Marie Walewska : Napoleon's great love

A fascinating woman, Maria Countess Walewska (1786 -1817) was a Polish noblewoman and a mistress of Emperor Napoleon I. Maria was born into a wealthy noble family. In 1805 she married Count Colonna-Walewski, a wealthy landowner four times older than his young bride. Maria and the Count had one son, Antoni Rudolf Bazyli Colonna-Walewski, although it is believed by some historians that he was an illegitimate child, conceived shortly before Maria's marriage. Maria met Napoleon for the first time in 1806. Although Maria was initially reluctant to become Napoleon's mistress, she was convinced to do so by a number of Polish aristocrats who hoped that she could influence the emperor to support Poland in its struggle to regain independence from Prussia, the Habsburg Empire and the Russian Empire. In her memoirs, Maria maintained that she forced herself to get involved with Napoleon for purely patriotic reasons. In 1809 Maria followed Napoleon during his journey to Vienna, where she lived in a house near Napoleon's residence. While there, she became pregnant with her second son, Alexandre Joseph. Although Alexandre was unquestionably a product of Maria's affair with the Emperor, he was legalised by the old count and thus bore the name of the counts of Colonna-Walewski. In 1810 they all returned to Paris, but her previous relationship with Napoleon ended. The Emperor planned to divorce Josephine and instead marry Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma, and maintaining an affair with another woman seemed inappropriate. Her and her son's future were nevertheless assured by the grant of large land estates in the Kingdom of Naples. In 1816 Maria married her longtime admirer and lover, Philippe Antoine d'Ornano, count d'Ornano. They settled in Liege, as d'Ornano did not want to return to Paris due to his pro-Napoleonic allegiances. In 1817 Maria gave birth to count d'Ornano's son, Rudolph Augustus, and she died in Paris shortly afterwards due to a prolonged kidney illness.