Coronation of Napoleon (1804): An Emperor at Notre-Dame

The Coronation of Napoleon took place on 2 December 1804 in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, where Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned Emperor of the French in the presence of Pope Pius VII. In the most famous moment of the ceremony he placed the crown on his own head and then crowned his wife Joséphine as Empress. Immortalised in Jacques-Louis David’s vast painting, the coronation marked the transformation of the revolutionary Republic into a hereditary empire.

Background: from First Consul to Emperor

After the Coup of 18 Brumaire in 1799, Bonaparte ruled France as First Consul. His prestige grew with victories abroad and reforms at home, including the Concordat with the Catholic Church and the Napoleonic Code. In 1802 a plebiscite made him Consul for life.

In 1803-1804 the police uncovered a royalist plot, led by Georges Cadoudal, to assassinate him. In March 1804 Bonaparte had the young Duke of Enghien, a Bourbon prince, seized in neutral Baden and shot at Vincennes after a hasty military trial. Supporters argued that only a hereditary empire would discourage assassins, since killing Napoleon would no longer end the regime.

On 18 May 1804 the Senate proclaimed Napoleon “Emperor of the French”, with the succession passing to his male heirs. A plebiscite approved the hereditary empire with, officially, about 3.5 million votes in favour and some 2,500 against. The choice of “Emperor” rather than “King” avoided the title of the deposed Bourbons and recalled both ancient Rome and Charlemagne.

Preparations

Napoleon wanted a ceremony that would combine revolutionary and monarchical traditions. Rather than the old royal cathedral of Reims, he chose Notre-Dame in Paris. The architects Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine decorated the cathedral with temporary neo-Gothic structures, tribunes and a great canopy.

Above all, he wanted the Pope. A pope had crowned Charlemagne in Rome in 800, and Napoleon presented himself as Charlemagne’s successor. After difficult negotiations, Pius VII agreed to travel to France, hoping to gain concessions for the Church after the Concordat of 1801. He reached Fontainebleau on 25 November 1804.

When the Pope learned that Napoleon and Joséphine had only been married in a civil ceremony in 1796, he insisted on a religious marriage. Napoleon’s uncle, Cardinal Joseph Fesch, married them quietly in the Tuileries on the evening of 1 December, the day before the coronation.

The ceremony

The morning of 2 December was cold. The Pope arrived at Notre-Dame first and waited for over an hour before the imperial procession reached the cathedral from the Tuileries. Inside, thousands of officials, soldiers, members of the Legion of Honour, foreign diplomats and guests had gathered.

Napoleon wore a golden laurel wreath in imitation of the Roman emperors. The regalia included a newly made crown named after Charlemagne, a sword, a sceptre and the hand of justice, some of them old royal objects or copies of them. Napoleon’s sisters carried Joséphine’s train, reportedly with great reluctance.

The Pope anointed Napoleon and Joséphine with holy oil and blessed the regalia. Napoleon then took the crown from the altar and placed it on his head himself. He next crowned Joséphine, who knelt before him. The Pope then embraced the new Emperor and the choir sang.

Because the constitutional oath that followed included promises to uphold freedom of worship and the sale of former church lands, the Pope withdrew before Napoleon swore it. Heralds proclaimed that the “most glorious and most august Emperor of the French” had been crowned and enthroned. The whole ceremony lasted several hours.

Key people

• Napoleon I (1769–1821): aged 35, the former artillery officer now crowned Emperor.
• Joséphine (1763–1814): born Marie-Josèphe-Rose Tascher de La Pagerie in Martinique, widow of the Vicomte de Beauharnais, aged 41 when crowned.
• Pope Pius VII (1742–1823): who consecrated Napoleon but later became his prisoner.
• Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825): the former revolutionary painter appointed Napoleon’s First Painter.
• Cardinal Joseph Fesch (1763–1839): Napoleon’s uncle, who performed the religious marriage.

Reactions

Opinion about the new empire was divided. Many French people welcomed a regime that promised stability, kept the main gains of the Revolution and ended fears of a Bourbon restoration. The official plebiscite figures, though managed by the government, suggest little open resistance.

Others saw the coronation as a betrayal of the Republic. Some former revolutionaries and soldiers disliked the return of courtly titles, ceremonies and a hereditary throne, and royalists regarded Napoleon as a usurper. Across Europe, monarchs were alarmed by a self-made emperor who claimed the inheritance of Charlemagne, a claim that helped bring about the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806.

David’s painting

Napoleon commissioned David to record the event. The resulting painting, “The Consecration of the Emperor Napoleon and the Coronation of the Empress Joséphine”, was painted between 1805 and 1807 and measures about 6.2 by 9.8 metres. It shows not the self-crowning but the more graceful moment when Napoleon raises the crown over the kneeling Joséphine.

The painting is accurate in many details of the setting and costumes, but it is also political. Napoleon’s mother, Letizia, who did not attend, is shown in a place of honour, and the Pope, who seems to have sat passively, was painted with his hand raised in blessing. The original hangs in the Louvre; David’s second version, finished in 1822, is at Versailles.

Consequences

Three days later, on 5 December 1804, Napoleon presented eagle standards to his regiments on the Champ de Mars. On 26 May 1805 he was also crowned King of Italy in Milan Cathedral with the Iron Crown of Lombardy.

The new empire soon faced war with a Third Coalition of Britain, Austria and Russia. Exactly one year after the coronation, on 2 December 1805, Napoleon won his greatest victory at the Battle of Austerlitz.

The coronation did not secure a dynasty. Joséphine gave him no children, and in 1809 Napoleon divorced her to marry the Austrian archduchess Marie-Louise, who bore him a son in 1811. Relations with Pius VII collapsed, and in 1809 the Pope was arrested after Napoleon annexed the Papal States.

Myths and facts

A popular story says Napoleon snatched the crown from the Pope’s hands. In reality the self-crowning was agreed beforehand, and the Pope did not attempt to crown him. The gesture still carried a clear message: Napoleon owed his throne to himself and the nation, not to the Church.

Another story concerns Beethoven, who had planned to dedicate his Third Symphony to Bonaparte. According to his pupil Ferdinand Ries, on hearing that Napoleon had declared himself Emperor, Beethoven tore up the title page in anger; the work was later published as the “Eroica”.

Timeline

• 1802, 2 August: Bonaparte is proclaimed Consul for life.
• 1804, 21 March: The Duke of Enghien is executed at Vincennes.
• 1804, 18 May: The Senate proclaims Napoleon Emperor of the French.
• 1804, 25 November: Pius VII arrives at Fontainebleau.
• 1804, 1 December: Napoleon and Joséphine marry in a religious ceremony.
• 1804, 2 December: Coronation at Notre-Dame.
• 1804, 5 December: Distribution of the eagles on the Champ de Mars.
• 1805, 26 May: Napoleon is crowned King of Italy in Milan.
• 1805, 2 December: Battle of Austerlitz, on the coronation’s first anniversary.

Why it matters

The coronation turned a general who had risen through the Revolution into a crowned monarch with the blessing of the Pope, blending new and old sources of legitimacy. Through David’s painting it became one of the defining images of Napoleon’s power and of the end of the First Republic.