Excerpt from The Marriages of the Bonapartes, Vol. 1 of 2 The various historians who have dealt with the first Napoleon have hardly paid sufficient attention to the matrimonial alliances by which he hoped to found and consolidate, not only an empire as large as that over which Charlemagne held sway, but several kingdoms in addition. From a very early age Napoleon looked upon marriage as a means of pushing his fortunes in the world; and if at one time he contemplated marrying a lady old enough to be his mother, did not a Duc d'Alencon, at the age of seventeen, venture over to England to pay his addresses to Queen Elizabeth, who was then in her thirty-sixth year? It is true that an objection was raised on the score of age; but a marriage with the Duc d'Anjou, who was only a year older than his brother, had been seriously entertained by the maiden queen. A perusal of the following pages will show how the matrimonial schemes of Napoleon ended, and what little solidity they possessed. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.