His first wife, Josephine Bonaparte, narrowly avoided the guillotine

On June 23, 1763, Marie Josèphe Rose Tascher de La Pagerie was born in Les Trois-Îlets, Martinique to Joseph Gaspard Tascher and Rose-Claire des vergers de Sannois. Her family was very wealthy and owned a sugarcane plantation. However, they began to struggle financially when their plantation was destroyed by hurricanes in 1766. When Joséphine’s aunt arranged a marriage between her sister and François, Vicomte de Beauharnais’s son, the family would regain their wealth, but Catherine-Désirée, her sister, died before leaving Martinique. So instead, Joséphine took her sister’s place.

In October of 1779, Joséphine and her father left for France. On December 15, 1779, she married Alexandre de Beauharnais in Noisy-le-Grand. In 1881, their first son, Eugéne de Beauharnais, was born and in 1783, their daughter Hortense de Beauharnais. Hortense later went on to marry Napoleon’s brother in 1802. However, the marriage between Joséphine and Alexandre was very unhappy. This led to a separation ordered by the court and the children lived with their father in the Pentemont Abbey.

Josephine, Napoleon’s first wife, was previously married to Alexandre de Beauharnais (with whom she had three children), an aristocrat who was guillotined during the Reign of Terror. Josephine was also imprisoned and scheduled for execution before being released five days later when the Reign of Terror’s architect, Robespierre, was himself guillotined.