How many times was Napoleon married?
Answer
Two
Napoleon was married two times: first to Joséphine de Beauharnais and later to Marie Louise of Austria.
He married Joséphine in 1796, shortly before his Italian campaign made him a rising military and political star. Their marriage became one of the best-known relationships of the Napoleonic era, but Joséphine could not have children with him, creating a succession problem as Napoleon became emperor.
Napoleon divorced Joséphine in 1810 and married Marie Louise, daughter of Emperor Francis I of Austria, in 1810. The marriage was both dynastic and political, helping cement Napoleon's relationship with Austria. Marie Louise gave birth to a son, Napoleon Francis, known as the King of Rome.
A common mix-up is counting Napoleon's romantic relationships or mistresses as marriages. Those relationships do not change the formal total: his two legal wives were Joséphine and Marie Louise.