Illegitimate Son
Hortense was now free to respond to the romantic overtures of the man whom she had long admired, Colonel Charles Joseph, Comte de Flahaut, a sophisticated, handsome man rumoured to be the illegitimate son of Talleyrand. They soon became lovers. In 1811, at an unspecified inn in Switzerland, close to Lake Geneva, Hortense secretly gave birth to a son by de Flahaut,
- Charles Auguste Louis Joseph ( 21 October 1811 - 10 March 1865), created Duc de Morny by his half-brother, Napoleon III, in 1862.
Only her brother Eugène, Adélaïde Filleul de Souza, de Flahaut's mother, and her closest companions were aware of her pregnancy and the subsequent birth. She had used poor health to explain her prolonged visit to Switzerland, the journey having been arranged by Adélaïde. Hortense cleverly disguised her pregnancy (she was by then, in her sixth month), during the baptism of Napoleon's son, Napoleon II when she was chosen to be one of the child's godmothers, an honour she shared with Madame Mère, mother of the Emperor.
Read more about this topic: Hortense De Beauharnais
Famous quotes containing the words illegitimate and/or son:
“Russian Communism is the illegitimate child of Karl Marx and Catherine the Great.”
—Clement Attlee (1883–1967)
“Remember that every son had a mother
whose beloved son he was,
and every woman had a mother
whose beloved son she wasn’t.”
—Marge Piercy (20th century)