Coronation And Deadly Folly

What a scene, Napoleon, self-crowned and proclaimed leader of all the world crowns his Empress Josephine, resplendent in diamonds as the powers of the Church look on, scowling at the blasphemy of the thing. Triomphe! for the Corsican upstart and his Consort. Lesueur captures the moment, with pre-industrial grandeur:

Triumph indeed, but hubris met nemesis in the Iron Duke, Wellington, who put paid to Boney's scheme of a new world order with himself in charge, smashing the upstart at Waterloo. It's said that clubland in St. James was awakened to the fact of allied victory in 1815 by parades of jubilant people carrying captured French Eagles.

So much for Boney. Wellington stated, laconically, "They came on in the same old way and we beat them back, in the same old way." You can imagine the 50,000 casualties on the field of battle. Here's the Duke in older and seemingly kinder visage:

Josephine Bonaparte died in 1814, a year before her beloved husband met disaster at Waterloo.

Sic transit,

LSP

Sic Transit

 

You'll note Imperial Ladies aloft. Regardless, the Corsican Upstart ended his days on an island in the South Atlantic, his vaunted Grande  Armée smashed and defeated at Waterloo. So much for Boney.

His beautiful and gorgeous Empress Josephine died in 1814, a year before her philandering, adulterous Emperor was utterly and irrevocably defeated by the Iron Duke. Her last words, allegedly spoken through black and rotting teeth were, "Bonaparte … Elba … the King of Rome."

There is, if you care to draw it, a moral in this tale,

LSP