BEAUHARNAIS JOSEPHINE DE: (1763-1814) Empress of the French 1804-14, the first wife of Napoleon I.

BEAUHARNAIS JOSEPHINE DE: (1763-1814) Empress of the French 1804-14, the first wife of Napoleon I.
L.S., Lapagerie Bonaparte, two pages, 8vo, n.p. (Chateau de Malmaison?), 30th May 1800, to an unidentified recipient, in French. Josephine thanks her correspondent for the plants which she had been promised and informs her correspondent that her gardener (Alexander Howatson?) will receive and take care of the plants, which she provides a list of, and which includes a rose, as well as various species of Eucalyptus, Magnolia, Laurel and Hibiscus etc. She further invites her correspondent to visit her garden and provide her with some advice. The text of the letter is in the hand of Mme. De Remusat. Some very light, minor age wear, otherwise VGIn 1799, while Napoleon was in Egypt, Josephine purchased the Chateau de Malmaison. She had it landscaped in an English style, hiring landscapers and horticulturalists from the United Kingdom including Thomas Blaikie, a Scottish horticultural expert, and Alexander Howatson, a Scottish gardener. The rose garden was begun soon after purchase and Josephine took a personal interest in the gardens and the roses, as illustrated by the present letter, and learned a great deal about botany and horticulture from her staff. Josephine wanted to collect all known roses so Napoleon ordered his warship commanders to search all seized vessels for plants to be forwarded to Malmaison. The English nurseryman Kennedy was a major supplier and, despite England and France being at war, his shipments were allowed to cross blockades. Sir Joseph Banks, Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, also sent her roses. The general assumption is that she had about 250 roses in her garden when she died in 1814. Unfortunately, the roses were not catalogued during her tenure, however Josephine produced the first written history of the cultivation of roses, and is believed to have hosted the first rose exhibition, in 1810. The present letter was written just nine days before the Battle of Montebello on 9th June 1800, part of the lead-up to the Battle of Marengo on 14th June 1800, when the vanguard of the French Army in Italy engaged and defeated an Austrian force in a glorious victory.In 1795 Josephine Beauharnais met Napoleon Bonaparte, six years her junior, for the first time. She became his mistress and in January 1796 Napoleon proposed to her. The marriage was not well accepted by Napoleon's family, who were shocked that he had married an older woman with two children. As the wife of Napoleon, Josephine became the first Empress Consort of the French and was crowned by Pope Pius VII at Notre Dame de Paris on 2nd December 1804. She did not bear Napoleon any children and, as a result, he divorced her in 1810 to marry Marie Louise of Austria.