Editing Hortense de Beauharnais (section)

==Personal life==
[[File:Portret van Hortense de Beauharnais, koningin van Holland Rijksmuseum SK-A-4943.jpeg|thumb|200px|Portrait of Hortense, by [[Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson]] in 1808|alt=A portrait of Hortense]]

Hortense was now free to respond to the romantic overtures of the man whom she had long admired, Colonel [[Charles Joseph, Comte de Flahaut]], a sophisticated, handsome man, who was an illegitimate son of [[Talleyrand]].<ref name=":1">{{cite book |last=Mossiker |first=Frances |title=Napoleon and Josephine: The Biography of a Marriage |url=https://archive.org/details/napoleonjosephin00moss |url-access=registration |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |year=1964 |page=[https://archive.org/details/napoleonjosephin00moss/page/347 347]}}</ref><ref name="Dard 1938 https://www.jstor.org/stable/44850143?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents 341-342">{{cite journal |last=Dard |first=Emile |title=Trois Générations: Talleyrand, Flahaut, Morny: II|journal=Revue des Deux Mondes (1829-1971) |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44850143 |volume=46|publisher=Revue des Deux Mondes |location=France |year=1938 |issue=3 |page=[https://www.jstor.org/stable/44850143?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents 341-342]|jstor=44850143 }}</ref> They soon became lovers.
In 1811, at an unspecified inn in [[Switzerland]], close to [[Lake Geneva]], Hortense gave birth to a son by Comte de Flahaut secretly,
[[Charles Auguste Louis Joseph, duc de Morny|Charles Auguste Louis Joseph]] ( 21 October 1811 - 10 March 1865), created '''[[Duke of Morny]]''' by his half-brother, [[Napoléon III]], in 1862.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle=Morny, Charles Auguste Louis Joseph, Duc de |volume=18 |page=849}}</ref><ref name="Dard 1938 https://www.jstor.org/stable/44850143?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents 341-342"/>

Only her brother Eugène, her closest companions, and [[Adelaide Filleul, Marquise de Souza-Botelho|Adélaïde Filleul de Souza]] (Charles de Flahaut's mother) were aware of her pregnancy and the subsequent birth. She had used poor health to explain her prolonged visit to Switzerland, which Adélaïde arranged. Hortense disguised her pregnancy cleverly (she was, by then, in her sixth month) during the baptism of Napoléon's son, [[Napoléon II]], when Napoléon I made her one of the child's godmothers, an honour she shared with [[Letizia Ramolino|Madame Mère]], mother of the Emperor.

In 1814 Flahaut had an affair with the [[Comédie-Française]] actress [[Mademoiselle Mars]]. When Hortense read Mars’ "passionate outpourings" in one of her letters to Charles, she ended the affair. Although Hortense still had a deep attachment to Charles and remained in correspondence with him initially, she then made up her mind to release him. When, months later, he had mentioned that he had met "a rich young woman who seemed to like him,” Hortense begged him to forget the promises he had made to her.<ref name=":2">[[Margaret Mercer Elphinstone]], see Scarisbrick, p. 55.</ref> In October that year she went on a pilgrimage to the Benedictine shrine of Our Lady of the Hermits at [[Einsiedeln Abbey]] in the Swiss [[canton of Schwyz]]. After renouncing her claims on Charles, she presented a bouquet of diamond [[hydrangea]]s to the Virgin and a ring for the abbot, having been blessed, she wrote, with "so many consolations, such happiness at Einsiedeln not to wish that my memory remain there after I had left."<ref name=":3">Scarisbrick, pp. 53–55.</ref>

=== Composer ===
[[File:Le divorce de l'Impératrice Joséphine 15 décembre 1809 (Henri-Frederic Schopin).jpg|thumb|''[[The Divorce of the Empress Josephine]]'' by [[Henri Frédéric Schopin]], 1846. Hortense accompanies her mother for the signing of the official divorce from [[Napoleon]] in 1809.]]
Hortense de Beauharnais found love for music during her time in boarding school and she became a self-acclaimed amateur composer there (Beaucour, 2007). Though she did not have any known education in composition, it is said that she was a very talented singer and pianist. Fétis wrote about her in his article, Biographie Universelle des Musiciens, the following lines:

: “Plantade was Queen Hortense’s singing-master when she was at Mad. Campan’s school; what her Majesty gained more especially from her lessons was a great capability of stint, she composed several pieces of this kind, among which is the one beginning with the words: ‘Partant pour la Syrie.’ This romance, which enjoyed a great vogue about 1810, again became popular in France after 1852.”<ref>(Novello, 1874)</ref> While her stepfather, Napoleon, ruled over France, she wrote marches and the French Troops sung some of her songs.<ref>(Jackson, 1999)</ref>

Hortense was banished when [[Napoleon]] was defeated and there she wrote numerous pieces, mostly notably her 12 Romances she wrote for her brother Eugene. Although she was banished, Hortense’s home exemplified the spirit of French art culture. There she presented her arts for her many visitors. Famous contemporary artists like Franz Liszt, Alexandre Dumas, and Lord Byron came to visit and listen to her piano performances. Hortense’s most famous composition ‘[[Partant pour la Syrie]]’ became the national hymn of France after her son [[Emperor Napoleon III]] instated it as such. (Last FM, 2010). French composer [[Camille Saint-Saens]] quotes “Partant pour la Syrie” in “Fossils” from his Carnival of the Animals.

A collection of some of her writing, art, and compositions can be found in her “Livre d’art de la reine Hortense.”<ref>{{Cite book |last=Koningin.) |first=Hortense (Holland |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iwAFMwAACAAJ&q=%22Livre+d%E2%80%99art+de+la+reine+Hortense%22 |title=Livre d'art de la Reine Hortense: (Album artistique de la Reine Hortense); une visite a Augsbourg, esquisse biographique; lettres, dessins et musique |date=1860 |publisher=Heugel |language=fr}}</ref>

=== Charities ===
Hortense donated to the poor often and was also known to be a favourite amongst them.<ref name=":4" /> She states in her [[memoir]]s, “Going to one of the mulatto houseservants I announced, ‘John, look at all this money granny gave me for the poor black people. Take me round to their cabins so I can give it to them.’”<ref name=":4" />