Women in the 19C United States of America: Spectacular Renaissance gardens + a little Baltimore scandal

Saturday, January 4, 2020

Spectacular Renaissance gardens + a little Baltimore scandal - Château de Villandry

The Château de Villandry, Indre-et-Loire, France.

The Château de Villandry, Indre-et-Loire, France, was constructed in the 1500s, reportedly on the spot where King Philip II of France (1165-1223) once met Richard I of England (1157-1199) to discuss peace. Its Renaissance gardens include a water garden, ornamental flower gardens, & vegetable gardens.

During the French Revolution, the property was confiscated, & in the early 19th century, Emperor Napoleon acquired it for his brother Jérôme Bonaparte, who had married Betsy Patterson in Baltimore, in 1803. Across the Atlantic, Napoléon, who was already planning his coronation as well as anticipating marriages for all his siblings with the major royal houses of continental Europe, was none too pleased to learn of his 19-year-old brother’s marriage.

Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte by Francesco Emanuele Scotto, circa 1806

Napoleon ordered his brother back to France demanding that the marriage be annulled. Jérôme ignored Napoleon's initial demand, that he return to France without his wife. Furious, Napoléon ordered that Betsy be forbidden from landing anywhere in continental Europe but encouraged his brother to continue on without her. Napoléon offered her an annual pension of 60,000 francs a year, if she would only agree to leave & relinquish the Bonaparte name. Betsy refused.

1804 Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828) Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte

Promising to sort things out & have her received in proper state, Jérôme went off to reason with Napoléon, assuring poor pregnant Betsy, who was left behind in neutral Portugal, that he would do everything he could to sort the situation out. He never returned. She bore him a son in 1805, & returned to America. Jerome got a new wife without benefit of a legal divorce & the Château de Villandry.

The Château de Villandry, Indre-et-Loire, France.

About this blog

In colonial America, men were considered superior to woman in all ways. In a strict patriarchal hierarchy, men controlled not only wealth & political power but also how their children were raised, religious questions, & all matters of right & wrong.

In the early part of the 19Cy, however, many Americans experienced a revolution in gender. The doctrine of “separate spheres” maintained that woman’s sphere was the world of privacy, family, & morality while man’s sphere was the public world -– economic striving, political maneuvering, & social competition. But women were interested in equality.

In 1848, New York passed the Married Woman’s Property Act. Now a woman wasn’t automatically liable for her husband’s debts; she could enter contracts on her own; she could collect rents or receive an inheritance in her own right; she could file a lawsuit on her own behalf. She became for economic purposes, an individual. By 1900, every state has passed legislation modeled after this, granting married women some control over their property and earnings.

In 1870 after the Civi War, the 15th Amendment was ratified, saying, “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” African-Americans could vote, but women could not.

But it was not until 1920, that the 19th Amendment was ratified granting women the right to vote. “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”