Napoleon vs. Charlemagne

Comparing the two French Emperors.

Detail from The Coronation of Napoleon by Jacques-Louis David (1807)

When Napoleon was crowned Emperor of the French in December of 1804, it was one of Europe’s most majestic crowning ceremonies in a thousand years! 

Styling himself the new Charlemagne, Napoleon vowed to create a new pan-European empire under the aegis of his own personal rule. 

But who was Charlemagne? Was Napoleon as similar to the Frankish King as he claimed? 

Father of Europe

Charlemagne was the King of the Franks, and the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. He was crowned on Christmas Day in the year 800 AD by Pope Leo III. Perhaps most importantly, the Frankish King is considered the Father of Europe.

Like Charlemagne a millennium before, Napoleon sought to present himself as the father of a new Europe. Bonaparte sought to expand his own territories across the continent, just as the Frankish King had done. 

In 1811, Emperor Napoleon held a procession for the sarcophagus of Charlemagne, claiming that only Bonaparte himself had outshone the medieval French King. The sarcophagus was brought from Aachen, and installed in the Napoleon Museum (what would later become the Louvre). 

Lawgiver

But Napoleon’s fascination with Charlemagne wasn’t just brute territory. 

Back in the Middle Ages, Charlemagne was well-known as a very enlightened king who cared deeply about his subjects. He was a cultured and refined man. His court was highly educated, and his reign is sometimes called the Carolingian Renaissance. 

Like Charlemagne, Napoleon saw himself as a lawgiver and legal reformer. This came in the form of the Napoleonic Code, which overhauled France’s legal system.