The New Emperor Napoleon Tours His Kingdom, Paying Homage to Charlemagne and Claiming his Mantle

This is earliest document we found having reached the market bearing the title “Napoleon I”, Emperor of the French on it; it was signed just weeks after he gave himself the title and months before his coronation in front of the Pope.

Reference for research, publication, and institutions: Raab B13.105

The Corsican-born Napoleon, one of the greatest military strategists in history, rapidly rose in the ranks of the French Revolutionary Army during the late 1790s. By 1799, France was at war with most of Europe, and Napoleon returned home from his Egyptian campaign to take over the reigns of the French government and save his nation from collapse. After becoming first consul in February 1800, he reorganized his armies and defeated Austria. In 1802, he established the Napoleonic Code, a new system of French law, and in 1804 he established the French empire.

On May 18, 1804, Napoleon proclaimed himself emperor, and made Josephine Empress. His coronation ceremony took place on December 2, 1804, in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, with incredible splendor and at considerable expense. Napoleon even paid for Pope Pius VII, who had signed the Concordat of Rome, defining the status of the Roman Catholic Church in France and ending the breach caused by the church reforms and confiscations enacted during the French Revolution, to travel to France for the occasion, believing that his presence would imbue the event with a solemn, religious feeling. Pius agreed to come, hoping to win Napoleon’s goodwill towards Rome and the Papal States.

As a perfect reflection of the time in which he lived, Napoleon was “obsessed with history.” He would draw references, symbols and examples from it to justify his position and his politics and thus give his reign its place in the history of France, from the Gauls right up to his immediate predecessors, including the Bourbons. Of all the references wielded by the French Emperor, Charlemagne is, if not one of the most important, then at least one of the most consistent. During the same period, the Russian Ambassador, Markov, wrote to his government saying that in his opinion Bonaparte would soon take the title of “Emperor of the Gauls ”, whilst the Prussian, Lucchesini, sent word to Berlin that the Consul wanted to “be a second Charlemagne ” but “enlightened by the geniuses of our century ”, adding, “No-one doubts he has a plan; it is just the timing that has yet to be decided.” On becoming emperor, Napoleon thought it time to visit his “predecessor ”. This pilgrimage had become virtually a tradition with the kings of France, then the Germanic emperors. So he went to Aix-la-Chapelle to tie his historical legitimacy with the memory of Charlemagne – as Thiers put it, the old emperor had been “awakened by Napoleon with ill-disguised intent ”.

On July 18, the new Emperor began a great inspection tour, from Boulogne to Treves, through Calais, Dunkirk, Ostend, Arras, Mons, Aachen, Cologne and Mainz. It was to end in Aix and cement his position of Emperor. He would return from this and receive the crown.

Autograph document signed, with a very early example of his new title, the head reading “To his Majesty, the Emperor of the French, Napoleon I,” August 22, 1804, Ostend, granting a senior civil position to a resident of Ostend on his great tour by endorsing the request, “Agreed. Returned to the Ministry of Finance, Ostend, 6 Thermidor, in the 12th [August 22, 1804].” The approval its in response to an appeal from citizen Michel Jean Pruyssenaere, resident of Ostende, to serve as collector of that area.

We have found just one other document of Napoleon during this grand tour having reached the public market, and that was part of the great Sang Collection. That did not have his new letterhead as Emperor. This must be one of the earliest with his “Napoleon I” letterhead.