EMPEROR NAPOLEON, from the painting by François Gérard, is the subject of one of the intaglio-gravure pictures illustrating “Napoleon Bonaparte.”
TUESDAY DAILY READING IN THE MENTOR COURSE
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
EMPEROR NAPOLEON
“I shall now give myself to the administration of France.” That was the statement of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 after he had overthrown the government and had instituted a consulate, to which he was elected first for ten years, and then for life. There were three consuls, and Napoleon was known as the first consul. To one of his sublime ambition, however, the thought of association in government was unbearable. Two years later, despite his attitude expressed in his own words, “I am a friend of the Republic; I am a son of the Revolution; I stand for the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity,” Napoleon determined to make an office for himself that would be absolute and hereditary. The title of king had grown hateful to the people of France; so Napoleon chose “emperor” instead, and in 1804 he assumed the title and the office.
Many were shocked; but none could resist his assumption of imperial power. A popular vote showed that only 2,500 people opposed the new government. Pope Pius VII accepted Napoleon’s request to take part in the coronation ceremony on December 2, 1804. The event occurred at Notre Dame Cathedral. The pope poured the mystic oil on the head of the kneeling sovereign. It was ten centuries since any pope had left Rome for a coronation, and in the minds of the Latin peoples this was a consecration of a monarch that put him on an equal plane with the proudest rulers of Europe, whose power reposed on the basis of Divine Right. When the pope lifted the crown Napoleon performed an act so striking in its originality that the people held their breath. He took the crown from the pope’s hands and placed it on his own head. He then crowned Empress Josephine.
A few months later Napoleon journeyed to Milan, the capital of what was called the Cisalpine Republic, and there proclaimed the kingdom of Italy. He crowned himself then with “the iron crown of the Lombards” and named Prince Eugène, his stepson, heir to the throne.
During the ceremonies the republic of Genoa sent ambassadors to Paris with the request to be incorporated into the French empire. This offended Austria, and led to the third war with that empire since 1792, when the republic of France was proclaimed.