A Napoleonic beauty in day dress with a high neckline suited for cooler weather. The waistline is maybe an inch or so below the breasts.*** Queen of Holland. Mother of Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III). A classic Napoleonic beauty. Hortense Eugenie Cecile de Beauharnais, Princesse Francaise, Queen of Holland, Grand Duchess of Berg and Cleves, Duchess of Saint-Leu (1783 - 1837), was the wife of Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland and the mother of Napoleon III, Emperor of the French. Hortense was born in Paris, France, the daughter of Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais and of his wife Josephine Tascher de la Pagerie. In 1794 her father was executed during the Reign of Terror. Two years later her mother married Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1802 at Napoleon's request, Hortense married his brother Louis Bonaparte. The couple had three sons, including Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, later Napoleon III, Emperor of the French (1808- 1873). In 1806 Napoleon appointed his brother Louis, King of Holland. Hortense accompanied her husband to The Hague, in spite of the fact that their marriage was an unhappy one (the paternity of at least one of Hortense's sons has been questioned). In 1810 Louis abdicated as King of Holland and settled in Germany; Hortense, on the other hand, returned with her sons to France. In 1811 Hortense gave birth to a son by her lover, Charles Joseph, comte de Flahaut, Charles Auguste Louis Joseph , later made duc de Morny by his half-brother, Napoleon III. At the restoration of the Bourbons in 1814, Hortense received the protection of Alexander I, Tsar of Russia; at his instigation she was created duchesse de Saint-Leu by King Louis XVIII. During the Hundred Days, however, Hortense supported her step-father and brother-in-law Napoleon. This led to her banishment from France after his final defeat. She traveled in Germany and Italy before purchasing the Chateau of Arenenberg in the Swiss canton of Thurgau in 1817. She lived there until her death on October 5, 1837, at age 54. She is buried next to her mother Josephine in the St Pierre-St Paul church in Rueil-Malmaison.