12 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2019Napoleon had been first consul of the
French Republic for almost a year. Seek-
ing to restore order and unity to post-
revolutionary France, he had instituted
popular reforms, including establishing
the lycée system for secondary educa-
tion and creating the Bank of France
to improve France’s financial stability.
His rise to power had also earned him
many enemies. Jacobin radicals, who
were loyal to the government that had
preceded Napoleon’s coup, viewed the
first consul as a traitor to the revolution,
while royalists sought restoration ofO
n the night of Decem-
ber 24, 1800, the first
French performance of
The Creation, an oratorio
by famous composer Jo-
seph Haydn, premiered at the Theater
of the Republic and the Arts in Paris.
Shortly after the orchestra began play-
ing, a thunderous sound from outside
the building interrupted the opening
movement, “Representation of Chaos.”
Chaos, indeed, for a homemade bomb,
intended for Napoleon Bonaparte was
the source of the commotion.the monarchical ancien régime and the
Bourbon dynasty.
In Napoleon’s initial year as first
consul, opposition took the form of
assassination plots and conspiracies
against him. Malmaison, an estate west
of Paris owned by his wife, Joséphine,
was the site of several alleged plots, but
none were carried out. In October 1800
four men believed to be Jacobins armed
themselves with knives and planned to
stab Napoleon to death in his box at the
opera in the so-called Dagger Plot. The
conspirators were caught, arrested, andThe Explosive Plot
to Assassinate Napoleon
On Christmas Eve, 1800, a group of monarchist rebels attempted to kill
Napoleon Bonaparte, the first consul of France, as he was on his way to a concert.CHAOS ENSUED after the “infernal
machine” exploded on December
24, 1800, as shown in an engraving
of the assassination attempt.
GÉRARD BLOT/RMN-GRAND PALAIS