French royalty with her marriage to Napoleon Bonaparte on 8 March 1796 at the beginning of his fame as a conqueror, thus making her the first Empress of the French.
The eldest of three daughters, she married Viscount Alexandre Beauharnais on 13 December 1779 in Noisy-le-Grand. They had two children: a son, Eugène de Beauharnais (1781–1824), and a daughter, Hortense de Beauharnais (1783–1837) (who later married Napoléon’s brother Louis Bonaparte in 1802).
During the revolution her husband, an ex-noble, was executed. Joséphine de Beauharnais was left in hardship and needed help from her friends to survive. She had affairs with several leading political figures, including Paul François Jean Nicolas Barras.
When she met Napoleon in 1795, he was smitten and wrote her long love letters. Involved in an affair with an officer, Hippolyte Charles in 1796, she did not even bother to answer, but when he resumed his courtship, they began their relationship. She accepted the seven-year-younger groom as a convenience as she was a well-used lady with sexual experience that belied her unattractive appearance; teeth that were black stumps and heavy makeup, appearing shopworn. Both misfits, they nonetheless were drawn compellingly to each other.
The coronation ceremony, officiated by Pope Pius VII, took place at Notre Dame de Paris, on 2 December 1804. Josephine became the queen of Parisian society at the side of Napoleon. They were harmonious until their marriage began to suffer strain. Josephine could not give him the son he wanted, and her extravagances became wearing. Her husband grew callous toward her and found his pleasures with other women. After the campaign of 1809, he divorced her on 10 January 1810.
Josephine retired to Rueil-Malmaison, Île-de-France, near Paris, where she had a dignified retirement and maintained a friendly relationship with Napoleon. She died there on 29 May 1814.
Link to Wikipedia biography