9th January, 2013

Today it has been the first lesson of Social Sciences after the Christmas holidays. Paqui has said that we would correct the exercises that she gave us for homework.
First, we have corrected an exercise about the legacy of the French Revolution. The French armies spread the ideas of the French Revolution (freedom, equality, end of privileges, absolutism and feudalism, division of powers, right to vote for the citizens...) throughout Europe. Although the Napoleonic army was defeated, those ideas remained, because, as Paqui has said, people can kill people, but not ideas. The French occupation gave birth to nationalist feelings against the invaders too and different people expressed their will of living together and independently. Paqui has said that there are many Spanish nationalists, even in other parts of Spain apart from Catalonia and the Basque Country.
While we were copying the legacy of the French Revolution, Paqui has said that she posted some interactive activities about the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Era. Paqui has also said that Pilar posted information about Napoleon's wives and mistresses.
Napoleon married twice.
The first time, he married Joséphine de Beauharnais. When Joséphine married Napoleon she became the first Empress of the French.
As Joséphine grew up far from Paris and from the influence of noble birth's girls, her bearing was the reflection of her life in the countryside. Besides, as she ate a lot of sugar, she had a lot of caries and she lost her teeth
Joséphine had been married before, with Alexandre de Bauharnais, a viscount. This marriage solved Joséphine's family financial troubles because the Beauharnais' family had a lot of money. But her husband was guillotined during the Reign of Terror accused of being a traitor. Joséphine had two children with Alexandre: Hortense and Eugéne. After Alexandre's death, Joséphine was the misstress of different politicians.
Apparently, Joséphine married Napoleon while she was in love with a young general called Hoche.

Joséphine de Beauharnais

Napoleon and Joséphine met at a Joséphine's friend's house, where the general Barras introduced them. They got married on the 9th March 1796, only two months after they became engaged. Although they were married, Joséphine continued to have lovers. Napoleon noticed the infidelities, but he loved Joséhine a lot, so he forgave her. When the fact that Joséphine could not get pregnant was obvious, she accepted to divorce Napoleon, so that Napoleon could get married again and have the heir he wanted.
Joséphine was the woman who marked Napoleon’s life. Rumours say that Josephine chose Napoleon´s mistresses after their divorce and some of the conspiracies against Napoleon were broken because she obtained the information sleeping with the conspirators. Despite Napoleon's love affairs, the divorce and his new marriage, Napoleon's last words were: " France, the army, Joséphine".

Maria Letizia Ramolino was Napoleon's mother. Letizia was against the relation, and then the marriage between Napoleon and Joséphine de Beuharnais, but Napoleon didn't leave his love. Napoleon's mother didn't attend the wedding and she didn't allow her children to go either. She never accepted Joséphine, because Letizia thought that her daughter in law was disgraceful and wasteful, only worried about her own well-being. The infidelities of Joséphine increased their mutual rejection.
Napoleon's family didn't like his coronation. His mother, Letizia, didn't go to the event. On the painting Le sacre of Napoleon Letizia appears in the background, but that isn't true. Napoleon ordered Jean-Jacques David to include his mother on the painting.

Coronation of Napoleon

She was really pretty and clever and, when she was only 14, she married Carlo Bonaparte. Although their marriage was of convenience, they got along well: Carlo asked for his wife's advices many times and he satisfied Letizia's social interests. Letizia was a tough and strict mother, and he always gave preference to her sons Joseph and Lucien.

Letizia Bonaparte

Marie Louise of Austria became Napoleon's second wife in 1810. He looked for becoming related by marriage with an old royal family, as the Habsburg dynasty, so that his heir could have more possibilities to be accepted by the rest of the European monarchs. They had a son, Napoleon II.
When her husband was exiled in Elba, Marie Louise and her son went to Austria. She left her son in Vienna and she went to Parma, with her lover the Count Neippergh. She married him after Napoleon's death in 1821. She married the count, only four months after Napoleon died. When she became a widow, she got married again with Charles-René, count of Bombelles.

Marie Louise and her son, Napoleon II

Then, we have started a new point of the unit: Spain during the French Revolution. Paqui has shown us a Power Point presentation about this point.
Paqui has explained that The French Revolution coincided with Charles IV's reign in Spain, which was between 1788 and 1808. Charles was not gifted to rule and his father, Charles III, recommended him to keep enlightened ministers, the counts of Floriblanca and Aranda. When the French Revolution started, they tried to stop the spread of its ideas to Spain. But in 1793, Charles IV appointed Manuel Godoy (his wife's lover) as prime minister. Godoy was in charge of the government until March 1808.
Paqui has said that the present Spanish king, Juan Carlos I, looks like Charles IV.

Juan Carlos I

Charles IV

   

Maria Luisa of Parma, Charles IV's wife and cousin, was pretty in her youth, but after many childbirths and abortions (she got pregnant almost 25 times, of which 14 children were born), her beauty was damaged and she became ugly. She was capricious and coarse and dominated her husband. She had beautiful arms, so she often wore short-sleeved dresses to expose them.
In 1792, the Order of Queen Maria Luisa was founded at her suggestion, an order established as a distinction reserved only for women.
Maria Luisa was a very unpopular woman, maybe because of her relation with Manuel Godoy. He gave a horse to her, called Marcial, with whom she was painted by Goya.

Maria Luisa of Parma

Maria Luisa fell in love with a royal bodyguard, Manuel Godoy, who became Charles IV's prime minister due to Maria Luisa's contribution. He married María Teresa of Bourbon, Charles IV's cousin. He had a mistress, Pepita Tudó. María Teresa was unhappy because of her husband's infidelities. She didn't love her daughter, Carlota de Godoy, because the baby reminded her miserable life and her marriage with Godoy. Godoy said to Maria Luisa of Parma in many letters that his wife was pathetic and disinterested. When María Teresa died, in 1828, Manuel Godoy married her mistress, Pepita Tudó.

María Teresa of Bourbon

Paqui has explained that Godoy declared war to France in 1793, but after being defeated in the War of the Pyrenees, in 1795, he signed peace and became allied of France, partly because both, France and Spain, had a common enemy: Great Britain.
In 1805, the Hispano-French Armada was defeated by the British Armada in Trafalgar, which meant the end of the Spanish supremacy at the sea and the beginning of the British hegemony. After this battle, Napoleon decided to order the Continental Blockade, which forbade buying or selling products to Great Britain.
Pierre-Charles Villeneuve was the commander in chief of the Hispano-French Armada defeated by Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar. Nelson was a famous flag officer, who had several victories and was killed during the Battle of Trafalgar. Another famous man who died at Trafalgar was the Spanish Admiral Federico Gravina.
Paqui has explained that, as Portugal didn't obey the Continental Blockade, Napoleon planned the invasion of the country. So, in October 1807, Godoy signed the Treaty of Fontainebleau with Napoleon, agreement which allowed the French armies to cross Spain with the purpose of invading Portugal.

Manuel Godoy

Vocabulary:
laptop: ordenador portátil
lucky you! : ¡qué suerte!
mistress : amante
whorehouse : casa de putas
brothel : prostíbulo
a four letter word : palabrota
cape : cabo

I have added some vocabulary to understand the journal :
bearing : porte, modales
to introduce : presentar, dar a conocer a alguien
to become engaged : comprometerse
disgraceful : indigno
wasteful : despilfarrador
to refuse : renunciar