.  She gave birth in Liege in 1817 to Rodolphe Auguste Ornano, her third son.  She died at thirty one, in December of 1817. Still a young woman by today's standards, childbirth took it's toll on women.

Maria Laczynska was well regarded for her modest character, for no matter what riches she was exposed to, she would remain so.  Napoleon told others he loved Marie, all the while searching for his next marriage, which he wanted to be a dynastic one.  While she was pregnant with his child, which pleased Napoleon, while she lived with him in Austria at the Shonbrunn lavish estates, and when it was time to leave Austria, Maria proceeded to France without Napoleon, in order to give birth there.  Napoleon was getting around to divorcing Josephine and Maria's husband was probably not aware that she was pregnant.

According to the book by Christine Sutherland, in her land will Marie said that she wanted her heart to remain in France, where she had traveled to live as Napoleon's mistress, and her body was to be buried in Poland in her family graveyard.  And so an urn with her heart in it remains in the famous Pere Lachaise graveyard in Paris in the Ornano family vaults.  It says "Marie Laczynska, Comtesse d' Ornano.  As the mother of three sons with three different fathers, Marie left her two oldest son's in the care of her brother.

This month I will tell the story based on Sutherland's book and some additional research I've done. I will not detail Napoleon's military failures and successes but the relationship between him and this young Polish beauty.

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