Classic Napoleon. Classic Napoleon.
Sometimes when you just look at the kind of stuff Napoleon did, it feels like you’re reading some weird parody. Especially if you look at the personal letters he wrote. It’s just…surreal.
That being said, Napoleon didn’t personally kidnap the pope, he just…didn’t release him. Things had been rough for a long time between him and the church, so it didn’t really come suddenly, but… reading about it, it was as if I were reading about some random mishap. Like “oh, I kidnapped the pope! Well that’s bad! Damn impulsivity!”
On the Josephine part, that was another thing that the books I’ve read would mention; Josephine was pretty damn popular with the French people because of her style and incredible charm (that, even though she was getting “old”, had bad teeth, and tan skin, which wasn’t really what the French usually saw as pretty or even beautiful!) and her strong participation in society as somebody who loved parties.
Marie Louise though was thought of as “bland” and boring, which was certainly also because she was Austrian, oops. But hey, her predecessor was Josephine de Beauharnais! You can’t compete with that!(And hey, at least Naps named his son Napoleon Francis!)
