Famous Pug #003
Fortune: The Pug Who Stood Up to Napoleon
Messenger. Loyal companion. Terrible wedding-night roommate.
EDITORIAL ILLUSTRATIONFortune and Joséphine
Fortune was a Pug associated with Joséphine de Beauharnais, the woman who survived the French Revolution, married Napoleon Bonaparte, and eventually became Empress of the French.
The dog stays at the center of this story: a small companion appearing inside some enormous events in French history.
A Companion in Prison
Joséphine was imprisoned during the Reign of Terror in 1794. Her first husband, Alexandre de Beauharnais, was also imprisoned and was executed on July 23, 1794; Joséphine was released in August after the fall of Robespierre.
The Fondation Napoléon records that the Beauharnais children apparently communicated with their imprisoned parents by hiding messages in their family dog. The AKC identifies that dog as Fortune and recounts the Pug carrying messages.
The Wedding-Night Anecdote
Joséphine met Napoleon after the revolutionary period, and they married in a civil ceremony on March 9, 1796. A famous story associated with Fortune says that Joséphine refused to banish her beloved Pug from the marriage bed and that Fortune bit Napoleon on their wedding night.
That colorful episode is best presented as a historical anecdote or tradition. The surviving account does not give us a contemporary incident report proving every dramatic detail.
A Tiny Dog in a Huge Era
Joséphine was crowned Empress in 1804, and Fortune's story survives because this little companion was attached to a woman whose life crossed revolution, imprisonment, political upheaval, and Napoleon's rise.
Fortune did not alter European history, but the legend puts a tiny Pug inside one of its biggest eras - carrying messages through revolution and, according to the famous story, making quite an impression on Napoleon himself.