Josephine's opinions and ideas strongly influenced Napoleon and helped his advancements in power and success. She was very much her husband's political confidence. When Napoleon was plotting to overthrow the directory of France (Laing 102). She was present at every conference along with the other co-conspirators. She did not only listen but she gave her opinion, her feelings and questioned the motives of the others to make sure they were genuine (Laing 102). Also, whenever there was a clash of personalities or a fight she was always the one to restore the calm (Laing 102-103). The citizens of Milan knew of the impact Josephine had on her husband. In 1798 when Josephine went to meet her husband in Milan they presented her with gifts of luminous pearls, silk, lace, antique vases, and many other expensive gifts. Josephine soon discovered that the gifts were bribes. Napoleon was imposing heavy taxes on the conquered population and was taking things such as valuable art from them (Castelot 138). The people of Milan hoped that Josephine would be persuaded to use her influence to moderate her husband's actions (Epton 138). Josephine being the humane and caring person she was talked to her husband and in response he became more lenient to the people of Milan (Epton 138). She also, influenced Napoleon into sparing the lives of nine people who were involved in plotting an assassination on Napoleon (Laing 123). In the end her good natured heart must have affected him for he did not go ahead and kill them (Laing 123). Josephine's good friend Claire Remusat once said that "She (Josephine) acted as the original link between the French nobility and the Consular Government."(Laing 123). She would listen to their needs and tell Napoleon what she thought should be done to satisfy them fairly (Laing 124). When Josephine was Empress, Napoleon made it part of her job to enforce the new social code and it is said that he did this because many of the reforms she herself had introduced (Erickson 240). Napoleon had many great ideas and actions which Josephine often gave her input into and had an effect on the final result.

Laing 182 After Napoleon's second marriage he told Hortense Josephine's daughter that "She (his second wife) resents . . . the influence your mother is known to exercise over me.

2Corsicans were thought of as lower people and Napoleon's Corsican decent could have hindered his advancements because of stereotypes such as they were dirty and poor islanders with no education or class. Also Corsican society had very different ideals and values from those of Paris which people sometimes associated Napoleon with even though he moved to Paris when he was nine years old. It was also easy for people to realize that Napoleon was an islander because of his accent. He was so worried about being accepted by the people of Paris that he even changed the spelling of his from Buonaparte to Bonaparte to give it a French rather than Italian pronunciation. (Erickson 140)

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Approximate Word count = 2070
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)