Napoléon's Coronation as Emperor

Notre Dame Cathedral is in its full glory with dignitaries and papal representatives present to witness Napoleon's coronation. Pope Pius VII is present with his entourage. Napoleon and Josephine, his wife, enter Notre Dame to the tunes of Marche de Lesueur.




Napoleon, having conquered most of Europe had forced Pope Pius VII to come to Paris to consecrate him as emperor, only to demean him at the last minute by taking the crown from the pope's hands and crowning himself.

Few individuals can have created so much national social capital so quickly as Napoleon. In two frenetic decades, the Corsican-born petit caporal (little corporal) drove France to the heights of glory and the depths of despair, leaving behind a rich legacy: the civil code, the Bank of France and the beauty of Paris.






Inisde Notre Dame, the pope blesses the Emperor and his wife, Napoleon crowns himself and Josephine kneels in front of Napoleon and is crowned by Napoleon. Napoleon and Joesephine then seat themselves in their imperial thrones.

The Pope blesses the couple and pronounces to the assembly, "Vivat Imperator in aeternum".






Napoleon then pronounced the constitutional oath, his hand on the gospel.

"Je jure de maintenir l'intégrité du territoire de la République ; de respecter et de faire respecter les lois du concordat et la liberté des cultes ; de respecter et faire respecter l'égalité des droits, la liberté politique et civile, l'irrévocabilité des ventes des biens nationaux ; de ne lever aucun impôt, de n'établir aucune taxte qu'en vertu de la loi ; de maintenir l'institution de la légion d'honneur ; de gouverner dans la seule vue de l'intérêt, du bonheur et de la gloire du peuple français."

Finally the herald proclaimed: "the most glorious, the most august emperor Napoleon, emperor of the French, is crowned and enthroned emperor, Long live the Emperor!"

Napoleon and his entourage leave for Le Palais des Tuileries.