Search

The melody to “O come, all ye faithful” (“Peuple fidèle” in French) is perhaps the most famous of all Christmas carols (after “Jingle Bells”, probably). Not only on both sides of the channel, but also in the US and elsewhere in the English-language world. Though…

Le bicentenaire de Napoléon a été une belle réussite : 500 événements recensés par la Fondation Napoléon, des modestes cérémonies, reconstitutions ou conférences locales aux prestigieuses expositions parisiennes dont celle de La Villette et ses probables 250 000 visiteurs d’ici au 24 décembre ; 130…

In the wake of the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of France, and Pope Pius VII shared a common goal: to reconcile the church with the state. But while they were able to work together initially, formalizing an agreement in 1801, relations between them rapidly deteriorated. In 1809, Napoleon ordered the Pope’s arrest. Ambrogio […]

On 10 May 1804, Napoleon, who had already been made Emperor by the sénatus-consulte of 28 floréal an XII (18 May 1804) – dit Constitution de l’an XII) received Cardinal Caprara and expressed his desire to be crowned by the Pope. On 10 September he officially invited the pontiff to come and consecrate him at […]

On 2 December 1804, the day of Napoleon’s consacration and coronation at Notre-Dame; it was freezing cold. At 6am, the first of the 15,000 guests settled in the aisles and in the galleries; at 10.30am, Pope Pius VII took his place on the throne; at…

This widely reproduced engraving (after an original painting by Jean-Georges Vibert (1895)[1] depicts an event that is said to have happened about a week before Napoleon’s coronation and consecration (otherwise known as the “Sacre”), in which the Emperor was able to fine-tune the orchestration of…