Victor Hugo's Parents Were Les Misérables Together

I think that's what they all they all got together. Well you heard that. I've never heard of that. Oh it was it was always that on the solstice you can stand an egg up on its end and it will it'll stay up. It won't. Why have we never tried that, because because it's bullshit. We never had an egg to lose, true, but again, afford to lose an egg or podcasters. Every time somebody sees me holding an egg, they're like, careful, you're a podcaster can come crashing down.

That could be or last egg that tickled me. Yeah, well the truth is funny. Speaking of eggs. Oh, speaking of something, we got a story thinking of podcasting. That's where were you yeah, Oh my god, is there a microphone in front of me? Oh? You're just going off. I'm still sick. I'm blaming the loopiness. Blame the loopiness on the fruity loopiness on. No, we actually do have an episode. We're not just gonna go off forever. Victor Hugo. You've heard of Victor Hugo, I'm imagine. He is one

of France's finest, most famous authors. He wrote Lame as Rob and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. And he was actually suggested to us a while back by Jenny a Are at the Perky goth on Instagram. Thank you, Jennie, I know you have also given us several other really good suggestions, so Jennie's always coming through. And then another listener, Cassandra Card, sent us Victor Hugo as well, because his insane sex drive has just been making the rounds on the lately. So thank you both for sending him in

because he was really fun to get into. But as we were researching his life and his many, many, many many loves, you know what happened. This has happened before we got sidetracked because his parents had a very ridiculous romance of their own and their side pieces, their revolutionary politics, and their contentious divorce would combine to become some of the most significant events in Victor's formative years. So let us tell you about Victor Hugo's parents, Joseph Leopold Sig

Hugo and Sophie Bouche. Yeah, let's go pay their French Come listen, Well, Elia and Diana got some stories to tell. There's no matchmaking, a romantic tips. It's just about ridiculous relationships, a lover. It might be any type of person at all, and abstract cons adn't a concrete wall. But if there's a story where the second clinch ridiculous Rolette a production of I Heart Radio. Joseph Leopold Hugo usually just called Leopold.

He was a well educated son of a wood merchant and a governess, but he throw away his chance to pursue his studies to lead a more exciting and rowdy

army life. Classic. In his New York Times article called Victor Hugo, Graham rob writes that Leopold was quote a short, broad chested man with a ruddy face and a fat nose, swerving constantly from deep dejection to violent elation, full of flattering stories about himself, delighted to have been shot through the next and to have had two horses blown to pieces while he was riding them in battle. I'm sorry,

I just to interrupt. That sounds like describing any eighteenth century Frenchman to me, I was a very celebrated personality, I think at the time, broad chested, having your horses blown up while you're riding them, lots of great stories about you know, the esprite de game classic frenchmen. Rob continues quote. He was an unashamed of his plebeian roots,

but keen to provide himself with aristocratic forebears. He worshiped his commanding officer Muscar, and like him, wrote body songs and dragged a mistress around with him on all his campaigns. In a letter that Leopold wrote to Muscar, he wrote quote, I often pressed her to my breast, and through two pretty spheres, I feel the forces which move the world draw the curtain. Wow, so polished. We should put that in poetry corner. I know we should have like a

letter letter writing desk. One of these letters, man, and you get more passionate than that I know, right, So it's just a real rough and ready type, you know. We we we get it now. After the revolution began and civil war engulfed the nation of France, Leopold nicknamed himself Brutus and he was part of the cleansing of Brittany, which was a region of France that was full of monarchist sympathizers. Of course, these were the people that were

getting ousted in this revolution exactly. Graham rob writes that Leopold quote presided over the massacre of entire villages, executed congregations, and, like many soldiers in similar circumstances, adopted an abandoned child. When his own children began to arrive, the orphan would be given away. And this part of the complicated legacy of the French Revolution. I mean, in all revolutions, but

mess time. Yeah, this guy comes in, he's like, I'm going to oust the monarchy, and you're like, oh good, they're so oppressive. He's like, and then I'm gonna massacre entire villages of people, and you're like, oh, yeah, sure, if that's what that was signing up for. And then some people were like, yes, exactly what I right, like and you're like, hey, you didn't know there were so many of you. Absolutely just so messy time. But that seems heartless, Like how cold to have adopted, like I

can't even do it. I couldn't even do it with an animal like our dog. To adopt for a little while and then be like, well now I've got my own so you can go on. How terrible, awful, awful. And at the age of twenty two, in the winter of seventeen ninety, Leopold was in Chateaubriyon, a small town a few miles away from Brittany, and he was scouring the countryside for some renegade priests he was trying to track down on the job, and that's when he met

quote a frail, dark eyed girl. Her name was Sophie Trebuche. Sophia Trebouche was the daughter of a cargo ship captain, but both her parents died before she was twelve years old, and she was taken in by her aunt, Crestwalls, and was living with her in Brittany when the revolution really

kicked off in seventeen nine. Sophie did go to like revolutionary rallies and everything, but she kind of got some sympathy for the royalist cause because she witnessed the execution of a family friend and her two young children right during the reign of terror. That was not unusual, I guess,

but but I guess it really hit her hard. You can imagine too, if you're young and you see that kind of activity happening, your your side has chosen for you, right, Like all you see is brutality against people you care about. I mean exactly, Yeah, if you've got real people in mind, everything comes very personal, especially if you have not been affected negatively by the existing oppression that was causing the

revolution in the first place. True anyway, in sev she was living in Chateau Bolant at aunt France Uasa's country home, and when Sophie met this young, enthusiastically republican soldier crashing through the bushes looking for anti revolutionaries, She's like, okay, and she invited him to tea at her aunt's. Come with me to tea daring revolutionary. Maybe I could set aside the brutality as seemed conducted against my people. Sophie

was very reserved. She was self controlled, a little bit secretive. Maybe, Victor Hugo wrote of his mother that she quote accustomed me from childhood to keep everything to myself and let nothing out. Now. She was also seventeen months older than Leopold and better educated than him. Of course, he abandoned

his education to become a free wheel and soldier. Right, No surprise there, Graham, Rob writes, quote, a different creature altogether from his battle scarred mistress, and far more intimidating than a band of Breton peasants brandishing their pitchforks and axes. He was like, oh, she is a lady, and Leopold's courtship game was as rough as he was. Right, Not not Mr Smooth, not Monsieur smooth. Here, Rob writs quote. He showed off his shattered foot, his uniform with its

seventeen bullet holes, and recited his verse. Sophie seemed to have impressed him more than he impressed her. He goes up, pretty lady, check out my man good foot. What do you think? Text? Are you blood? She's like blood, yeah, I do. I have a lot of bullet holes in my unifi. Don't you want to marry me? I almost

die all the time. Let me read my poem about other women's breast So Sophie was a little bit hard for him to win over, and then Leopold was summoned back to Paris six months later and took a desk job. But he promised that I will write to you, my love. I'll write your beautiful poetry about your boobs. I am

very serious about this relationship. She did finally join him in Paris in November of seventeen nine, but this is only to find out that he had cheated on her, mainly because he wrote quote a jovial letter to his commanding officer admitting to it, Dear Mosca, I got lid last night. Let me tell you everything, Rob writes in

his New York Times article quote. Rather than face a humiliating return to her hometown, she married him without a priest on November fifteenth, sevent There had been talk of a dowry, but to the disappointment of Leopold, it turned out to consist mainly of bed linen. You get those details worked out right for you tell a woman you'll marry her and then go back to Paris, sleep with somebody else, then drag her across the country. I mean, seriously,

come out. He kind of got what he deserved. I love that revealed to He's like, I'm ready for my dowry now, and she's like, okay, here is It's like, what the hell is this? Very fine sheets? They're okay. I guess I like Jersey myself. He's got a frat boy right. So Paris, of course is a real wild place at this point in history. This point in history, well it was only six months before Napoleon Bonaparte. Cool, that's wild. Rob writes that the city was quote more

like a post revolution Zanzibar than modern Paris. The Tuilerie gardens had suffered the indignity of spades and potatoes. Statues had been toppled, the inscriptions of race employees of the Conseil de Geer occupied the Hotel de Vi renamed Maison Commune were the only intact decorations were the busts of revolutionary leaders not so pretty as yeah, that's crazy, the indignity of spain aids and potatoes. I know, I can space. They went and they dug up the gardens and then

what they do plant potatoes? I mean yeah, I mean it was like yeah, yeah. They were like I'm taking out your rose bushes and I'm putting in something that gonna eat. Huh exactly, you're using this land improperly, and in their off time, the revolutionaries like to hang out in the Jardin de Taline near the Champs rob writes that the jardin quote was an excuse for open air pornography, tableau vivant and women dressed as Sylphs disporting themselves in

mid air attached to balloons. Excuse me, we simply do not party like we used to. Just gonna say, I'm now, I'm glad I canceled my birthday party because I'm gonna reschedule and I'm definitely getting I'm sorry. What was if women dressed as Sylphs disporting themselves mid air, attached to balloons? This is what I want birthday parties. This is the workers Rights and Protections have done. Is prevented this kind of nonsense. I'm not saying we make him do it

without paying them. I'm just saying, you asked me what kind of decorations I wanted, and I didn't know until now. All right, I'll get a couple of barbies together balloon anyway. Major Leopold Brutus Hugo took his wife Sophie to the jardin one night. Seems like a great place for a dad, I guess, get her all worked up, and he ran into an old friend, Colonel Victor Laholly, the chief of staff for General Moreau. I gotta say at this point she knew what she was getting into with this guy.

Even before this point, he was not suave enough to make him seem cooler than he was. You know, I felt like, when she came to Paris, she must have know what she's getting into. I think so. And I know she was well closed off, but like maybe she liked that about him. She was like, he drags me out to crazy ship and my life feels different. It's true, I mean, all right, Well, here is where the story gets a little bit of a bonus romance. General Moreau

and his wife. Moreau was a celebrated general and helped bring Napoleon Bonaparte to power. As a reward, he was given command of the Army of the Rhine again, which had been taken away from him because he defended a friend who turned out to be a trader. But he also met a friend of Napoleon's first wife, and her name was Oceanie. Ocean he was nineteen, and she managed to wrap the general completely around her finger into Now.

After they got married, she started to collect a bunch of friends who were all starting to sour on Napoleon Bonaparte. You know, if Bethy thinks he's stook, great, but he's not even that at all. And he's always got his hand in his shirt, and uh, you know, he's the three the three most boring flavors of ice cream together and uh the way, that's Neapolitan. Um, you know, Napoleon.

We don't like Lord. But it was mostly because Napoleon had a lot of power and popularity, and the French were kind of sensitive to that right now, they didn't really love people with a lot of power and popularity, so they had right to be worried about what he had, as it turned out. So she found a lot of friends people who felt the same way, and they got

together and called themselves Club Moreau. She's like, you've got to get down to Club Morrow, the hottest spot in seventeen ninety seven, and the body wants to hang out to Club Morrow. We have other cool things, tall people, people who don't put their hands in their shirts. We've got ladies hanging from balloons at the corner Club Morrow. It's where it's that. Well, it wasn't long before Club Moreau made plans to topple Napoleon and put Louis on

the throne. Moreau was supposed to be one of the guys who would take charge once Napoleon and was assassinated. That was their plan. Take on Napoleon will put Moreau in charge. But Moreau turned against the scheme himself when

he saw how completely disorganized they were. Well, they were so disorganized that eventually a bunch of the conspirators were seized and Moreau had to go strike a deal with Napoleon because obviously his name was tied to this the club was named after him, so didn't really sit well, and instead of being executed, Napoleon agreed that Moreau and his wife Jani could be exiled to America, which the torture. Um.

But don't forget the Moreause. We will get back to the Hugos now, but we are going to see them arose again. Um. But let us take a quick commercial break and we'll hear more about Leopold and Silphi Hugo. Oh, welcome back to the show. Everyone, So where we had left off with the Hugos was that they had run in to leopold old friend Victor Lahari, and He's like, hey, man, I got stuck at this desk job. What can you do to help me out? You're the cheapest staff with

General Moreau. Can you put in a good word get me back on the field. I want to get back out there. So with his help, Leopold returned to active service, and this is when the family started moving around a lot. In sev Sophie gave birth to their first son, Able.

Then they moved to Leopold's hometown of Gnumci, where she stayed with the Hugo family, and Leopold was in charge of invading Bavaria, and that brought him to the notice of Joseph Bonaparte, who is Napoleon's older brother, and he praised his quote courage, activity, and intelligence, so he was a good, good army guy. I guess Sophie also met Joseph Bonaparte at that time, but she's a little preoccupied because she was pregnant again with their second son, and

in eighteen hundred, Usien Hugo was born. Very soon after that, the family moved to Luon v and we're there in February of eighteen o one when the treaty was signed that consolidated Napoleon's empie. We're living in Bonaparte, France, and our boy, Victor Marie Hugo was also conceived in lun Via.

This seems like a private piece of information. We only know this because his father, Leopold wrote him a letter in eight saying he was created quote almost in mid air, on one of the highest peaks of the Voge mountains, and that this elevated origin seems to have had effects on you, so that your muse is now continually sublime. Wow. Well, actually, my boy, the reason you're so smart is because your mother on the top of a mountain, and that's how

you got where you want. That is, I mean, you know, not a conversation I've had with my parents, and not one I need keep it to yourself. Yeah, and that's a Graham. Rob thinks Leopold was probably just trying to take some credit for his son's writing, because he was very famous by this time, But he also thought it was quote a poor substitute for the army or the civil service. Yeah. The date on which Victor was supposedly conceived on a mountaintop was the twenty four of June

eighteen oh one. And fun fact, that is Jean val John's prisoner number and lames up one and it's because that's the date of his conception. And in the mid nineteen sixties a museum curator actually put a plaque there pronouncing it as the place where a Victor Hugo is conceived as a practical joke, but it's still there today. You can go climb the Voges Mountains and find it for yourself. I know, right, I mean it's a point

of interest. Being exhausted halfway up the hag could be like, no, damn it, I gotta get to where Victor Hugo's parents bucked. Maybe people go there and like they're like, I want to leave a genius And they climb the mountains and how many where Victor hero was conceived? But the air is so thin. You know that's got a affect your development, right, they all passed out. They just take a little nap. Now.

Victor Hugo himself preferred to tell people that he was conceived on Mont Blanc in the album because it was more famous. Three thousand feet higher, and it's at the intersection of France, Italy and Switzerland. Made it kind of like an international man of mystery bloke. I wonder if that's why they named the pens that, or rather, you know what, mont Blanc, here's an ad for you. Pens

named after the mountain where Victor Hugo was conceived. So if you want to write Victor Hugo, if you want to have sex like Leopold's and Sophie Trebuche, then by a month Blanck, this is a clinky. At tonight they're going to send us a box of free pens. That's how podcasting works. I hear one of these days someone that we talked about is going to send us a free something. I can't wait. Victor was supposed to be a girl named Victorine Marie or they were hoping for

a girl anyway. Their name was planned Victorine after Leopold's friend Victor Laharrie, and Marie after some other family friend who we won't go into here. But his mother described Victor as quote no longer than a knife when he was born, So Graham rob speculates that he was probably premature in his own autobiographical poems. Victor Hugo talks about being weak and sickly and says that a double order was placed with the woodmaker for both coffin and cradle,

really hedging their bets there. But only six weeks after he was born, the entire Hugo family left for Marseilles because Leopold Hugo had accused his commanding officer of embezzlement and slanderous accusations started being made about Leopold. Yeah, he's in a lot of trouble. Yeah, So in November two he whisked the family off to Marseilles, and then he sent Sophie to Paris to plead his case with Joseph Bonaparte and Victor Lahary while he continued with his army duties.

He yeah, I made a bit of a mess. Why don't you go to Paris and for me? Now, this began a period of separation between Sophie and Leopold. He set sail for Corsica with his three sons in tow to fight the Brits. So hopefully the babies were like far away or heavily armored, got a real iron cradle and creatle well Sophie stayed in Paris because she had some things she was doing, which bring with us to our first side. And guess what it was, Victor Lahari what?

Oh yeah, Sophie started lahing it up in Paris with her husband's bestie. But she just went there to help plead his case to this guy. Well, she was pluding this case, all right, And Graham Rob says that without her, the living conditions for all the Hugoes got pretty dismal. Um In June three, they were living on the tiny island of Elba. Graham Rob writes, quote, the major felt abandoned. He freely admitted that he did not make a good mother,

He barely made a good husband. You know. He's like, I'm in the army, y'all, I'm supposed to be out here whiling it up, like I can't be rocking a baby around souse. And Sophie wasn't answering his letters, which makes her sound pretty heartless because she's like doing it with his bestie and I answering his letters. But Rob clarifies, quote, the bottom line of all his letters is that he was desperate for sex. In his view, Sophie had been given fair warning now he was hanging onto fidelity by

his fingertips. He apparently wrote in one letter quote, do you think that at my age and with my character, it's a good idea to leave me to my own devices? Well? I mean, you know he's not wrong. I mean true. It's like, look, I'm a piece of ship, the one they wanted me going to say, you know it, I know it. I'm going to get into some drama Jee had done you before we ever got married. But he also told her that the women in Elba quote had a habit of stabbing their lovers to death, and that

there was a guarantee of STDs. So he's basically right into her being like, honey, if you don't fuck me, I'm going to cheat on you with someone who would give me syphilis and then stab me through the heart. What you don't want that on your conscience? Wow? Wow? Um? But isn't she like off doing some for him? Technically as far as he knows, as far as he knows, yes, she want to drop his case and come and get on a boat, come down there and do not. Unbelievable,

I do not. I mean I know what he's really saying, and he's just setting himself up with a defense later. Oh exactly, Graham rob writes that exact thing. He says, quote, it was clear the marriage was over. By insisting on his impressive desires, the expert in self justification was writing out his absolution and advantage. He just wanted to be like, it's your fault if I cheat on you because you're not here. But she's not there because he sent her away.

So it's like, I mean, she's definitely doing her own things. Sure she's not a saint in the story, but like, come on, bro. But finally Sophie did respond to these letters. She had worked out his dispute and secured his future in the army thanks to La Hare. I wonder why he felt like, you know, I'm a favor. She's like a's raided some favors called a few strings, you could say, the strings of my garters. I was thinking the string was his dick, But yeah, that works too. Her corset

strings taken off her dress. That's classier than what I said. Okay. She left Paris and she joined him and her children in Elba in July eighth three, but only four months later she went back to Paris. This time she took her three sons with her, leaving Leopold behind. Now things get a little weird here in the record. Sophie's story is that during those four months she was in Elba, she discovered that Leopold was keeping a mistress whom she called quote an English concubine. And that brings us to

our second side. Excuse me. Katherine Thomas was the daughter of a hospital employee, ten years younger than Leopold. Childless and exciting. Sophie said that basically as soon as she arrived in Elba, Leopold started telling her that the British are coming. They basically already here already. Baby. You know battle is gonna break out at any moment. You better take these kids and head back to Paris right away. Well,

you better go for your own safety. It's important. And don't look under the bed, you know, or the wardrobe. I don't know where she went. I mean, who's she the British. I don't know where the British. They might be in the closet to look. How about you just take the kids on your goal, Oh lord, which Sophie did. She said she suspected nothing at the time, but Leopold sent her away so he could indulge his quote unbridled passions.

Graham Rob also writes that Katherine Thomas was quote probably the model for the transvestite soldier and Leopold's conventionally melodramatic novel that he wrote in retirement. So Leopold wrote a novel after he retired that has a transvestite soldier in it. Yes, okay, speculation station. What if Sophie shows up right and she's like, hey, baby, I'm here, and he's like, oh ship Katherine. She finds out about us, it's going to be a big problem. So she starts dressing up like a man so we

can hang out. Sophie's there for those four months. She's like his best friend on an army. So she's in his room and Sophie comes, hello, I'm I've come to see on my husband, and he's like, quick, put my my uniform on exactly. Hello, I'm just the artist your husband. I'm here, I'm a French un some reason revolution sure, I love it. I love that version of let's say that happened. But Graham Rob also thinks that Sophie was

messing with the record on this one. Because all of that story came from her eventual divorce petition, But he writes quote subsequent letters from the major suggests that he had tried one last time to stir up some passion in his wife. He missed his son's, and it was probably only later that he attached himself to Katherine Thomas.

Sophie's petition dates from a time when she was busy constructing the legend of a royalist Amazon manacled to a Republican vandal, which her son's inevitably accepted as the truth. The only certainty is that when Victor Hugo arrived in Paris at the age of one in three quarters, his parents had begun the long and painful separation which continued throughout his childhood and dragged him on a tour of

Napoleon's empire. The single most important fact of Victor Hugo's formative years is that his advent coincided with the collapse of his parents marriage. Oh wow, So if things hadn't been fallen apart, he wouldn't have been so like experienced and educated and worldly. Maybe not points that helped him write these novels. And I mean he you know, he's seeing to to cheating parties, fighting over you know, each over their kids and over each other and over stuff

but whatever for many years. So that certainly must have informed his ideas about love and marriage. Yeah, he's probably like my my, my, my mother is like like a hunched back person ringing a bell in a tower, and me and my brothers are we singing gargoyles? Uh the narrator's a clown. I don't know, uh, something like that. That's only I read the book a long time ago,

but I've definitely seen the Disney movie more recently. Well, that's so cool about I mean, I don't know if it's cool or not, but it is interesting to learn how this all led to Victor Hugo being who we know and love today. Interesting. Well, there's a lot more to learn about these two, and we will do that right after this break. Beyond a new to the show, I guess I should learn those words to. The thing is, we've done French episodes before, and we've had this exact

stumbling block. Were not looked it up already? Look, welcome back in French contentoir. It's got to be better than that. What happy to have have you return? Happy to see you again, what is it? Con con I did it? There? You go? You could? You can skip your due lingo for the day, everybody, because you learned you need to

know right here. Well, Sophie went to Elba or whatever happened on there happened, and she picked up her kids and went right back to Paris and Victor Lahari, who she decided to help hide from the government because he had been a part of the Moreau conspiracy. Remember a club Moreau, Yeah, bonus romance. But like Moreau, he had avoided execution and he was instead sentenced to be exiled

in America. But unlike Moreau, Victor refused to go. He's like, I've heard what they do to their chocolate over there. I'm not going to be a part of it. So Sophie settled in an old convent and she hid Lahari in the chapel. Oh my god, this is the hunchback. Victor Lahari was the hunchback. Coming together now. Then at one point she took her kids to Naples to visit Leopold,

but he didn't want her there. He thought that she would uncover his affair with Catherine, who, by now even by Graham Rob's estimate he had been living with for about two years, right, so she only stayed for a day. But you know what, that's okay for Sophie. She's living with her man too. Of course, the kids all discovered Lahari living there in the chapel, so he started calling himself Monsieur de la Courlande, and he basically became like

a second father to all the Hugo boys. In fact, there's some speculation among scholars that Victor la Horri is Victor Hugo's real father, but it doesn't really make a lot of sense, considering that when she was living near him in Paris, she was pregnant with Ojen, their second son, and when she came back to Paris and saw him again, Victor, their third son, was already born. So the conception, yeah.

Where Then in eighteen ten, Victor Lahorie was betrayed and arrested in front of Sophie and her kids, and that might be why they decided to go visit Leopold in Madrid, and they braved a dangerous journey through war torn country. But there was one little problem. Leopold was actually living in Guadalajara with Catherine, and he didn't know they were coming. Sophie had failed to alert him, or maybe she sent him a letter to the wrong address, because you know,

he was off somewhere. Because Leopold's doing great in Spain. His old friend Joseph Bonaparte is now the King of Spain and had made him a count. Leopold was helopass that Sophie was showing up, interrupting his time with his mistress, traveling through war torn areas with their kids not talking to him. First, you know, he was mad about her. She's Lafe, you really cramping my style out here. So he decided to seek a divorce, and he also got

a custody of the kids. All three boys went to a boarding school in Madrid called College of Nobles, but Sophie went to Joseph Bonaparte for help, and he actually got them to kiss and make up for a while. I guess because the king you're probably just like for

you anything. But it wasn't too long before Leopold somehow learned that Sophie and Lahari had been playing by gets Man years together, and that the only thing she wanted to do was to get back to Paris so that she could find out if he was okay, and that pretty much, you know that to care of the vibe between them, things were done at that point. No more reconciliation for it. And not only that, but Sophie received a mysterious envelope from Paris with four thousand, seven hundred

and fifty francs inside. She was positive it was from Victor Laharri and that she needed to get back to him as soon as possible, so she said goodbye, Leopold. She tagged along with a military escort and that saved her all the trouble of the dangerous journey through war torn Spain, and once again she was back home in Paris, and she visited Victor Laharye in prison regularly, that is until October eighteen twelve. This guy named Claude Francois de

Male had become disillusioned with Napoleon Bonaparte years before. He had spent some time in prison for conspiring against him and like he was a royalist, but also he was just mad because Napoleon killed his brother. Okay, it's very personal for him. But in eighteen twelve his wife convinced the authorities to let him retire to a sanatorium for his health and While he was there, he met some Bourbons who were trying to get Louis the eighteenth on

the throne. Well, they really wanted Louis the eighteenth on the fan. They were sick to death of Napoleon. We need a Louis. There's like maybe three out of sixteen Louis were bad. The most of the Louis so good with the bathwater, with the bathwater. So even though Malay was more of a republican than he was a Royalist, he still started plotting with them to overthrow Napoleon because he was just like, whatever, anyone who wants to play,

I'm ready to play. I hate this guy. An opportunity struck in eighteen twelve because Napoleon is freezing his dairy air off trying to invade Russia, so he's not in Paris. So at four am on October three, Malay put on a general's uniform he escaped the sanatorium. He walked up to a colonel of the French National Guard named Gabriel Sulier and informed him that Napoleon Bonaparte had died in Russia.

What yep a costume. Mala also told Sulier that the entire Bonaparte family had been deposed by the Senate and Malay was in charge. Now I can't believe we fell for it. But did he call himself Malay or was he just like giving orders that like something. I don't know, some guy Nam Malay is in charged. Now you'll have to find him. I think that he was like, it's me, I'm in charge. Wow, that's even like the Senate said, I'm in charge now everybody, I don't know. I don't

even want to be It's going to be cool. Sorry, my favorite branch doing now. Yeah, it seems like so far fetched. Who would fall for this? But he did have a bunch of forged documents to prove it, including a really nice one that promoted Gabriel Sullier to a general. So Sullia had no questions after that. He just did whatever Mala told him to do. And one of the things that he had to do for mal A was go to the prison and release several people, including Victor Lahori.

Since everyone Malle released was a Republican, they all agreed to join his coup against Napoleon, and Lahore was made the Minister of Amazing. Then Malay went to another general's house who was in charge of the Paris garrison, and told him you are relieved of duty, and the guy questioned him, Somlee shot him in the jaw out. Then Malay went across the street to the military headquarters to tell them it turns out Napoleon is dead. I just got the word. Everything is different now I'm in charge.

Funny story, but the senior official on duty, Colonel Pierre do Sit, was suspicious right away because all Malay's documents said that Napoleon had died on November seven, but Pierre had letters written by Napoleon after that date, so he played it cool. He was like, oh, yeah, yeah, Napoleon's dead on the seventh, thought, oh that's so crazy. Oh well, it's great to know you're the guy in charge now. You seem like you really got it together. I really

think you're the man to listen to now. And mal A probably sent his guys off to arrest and bore of Napoleon's friends, and as soon as Pierre was alone with Mam l A, he was like, I got you. You're full of she You're full of there, and I'm arresting you. He overpowered him and arrested him and everyone that Malay had arrested was freed, and everyone that had been freed was re arrested again, including Victor Lahorie and Gabriel Soulier, and they were executed on October twenty nine

of eighteen twelve. Oh and guess who else was involved in all this? Our old friend General Morrow of Club Morrow fame. Remember he was exiled to America that at the instigation of his wife Jennie. He had returned to Europe in eighteen twelve and he was advising the Swedish king and the armies who were fighting Napoleon. He was not in Paris for the coup though, so he wasn't arrested during all this. He actually died on the battlefield

in eighteen thirteen while he was talking to Tsar Alexander. Yeah, whoops. Apparently Zar Alexander wanted his command Borrow's command, and his advisors had to be like, no, bro, you're the CSAR, Like you can't do that, and they had to really beg him not to do it. Um And after Moreau got shot down right next to him, he turned to his advisor and was like, God, was of your opinion? Wow, he's got blood splattered all over his face, and he's like, oh,

I really dodged a bullet there, didn't everybody? Oh I'll be forever. So poor Sophie her Man was dead. Now sucks. And a year later Leopold came back to Paris, now a general himself with Catherine Thomas, so he's ready to flaunt her about. And he also stopped paying Sophie's rent, so she left Ugon and Victor with some old family friends, the foosh Shares, and took the oldest able with her to figure out what he is up to. And she's like, come on, need to start paying my rent again, Let's

get this together. Instead, Leopold asked for a divorce on the grounds of adultery. Oh so they didn't end up getting divorced back in Spain. No, Joseph had reconciled them, and even though it had got blown up, she had been in Paris, so yeah, so they you know, they're

busy with other things. So now he's like, about that divorce, I want it, And he also wanted custody of the kids and put them all in a boarding school again, and Sophie went back to Paris, probably huffing off like oh that bastard, only to find her apartments sealed off for non payment, so she had to go to the food shares and be like, may I please stay with you?

Did not like doing that. Impoverished, she was forced to find like a cheap place of her own, and she sued for divorce in eighteen fifteen, and that's when she started talking about finding out about this English concubine way before she ever slept victor, you know, stuff like that.

She was trying to make herself look better in court more than rightly, and that's when she kind of started spinning her little story about being a royalist married to a Republican and it was like a really hard struggle for them. That's when she started telling the kids like, that's what's really tearing us apart kind of stuff. It's politics, yeah, yeah, nothing personal. But again, at least according to Graham Rob, that's not likely the real truth. Sophie's family, unlike many Breton's,

had been all about the republic. Actually, he points out that her grandfather had worked with Jean Baptiste Carrier, the guy who basically kicked off the reign of terror, and Rob writs, quote distinguished himself by loading excess prisoners onto boats and sinking them in the Loire. Yeah, like four hundred people in a day, and stuff like he would

just behave. He was like brutal. Carrier's mistress was Sophie's young aunt and best friend, Louise, And when Sophie and aunt Francoise left for Chateaubrian faithfully putting her in Leopold's path. Rob writs quote, they were not fleeing f Republican troops, but from their fellow Breton's, those who were appalled by Carrier's brutality, or those whose festering bodies were spreading disease piled up in open graves, to which Sophie's grandfather had

contributed in his capacity as public prosecutor in nut Who. Yeah, they didn't have a lot of royalist cred. No. Now, Victor and his brothers were not baptized, which meant that she wasn't a fervent Catholic. And while Victor Laharie had plotted to restore the Bourbon king, he had been more of a Republican than a Royalist himself. Graham rob Chuck's Victor Hugo's misrepresentation of his family history quote to his mother's silence and his father's love of stories in which

he was the hero. More than that, it reflects the battle lines drawn up by his parents as their marriage fell apart from the very beginning, the idea of a royalist mother and a republican father was highly acceptable because it suggests that historical forces, and not Victor Hugo himself, were responsible for his parents incompatibility. M He was like, my fault that you're divorced, right, Okay, of course, of course,

of course. Yeah, that's kind of sad. He's trying to absolve himself of something that certain he was a baby, This certainly wasn't his fault. Sophie and Leopold's divorce was finalized in eighteen eighteen. Took a long time to get divorced back then, and Sophie got custody of her kids back although by now Abel was twenty years old, Uge is eighteen and Victor is sixteen, and it already received an honorable mention in a poetry contest. Oh wow, this

gets going place. Yeah, people are already like, what's blowing out of here? And that made Sophie actually decided to explore her own artistic talents, and she began painting, and there are some paintings by Sophie Trebuche out there. And they spent a lot of time with their friends, the food Shares, and soon Sophie discovered that Victor had fallen in love and got secretly engaged to the daughter of the house, his childhood friend Adele food Share. But Sophie

did not approve. She thought Victor could do better. So she's like now and he was like, yes, what kind of went back and forth for aact? You get him here on ridiculous romance, everybody's years of acting training and just a brilliant character work being done. Look here in the studio. I know, I know it's hard to do. In the moment, you give it to us again, She said no, and he said yes, I feel like I'm there.

But I don't think they fought a lot about Like, you know, he didn't like marry her out of hand or something. He just was like, it just is what it is. And she was like, I'm just gonna grumble about it, you know, kind of vibes. Two years later, after catching cold while ending her garden and falling ill, Sophie Trebuche died in June eighty one. Only a month later, Leopold married Catherine Thomas, who became Countess de Silcano. Which is funny. I don't why didn't he marry her after

he got divorced. He could have done it in eighteen eighteen, well only a month later. Maybe they were already making plans and it just took a while, I know, But their divorce was finalized in eighteen eighteen. That was three years before. Look, something tells me Leopold wasn't exactly rushing into commitment again, you know, but maybe he thought it would like Sophie would not. He was like, I won't marry you. I don't know, but he ended up marrying her.

She's a countess. Now, good for you girl. Side Peace Gottess and Victor reconciled with his father, but later in his life he did move his mother's remains to Pair La Chaise, where she is buried as Countess Hugo Plase Honeymoon Alert. I know, right, everybody's in parent shades. Everybody's there. We have to go back. I keep saying this every time it comes up. We didn't know about any of this when we went. We were completely just strolled on

by Jim Morrisons ball Zack. I think Victor Hugo himself like, we knew the big names, right we went to the Big East. Yes, but yeah, so that's their ridiculous romance. I love it. It's like when we started with Ann Bonnie and Calico Jack and found out that her parents had an insane story of their own, but we haven't tell. Oh yeah they'll spoons. Oh my god, lifetime ago. Um. But yes, thank you to Jinny and to uh Cassandra.

We're sending in Victor Hugo so that we would be like, let's get our asses in gear, do Victor Hugo because this was such a fun story and a lot of little bits of French revolutionary history that I didn't know much about. Little cups and you know, little fires that pop up when you're changing a government, complete way of life. This is a messy process. Yeah, and how like you're like, oh, good, we got the bad thing out, we will place it with a perfectly good thing. Wait a minute, a minute,

this thing ain't so good. Are often just the same thing, you know, same kind of structures, but not really, I mean different people, but same structures. Though it doesn't really have any of a different outcome. I don't know, Oh my god, but yes, I really enjoyed diving into some French revolutionary shenanigans and uh, these two's hot messes, really ridiculous lives. I mean well, and poor Sophie her Man got scooped up. I know he had a cause and he went for it, you know, And that's the rich,

very true, that's the risk, that's very true. You did a good job. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Definitely, please reach out. We always love to hear from you. Obviously, these suggestions are amazing. If you have any of your own, or if you have any feedback about the episode or anything like that, please reach out to our email, Rick Romance at gmail dot com. That's right. Find us on Twitter and Instagram. I'm at Oh great, it's Eli. I'm at Danamite Boom and the

show is at Dick Romance. Yea year and we can't wait to I've into more about Victor and next time, that's right, and tell you all about his Craser shop. So tune in and we'll catch you down. Love you buy so long, friends, it's time to go. Thanks, for listening to our show. Tell your friends neighbor's uncles in dance to listen to what show ridiculous Well Dance