Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
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Emperor of the French ...!
On December 2, 1804, the Corsican adventurer, general of the revolution and former "First Consul for Life", Napoleon Bonaparte, crowns himself "Emperor of the French" and takes the name "Napoleon I." at.
Bonaparte had rejected the title of "Emperor of France" actually proposed by Chancellor Cambacerès and instead chose "Emperor of the French" because it seemed to him more to express his being a "man of the people".
Under no circumstances did he want to be “king” (that would have made him a successor to the executed Bourbon Louis XVI!). He came up with the imperial title himself after reading a biography of the Roman Caesar Ocatavian / Augustus.
Pope Pius VII is invited to the solemn kings ceremony in Notre Dame Cathedral - but he serves as mere legalistic staffage!
The Pope may first anoint him with "holy oil" - but in order to make it clear to the world that he owes his "empire" only to his own achievements and not to "higher powers", Napoleon puts the crown on himself. .
The imperial crown was designed by the jeweler Martin Biennais. It consisted of gold - the handle and the ring are provided with enamelled gemstones that are supposed to give it an antique look.
The painter Louis David portrays it like this ...
... but cheated a bit with its appearance - as with a number of other details when you check them out. The crown actually looks like this - it has been preserved ...:
Napoleon only briefly puts on the extremely expensive piece for the actual "coronation". While moving into Notre-Dame and most of the ceremony, he wore a golden laurel wreath - which is also in the museum today ...:
The painter David (in his previous life archrevolutionary and Jacobin, he once said in the convent: "Now let us touch a lot of red!") Painted a second picture, which shows Napoleon in the grain regalia with the ruler's insignia ...:
Napoleon's scepter is as tall as a man and made of gold. On its thickened tip there is a figure of Saint-Denis. And here, too, the David picture does not quite match the original preserved ...:
The second insignum that Napoleon holds in his hand is the so-called "Hand of Justice" - a scepter-like staff made of gold with a white enameled hand to bless.
The latter two insignia looked confusingly similar to the pieces that the French kings wore at their coronation ...:
The now Empress Joséphine wears a diadem made of silver and diamonds during the ceremony ...:
Her crown - she also only puts it on for the moment of coronation - is made of gold with gemstones on eight flat curved arms. Pretty expensive too!
The robes of the imperial couple are also splendidly decorated. They are made of the finest white silk embroidered with real gold threads.
The emperor's velvet coronation cloak and the 25 meter long train of Joséphine are trimmed with Russian ermine fur and were also embroidered with gold decorations. Large illustrations of the letter "N", surrounded by wreaths of leaves and 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 coronation gown and train of the imperial couple alone cost over 56,000 francs.
On May 18, 1804, a new constitution of the First French Empire, completed by the Senate, paved the way to monarchy, which was confirmed by an overwhelming majority in a referendum in November.
On paper, the Empire is a centralized constitutional monarchy, but in practice it is governed largely autocratically by Emperor Napoleon I.
On April 11, 1814, Napoleon will abdicate as emperor as an "autonomous prince" to rule over the island of Eba.
After secret arrangements, however, he surprisingly returned from Elba on March 1, 1815 and again took power in France (rule of the hundred days).
During this short period the constitution was significantly liberalized and a de facto parliamentary monarchy was introduced.
With the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, however, Napoleon was overthrown and the empire dissolved for the second and last time.
Exactly on the 46th anniversary of his coronation, on December 2, 1851, his grandson Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte will take power through a coup and - again exactly one year later - proclaim himself emperor as "Napoleon III.
The bees were a Merovingian symbol that Napoleon had chosen as a state symbol alongside the eagle. The coronation gown and train of the imperial couple alone cost over 56,000 francs.
On May 18, 1804, a new constitution of the First French Empire, completed by the Senate, paved the way to monarchy, which was confirmed by an overwhelming majority in a referendum in November.
On paper, the Empire is a centralized constitutional monarchy, but in practice it is governed largely autocratically by Emperor Napoleon I.
On April 11, 1814, Napoleon will abdicate as emperor as an "autonomous prince" to rule over the island of Eba.
After secret arrangements, however, he surprisingly returned from Elba on March 1, 1815 and again took power in France (rule of the hundred days).
Not all contemporaries reacted with joy to Napoleon I's coronation as emperor, even many people who had previously honored the Corsican as the "perfecter of the revolution" were bitterly greeted by the spectacle!
Ludwig van Beethoven...
... originally wrote his 3rd symphony to honor the achievements of the consul and revolutionary general Bonaparte.
He was very impressed by the ideals of the French Revolution of 1789, "freedom, equality and fraternity".
But when Napoleon crowned himself emperor in 1804, Beethoven was so disappointed that he angrily scratched the dedication off the sheet of music (there is still a hole in this place today) and wrote "he's just a (...) tyrant like." all other".
Immediately before the coronation there was another grotesque:
According to the new constitution, the "Emperor of the French" had to be married. No problem, huh? He was!
But the Pope noticed that the marriage of the then Général de Division of the Republic March 9, 1796 had taken place according to the republican rite, i.e. without priests and other church blessings...:
The prince of the church insisted with all his might on the detail that the marriage was invalid from the church's point of view, since it was not concluded before a priest.
He refused to perform the anointing of the emperor, even threatened to leave, which would have meant a postponement of the coronation to which haslb Europe was invited!
Bonaparte finally found a solution: How good that one of the extremely numerous Bonasparte clan had an uncle who had happened to be made a cardinal beforehand!
This uncle, Cardinal Joseph Fesch...
... trusted the couple in an adjoining room immediately before the coronation according to the rite of the church - and everyone was satisfied ...
On December 2, 1804, the Corsican adventurer, general of the revolution and former "First Consul for Life", Napoleon Bonaparte, crowns himself "Emperor of the French" and takes the name "Napoleon I." at.
Bonaparte had rejected the title of "Emperor of France" actually proposed by Chancellor Cambacerès and instead chose "Emperor of the French" because it seemed to him more to express his being a "man of the people".
Under no circumstances did he want to be “king” (that would have made him a successor to the executed Bourbon Louis XVI!). He came up with the imperial title himself after reading a biography of the Roman Caesar Ocatavian / Augustus.
Pope Pius VII is invited to the solemn kings ceremony in Notre Dame Cathedral - but he serves as mere legalistic staffage!
The Pope may first anoint him with "holy oil" - but in order to make it clear to the world that he owes his "empire" only to his own achievements and not to "higher powers", Napoleon puts the crown on himself. .
The imperial crown was designed by the jeweler Martin Biennais. It consisted of gold - the handle and the ring are provided with enamelled gemstones that are supposed to give it an antique look.
The painter Louis David portrays it like this ...
... but cheated a bit with its appearance - as with a number of other details when you check them out. The crown actually looks like this - it has been preserved ...:
Napoleon only briefly puts on the extremely expensive piece for the actual "coronation". While moving into Notre-Dame and most of the ceremony, he wore a golden laurel wreath - which is also in the museum today ...:
The painter David (in his previous life archrevolutionary and Jacobin, he once said in the convent: "Now let us touch a lot of red!") Painted a second picture, which shows Napoleon in the grain regalia with the ruler's insignia ...:
Napoleon's scepter is as tall as a man and made of gold. On its thickened tip there is a figure of Saint-Denis. And here, too, the David picture does not quite match the original preserved ...:
The second insignum that Napoleon holds in his hand is the so-called "Hand of Justice" - a scepter-like staff made of gold with a white enameled hand to bless.
The latter two insignia looked confusingly similar to the pieces that the French kings wore at their coronation ...:
The now Empress Joséphine wears a diadem made of silver and diamonds during the ceremony ...:
Her crown - she also only puts it on for the moment of coronation - is made of gold with gemstones on eight flat curved arms. Pretty expensive too!
The robes of the imperial couple are also splendidly decorated. They are made of the finest white silk embroidered with real gold threads.
The emperor's velvet coronation cloak and the 25 meter long train of Joséphine are trimmed with Russian ermine fur and were also embroidered with gold decorations. Large illustrations of the letter "N", surrounded by wreaths of leaves and 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 coronation gown and train of the imperial couple alone cost over 56,000 francs.
On May 18, 1804, a new constitution of the First French Empire, completed by the Senate, paved the way to monarchy, which was confirmed by an overwhelming majority in a referendum in November.
On paper, the Empire is a centralized constitutional monarchy, but in practice it is governed largely autocratically by Emperor Napoleon I.
On April 11, 1814, Napoleon will abdicate as emperor as an "autonomous prince" to rule over the island of Eba.
After secret arrangements, however, he surprisingly returned from Elba on March 1, 1815 and again took power in France (rule of the hundred days).
During this short period the constitution was significantly liberalized and a de facto parliamentary monarchy was introduced.
With the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, however, Napoleon was overthrown and the empire dissolved for the second and last time.
Exactly on the 46th anniversary of his coronation, on December 2, 1851, his grandson Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte will take power through a coup and - again exactly one year later - proclaim himself emperor as "Napoleon III.
The bees were a Merovingian symbol that Napoleon had chosen as a state symbol alongside the eagle. The coronation gown and train of the imperial couple alone cost over 56,000 francs.
On May 18, 1804, a new constitution of the First French Empire, completed by the Senate, paved the way to monarchy, which was confirmed by an overwhelming majority in a referendum in November.
On paper, the Empire is a centralized constitutional monarchy, but in practice it is governed largely autocratically by Emperor Napoleon I.
On April 11, 1814, Napoleon will abdicate as emperor as an "autonomous prince" to rule over the island of Eba.
After secret arrangements, however, he surprisingly returned from Elba on March 1, 1815 and again took power in France (rule of the hundred days).
Not all contemporaries reacted with joy to Napoleon I's coronation as emperor, even many people who had previously honored the Corsican as the "perfecter of the revolution" were bitterly greeted by the spectacle!
Ludwig van Beethoven...
... originally wrote his 3rd symphony to honor the achievements of the consul and revolutionary general Bonaparte.
He was very impressed by the ideals of the French Revolution of 1789, "freedom, equality and fraternity".
But when Napoleon crowned himself emperor in 1804, Beethoven was so disappointed that he angrily scratched the dedication off the sheet of music (there is still a hole in this place today) and wrote "he's just a (...) tyrant like." all other".
Immediately before the coronation there was another grotesque:
According to the new constitution, the "Emperor of the French" had to be married. No problem, huh? He was!
But the Pope noticed that the marriage of the then Général de Division of the Republic March 9, 1796 had taken place according to the republican rite, i.e. without priests and other church blessings...:
The prince of the church insisted with all his might on the detail that the marriage was invalid from the church's point of view, since it was not concluded before a priest.
He refused to perform the anointing of the emperor, even threatened to leave, which would have meant a postponement of the coronation to which haslb Europe was invited!
Bonaparte finally found a solution: How good that one of the extremely numerous Bonasparte clan had an uncle who had happened to be made a cardinal beforehand!
This uncle, Cardinal Joseph Fesch...
... trusted the couple in an adjoining room immediately before the coronation according to the rite of the church - and everyone was satisfied ...
