“Deep down, the emperor did not like Prince Murat…”

Mademoiselle Avrillion, who served as a lady-in-waiting to the Empress Josephine, published her memoirs with the intention of “recounting with simplicity and in good faith what I have seen and heard during the more than twelve years I spent in the service of an excellent woman, who, in fatal circumstances, also had her own kind …

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“My Father… showed less firmness than the Queen”

Picking back up with Louise Murat's memoirs, we reach Murat's fateful decision to abandon Napoleon and ally himself to Austria. Louise makes a compelling argument in defense of her father's choice; she also contrasts her father's visible torment over the decision with her mother's stoicism. Source: Souvenirs d’enfance d’une fille de Joachim Murat, by Louise …

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“You must calm a little your head, which gets hot so easily”

Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples, returned home to her kingdom on the 3rd of August, 1810, after having been in Paris since December of the previous year. She was delighted to finally see her children again after such a long absence, but her reunion with her husband would take slightly longer; Joachim was leading what …

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