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First French Empire

  • Sénat conservateurThe Senate convened for the first time on the 25th of December 1799 within the Luxembourg Palace. Napoleon Bonaparte had just seized power through the Coup…
  • TribunatThe Tribunat opened its doors on the 1st of January 1800. This new legislative body emerged from the Constitution of Year VIII alongside three other…
  • French ConsulateFrench military disasters in 1798 and 1799 had shaken the Directory, and eventually shattered it in November 1799. Historians sometimes date the start of the…
  • Antoine Christophe SalicetiAntoine Christophe Saliceti entered the world on the 26th of August 1757 in Saliceto, Haute-Corse. His family traced their roots to Piacentine origins before…
  • Corps législatifThe Constitution of the Year VIII took effect in 1799 and established a new Corps législatif. This body replaced the Council of Five Hundred from the…
  • Berlin DecreeThe Entry of Napoleon into Berlin by Charles Meynier depicts a moment of triumph. On the 21st of November 1806, Napoleon issued the Berlin Decree in that…
  • Jacques-Louis DavidJacques-Louis David was born on the 30th of August 1748 into a prosperous family in Paris. When he was about nine years old, his father died in a duel.
  • First French EmpireOn the 2nd of December 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte stood inside Notre-Dame de Paris to receive his imperial crown. Pope Pius VII had traveled from Rome to…
  • Roger DucosPierre Roger Ducos stood in the National Convention on the 21st of January 1793. He cast his ballot for the death of King Louis XVI without appeal or delay.
  • Coronation of NapoleonNapoleon was crowned Emperor of the French on the 2nd of December 1804. This event marked the instantiation of a modern empire in France.
  • Napoleon and the JewsThe French Revolution of 1789 enacted the first laws to emancipate Jews in France. This legislation established French Jews as citizens equal to other…
  • Napoleon IINapoleon II entered the world on the 20th of March 1811 inside the Tuileries Palace in Paris. His father was Emperor Napoleon I and his mother was Empress…
  • French Imperial EagleOn the 5th of December 1804, three days after his coronation, Napoleon I distributed aigles based on the eagle standards of the Roman legions.