Napoleon loved to arrange marriages along with his stepdaughter Hortense. One of Napoleon’s favorite people was a man from common origins named Lavalette.

The émigrées were the aristocrats who fled France rather than fight for their homeland during the Revolution. A lot of them came back once the danger was over. Those who had fought for their county and suffered the consequences were viewed as having more integrity in the eyes of many.

Hortense became Napoleon’s stepdaughter through in part, the unfortunate execution of her father Alexandre de Beauharnais, who stood up for France and lost his life. He was the sort of good noble the Revolution seemed fomented to destroy.

Hortense’s dear cousin Emilie was the daughter of an émigrée and Napoleon was having difficulty finding anyone who would consent to marry her. Napoleon decided to fix her up with Lavalette but she was secretly in love with Napoleon’s brother Louis - The man who became so infamous later on for becoming an abusive husband to Hortense herself.

Emilie didn’t want Lavalette at first but she went along with the marriage. She and Hortense were very close and over time, Emilie realized that she ended up with a vastly better husband than Louis Bonaparte.

After the foreign puppet government was installed on the throne of France again in 1815, that government was just about to execute Lavalette because he had been loyal to Napoleon.

Emilie was so distraught at losing her husband, that she compelled Lavalette to sneak out of the prison in her clothes where she took his place the night before his execution.

Listen to this powerful story here.

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Memoirs of Queen Hortense