Eugenie Marie de Montijo << yu zhay NEE ma REE thay mawn TEE hoh >> (1826-1920) became empress of France as the wife of Napoleon III. A Spanish countess, she married Napoleon in 1853, soon after he became emperor. The empress set standards for beauty and fashion in Napoleon’s court but became noted for her extravagance. Politically influential, she favored the Roman Catholic and conservative group and tried to delay a more liberal government in France. She urged a warlike policy on the eve of the Franco-Prussian War. After 1870, she was forced to live in exile.
Empress Eugenie was born on May 5, 1826, in Granada, Spain. She died on July 11, 1920.
