Plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise
An Italian engineer in Spanish service created the explosive device known as the infernal machine during the Siege of Antwerp in 1585. This weapon consisted of a barrel bound with iron hoops and filled with gunpowder, flammable materials, and bullets. A blunderbuss triggered the explosion from a distance using a string mechanism. The name referenced an episode from the sixteenth-century revolt against Spanish rule in Flanders. François-Joseph Carbon constructed this specific device for the attack on Napoleon Bonaparte. He harnessed a mare to a cart carrying a large wine cask to transport it to Paris.
Seven royalist Breton Chouans organized the assassination attempt against the First Consul. Pierre Robinault de Saint-Régeant had publicly torn up Napoleon's offer of amnesty to the Vendéens the previous year. Georges Cadoudal served as the leader of the Chouannerie movement and charged Limoëlan and Saint-Régeant with taking Napoleon's life. Jean-Baptiste Coster operated as one of Cadoudal's ablest lieutenants under the alias Saint-Victor. The other three plotters were noblemen Joyaux d'Assas, Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve, and La Haye-Saint-Hilaire. Carbon acted as the bomb maker and was described by witnesses as a stocky man with a fair beard and a scar on his brow.
On 3 Nivôse Year IX of the French Republic, which corresponds to the 24th of December 1800, Carbon drove the explosive-laden cart to the Porte Saint-Denis. He loaded the cask with gunpowder in a deserted building before moving it to the rue Saint-Nicaise. At 8 P.M., Napoleon drove to the Opéra to attend Joseph Haydn's oratorio Die Schöpfung while asleep. A drunken man named César drove the carriage past the location where Saint-Régeant waited. Limoëlan stood in the Place du Carrousel but panicked and failed to signal Saint-Regeant in time. Saint-Regeant lit the fuse and fled when the leading grenadiers rode past him. The explosion killed the teenage girl Marianne Peusol who held the mare for twelve sous.
Sigmund Freud analyzed Napoleon's alleged nightmare during the bombing in his psychological writings from 1953. He believed Napoleon was an extremely sound sleeper who wove external stimuli into his dream structure. The First Consul supposedly relived his defeat at the Tagliamento River by the Austrians three years earlier. Napoleon woke up crying We have been mined after the sound of the explosion entered his sleep state. Garnier deduced that the exhausted Napoleon fell asleep on his way to the Opéra. Freud argued this alarm-clock dream maintained the dreamer's sleep despite the physical stimulus of the blast.
Napoleon convinced himself that extreme-left Jacobins plotted to kill him with a similar device. Police arrested suspects including agitator Metge and chemist Chevalier on the 7th of November 8, 1800. Metge had published a pamphlet comparing Napoleon to Julius Caesar and calling for thousands of Bruti to stab the tyrant Bonaparte. On the 4th of January 1801, Napoleon exiled 130 Jacobins from France without trial or right of appeal. Four daggers conspirators named Giuseppe Ceracchi, Joseph Antoine Aréna, François Topino-Lebrun, and Dominique Demerville were found guilty and guillotined on the 10th of January 1801. Chevalier was executed on the 11th of January 1801 despite not making the bomb that exploded in the rue Saint-Nicaise.
The Chouan bomb maker Carbon was arrested on the 18th of January 1801 under torture he gave names of fellow plotters. Saint-Régeant was executed on April 20 at the Place de Grève where Robert-François Damiens had been executed in 1757. Limoëlan escaped to the United States and became a priest ordained in 1812 before dying in 1826. The political journalist Pierre Louis Roederer claimed Napoleon feared his death would wind up the clock within four or five years. Modern popular culture references include G. Lenotre's historical book The Attack of the rue Saint-Nicaise and Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Unity game mission set during this event.
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Common questions
Who created the explosive device used in the Plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise?
François-Joseph Carbon constructed the specific infernal machine for this attack on Napoleon Bonaparte. This Italian engineer originally designed such weapons during the Siege of Antwerp in 1585.
When did the assassination attempt on Napoleon take place at the rue Saint-Nicaise?
The explosion occurred on 3 Nivôse Year IX of the French Republic which corresponds to the 24th of December 1800. The blast happened at 8 P.M. when Napoleon was traveling to the Opéra.
What were the consequences for the Jacobin conspirators after the bombing?
Napoleon exiled 130 Jacobins from France without trial or right of appeal on the 4th of January 1801. Four daggers conspirators named Giuseppe Ceracchi Joseph Antoine Aréna François Topino-Lebrun and Dominique Demerville were guillotined on the 10th of January 1801 while Chevalier was executed on the 11th of January 1801.
How many people died in the Plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise explosion?
The teenage girl Marianne Peusol who held the mare for twelve sous was killed by the blast. No other fatalities are recorded in the provided script text regarding this specific event.
Who led the royalist Breton Chouans involved in the plot against Napoleon?
Georges Cadoudal served as the leader of the Chouannerie movement and ordered the assassination attempt. Pierre Robinault de Saint-Régeant and Limoëlan were charged with taking Napoleon's life under his command.