Buy Napoleon and Josephine’s Marriage Certificate

Josephine and Napoleon
Photo: Wikimedia Commons


The marriage certificate of the union between Napoleon and his first wife will be sold at auction by Maison Osenat this September. Dated March 8, 1796, the day before their actual wedding celebration, the certificate is estimated to fetch €100,000 ($135,000). It is signed by the future Napoleon I and Marie Josephe Rose Tascher de la Pagerie, or Josephine, the Viscomtesse de Beauharnais, a union known as one of the greatest love stories in history.

The certificate states that the couple will, “In no way be responsible for the debts and mortgages of the other,” and that they will have, “no common property” between them. Their marriage was annulled in 1810, after they were unable to have children. The auction, to take place in a suburb west of Paris, will also feature other manuscripts and objects from the same time, including documents related to Napoleon’s arrest in 1794