Spanish born, Eugenie was educated in Paris, & was from the beginning a part of the fashionable aristocratic society.
She met Louis Bonaparte (Napoleon I brother) at a party, where he tired to seduce her by asking “What is the way to your heart?”, to which she responded, “through the Chapel, sir”. Their marriage was arranged somewhat as a political alliance.
(Portrait: Eugenie’s coronation ensemble in 1853. Always the height of fashion and willing to spend the money for trim)