Editing Eugénie de Montijo (section)

== Marriage ==
[[File:Empress Eugénie in Court Dress (after Winterhalter, Compiègne IMP25).jpg|thumb|Portrait by [[Franz Xaver Winterhalter]], 1853]]

She first met Prince Louis Napoléon after he had become president of the [[French Second Republic|Second Republic]] with her mother at a reception given by the "prince-president" at the [[Élysée Palace]] on 12 April 1849.{{sfn|Kurtz|1964|page=29}} "What is the road to your heart?" Napoleon demanded to know. "Through the chapel, Sire", she answered.<ref name=Bierman>{{cite book|last=Bierman|first=M.F.E.M|title=Napoleon III and His Carnival Empire|url=https://archive.org/details/napoleoniiihisca00bier|url-access=registration|year=1988|publisher=St Martin's Press (New York)|isbn=0-312-01827-4}}</ref>

In a speech on 22 January 1853, Napoleon III, after becoming emperor, formally announced his engagement, saying, "I have preferred a woman whom I love and respect to a woman unknown to me, with whom an alliance would have had advantages mixed with sacrifices".{{sfn|Kurtz|1964|page=50}} They were wed on 29 January 1853 in a civil ceremony at the [[Tuileries Palace|Tuileries]], and on the 30th, there was a grander religious ceremony at [[Notre Dame de Paris|Notre Dame]].{{sfn|Kurtz|1964|pages=55–59}}
[[Image:Emperor Napoléon III and his family.jpg|thumb|right|Emperor [[Napoleon III of France|Napoleon III]] and Empress Eugénie with their son]]

[[Image:Empress Eugénie of the French.jpg|right|thumb|Empress Eugénie of the French, 1858]]

The marriage had come after considerable activity concerning who would make a suitable match, often toward titled royals and with an eye to foreign policy. The final choice was opposed in many quarters. Eugénie was considered of too little social standing by some.{{sfn|Duff|1978|pages=83–84}}{{sfn|Kurtz|1964|pages=45–52}} In the United Kingdom, ''[[The Times]]'' made light of the latter concern, emphasizing that the [[parvenu]] Bonapartes were marrying into [[Grandee]]s and one of the most important established houses in the [[Spanish nobility|peerage of Spain]]: "We learn with some amusement that this romantic event in the annals of the French Empire has called forth the strongest opposition and provoked the utmost irritation. The Imperial family, the Council of Ministers, and even the lower coteries of the palace or its purlieus, all affect to regard this marriage as an amazing humiliation..." {{Citation needed|date=November 2011}}

Eugénie found childbearing extraordinarily difficult. An initial miscarriage in 1853, after a three-month pregnancy, frightened and soured her.{{sfn|Duff|1978|pages=104–105}} On 16 March 1856, after two-day labor that endangered mother and child and from which Eugénie made a prolonged recovery, the empress gave birth to an only son, [[Napoléon Eugène, Prince Imperial|Napoléon Eugène Louis Jean Joseph Bonaparte]], styled ''Prince Impérial''.{{sfn|Duff|1978|pages=126–129}}{{sfn|Kurtz|1964|pages=90, 94}}

After marriage, it did not take long for her husband to stray as Eugénie found sex with him "disgusting".<ref>{{cite book |last=Kelen |first=Betty |title=Mistresses: Domestic Scandals of 19th Century Monarchs |year=1966 |location=New York |publisher=Random Hours|lccn=65021242|oclc=619857|ol=OL5948939M}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=September 2023}} It is doubtful that she allowed further approaches by her husband once she had given him an heir.<ref name="Bierman"/> He subsequently resumed his "petites distractions" with other women.