Teaser Tuesday: Honorable Mentions

Last week, we explored a gallery of the historical characters who show up in The Garden Intrigue. There are also a whole bunch of real people who are mentioned but never actually put in an appearance. Just so you know who the characters are talking about….

James Monroe

American Envoy to France from 1794 to 1796, Monroe brings his wife, Elizabeth Kortright Monroe, and his daughter Eliza to France with him, enrolling her in Mme Campan’s school– as well as his wife’s (fictional) niece, Emma Morris. Poor man. He never imagined that his niece would create an international scandal by running off from Mme Campan’s and eloping with a Frenchman.

Mme Campan

A former lady in waiting to Marie Antoinette, her school in St. Germain-en-Laye becomes the It place for the daughters of the new regime. Her pupils included Hortense de Beauharnais, Caroline Bonaparte, Eliza Monroe, and Aglaé Louise Auguié (future wife of Marshall Ney).

Louis Bonaparte

Napoleon’s younger brother was about as thrilled to be married off to Josephine’s daughter Hortense as Hortense was to be married to him. The match is pushed by Napoleon and Josephine, with the deal that Hortense’s and Louis’ kids will be Napoleon’s heirs. Depressive and moody, Louis suspects his sunny-natured wife of all sorts of iniquities. It doesn’t help that right before the marriage, his brother Lucien imparted the malicious rumor that Hortense was having an affair with her own stepfather. In short, Louis is miserable and does his best to make Hortense miserable, too. In 1804, they have one child and another on the way.

Napoleon Charles Bonaparte

Pictured here with his mother in 1806, Hortense’s oldest son is only one and a half in the summer of 1804, when Garden Intrigue takes place. Possibly heir to Bonaparte, the poor, wee thing is a sickly child, causing Hortense a great deal of worry. (Our characters don’t know this at the time, but he dies in 1807, at the age of four.) It doesn’t help that Caroline Murat’s son, Achille, is a healthy little rabble-rouser. (For Hortense’s long-standing feud with Napoleon’s younger sister, Caroline, see last week’s Teaser Tuesday.)

Joachim Murat

Not to be confused with the guy who was stabbed in his bath (i.e. Marat), Murat was a dashing army officer who caught the eye of Napoleon’s teenage sister, Caroline, who insisted they be allowed to marry, despite her older brother’s reservations. Murat has a taste for flamboyant clothing and an eye for the ladies. (Although “lady” might not be quite the right word.) We’ve see him in the Pink books before. He’s been around griping about Caroline in Pink I and dallying with an actress during his stint as Governor of Paris in The Orchid Affair. In summer of 1804, he’s just been made a Marshall of France. He also happens to be buddy buddy with our good friend, Georges Marston.

Eugene de Beauharnais

Hortense’s older brother is pretty much the opposite of Murat in every way. Josephine’s son by her first marriage is well-liked in Bonaparte’s court, good-natured and hard-working. Along with Bonaparte’s relatives, he’s raised to the style of Imperial Highness in the summer of 1804. More importantly, he’s been a sort of surrogate brother to Emma during her years in France.

More Garden fun facts coming up soon!

4 Comments

  1. Ginger on May 31, 2011 at 10:42 am

    Lauren, just like your title, these real-life glimpses are so great and ‘intriguing’! Thanks for your historical (and pictoral) efforts on our behalf!

  2. Dayana on June 1, 2011 at 8:36 pm

    Is it me or is Eugene really hot in that picture? And poor little Bonaparte Charles! Why do they always have to die young?

  3. Julie L. on June 1, 2011 at 9:21 pm

    Joachim Murat looks like a cross between (the singer) Tom Jones and George Wickham – in all his regimentals!

  4. Sarah on June 2, 2011 at 12:35 am

    Dayana, I was thinking the same thing when I saw the picture of Eugene! Thanks, Lauren!

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