amazingeugenie:TODAY IN HISTORY, the wedding of Napoleon III and Eugenie, countess of Teba. The wedd
amazingeugenie:TODAY IN HISTORY, the wedding of Napoleon III and Eugenie, countess of Teba. The wedding-day was Jan. 29, 1853. Crowds lined the streets as the bride and her cortège drove to the Tuileries, where they were received by the Grand Chamberlain and other court dignitaries, who conducted the bride to the first salon. There she was received by Prince Napoleon and his sister, the Princess Mathilde, who introduced her into the second salon, where the emperor, with his uncle, King Jérôme, surrounded by a glittering throng of cardinals, marshalds, admirals and great officers of State, stood reacy to receive her. Thence, at nine o'clock, she was led by the empereor to the Salle des Maréchaux and seated beside him on a raised throne. The marriage contract was then read, and signed by the bride and bridegroom, and by all the princes and princesses present. The bride wore a marvellous dress of Alençon point lace, clasped with a diamond and sapphire girdle made for the Empress Marie Louise, and she looked, said a behold, ‘the imperial beauty of a poet’s vision’. The civil marriage being concluded, the imperial pair and the wedding guests passed into the theatre, where a cantata was sung. Next morning, all Paris was astir to see the wedding procession pass to the cathedral of Notre Dame. There were two hundred thousand sightseers in Paris that day, in addition to the usual population. The empress wore upon her golden hair the crown that the First Napoleon had placed upon the head of Marie Louise. The body of the church was filled with men, ambassadors, military, naval officers and high officials. Their wives were in the galleries. As the great doors of the cathedral were opened to admit the bridal procession, a broad path of light gleamed from the door up to the altar, adding additionnal brilliancy to the glittering scene. Up the long aisle the emperor led his bride, flashing with the light of jewels, among them the unlucky regend diamond, which glittered on her bosom. The story tells that an old lady from the countess’ household almost fainted before her while she was ordering to bring a beautiful necklace: “beware my lady!, she said, the more pearls you wear at your neck on your wedding-day, the more you’ll shed tears in your life.” Eugenie wore it anyway. -- source link