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2. “A Grand and Official Institution” The Society for Maternal Charity under Napoleon As the Napoleonic empire reached its apogee in 1810, Bordeaux’s maternal society issued its annual compte rendu, boasting of its successes since its founding in 1805 and noting that fewer than one-seventh of the infants cared for that year had died. The document went on to observe that: “This happy result, and the other advantages procured for the poor by the societies for maternal charity, could not escape the vigilant eye of the genius restorer of the Empire, who has established , on new and better foundations, European civilization. He wanted to aggrandize and generalize the salutary influences of these institutions, and by his decrees of May 5 and December 19 of last year, he called on all French cities to share the blessings that the Imperial Maternal Society should spread.”1 Napoleon took an intense interest in policies regarding abandoned children. The Code de la maternité de l’an X (1801) established procedures regulating the abandonment of children, while under the decree of January 19, 1811, the state assumed responsibility for the care and guardianship of these children.2 However, as Madame Fougeret had determined in the 1780s, it was better to encourage mothers to keep their children than it was to care for them after the fact of abandonment. The benefits of maternal societies, which had emerged in many French cities, most visibly in Paris, caught the attention of the emperor. It should come as no surprise that the imperial government would take an interest in an organization that purported to preserve the lives of poor infants—who, with a little care, might grow up to become soldiers in Napoleon ’s army or sailors in his navy.3 But the possible pregnancy in 1810 of Napoleon’s new wife, Marie-Louise, focused the emperor’s attention on the The Society for Maternal Charity under Napoleon 59 society. Until this point, the budgets of maternal societies had remained modest, despite the illustrious list of supporters. On the average, the Society for Maternal Charity of Paris took in 48,111.60 FF each year between 1801 and 1810, and it assisted 403 mothers, spending roughly 120 FF per mother. Bordeaux’s society spent 11,533.17 FF each year caring for about 120 mothers, about 96 FF per mother.4 But now, with fatherhood approaching, Napoleon wished both to spread his largesse and to honor his new wife, emphasizing, perhaps unwisely, her relationship to the former Austrian queen. Lanzac de Laborie questioned Napoleon’s wisdom in this: “Forgetful or disdainful of the unpopularity of the previous queen of France, he multiplied, from the time of his Austrian marriage, evocations and reminiscences of the time of Marie-Antoinette.”5 Consequently, what was once a private association became “a kind of state institution.”6 On May 5, 1810, Napoleon signed a decree at Antwerp announcing the creation of an Imperial Society for Maternal Charity, with branches to be created in each of the empire’s forty-four bonnes villes and chef-lieux. A General Council, composed of one hundred women throughout the empire, would oversee the provincial branches. Marie-Louise, as patroness, would preside over this General Council, as well as the administrative council of the Paris society. Any societies already in existence throughout the empire were to bring themselves into conformity with the bylaws of the new Imperial Society and to become part of the umbrella organization, for which Napoleon provided a yearly endowment of 500,000 FF.7 He placed it under the supervision of the minister of the interior and the empress. But while Marie-Louise’s pregnancy provided the incentive to transform the Society for Maternal Charity “into a grand and rich official institution,”8 there was a practical aspect, as well. Napoleon provided the association with generous funding, but he also expected its members to provide substantial capital for poor French families. The decree at Antwerp specified that subscriptions to the society would cost 1,000 FF. If the one thousand women anticipated in the decree actually joined, this would provide an additional 1,000,000 FF per year in assistance.9 As Napoleon looked to the notables of France to provide administrators for the empire in return for prestige, he looked to the wealthy to finance and staff social services in return for proximity to the empress and enhanced social standing.10 While women from some of France’s most prestigious families...

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