Monday 21 November 2005

The Empress who longed to be a Queen

Before Spanish aristocrat Eugenia de Montijo married Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, in January 1853, she had a good deal going for her. As Countess of Teba, she was titled in her own right. She was also rich, well-connected, intelligent, generous and beautiful. But while her marriage further improved her fortunes by elevating her to astounding social heights as Empress Eugénie of France, her position was by no means popular or secure. To begin with, the Second French Empire was in its infancy, and although Louis-Napoleon had effectively transitioned from president of the Second Republic into Emperor Napoleon III, he was not a brilliant ruler. His choice of Eugénie as his wife was also widely considered to be less than brilliant given that mere aristocratic respectability and beauty were not viewed to be sufficient qualities for an empress – even for the Bonapartes.

Aware of the opposition and perhaps feeling nervous and unsure in her new role, it’s not surprising that Eugénie chose to attach herself to an iconic royal woman after whom she could model herself. What is surprising is who she chose for this critical role – none other than Queen Marie Antoinette.   

Given the circumstances, it would probably have been more sensible for Eugénie to select as a model someone not so closely associated with excess, scandal and – worst of all – revolution. But such logic did not seem to apply to Eugénie, whose negative characteristics are recalled as frivolity, vanity, capriciousness and superficiality – all of which eerily echo those attributed to Marie Antoinette herself. To further confound the imagination, Eugénie was not only fascinated and obsessed with Marie Antoinette, but, in the words of author David Stacton, she even “fancied herself as a reincarnation” of the ill-fated queen.  

As inappropriate and eccentric as Eugénie’s sense of historical attachment may have been, she made no effort to hide it. Not long after her marriage, she publicly declared her affinity by appearing as a slightly modernized Marie Antoinette in a portrait by Winterhalter.* Years later, she reaffirmed her dedication when she dressed as Marie Antoinette for a masked ball at the Tuileries Palace. In a way, it was like a triumphal return of the “new” Marie Antoinette to the place where the original Marie Antoinette and her family had been kept under house arrest during the French Revolution.

Ultimately, France’s Second Empire was to be defined, at least in part, by Eugénie’s desire to emulate Marie Antoinette and duplicate the Court of Louis XVI. Royal châteaux and palaces were dutifully furnished with Louis XVI furniture and decorated in modern interpretations of the Louis XVI style that eventually became known as “Louis XVI Imperatrice.” Not surprisingly, the adaptive style soon became popular among the wealthy and the socially-aspiring. Eugénie’s Marie Antoinette-inspired retro-style also heavily influenced women’s fashions. In an undoubted nod to the skirt-extending panniers of Marie Antoinette’s day, Eugénie wholeheartedly embraced the cage crinoline in 1855, thus sparking a fashion craze. And just as Marie Antoinette’s patronage of clothing designer Rose Bertin had helped make her a style icon of the 18th century, Eugénie depended on Charles Frederick Worth to do the same for her in the 19th century.  

Not surprisingly, Eugénie easily attached herself to almost anything that had been of interest to or associated with Marie Antoinette. One such attachment was for the Petit Trianon – Marie Antoinette’s personal paradise located in the grounds of Versailles. Likewise, although many of the royal jewels associated with Marie Antoinette had been lost or stolen during and after the French Revolution, Eugénie made good use of those she could get a hold of. Among these was the 140.5 carat Regent diamond, which Marie Antoinette had once jauntily worn in a large black velvet hat. For Eugénie, it became the centerpiece of two successive tiaras. Among her most cherished jewels must have been Marie Antoinette’s pearls, which had come to Eugénie via the Queen’s daughter, the Duchesse d'Angoulême.

No detail was too small for Eugénie, who went so far as to make Marie Antoinette’s favorite color – Nattier blue – her own personal favorite, incorporating it whenever possible into her clothing and interior design. For her part, Eugénie’s passion for the color is said to have inspired Tiffany & Co. to adopt it for their now-signature boxes. The Empress even out-Marie Antoinette-ed Marie Antoinette when she adopted the late Queen’s custom of giving dolls dressed in contemporary Paris fashions as gifts, only with the improvement that Eugénie’s dolls were made to resemble her.  

Many more such comparisons can be drawn between Eugénie and Marie Antoinette, but deeper parallels existed beyond the contrived efforts of Eugénie. At the most fundamental level, both women were mistrusted by various circles as foreigners and were given similar snide epithets – Marie Antoinette as “the Austrian woman” and Eugénie as “the Spanish woman.” Both women also had the misfortune of inspiring general dislike among those whose support they desperately needed – namely, their husbands’ families and the public. Of Eugénie, David Stacton wrote: “The family hated her and the French people did not love her very much. The family would have hated anybody, but for the opinion of France she herself was largely to blame.”

Part of the problem may have been that Eugénie – like Marie Antoinette before her – frequently railed and rebelled against rigid Court etiquette. In her late 19th century book, “France in the Nineteenth Century,” Elizabeth Wormeley Latimer wrote: “Brought up in private life, not early trained to the self-abnegation demanded of princesses, the Empress Eugénie did not bring into her new sphere all the aplomb and seriousness about little things which are early inculcated on ladies brought up to the profession of royalty.” She continued: “With the impetuosity of her disposition and the intrepidity that had characterized her girlhood, she found it hard to submit to the restraints of her position, and the emperor had occasion frequently to remonstrate with her on her indifference to etiquette and public opinion.”

The relationship Eugénie shared with her husband also echoed in some ways that of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI. Both women had strong personalities and ultimately dominated their husbands’ weaker natures – a circumstance that eventually helped bring about the downfall of both royal couples. In the end, like her icon, Eugénie became a scapegoat for the disasters that befell her husband’s reign. Certain that the disastrous Franco-Prussian War that ended the Second Empire had been of Eugénie’s making, Napoleon III’s cousin, Princess Mathilde, pronounced: “She and she alone has been the cause of all France’s misfortune.” Such sentiments were shared by many, but most modern historians agree that Napoleon III was equally culpable, just as Louis XVI had been.

Fortunately for Eugénie, she managed to avoid the tragic fate of Marie Antoinette – if only just. When Napoleon III was forced to surrender during the Franco-Prussian War, the tide of public opinion turned sharply against Eugénie, who was acting as Regent. Trapped in the Tuileries, which was surrounded by angry mobs, she managed to escape the palace in disguise and go into exile in England. It’s impossible not to wonder if Eugénie regretted her choice of idol during her time of crisis. Did the idea of sharing Marie Antoinette’s fate cause her to see her emulation as folly, even momentarily? Or did it have the opposite effect of further inspiring her to survive, not just in the name of self-preservation, but also as the “reincarnation” of Marie Antoinette?

We can never know the answers to these questions, but at the dramatic end of her reign and in so many other moments of tragedy, Eugénie had the personal wherewithal to display the same characteristics that even today inspire the most respect for Marie Antoinette – courage and dignity in her fate.  

Until next time, 

- Tori Van Orden Martínez

************

*The portrait – The Empress Eugénie a la Marie Antoinette by Franz Xaver Winterhalter – can be seen at the following links:

http://www.palettesofvision.com/Reproductions/Franz_Xaver_Winterhalter/The_Empress_Eugenie_a_la_Marie_Antoinette.html

http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_Of_Art/viewOnezoom.asp?dep=11&zoomFlag=0&viewmode=1&item=1978.403