Walewska and Napoleon
Maria Walewska met Napoleon for the first time in 1806 in Błonie, or in Jabłonna. According to Maria's own memoirs, she spoke briefly with the French emperor in an inn when his carriage was changing horses, but the meeting was inconclusive. However, Napoleon remembered her for her extraordinary conversation and requested to see her in Warsaw, intending to have regular meetings with her. The political context for Poland was complicated; the country had been wiped off the map at the end of the previous century and Polish nationalists were hoping Napoleon might bring the country back to life.
They met again at a ball hosted by count Stanislaw Potocki in his Warsaw residence. Walewska was being advised to work towards a position in the inner circle of Napoleon by the Emperor's aide, General Géraud Duroc (Grand Marshal of the Palace). A number of Polish aristocrats asked her the same, hoping 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, Walewska maintained that she forced herself to get intimately involved with Napoleon for purely patriotic reasons:The sacrifice was complete. It was all about harvesting fruit now, achieving this one single equivalence [convincing Napoleon to support the Polish independence movement], which could excuse my debased position. This was the thought that possessed me. Ruling over my will it did not allow me to fall under the weight of my bad consciousness and sadness.
The intimate relationship was initially kept secret, even though unofficially it was one of the most widely commented on pieces of news in Warsaw's higher circles. Walewska visited Napoleon, residing in the capital's Royal Castle, only at nights and would secretly leave the building each morning. The relationship progressed when Napoleon moved to his field headquarters in Finckenstein Palace in East Prussia (now Kamieniec Suski, Poland): Walewska followed him there and they moved into neighbouring apartments. As Maria was extraordinarily discreet for her times, they still maintained apparent secrecy: she refused to leave the part of the building in which they lived, fearing being seen by officers surrounding Napoleon, many of whom were her acquaintances or relatives.
According to Madame de Rémusat:
This extraordinary wooing did not, however, prevent the young Polish lady [Marie] from becoming attached to the Emperor, for their liaison was prolonged during several campaigns.
In 1809 Walewska followed Napoleon during his journey to Vienna, where she lived in a house near Schönbrunn Palace, Napoleon's residence. During her sojourn in Vienna she became pregnant and returned to Walewice in order to give birth to her second son, Alexandre Joseph. Although Alexandre was rumoured to be the natural son of the Emperor, Count Athanasius officially recognised Alexandre as his son and gave him the name of the counts of Colonna-Walewski.
In 1810 Napoleon returned to Paris, where he was soon joined by Walewska. She settled in a palatial residence in the Rue de Montmorency and was given a large rent of 120,000 francs and a permission to enter all of the imperial museums, but her relationship with Napoleon ended. The Emperor planned to divorce Joséphine and instead arrange a strategic marriage to Marie Louise, daughter of the Austrian Emperor. Maintaining his relationship with Walewska seemed inappropriate to gain that goal. Though Marie Walewska was since presented at the Imperial Court, initially provoking the jealousy of Joséphine, after the divorce she became an intimate friend of the former Empress at Malmaison, frequently bringing her son. Walewska's future and that of her son were nevertheless assured by the grant of large land estates in the Kingdom of Naples. On 15 June 1812, at Königsberg, East Prussia, Napoleon signed the letters patent, officially recognizing Alexandre with the title of Count of the Empire.
Following Napoleon's first abdication, Walewska traveled to Fontainebleau, where the Emperor had unsuccessfully attempted to end his life. She waited throughout the night in an anteroom for his summons. However, Napoleon recalled her presence only in the morning, by which time she had departed. He remarked, "Poor woman, she will think she was forgotten!" Though he took the time to send her a reassuring note.
During his exile to Elba, on 1 September 1814, Walewska visited the Emperor, bringing their son Alexandre. Napoleon received them discreetly, meeting her and escorting her to the Sanctuary of the Sanctuary of the Madonna del Monte, a secluded convent above Marciana. He had set up a tent in the garden to host his guests. The visit was cut short due to rumors on the island mistaking her for the Empress and their son for the King of Rome. To prevent scandal, she departed to the mainland.
After the Hundred Days, Walewska and her son visited Napoleon once more at Malmaison for a tearful farewell before his departure to Saint Helena. Joséphine's daughter, Hortense, invited her to stay for lunch to prevent people to observe her in such a state.
