Napoleon and Josephine's marriage certificate for sale
12 July Real News
The greatest love stories in history and now the marriage certificate
that sealed the union of Napoleon and his first wife Josephine is to be
sold at auction in September.
The document dated March 8, 1796, was signed by the future Napoleon I
and his fiancee Marie Josephe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie, or Josephine,
the Viscomtesse de Beauharnais.The wedding itself took place the next
day, and the contract was registered in Paris on March 18.Despite
history recording their passionate love affair, the document shows that
the star-crossed lovers could also be very practical.The marriage
certificate states that the pair will "in no way be responsible for the
debts and mortgages of the other" and that there will be "no common
property" between them.
The document is expected to fetch up to 100,000 euros ($135,000) when
it is auctioned on September 21 by Maison Osenat, at a sale in a suburb
west of Paris.The auction, which will feature a number of other
manuscripts and items from the era, will also feature two documents
related to BonaparteĀ“s arrest in 1794. At a previous auction in 2007, a
love letter to Josephine written before they were married, sold for more
than five times the pre-sale estimate.The marriage was annulled in 1810,
after the couple failed to have children. |