… among our French fashion influences of the Regency era. Hortense was the step-daughter of Napoleon I, & the child that would carry the Bonaparte blood forward.
Hortense was said to have been a beautiful & cheerful child with pale golden hair & blue eyes. An accomplished composer & musician, she entertained Napoleon’s troops with her marching compositions. She attended school with the daughter of America’s president James Monroe, Eliza, & had a relationship with Americans.
(Portrait: Hortense with Napoleon III in 1807 just before the child’s death)