What happened to Marie Louise after Napoleon died?

Answer 1

Lots. Actually, quite a lot even before he died. The moment Napoleon was exiled to Elba, she decided to go home to Austria. Napoleon's brothers tried to retain her, but her brother the Emperor of Austria, sent general Count von Neipperk to escort her home. This (as the Emperor must have been well aware) was like asking a rabbit to escort a lettuce. Neipperk was a dashing soldier with a black eyepatch and a complete mastery for the techniques of seduction. Marie-Louise fell for him like a ton of bricks.

When Napoleon returned to France for the Hundred Days, his Empress stayed in Vienna. When he was exiled to St. Helena after Waterloo, she offered to join him there, but not before she found out that he was not allowed company. Besides, Metternich had no intention of letting A Princess get mixed up in the politics of France. he even gave her a complete list of Napoleon's infidelities (mostly true), and told her that Countess Walewska and her son would be joining him in exile (all lies). This provided the excuse she needed; she officially remounced her husband and proceeded to get pregnant by Neipperk, whom she married the moment Napoleon was dead.

As a reward for this (and to keep her out of mainstream politics) the Congress of Vienna gave Marie-Louise the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza in northern Italy, on condition that the title was not hereditary - they didn't want Napoleon's son to inherit any kind of power. In any case, he was a sickly youth and soon died. His mother, however, had three children by Neipperk; they took the name of Montenuovo, which is Italian for Neipperk.

When Neipperk in his turn died, Marie-Louise (now Maria Luigia) let herself go a bit and gained a somewhat scandalous reputation. This may or may not have been justified, but in any case she calmed the gossips by marrying yet again, this time a Baron Werklein. She ruled Parma rather well for thirty years, building roads and bridges and founding hospitals and orphanages. She was the first ruler to modify the Code Napoléon to allow women rights of inheritance.

She died in 1847 at the age of 57, officially of pneumonia, though there were rumours of poisoning. She was a shallow, not very intelligent, well-meaning and highly-sexed woman, and unworthy of Napoleon in anything except her birth.