Napoleon marries Thomas Jefferson's daughter Martha

Martha Jefferson was only four years younger then him for example. This would require some bound between the general and the planter. Maybe the two are in contact early on. What if Napoleon marries the president's daughter and makes her his empress after implementing the monarchy ? Would be interesting if Napoleon was Jefferson's son in law and she bears him children.
 
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If his daughter was married to a French revolutionary officer, Jefferson's his political career is basically dead. He was already widely accused of being overly sympathetic to the French; this would just seal it.

As for Napoleon himself (I'm assuming that the idea is that they somehow meet and become engaged during Jefferson's tenure in Paris), having a foreign wife is going to be politically awkward for him as well, and may hinder his own rise. Even without the Quasi-War making Americans particularly unpopular, the Terror saw quite a bit of targeting of foreigners in France (many of whom were seen as Girondist-leaning).
 
If his daughter was married to a French revolutionary officer, Jefferson's his political career is basically dead. He was already widely accused of being overly sympathetic to the French; this would just seal it.
This. There was rabid Republican propaganda going around about how John Adams was planning to bring over a daughter of George III to marry his son John Quincy and found an American dynasty; TTL Jefferson would be actually doing that.
 
This. There was rabid Republican propaganda going around about how John Adams was planning to bring over a daughter of George III to marry his son John Quincy and found an American dynasty; TTL Jefferson would be actually doing that.
Interesting, how different American history could have turned out in the way how Founding Father icons could have been remembered fudamentally differently.
 
It'd be interesting to see how America would react if Napoleon did rise as far as he did in RL, with an American wife as his Empress.

Now in RL Napoleon's second wife was a Habsburg and basically got to retire to her own personal duchy after the Napoleonic Wars, and her son got his own title but was restricted to Austria.

I don't know if Empress Marthe and any children she might have with Napoleon would get the same treatment, they might just be killed off in an 'accident' to prevent any attempts at a Bonaparte Restoration.
 
It'd be interesting to see how America would react if Napoleon did rise as far as he did in RL, with an American wife as his Empress.

Now in RL Napoleon's second wife was a Habsburg and basically got to retire to her own personal duchy after the Napoleonic Wars, and her son got his own title but was restricted to Austria.

I don't know if Empress Marthe and any children she might have with Napoleon would get the same treatment, they might just be killed off in an 'accident' to prevent any attempts at a Bonaparte Restoration.

I imagine that they would flee to America the second things went bad, and would essentially just melt back into the planter class. A Bonaparte Virginia planter family seems to be a possibility.
 
I imagine that they would flee to America the second things went bad, and would essentially just melt back into the planter class. A Bonaparte Virginia planter family seems to be a possibility.

A son or grandson of Bonaparte fighting in the ACW would be interesting.
 
A son or grandson of Bonaparte fighting in the ACW would be interesting.
Several of Napoleon's brothers spent time in America; at least one nephew served in the US Army for a while before the ACW, but the family mostly went back to France during Napoleon III's reign (and several of them came back to America after the fall of the Second Empire).

One of their descendants (Charles Joseph Bonaparte) ended up being Teddy Roosevelt's Secretary of the Navy.
 
Several of Napoleon's brothers spent time in America; at least one nephew served in the US Army for a while before the ACW, but the family mostly went back to France during Napoleon III's reign (and several of them came back to America after the fall of the Second Empire).

One of their descendants (Charles Joseph Bonaparte) ended up being Teddy Roosevelt's Secretary of the Navy.

Charles Joseph also founded what would become the FBI.
 
If his daughter was married to a French revolutionary officer, Jefferson's his political career is basically dead. He was already widely accused of being overly sympathetic to the French; this would just seal it.

As for Napoleon himself (I'm assuming that the idea is that they somehow meet and become engaged during Jefferson's tenure in Paris), having a foreign wife is going to be politically awkward for him as well, and may hinder his own rise. Even without the Quasi-War making Americans particularly unpopular, the Terror saw quite a bit of targeting of foreigners in France (many of whom were seen as Girondist-leaning).

Thought Jefferson absolutely detested Napoleon anyway.....

A son or grandson of Bonaparte fighting in the ACW would be interesting.

Several of Napoleon's brothers spent time in America; at least one nephew served in the US Army for a while before the ACW, but the family mostly went back to France during Napoleon III's reign (and several of them came back to America after the fall of the Second Empire).

One of their descendants (Charles Joseph Bonaparte) ended up being Teddy Roosevelt's Secretary of the Navy.

Trying hard to think whether he would be a Union man or a Confederate man.....

Of course the main problem is that said unknown Bonaparte being of importance in the Civil War is unlikely to be his grandfather reincarnated.
 
I'm trying to figure out HOW this pairing would come about, I'm assuming that Josephine de Beauharnais dies much earlier than in RL to help kick-start this TL.

The POD... The Plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise was a bit more successful than RL, instead of simply injuring her daughter with a few shards of glass, the explosion caused more damage, or simply a twist of fate caused Josephine some injury that killed her. Explosions are unpredictable things after all, any one number of things could have caused things to be much worse than RL.

In RL, Martha Jefferson lived in Paris from age 12 to 17, so she arrived (at minimum) in 1813... Napoleon became Emperor on Dec. 2, 1804, and his first exile happened in 1814...

The only way that a marriage could happen between these two is if A) Napoleon's return to power was more successful, i.e. he won Waterloo, and B) Either his new Habsburg wife, Marie Louise either died or he divorced her due to abandonment, and THEN married Martha Jefferson (which entails a prior relationship between the two).

If Napoleon can defeat the forces of Europe at Waterloo, and do so in a manner that really humiliates and breaks them, then MAYBE he can stay in power in France long enough to consider getting a new Empress, especially if Marie Louise refuses to return to him and he worries that his son will die before him.

This relationship is quite the longshot, but it could still be done in a semi-plausible way.
 
Jefferson was in Paris as ambassador. His daughter was with him in Paris until she was 1789. Bonaparte an artillery officer during that time. Have Bonaparte visit Paris on leave in 1788, meets the 16 year old Martha Jefferson, have him fall in love, and marry in 1789, just before Jefferson becomes Secretary of State.

Assumed everything else happens like OTL.
 
Trying hard to think whether he would be a Union man or a Confederate man.....

Of course the main problem is that said unknown Bonaparte being of importance in the Civil War is unlikely to be his grandfather reincarnated.

You could have cousins or brothers on both sides of the war. Lee's brother was a Union Naval officer.

What would be interesting is if said spawn was decent, but was battling perceptions based off of his grandfather/father and therefore downgraded/targeted or whatever.

Something like Confederate spawn replaces Johnston after Kennesaw Mountain, does better than Hood but still looses and is blamed for not being his father.
 
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