#aimee leclerc

[bergerbelge]

Aimeevout nation I know youre out there. We are few but we are powerful....

also random Davout stuff

[snowv88]

Ma petite Aimée, brûle ton petit papier, raie de ton dictionnaire ce vilain vous, car toutes les jolies choses que renferment tes deux dernières pages n'ont pu empêcher le mal que m'a fait le vous. Ma petite Aimée, burn your little piece of paper, cross out that ugly vous from your dictionary, because all the pretty things contained in your last two pages could not prevent the harm that vous did to me.

-- Ostende, le 20 ventôse, an XII (Ostend, 20 ventôse, Year XII)

Davout to Aimée, dated the 11th March 1804 (converted to Gregorian calendar).

Source: Davout to Wife, 20 ventôse an XII, Blocqueville 2: 79

[snowv88]

Barreling through daughter Adélaïde's compilation of Davout's correspondence staring with his letters to Aimée. Here's what I've learnt so far:

- Aimée wasn't much of letter writer, Davout had to constantly ask her to write more

- Davout wrote almost every day. I've gone through around 20 letters and I have forever more to go 🙃

- When their first two children died, the couple had an argument through letters 😅over how Aimée was coping with those loses. In one letter Davout mentions how Aimée had commissioned a portrait of Joséphine, the first daughter that died and Davout was clearly not happy with it but allowed her to commission it. He was worried she would pour her grief on the portrait and make her health worse.

I have so much more to go but it has been an interesting study so far.

[snowv88]

Davout Tries to Convince His Wife to Accept a Position

I found this interesting event in Davout's biography which illustrates when Marshal Davout tried to convince his wife, Aimée Leclerc, to accept a position as a lady-in-waiting to Madame Mère (aka. Napoleon's mother).

This was in 1805 shortly after the Empire was established. Davout had just become a Marshal which gave Aimée a new title, la Maréchale, and a position in the new royal household. However, Aimée intended to reject the position and told her husband (who was away from home at the time) that she was going to do so.

Davout immediately tried to convince her to reconsider,

We have had kindness and favours heaped on us by the Emperor, thus to show our gratitude, it is necessary to do what he wishes, and to do so with grace so that he may never know how much it vexes us...Finally, I will terminate with a reflection: It would be selfish to refuse a duty because it involves duties when one takes from the same person on the other hand high honors and financial rewards; and neither you nor I are selfish.

Basically, Davout believes that because they have been given honours and rewards, they should accept any obligations that is required of them in return. Even if they don't want it, it is better to accept.

Aimée hesitated and Davout wrote again four days later,

We own so much to the Emperor and Empress, because it was they who made possible our marriage, that it seems to me that we should accept with all gratitude;...I know well that your health, your preferences and my own, are in opposition. but ma peitit Aimée, these are reasons dictated by selfishness; we own everything to our Majesties.

Interesting that Davout acknowledges that even he wouldn't particularly like being attached to the royal household. This was because Aimée would have needed to go to court a lot which they both hated. However, observe how Davout emphasises that they have to show gratitude by accepting this position (despite their reservations) because it would be selfish to not do so. I can really sense how honour-bound Davout felt they were and because he was so principled, regardless of personal feelings, they have to accept.

However, Aimée continued to dither and Davout finally writes on the 31st of March 1805,

In my letters of the 4th and 6th [of Germinal] I have tried to prove to you that not only should you have accepted, but that it was necessary to do so with gratitude. The kindness which I have received from the Emperor imposes the obligation of that which he desires.

However, he concedes and tells her it was, ultimately, her choice to make,

Do what you must, and I swear to you that I will never reproach you.

So with that promise, Aimée rejects the position, citing ill health. The actual reasons were more complicated than that, she really didn't want to be involved with the Bonaparte family anymore since the death of her brother, General Leclerc. Therefore, she was not inclined to accept any position that required her to be near any member of said family. Davout's biographer also muses that had Josephine instead of Napoleon's mother wanted Aimée as part of her household, she probably would have accepted. She was rather fond of Josephine so she would have been happy to be with her.

Gallaher, John. “A Marshal's Baton.” In The Iron Marshal: A Biography of Louis N. Davout, 64-94. The United States of America: Southern Illinois University Press, 1976.