'Citizen Emperor': political ritual, popular sovereignty and the coronation of Napoleon I

The coronation of Napoleon in Notre Dame on 2 December 1804 was built upon a number of contradictory concepts. As heir to the French Revolution, Napoleon founded the legitimacy of his new regime on the notion of popular sovereignty. He incorporated the idea into a new coronation ceremony, a mélange of different rites and customs, incorporating aspects of Carolingian tradition, the <i>ancien régime</i> and the Revolution, thereby helping to create a new political culture based on continuity with the past. And yet the people were precluded from the ceremony itself. Moreover, the coronation contained within it the seeds of the Empire's later turn towards absolute-style monarchy, based on revived notions of divine right. The coronation thus highlights Napoleon's, and the French political elite's, ambivalent attitude towards the idea of monarchy and popular sovereignty. Although the coronation should be seen as part of the process of national reconciliation implemented by Napoleon, as ritual it failed to leave a deep impression