Web references often quote her as saying (about Napoleon I) "If it weren't for him, I'd be selling oranges on the streets of Ajaccio." But Napoleon Bonaparte was her uncle so she was granted the title Princess. She married Prince Demidoff, unsuccessfully. She was prominent during the Second Empire, hosting a prominent salon during and after the fall of the Second Empire. While not as beautiful as Empress Eugénie, she did project an aura of glamour. She was a candidate for marriage to Napoleon III, but some of the images posted here reveal someone who would have had no patience for the Emperor's infidelities. She married the poet Claudius Marcel Popelin when Prince Demidoff died in 1870. She died in 1904. Her brief Wikipedia article is here.
Grand Ladies
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ca. 1555 Caterina de' Medici by ? (Galleria degli Uffizi - Firenze, Toscana, Italy)
1859 Victoria, Queen of Great Britain & Ireland in the Robes of State by Franz Xaver Winterhalter (Royal Collection)
Princesse Mathilde by unknown (Musée national du château de Compiègne - Compiègne, Picardie, France)
![Princesse Mathilde Demidoff [photographie, tirage de démonstration] by Atelier Nadar](../../_Media/princesse-mathilde-demidoff.jpeg)
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