Eléonore Denuelle (13 September 1787 – 30 January 1868) was a

mistress Mistress is the feminine form of the English word "master" (''master'' + ''-ess'') and may refer to: Romance and relationships * Mistress (lover), a term for a woman who is in a sexual and romantic relationship with a man who is married to a ...

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

Napoleon I of France and the mother of his son Charles, Count Léon. She was born Louise Catherine Eléonore Denuelle de la Plaigne into a middle-class family, by reports of the day she was pretty and witty, and was married at the age of 18 to a former army captain, Jean-François Revel-Honoré. Her husband was arrested for fraud three months into the marriage, and sentenced to two years in prison. On 29 April 1806, the couple were granted a divorce. Shortly afterward she became a mistress to the Emperor Napoleon, an arrangement set up by his sister

Caroline Bonaparte Carolina Maria Annunziata Bonaparte Murat Macdonald (French: ''Caroline Marie Annonciade Bonaparte''; 25 March 1782 – 18 May 1839), better known as Caroline Bonaparte, was an Imperial French princess; the seventh child and third daughter of Ca ...

, and in less than a year their illegitimate son, Count Léon, was born. He was Napoleon's first illegitimate child, and proof that Napoleon was capable of producing an heir, establishing that his wife

Joséphine de Beauharnais Josephine may refer to: People * Josephine (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) * Josephine (singer), a Greek pop singer Places *Josephine, Texas, United States *Mount Josephine (disambiguation) * Josephine Cou ...

was infertile. As a result, he divorced Joséphine and married

Marie Louise of Austria Marie Louise (12 December 1791 – 17 December 1847) was an Austrian archduchess who reigned as Duchess of Parma from 11 April 1814 until her death. She was Napoleon's second wife and as such Empress of the French and Queen of Italy from their ...

. In 1808, Napoleon arranged a marriage for her to a young lieutenant, Pierre-Philippe Augier of Sauzay, in order to end the royal affair. She was paid a hefty

dowry A dowry is a payment, such as property or money, paid by the bride's family to the groom or his family at the time of marriage. Dowry contrasts with the related concepts of bride price and dower. While bride price or bride service is a payment ...

by the emperor, and the newly married couple departed for Spain. Augier was listed as

missing in action Missing in action (MIA) is a casualty classification assigned to combatants, military chaplains, combat medics, and prisoners of war who are reported missing during wartime or ceasefire. They may have been killed, wounded, captured, ex ...

on 28 November 1812 during Napoleon's

Russian Campaign The French invasion of Russia, also known as the Russian campaign, the Second Polish War, the Army of Twenty nations, and the Patriotic War of 1812 was launched by Napoleon Bonaparte to force the Russian Empire back into the continental block ...

. Newly widowed, she married Count Charles-Emile-Auguste-Louis de Luxbourg in 1814. She remained with her third husband until his death 35 years later.

Sources

* * Englis
translation of www.appl-lachaise.net/appl/article.php3?id_article=323
(from French)

Translations

{{DEFAULTSORT:Denuelle de la Plaigne, Louise Catherine Eleonore * Mistresses of Napoleon 1787 births 1868 deaths Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery