Painting by Jacques-Louis David, “Coronation”
(Detail: Napoleon crowning his wife)
Napoleon’s scheme was to invite the Pope to Paris in order
to help with the coronation at Notre Dame on December 2, 1804. The Pope complied, and he even agreed that Napoleon
should crown himself as Emperor. In so doing, the Pope (in the eyes of some
critics) was not only legitimating the French Revolution and its Napoleonic
consequences, but also consecrating it.[1]
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