Coronation of Napoleon

The coronation of Napoleon took place on 2nd December 1804 at Notre-Dame de Paris, in the presence of Pope Pius VII, and it staged the new regime for Europe. After being anointed, Napoleon took the crown from the altar and placed it on his own head, then crowned Joséphine as Empress — a gesture that told the old monarchies his authority came from himself and the nation, not from the Church. He swore to defend the Revolution's gains: equality before the law, the sale of national lands, and the Legion of Honour. The ceremony, recorded in David's vast painting, fused revolutionary and monarchical symbolism into a new imperial style that courts across Europe would imitate. Eleven days later the Senate's proclamation was confirmed by plebiscite, and the Consulate became the Empire in law as well as in spectacle. David's painting of the moment, crowded with the new elite, remains the defining image of the Napoleonic regime at its height.