Napoleon crowned Emperor of the French

Date

2 December 1804

Category

Politics & governance

Region

France

Era

Modern

Significance

On 2 December 1804, in the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris and in the presence of Pope Pius VII, Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned Emperor of the French, inaugurating the First French Empire and the Bonaparte dynasty.

Breaking with tradition, Napoleon took the crown from the pope's hands and crowned himself, then crowned his wife Joséphine empress, a gesture later immortalised in Jacques-Louis David's monumental painting. The ceremony fused elements of Carolingian, ancien régime and revolutionary symbolism, and Napoleon swore an oath to preserve the gains of the Revolution, including equality before the law and the sale of national lands. The coronation transformed the republican general who had seized power in 1799 into a hereditary monarch, consolidating his personal authority and signalling to Europe's older dynasties that France's revolutionary upheaval had produced a new and ambitious imperial power. It set the stage for more than a decade of continental warfare as Napoleon sought to extend French dominance across Europe.

Empires active in 2 December 1804

• British Empire
  1583 CE to 1997 CE
• Russian Empire
  1721 CE to 1917 CE
• Qing Dynasty
  1636 CE to 1912 CE
• Spanish Empire
  1492 CE to 1976 CE
• Portuguese Empire
  1415 CE to 1999 CE
• Mughal Empire
  1526 CE to 1857 CE

Related politics & governance events

• Promulgation of the Napoleonic Code
  21 March 1804
• Britain abolishes the transatlantic slave trade
  25 March 1807
• Congress of Vienna and the Concert of Europe
  September 1814 to June 1815
• The Slavery Abolition Act ends slavery across the British Empire
  28 August 1833 (in force 1 August 1834)
• The Revolutions of 1848 (the Springtime of Peoples)
  1848 to 1849
• Commodore Perry forces the opening of Japan
  1853 to 1854 (Treaty of Kanagawa, 31 March 1854)

Also relevant

• Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire
  6 August 1806
• Muhammad Ali becomes governor of Egypt
  1805
• United States completes the Louisiana Purchase
  30 April 1803

Essential reading

• The Great Irish Famine
  1845 to 1852
• Qing conquest of the Dzungars and the creation of Xinjiang
  1755 to 1759
• Emancipation of the serfs in Russia
  3 March 1861 (19 February O.S.)
• The Franco-Prussian War, German unification and the Paris Commune
  19 July 1870 to 10 May 1871; German Empire proclaimed 18 January 1871

Further reading

Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire

The wider story

Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire

Roger Crowley

Fast-paced narrative of Portugal's seaborne empire.

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