The French Sultana

by Zia Wesley

  ~ ~ ~

  The Empress Josephine de Beauharnais Bonaparte, née Marie-Joseph Rose Tascher de la Pagerie, was buried in the churchyard of St. Pierre–St. Paul church in Rueil-Malmaison. In 1852 her grandson, Hortense’s third son, was crowned Emperor Napoleon III. He ruled France successfully for two decades, then led it to defeat in the Franco-German War and died two years later.

  Eugène de Beauharnais retired to his father-in-law Maximilian’s estates in Bavaria following Napoleon’s exile, and gave up politics. His six children married into the royal families of Sweden, Germany, Russia, Brazil and Portugal.

  Josephine’s daughter, Hortense de Beauharnais Bonaparte, retired to her estate in Arenenberg, Switzerland, where she died in 1837. She was survived by only two of her four sons.

  ~ ~ ~

  Following Napoleon’s abdication and banishment, the French (Bourbon) monarchy was restored in 1814 with King Louis XVIII.

  In March of 1815, Napoleon escaped from Elba and returned to Paris, where he reclaimed his title in a period known as The Hundred Days. Three months later he was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo, which brought an end to the French domination of Europe. He abdicated for a second time and was this time exiled to the remote island of Saint Helena, in the southern Atlantic Ocean, where he lived until his death on May 5, 1821. The cause of death originally believed to be either stomach cancer or arsenic poisoning, still remains a mystery. Although modern DNA testing revealed trace amounts of arsenic in hair samples, no one was able to definitely identify the samples as being from Napoleon. Also, the amounts were far too small to indicate arsenic as a cause of death. Napoleon’s only legitimate son, called Napoleon II, never actually acceded to the throne and died in 1832 at the age of twenty-one.

  ~ ~ ~

  In 1820, Marie Le Normand’s biography of Josephine, Historical and Secret Memoirs of the Empress Josephine, Marie Rose Tascher De La Pagerie, First Wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, was published in France. In 1847, John E. Potter of Philadelphia published an English edition.

  ~ ~ ~

  The mysterious piece of inscribed black basalt discovered in Egypt and brought back to France by Napoleon’s troops, was translated by the French linguist Jean Francois Champollion in 1822 and proved to be the key to unlocking Egyptian hieroglyphics. It is known as The Rosetta stone.

  ~ ~ ~

  “The Auspicious Event of 1826” was the bloody and very final end of the Janissaries, engineered by Nakshidil’s son, Mahmud II.

  ~ ~ ~

  In 1867, Aimée’s grandson, Sultan Abdul Aziz Khan, became the first Ottoman Sultan to visit France. The following excerpt is from the Journal de France dated July 10, 1867:

  Sultan Abdul Aziz arrived in Paris this week for a state visit. As the first Ottoman Emperor to visit France, he was given a warm welcome by the government, which provided him with a huge suite at the Elysée Palace and a staff to assist his own vast retinue of servants. Among the Sultan’s wishes were hardboiled eggs at breakfast, Napoleon pastries at lunch, chocolates in the evening and private performances in his suite by the girls from the Folies Bergère. When asked why he had invited Sultan Abdul Aziz to Paris, Emperor Louis Napoleon replied he was most curious to meet Sultan Abdul Aziz because “we are related through our grandmothers.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Napoleon’s chief engineer, Jacques La Pere had been wrong about the height difference between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean and on April 25, 1859 work on the modern Suez Canal began. It took ten years and one hundred million dollars to complete and opened on November 17, 1869. The original canal dated back to the thirteenth century BC.

  ~ ~ ~

  The alliance between Muhammad Ibn Abd al-Wahhab and Muhammad Ibn Saud, head of the Al Saud tribal family, which was forged in 1804, still exists to this day. In 1902, a direct descendent of Muhammad Ibn Saud, twenty-year-old Abd al-Aziz Ibn Saud, rode out of the desert with a small band of brothers and cousins and joined forces with an army of nomadic Bedouins who were Wahhabi puritans known as the Ikhwan. Together, they reclaimed the ancient capital of Riyadh. In 1924 and 1925 they took back the holy cities of Mecca and Medina from the Turks. In 1932, Abd al-Aziz Ibin Saud declared himself king, giving his name to the lands he had captured: Saudi Arabia. To ensure the solidarity of his kingdom, he married one daughter from each of twenty influential Arab tribes. More than twenty sons issued from these unions and countless numbers of grandsons would follow. To this day, every Saudi King has been a son of Abd al-Aziz Ibn Saud.

  In 1933, Saudi Arabia and the United States of America signed an agreement for oil exploration, and later created Aramco, the Arabian American Oil Company, whose shareholders include America’s four largest oil corporations.

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  Here’s an excerpt from

  THE STOLEN GIRL

  The Veil and the Crown

  Book One

  ~~~

  Everyone froze in a moment of total silence.

  Standing in the passageway were two huge, swarthy men with long black hair partially wrapped in dirty turbans and full, unkempt beards. Each held a sword in one hand and a pistol in the other, which they now waved as they screamed something in a language no one understood.

  The women shrieking uncontrollably, Aimée slid down the bulkhead to sit upon the floor, still conscious but in shock. Two male passengers backed away from the pirates, spreading their arms protectively in front of the women huddling behind them.

  The pirates continued waving their arms, screaming incomprehensible gibberish. Three more entered the salon. Quickly assessing the situation, the five brigands conversed amongst themselves. When their private conversation was finished, they forcibly herded the two men from the room, using their swords to slash at them.

  Then the women were removed, leaving Aimée alone amongst the pirates.

  Three of them discussed her quietly as they approached the corner where she sat, stunned. With grimy hands, they gently lifted her to her feet as she shook uncontrollably, head down, afraid to look at them, instinctively covering her bosom with her arms.

  As they openly appraised her, Aimée found the courage to lift her head, look into their faces, and fainted dead away.

  But her one direct look afforded brigands a glimpse of her sapphire-blue eyes, causing a collective gasp.

  ~

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  THE STOLEN GIRL

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  Historical Facts

  Sultan Selim III entered history as “The Great Modernizer.”

  Nakshidil’s son, Sultan Mahmud II reigned for thirty-one years, from 1808 to 1839, and instituted radical Western changes into Turkish society. He outlawed turbans and kaftans, replacing them with frock coats and the fez, introduced dining on chairs, the use of eating utensils, Western foods and alcoholic beverages such as champagne and brandy. He also reformed outdated protocols both social and governmental, replacing them with Western-style manners and government. He entered history as Mahmud the Reformer and sired 43 children, of which two became Sultans: the eldest, Sultan Abdul Majid Khan I, followed by Abdul Aziz Kahn I.

  Eugene de Beauharnais’ children:

  Princess Joséphine Maximiliane Eugénie Napoléone de Beauharnais (1807–1876) became the Queen Consort to King Oscar I of Swe
den, himself the son of Napoleon’s old love, Désirée Clary.

  Princess Eugénie Hortense Auguste de Beauharnais (1808–1847) married Friedrich, Prince of Hohenzollern-Hechingen.

  Prince Auguste Charles Eugène Napoléon de Beauharnais (1810–1835), 2nd Duke of Leuchtenberg, married Queen Maria II of Portugal.

  Princess Amélie Auguste Eugénie Napoléone de Beauharnais (1812–1873) was the second wife of Peter I of Brazil, and became Empress.

  Princess Theodelinde Louise Eugénie Auguste Napoléone de Beauharnais (1814–1857) married Wilhelm, 1st Duke of Urach.

  Prince Maximilian Josèphe Eugène Auguste Napoléon de Beauharnais (1817–1852) married Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaievna of Russia, eldest daughter of Tsar Nicholas I, and received the title of “Prince Romanovsky.”

  Hortense de Beauharnais Bonaparte’s children:

  Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte (1808–1873) became Emperor Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870.

  Charles Auguste Louis Joseph Demorny (1811–1865), her illegitimate son by Auguste Charles Joseph, Comte de Flahaut de La Billarderie (1785–1870), was born secretly in Switzerland. He became a political and social leader during the Second Empire, after playing an important role in the coup d’etat of 1851, that led to his half-brother’s nomination as Emperor Napoleon III.

  Napoleon’s second wife, The Empress Marie-Louise, married twice after his death; both times morganatically—meaning that neither spouse nor offspring could inherit royal titles or monies. Her second husband was Count Adam Albert von Neipperg, an “equerry” she met in 1814, who fathered her two children. The 1814 Treaty of Fontainebleau handed over the Duchies of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla to Marie-Louise, which she ruled until her death.

  Glossary

  Ada: a depilatory paste made from beet sugar or honey and lemon.

  Al-Djazir: The old translation of the city name for Algiers.

  Ambergris: a solid waxy substance produced by whales that was used in perfumes and fragrant incense.

  Arak: an anise flavored liquor.

  Barbarosa: the nickname given to Hayreddin Pasha by Europeans. It means “red beard” in Italian and Spanish. He was the Admiral of the fleet under Suleiman the Magnificent in 1478-1546 and entered history a notorious pirate.

  Baskadine: mother of the first-born heir to the sultan’s throne.

  Baskatibe: the first secretary who was responsible for discipline and conduct in the harem.

  Bakshish: bribes or payoffs sometimes disguised as “tribute”.

  Bey or Beg: a provincial governor.

  Bursa: healing water.

  Caftan or Kaftan: the long robe with wide sleeves worn by men and women.

  Camasr Usta: ran the laundry and cared for imperial robes. The basins and clotheslines used for the sultan’s robes were always silver.

  Cariye: the name for novices and slaves.

  Cariye darisi: school for odalisks.

  Chief taster: tasted the sultan’s food for poison. She wore red trousers and a long gown with a yellow handkerchief.

  Corps of Gardeners/gardeners: elite assassins employed to eliminate the sultan’s enemies at his command.

  Dey: an honorary title given to a ruler of an entire territory or province.

  The Divan: The Ottoman government.

  Ferace: the traditional covering worn by Moslem women throughout the Ottoman Empire. Made of silk in summer and heavier cloth in winter, the lower classes always wore black while upper classes wore a wide variety of bright colors.

  Grand Vizier: the defacto head of state in the seventeenth century. The Sultan’s most primary official who held power of attorney and presided over the government in the sultan’s absence. There were eleven viziers under the Grand Vizier.

  The Hall of the Divan: The opulent reception hall where the sultan received his guests.

  Hamam: communal Turkish baths.

  Ibriktar Usta: the superintendant of the baths (hamam).

  Janissaries: Christian boys taken from their families at five or six years of age who were converted to Islam and trained as “soldiers of Allah”. They served as members of the Ottoman army, navy, police force and palace guards.

  Jezve: traditional coffee pot.

  Kafes or Cage: A three story windowless building built in 1603 that was guarded by deaf mutes and used to protect/incarcerate heirs to the throne.

  Kalfa: older serving women.

  Kizlar Agasi: Referred to by Turkish people as “the Pasha with three tails” he was a black eunuch who ruled the harem with the sultana or sultan valide. His responsibilities included filling vacancies in the harem, the education of heirs, the sentencing and execution of women who committed crimes, overseeing the investments of the favorites, the inspection of charitable institutions and was a confidential messenger of the sultan. He accumulated immense wealth and owned slaves, horses and eunuchs.

  Kutuchu Usta: herbalists who served as pharmacists to the harem women. Assisted their mistresses at eh baths, wardrobes, and hair. Used herbs and unguents, pediatric medical practices unknown in Europe such as vaccinations, and assisted in pregnancies and childbirth. Often engaged in poisonings.

  Malmaison: The Empress Josephine’s estate in the city of Rueil seven miles outside of Paris.

  Maymay: Rose’s pet name for Aimée.

  Nargileh: water pipes for smoking a mixture of herbs and tobacco.

  Odalisque or odalisk: the European term for the sultan’s women.

  Pattens: high wooden shoes that harem women wore in the baths to protect their feet from the residue of depilatories.

  Regicide: the practice of killing off heirs to the throne.

  Saray Usta: the mistress of ceremonies who oversaw all births, weddings, circumcisions official and religious celebrations. Presided over every ceremony and instructed everyone in behavior they should adopt in the presence of the sultan and imperial family.

  Serbet: a frozen sherbet drink made with snow from Mt. Olympus and served in the Sultan’s harem. Flavored with flower and fruit essences, they were never available anywhere else due to the great expense of transporting the ice.

  Sublime Porte: The Ottoman government.

  Sultan Valide: the woman who governed the harem with her close circle of ministers, usually the mother of the heir.

  Topkapi Palace: The sultan’s palace in Istanbul.

  Tressed Halbrediers: young boys whose job it was to bring wood to the harem. They wore two locks of false hair like long curtains, from helmets that shielded their eyes from seeing peripherally so they could not see the harem women.

  Ulema: A group of scholarly Islamic priests who played an important part in the Ottoman government. The word Ulema is also used as a title for the most senior of these priests.

  Yasmak: the face mask worn by Moslem women usually of fine muslin or silk in two pieces; one covered the mouth and nose, the other wrapped around the head to cover everything except their eyes.

  Yeyette: the pet name Rose’s family called her.

  Vodoun: the French spelling for Voodoo.

  About the Author

  Zia Wesley is the author of The Stolen Girl, the first book in the Veil and the Crown series. She is also the best-selling author of six non-fiction books on natural beauty and longevity writing as Zia Wesley Hosford. Her latest books in this genre include: Zia’s M.A.P. (Master Anti-aging Plan) to Basic Skin Care, Zia’s M.A.P. to Growing Young and Zia’s M.A.P. to Men’s Skin Care. They are currently available online through all of your favorite ebook sites.

  You can follow Zia on her website and social media for updates and more information about the Veil and the Crown Series.

  For a bibliography of the research Zia used in writing the Veil and the Crown series, please go to her website www.ziawesleynovelist.com/.

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