Imperial coronation of Napoleon I.

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Coronation in Notre Dame (1804) (painting by Jacques-Louis David , 1805–1807, 610 × 930 cm, oil on canvas)

The imperial coronation of Napoleon I was a coronation ceremony on December 2, 1804 in the Notre-Dame de Paris , which was supposed to legitimize the legal status of Napoleon as Emperor of the French symbolically and sacred.

prehistory

Napoleon Bonaparte had fought for fame and reputation as a general of the revolutionary armies in the late phase of the French Revolution . He used the turmoil of the Second Coalition War for the coup d'état of 18th Brumaire VIII (November 9, 1799) to overthrow the Directory and to introduce a consular government with him as the first consul. In the following years France was subjected to strict reforms. The administration was renewed and centralized, the educational system was standardized, a concordat was concluded with the Catholic Church and the economy was promoted through the award of state contracts. In 1804 the Civil Code was introduced, which enshrined civil rights such as personal freedom, legal equality, private property, civil marriage and divorce law.

Legitimation of the hereditary empire

In August 1803, a royalist conspiracy was uncovered by the secret police, which allegedly aimed at the murder of Napoleon and the establishment of a Bourbon or General Jean-Victor Moreau as the new ruler. The latter was wrongly accused by the masterminds Georges Cadoudal and Jean-Charles Pichegru . Since the police could not establish a connection between the conspirators and the Bourbons, but Napoleon demanded the same, the Duke of Enghien was finally accused of complicity. He was staying with his cousin in Ettenheim in Baden and was the only Bourbon prince within reach. A French general crossed the Rhine on March 15, 1804 together with a few dragoons and arrested the duke. Before a Paris military tribunal, he admitted that he wanted to fight Napoleon in the British service and that he had previously been an open opponent of the revolution, but denied his participation in the said plot. The tribunal sentenced him to death and the execution took place on the night of March 21. Napoleon had influenced the judgment to the effect that he wanted to sacrifice a Bourbon in order to deter the others from any new attacks.

The public outrage over the murder of the duke was great in France as in all of Europe, but it could not shake the power of the consul. The aftermath of the uncovered conspiracy, however, had a considerable impact on members of the Senate and other institutions in particular . An overthrow of the Napoleonic government seemed possible at any time. Had such an action been successful, the senators would have lost their lucrative offices and the inner calm that had returned in recent years and which so many wanted to maintain would have been a thing of the past. The Senate, which had the right to change the constitution, recognized the advantage of a hereditary empire of the Bonapartes, which would immediately replace the ruler with a new one if the ruler were to be lost and would make any further attempt at overthrow more difficult. Joseph Fouché , former police minister and senator from Aix , who had fallen out of favor with the consul, seized the opportunity in this situation to make himself popular with Napoleon again and, on behalf of the Senate, proposed a constitutional amendment with him as emperor.

Creation of the Empire

Napoleon, consul for life since 1802 , had hoped for this concession from the Senate and consciously influenced it through his politics. His endeavors to secure his family's position of power over the long term and to increase his title had not gone unnoticed by foreign diplomats. Ambassadors from Austria and Prussia saw in their letters the possibility of a "Gauls Empire" in the near future. The first draft of the constitutional amendment included the following points:

1. Napoleon Bonaparte is entrusted with the government of the French Republic. 2. The imperial dignity is declared hereditary to his family.

On March 30, 1804, the Senate accepted the motion with five votes against, and the Corps législatif also approved the proposal. The final version of the new constitution was drawn up by the State Council and re-submitted to the Senate in a solemn session on May 18. Five votes against and one abstention against 74 votes in favor brought the empire to France. At the instigation of Napoleon, an agreement was reached on the title of emperor ( Empereur in French ) because a monarchical title was necessary, but that of the king would have awakened unpleasant memories. In ancient Rome , Octavian made himself Caesar, i.e. emperor, because he too could not have accepted the title of king without the disapproval of the people. Napoleon invoked this fact, as his career was so strikingly similar to that of Augustus. In addition, Charlemagne was also crowned emperor in 800. The new constitution did not bring any major legal innovations, as Napoleon had in fact ruled dictatorially since his coup . The new emperor, however, wanted his new title to be confirmed by the French people despite all the legal legitimacy of his new title. Over four and a half million voted for him, only a few thousand against his monarchy.

A new dynasty

Napoleon had for years had rule and power that was in no way inferior to the princes of the great European monarchies. However, he was still treated on the diplomatic floor for who he really was: a middle-class soldier, a former revolutionary who had usurped the throne. Napoleon wanted to change this with the creation of a dynasty and all other measures deemed necessary to increase his international recognition. They looked for models from ancient Rome and the Frankish Empire. But even the much closer model of the Bourbons did not remain untouched. Experienced court veterans from the Bourbon era such as Louis-Philippe de Ségur and Madame Campan, Marie-Antoinette's chambermaid , were consulted for the details of the pompous ceremony and the etiquette of the new empire . The courtly ambience from the time of Louis XIV was studied diligently and practiced for the coronation.

In order to represent the pomp of the new empire internally as well as externally, a wealth of titles and dignities were required, which were bestowed on the men who had made a name for themselves at Napoleon's side in the revolution. Napoleon's mother was named Madame Mère by the Emperor . His brothers Joseph and Louis were declared imperial princes and heirs to the throne while the emperor was childless. His two other brothers, Lucien and Jérôme , had been excluded from titles and succession to the throne for the time being because of improper marriages. Charles-François Lebrun was named Arch Chamberlain, Jean-Jacques Cambacérès Arch Chancellor, Armand de Caulaincourt Grand Equestrian, Géraud-Christophe-Michel Duroc Grand Marshal of the Palace, Louis Alexandre Berthier Grand Master of Hunting and Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord Grand Chamberlain . Sixteen generals of the Revolutionary Army received the title of Marshal of France , the highest military honor that had existed in royal France. Joachim Murat , who was also Napoleon's brother-in-law, was given the rank of marshal as well as that of grand admiral .

The presence of the Pope

In order to incorporate a sacred component, Napoleon had decreed that he should be crowned in the presence of the Pope . Not only Charlemagne had been crowned Emperor by the Pope as King of the Franks; The Roman-German emperors of the Middle Ages had also undertaken a trip to Rome in order to see their position confirmed by a papal coronation. Pius VII. Was charged with vigor to the imperial court in Paris, where the Pope finally recovering some territories of the Papal States had previously occupied, the French troops a few years, consented to his participation in the ceremony.

The Pope, who had come to Paris in the humble hope of restoring some of the many millions of French believers who had apostatized from the Church during the Revolution, was taken by surprise by the rush to his audience room. Every day he had to bless thousands of pilgrims in the Tuileries Gardens and received generals, former Jacobins and dignitaries alike. On the eve of the coronation, the future Empress Joséphine asked for an interview and confessed to the Pope with tears that her marriage to Napoleon had only been civil. Pius replied that, according to the provisions of canon law, he could only crown Joséphine as a married church wife, but not as a sinful concubine . Napoleon was informed of the Pope's intention and gave instructions to prepare a church wedding as soon as possible, which was then performed at midnight before the coronation ceremony in his study by the half-brother of his mother Laetitia, Cardinal Joseph Fesch .

The coronation

The day of the coronation

By the day of the coronation, December 2, 1804, preparations for the coronation were in full swing. For many months, Louis-Philippe de Ségur, the Grand Master of the ceremonies, and AL de Rémusat, the First Chamberlain, organized the celebrations. The architects Charles Percier and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine designed the decorations and the painter Jean Baptiste Isabey the costumes. That night, the interior of Notre-Dame was decorated and the streets of the capital were cleaned and repaired. The night before, all of Paris was in a festive mood. The artillery shot salutes, bells rang everywhere and Bengal fires burned , there was free entry to all theaters and music was played on every corner.

The facade of the cathedral was given its final polish, it carried a large triumphal arch with an eagle, two pillars of the portal bore images of Clovis I and Charlemagne. These symbolized the descent from the Frankish Empire , with which Napoleon wanted to justify his claim to rule over France and hegemony over Europe . The day of the coronation was a Sunday. It had snowed at night. The Parisians had been rushing into the church since 7:00 a.m. Despite the many seats reserved for the aristocracy and the wealthy bourgeoisie , there was still enough room in the tiers for anyone willing and able to pay nine francs .

In the Tuileries , many ladies-in-waiting had to sleep all night in a sitting position so as not to ruin their elaborate hairstyles. The imperial couple had dressed in the finest costumes, Joséphine wore a white silk dress and Napoleon a richly embroidered purple uniform and jewelery. On his beret he wore the regent diamond that the French kings had worn in their crowns. Between 6:00 and 9:00 a.m. the delegations of the invited institutions of the Reich arrived in front of the Notre-Dame. City dignitaries, the army, the judiciary, the administration, the Legion of Honor and members of the legislative chambers drove up in carriages .

After 9:00 a.m. the Pope drove up with the curia’s entourage and, accompanied by an honor guard, made a venerable entry into the Notre-Dame. A little later, the imperial procession from the Tuileries made its way through the city. The governor of Paris, Marshal Murat, rode in front, followed by cavalry regiments. They were in turn followed by the six-horse carriages of the cabinet members and the emperor's siblings. Last was the golden carriage of the imperial couple, in which Joseph and Louis were also sitting, pulled by eight golden-brown horses. The police report noted subtle cheers and applause, which was probably less for Napoleon than for Joséphine, who apparently amazed the Parisians with their youthfulness.

Coronation process

The ceremony began at around 10:00 a.m. when the Pope entered the cathedral. Pius VII strode through the ranks of the highest ecclesiastical dignitaries in the country in splendid robes and with the tiara on his head under a canopy . He blessed all present and prayed in front of the altar before taking a seat on a throne set up for him . Napoleon and Joséphine had arrived in front of the Notre-Dame at around 11:00, which meant that the Pope had to wait two hours for Napoleon in the freezing cathedral. They then went to the archbishop's palace next door to change.

To the sound of a mass written by Giovanni Paisiello , performed by a choir of over four hundred members and two orchestras , the imperial couple entered the cathedral at around 11:45 a.m. In addition to the Italian, who was valued by Napoleon, Jean François Lesueur and Abbé Roze had also composed music for the coronation. First came heralds , pages, chamberlains , the grand masters of the ceremonies, marshals and stablemen. Marshal Murat carried Joséphine's crown on a pillow. Then the future empress followed. Their train was carried by the sisters of Napoleon, the wife of his brother Joseph and his adopted daughter. Each of them had its own smaller train, which was carried by the chamberlains. Then Napoleon's entourage entered the room. Several marshals wore his crown , sword and orb . His cloak was worn by his brothers Joseph and Louis and his former consuls Lebrun and Cambacérès. After the imperial couple and the great dignitaries were present in the cathedral, the imperial insignia were placed on the altar. Napoleon sank briefly on his knees in prayer and then sat down next to the altar. The Pope now began to hold a mass. This was followed by the anointing with holy oil on the forehead, arms and hands of Napoleon and Joséphine. Cardinal Fesch then dabbed off the oil again in his position as a grand almsman . The anointing of the emperor was not originally supposed to be part of the coronation, but rather take place beforehand, but delays in the Pope's arrival had forced it to combine anointing and coronation.

Imperial crown of Napoleon I.

After the anointing, Pope Pius VII blessed the crown, the scepter and the sword and the imperial couple went up the steps to the altar. Napoleon put on his sword, took the scepter and the "hand of justice" (main de justice), which he then passed on to Lebrun and Cambacérès. Then Napoleon went to the altar, took the crown and held it up with his right hand before he put it on, facing those present, and thus crowned himself . The emperor then put the crown back on the altar and put a golden laurel wreath on his head. He crowned Joséphine, who was now kneeling in front of him, by letting the empress's crown touch his own head for a moment and then putting it on her. Apparently the crown was not in place yet because the emperor lifted it up again and put it on his wife a second time. This moment is captured in the painting by Jacques-Louis Davids , which was made famous through many prints, but was artistically unsuccessful, insofar as David subordinates everything to the propaganda effect.

The emperor and empress then walked through the nave to the thrones. Their coronation cloaks were worn by Napoleon's brothers and sisters. The couple sat down, as did the crown vassals. The Pope now blessed both of them and said: “Vivat in aeternum semper Augustus!” The same thing was said at the coronation of Charlemagne in 800 in Rome . The mass that had been interrupted for the anointing and coronation was now ended. Now Cambacérès approached the emperor as President of the Senate, flanked by the Presidents of the Corps législatif and the Tribunate , and handed him the document with his oath. It read:

“I swear to preserve the integrity of the territory of the republic, to respect the laws of the Concordat and freedom of belief, equality before the law, political and civil liberty, the irrevocability of the sale of national goods themselves and to ensure that all of this is respected; To collect taxes and duties only by law, to retain the institution of the Legion of Honor and to rule only from the point of view of the interests, happiness and fame of the French people. "

The highest herald of the empire now proclaimed: “The most glorious and exalted Emperor Napoleon, Emperor of the French, is crowned and enthroned ; Long live the emperor! ”All those present joined in loudly and the bells rang again, the thunder of cannons announced the enthronement of the city. The princes, great dignitaries, court officials and the presidents of the Senate, the Corps législatif and the Tribunate then signed a protocol on the taking of the oath. At around 3 p.m. the ceremony was over, the imperial couple and their entourage left the cathedral and then drove an extensive tour through the streets of Paris, which were lined with the people. Five hundred lackeys with torches as well as numerous chandeliers and gas lamps on buildings lit the way in the beginning dusk.

Coronation insignia

Like all other insignia of the coronation, the imperial crown was designed by the jeweler Martin Biennais. It was made of gold , the bracket and ring were provided with enamelled gemstones, which should give it an antique look. The emperor only briefly put them on for the coronation. Napoleon wore a golden laurel wreath during his entry into Notre-Dame and for most of the ceremony. During the ceremony, Empress Joséphine wore a tiara made of silver and diamonds . Her crown was made of gold with gemstones on eight flat curved arms.

In addition to gold rings adorned with precious stones and the large imperial orb, several richly decorated swords were also used. Napoleon's scepter was as tall as a man and made of gold. On its thickened tip there was a figure of Saint-Denis. The hand of righteousness was a scepter-like staff of gold with a white enameled hand to bless. The latter two insignia looked confusingly similar to the pieces of the French kings.

The robes of the imperial couple were also splendidly decorated. They wore robes made of the finest white silk that were embroidered with gold. The emperor's velvet coronation cloak and the 25-meter-long train of Joséphine were trimmed with Russian ermine fur and were also embroidered with gold decorations. Large illustrations of the letter N, surrounded by wreaths of leaves, as well as stylized olive, laurel and oak leaves and golden bees adorned these pieces. The bees were a Merovingian symbol that Napoleon had chosen as a state symbol alongside the eagle . The imperial couple's coronation gown and train alone cost over 56,000 francs.

Summary

The coronation of Napoleon as Emperor of the French was a symbolic event in the history of France at that time. The ceremony was supposed to represent the dignity of the office, served to legitimize the legal status of the emperor and had a sacred character last seen during the Bourbon era. In the course of the ceremony, however, the emperor made it clear that his rule was based on the approval of state bodies and ultimately also on himself. Rome and the Frankish empire of Charlemagne served as pillars of tradition for the spectacle, which was often more embarrassing than impressive, although a considerable part of the ceremony was copied from the royal coronations. Above all, the coronation obviously ended the uncertain state of the French state. The time of the republic was made obsolete with the establishment of old monarchical dignities and etiquette as well as the new nobility. The revolution was finally a thing of the past.

Anecdotes

When Napoleon made the decision that his wife Joséphine should be crowned with him and that the emperor's sisters should carry their train along with Joseph's wife Julie and Napoleon's adopted daughter Hortense de Beauharnais , open conflict broke out in the Bonaparte family. Elisa , Pauline and Caroline were beside themselves and Napoleon's brothers also protested against the decision. Nor was it custom during French kingship to crown the wives of kings. The last woman who had undergone such a ceremony was Maria de Medici , because she was responsible for the underage Louis XIII. had to rule. With this argumentation, the Bonaparte siblings had made Napoleon brood, but not dissuaded him from his decision. The three sisters finally vented their hatred of their sister-in-law when they accidentally let go of the heavy train during the ascent of the imperial couple on the steep dais of the throne, so that Joséphine almost fell. Only an angry look from Napoleon brought the three sisters to reason in their glee.

Napoleon's mother Laetitia Ramolino was not present during the coronation because she had been in Italy for a cure since the spring. In Lucca she learned from the newspaper that her son was proclaiming emperor. Offended by the lack of personal communication, she stayed away from France until the end of the year. By order of Napoleon, Jacques-Louis David still had to paint them into the coronation painting.

Based on the coronation of Charlemagne, Napoleon had ordered twelve virgin girls with candles to attend the ceremony. However, due to the complete collapse of the old order, the social fabric and social conventions through the revolution, it was difficult to find the required number in Paris.

When Napoleon sat on the throne with the crown on his head and the imperial orb in one hand and the scepter in the other, according to the doctor Bailly, who was sitting nearby, he felt an urge to sneeze and tried to suppress it "a unique one Grimace ".

Coronation of Napoleon took Jean-Bedel Bokassa as a model when he on 4 December 1977 in Bangui for Emperor of Central Africa crowned.

gallery

literature

  • August Fournier : Napoleon I. - A biography . Volume 2: The struggle for world domination . Phaidon-Verlag, Essen 1996, ISBN 3-88851-186-0 .
  • Stefan Glasses: Women around Napoleon . Pustet, Regensburg 2001, ISBN 3-7917-1768-5 .
  • Richard Schult: "... to bring the ship of the revolution to the port he has chosen". Jacques-Louis David and the coronation of Napoleon . In: History in Science and Education , Vol. 43 (1992), pp. 728-742.
  • Richard Schult: Napoleon's coronation as emperor . In: Eberhardt Schwalm (Ed.): Foil book history. Pictures for the classroom . Vol. 2: From the 16th to the 20th century . Klett-Perthes, Gotha and Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-623-57003-6 .
  • Heinz-Otto Sieburg : Napoleon I. In: Kurt Fassmann (Hrsg.): The big ones. Life and achievement of the six hundred most important personalities of our world , Volume 7: Goethe to Lincoln. 18. – 19. Century , Part 1: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (born 1749) to George Stephenson (born 1781) and Robert Stephenson (born 1803) . Kindler, Zurich 1977.

Footnotes

  1. ^ A b Adam Zamoyski: Napoleon: One life . CH Beck, 2018, ISBN 978-3-406-72497-8 , pp. 446 .
  2. ^ Eduard Beaucamp : Opportunism and its price. The bad work of a good painter: Why Jacques-Louis David's famous painting “The Coronation of Napoleon” is a prime example of failed art. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, January 3, 2017, p. 9.
  3. ^ Adam Zamoyski: Napoleon: One life . CH Beck, 2018, ISBN 978-3-406-72497-8 , pp. 449 .