A close-up on: Queen Hortense

Queen Hortense, Duchess of Saint Leu, was the daughter of Joséphine de Beauharnais, the wife of King Louis of Holland, and mother of Napoleon III.

Hortense de Beauharnais par Gérard

  • Introduction

    Queen Hortense, Duchess of Saint Leu, was the daughter of Joséphine de Beauharnais, the wife of King Louis of Holland, and mother of Napoleon III.

  • Documents

    – Download and play Hortense’s most famous composition, Partant pour la Syrie

  • Biographies

    – BEAUHARNAIS, Hortense de, (1783-1837), Queen of Holland

  • Images

    – Visit of Josephine (sic) de Beauharnais to her husband Alexandre held at the Luxembourg palace
    – At Malmaison, the empress Josephine receives the emperor Alexander
    – Vase with portrait of Queen Hortense

  • Bibliography

    – The Memoirs of Queen Hortense, notes by Jean Hanoteau, 2 vols, London: Thornton Butterworth, 1928
    – Makers of History, Hortense, by John S. C. Abbot, New Haven and London; Harper & Bros, 1870
    – Memoirs of Hortense de Beauharnais, Duchesse of St. Leu, ex-Queen of Holland, by Auguste de Messence, Comte de Lagarde, Philadelphia: Key and Biddle, 1833
    – Queen Hortense, by Luise Mühlbach, translated from the German by Chapman Coleman, New York: D. Appelton and Co., 1890 – available as an e-book (external link)
    – Daughter To Napoleon : A Biography of Hortense, Queen Of Holland, by Constance Wright, New York: Holt, Rinehart And Winston, 1961