followed by ministers, councillors of state, the diplomatic corps and the
sullen Bonaparte princesses.
Napoleon made a very late start. Although the Empress's ladies-in
waiting had been ready since 6 a.m., the Emperor himself made a
leisurely toilette. Before leaving the Tuileries at ro a.m. Napoleon took
Joseph by the arm, pointed at the two of them in the mirror and said:
'Joseph! If only our father could see us!' Then the imperial couple set out
for Notre-Dame cathedral in a sumptuous coach of glass and gilt, with
seven wide windows and four eagles on the roof bearing a crown.
All that sumptuary extravagance could do had been done. The
Emperor had decided on a predominant bee motif, as the emblem of the
new empire was to be stars, bees and laurel leaves in relief. Napoleon
wore a purple velvet coat with a white and gold silk sash and a short
purple cloak embroidered with golden bees; the ensemble was topped off
with a floppy seventeenth-century hat with turned up brim, ostrich
plumes and a plethora of diamonds. Josephine donned a gown of white
satin embroidered with bees and a court mantle of purple velvet; she was
ablaze with diamonds - in her tiara, her necklace, earrings and belt. The
entire court was dressed in velvet cloaks embroidered in gold and silver.
Just before entering Notre-Dame Napoleon put on a huge cloak of purple
velvet, lined with ermine and embroidered with his motif of golden bees.
On his head he had a wreath of gold laurel leaves, to make him appear
like the portrait of an emperor on a Roman coin. Like most successful
dictators, Napoleon was alive to the importance of pictorial imagery,
symbolism and iconography. But his short stature was ill-suited to the
multicoloured finery, and one wag said that the Emperor most resembled
the king of diamonds in a pack of cards.
Just as his coach arrived at Notre-Dame the sun came out from behind
the clouds. Always sensitive to signs and portents, Napoleon claimed this
was a good omen. As he and Josephine stepped out of the carriage,
cannon roared and bells pealed. They entered the cathedral after a further
unconscionable delay, each under a canopy and followed by a procession.
Pius VII, who had had to endure a wait of several hours in a freezing
Cathedral, began to intone the Mass. He anointed Napoleon's head, arms
and hands in accordance with the ancient tradition that, since Clovis in
(^49) 6, all monarchs of France should undergo this ritual. Next Napoleon
took the crown from the altar and placed it on his own head; he then
crowned Josephine, who burst into tears. This self-crowning, one of the
most famous of all Napoleonic gestures, has been much misunderstood. It
was not an act of spontaneous improvisation or a calculated snub to the
Pope, as in the legend, but a carefully rehearsed matter of protocol which