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 The grave of Pauline Fourès at Père Lachaise, Paris. Picture by Androom (02 Nov 2019) |
Fourès, Pauline |
| ROYAL MISTRESS, PAINTER, NOVELIST (FRANCE) |
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BORN 15 Mar 1778, Pamiers, Ariège - DIED 18 Mar 1869, Paris BIRTH NAME Bellisle, Pauline GRAVE LOCATION Paris: Père Lachaise, Rue du Repos 16 (division 26) |
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Pauline Fourès was the daughter of the clockmaker Henri Jacques-Clement Bellisle. She married the soldier Jean-Noel Fourès who was sent to Egypt shortly after the marriage. Like several other women she joined her husband on the ship La Lucette, wearing an uniform herself. After their arrival in Cairo on 30 July 1798 she was abled to dress as a woman again. Napoleon saw her on 30 November 1798 for the first time. He knew that Joséphine had cheated on him and approached Pauline. Pauline initially resisted his attentions, but after he sent Pauline's husband to France to deliver a message to the Directoire she became his mistress. Pauline accompanied Napoleon everywhere, wearing a general's uniform. The troops knew about it and called her Cleopatra. Her husband was stopped by the British and after a short imprisonment he returned earlier than expected to Egypt. A divorce followed and she remained Napoleon's mistress. When Napoleon returned to France on 23 August 1799 he left her behind and she became the mistress of Kleber for several months before she returned to France as well. In 1800 she was back in France. She tried to meet Napoleon again, but he wasn't interested. He gave her financial support and arranged a new marriage to Henry de Ranchoup in 1801. Napoleon presented him with a post as vice-consul in Santander. Pauline was active as a harpist and a painter and she wrote two novels, "Lord Wentwoth (1813) and "Aloïze de Mespres, nouvelle tirée des chroniques du XII° siècle" (1814) that enjoyed some success. In 1810 she divorced her second husband. In 1816 the army officer Jean Baptiste Bellard became her third husband and they started an export company in wood in Brazil. This improved her financial situation. In 1834 she wrote another novel, "Une chatelaine du XIIeme siècle, nouvelle". In 1837 she returned to Paris and she separated from Bellard around 1838. In Paris she lived in an appartment surrounded by several monkeys and she died in that city in 1869. Bwfore her death she had burned the letters that Bonaparte had written to her in Egypt. Related persons • was the lover of Kleber, Jean Baptiste • was the lover of Napoleon I Bonaparte Events |
| 0/9/1798 | Napoleon sees Pauline Fourès and is impressed. He gave order to find out who she was and managed to make her his mistress. For this purpose he sent her husband to Paris without her. The affair comes at a good moment because his prestige has suffered from the infidelity of his own wife Joséphine. [Beauharnais, Joséphine de][Napoleon I Bonaparte] |
| Images |
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The grave of Pauline Fourès at Père Lachaise, Paris. Picture by Androom (02 Nov 2019) |
Sources • Breton, Guy, Histoires d'Amour de L'Histoire de France 7, Presses Pocket, Paris, 1965 |
