Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “The Baltimore Woman Who Fought Napoleon,” on the independent and unconventional life of Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte and what it tells us about gender expectations and power in the early American Republic, with Derek Van De Walle, adjunct professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law and scholar of local history.

Move over Meghan Markle as well as maybe even Wallis Simpson. When it comes to being the focus of international celebrity and controversy, it’s hard to fill the fashionable French shoes of the Baltimore socialite Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte, one of the most fascinating women in early American history.

Learn in depth about her with Derek Van De Walle, a lawyer and historian widely praised for lectures that bring historical figures to life.

You’ll learn how Elizabeth Patterson, daughter of one of Baltimore’s wealthiest families, acquired her famous last name by marrying Jérôme Bonaparte, youngest brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, the future French emperor. Their marriage brought her into one of the most powerful dynasties in the world and caused an international scandal, drawing the attention of both European courts and American society.

Napoleon ultimately annulled the marriage, but Elizabeth refused to fade quietly into the background. In an era when women were expected to live within strict social boundaries, she traveled Europe on her own terms, managed her own finances, became extraordinarily wealthy, and carefully shaped her legacy. She passed on her name and wealth to her child and grandchildren, who fought for a claim to the Bonaparte dynasty long after Napoleon's death.

Her life, which has inspired books and movies, intersected with themes of ambition, celebrity, gender expectations, and transatlantic politics in the early republic. You’ll be glad you got to know her. (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Bar doors open at 5 pm. The talk starts at 6:30.)

Image: From an 1804 “triple portrait” of Elizabeth Patterson by Gilbert Stuart (Metropolitan Museum of Art / Wikimedia Commons).