From Josephine to Eugenie, the wives and consorts of France's emperors played a pivotal role in shaping the country's political and cultural history. In this lively and engaging work, Guerber explores the lives of these remarkable women, offering a glimpse into the glittering world of the French court. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Excerpt from Empresses of France In the course of extended researches into the history of France, I first became aware of the fact that neither in French nor in English does there exist any brief yet comprehensive work giving the lives of the Queens and Empresses. The lack of such a book having proved a great annoyance to me, I felt it would perchance assist other students were I to weave my copious notes into consecutive narratives which would also interest the general public. While the Queens of France are very numerous and often insignificant, the Empresses are three women of note, whose lives extend over more than a century. As their sayings and doings form an important part of the stirring history of their time, it has seemed best to give them a volume to themselves. Josephine, Marie Louise, and Eugenie are names which call to mind endless pageants and touching or dramatic scenes, which historians, novelists, poets, and playwrights have already used in their works, and will doubtless use again. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."

A leading French historian reviews the reigns, deeds, and misdeeds of France's sovereigns - both famous and infamous - from the Merovingians of the fifth century to the abdication of Louis Philippe in 1848.