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Here is Baron Gérand's portrait of Queen Hortense of Holland the Netherlands with the princes Napoleon Louis Bonaparte (1804-31)
and Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, the future Napoleon III (1808-73). The portrait was painted about 1809-10. By this time the Emperor was rethinking his carefully laid plans. He was preparing to remove his brother Louis from the Dutch throne. Napoleon had been seeking to establish Bonaparte in Europe. He had crowned himself and Joséphine in Notre Dame Emperor and Empress of France (1804). At the coronation, Princess Hortense was arayed in a stunning empire-style gown studded with diamonds. Almost all the brothers and sisters of the Emperor received a crown. His younger brother Louis Bonaparte had married Hortense, the Emperor's step-daughter. He made them King and Queen of Holland. Hortense who had just given birth to Napoleon Louis in Paris (1803) was not pleased with the news. "Do you really believe that we want to send to Holland?" she wrote her brother Eugène. "I can not think without tears to my eyes. My God, I will I will have sorrow to die!" She especially did not want to leave her mother. Napoleon ignored her complaints. The new Queen and King arrived in the Hague with their two sons. (1806). They tried to make the best of it. She told the Dutch Admiral Verhuell that she longed to be loved by the Dutch, so they could reimburse her all that she had to leave behind in France. The royal family moved into the
rather nreglected Huis ten Bosch. The last resident, William V lived in exile in Germany. King Louis began renovatin their residence. And he took an interest in improving conditions in Holland. Louis was, however, not getting on well with hus wife. The marriage was a disaster. He was jealous and began spying on Hortense. He had her letters opened and forbade her to dance at court balls. Nor could she sing and play the piano in public. She had to live like a prisoner in a gilded cage. There were heated arguments. The Royal couple suffered the loss of their oldest son, the Crown Prince Napoleon Charles (1807). There are reports that the Emperor was imprssed with the boy. The Emperor allowed her to visit France as the climate there was considered better for her other son Louis-Napoléon. She remained in France, enjoying her royal satus at the French court. Napoleon forced her to return to the Netherlands. He did not consider it suitable to have the daughter of his former wife at court. Hortense returned temporarily to the Netherlands, but was allowed to leave again on the pretext of her health. And Napoleon forced his brother to abdicate.
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