Josephine Bonaparte

Poly Styrene was born Marie Joan Elliot-Said in 1957 and went on to become front woman of X-Ray Spex. When Pauline Black first saw her on Top of the Pops, Poly was wearing a red military jacket and cap. Her attitude, says the lead singer of ska band The Selecter, was captivating. ...  Show more

Laurence Olivier, Baron Olivier of Brighton, was born in Dorking in 1907. He's best known these days for roles in films ranging from Wuthering Heights to Spartacus to the ageing Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman in The Boys from Brazil. He received twelve Oscar nominations but was in hi ...  Show more

Josephine went from the daughter of a Caribbean plantation owner to the wife of a prominent French aristocrat. After her husband was guillotined during the revolution, she caught the eye of an up and coming soldier named Napoleon. He wrote her romantic letters while conquering mu ...  Show more

We examine Napoleon's private life, with a special focus on the most important person in it: the charming and controversial Empress of the French, Josephine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 

Josephine and Eugénie, related by marriage, and separated by only a generation, both rose from relative obscurity to become the Empress of France during tumultuous times. The paths of these very different women never crossed, but they both were stars in their own time and left th ...  Show more

For better and for worse, a new government takes over in Paris: the Directory. Napoleon and Josephine are married, and we examine her unhappy early life. Napoleon leaves Paris to meet his destiny. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices