"Imperial Procession entering Notre-Dame Cathedral" from the "Book of the Coronation"
Charles Percier and Pierre François Léonard Fontaine - 1807
With a large coronation party and 8,000 dignitaries in attendance, protocol was of primary concern. Napoléon’s family caused a number of problems, with two of his sisters refusing to carry Joséphine’s train because it was beneath their status as “Highnesses,” which Napoléon had just conferred. Exasperated, he remarked, “One would think, to hear you, that I had just despoiled you of the heritage of our late father the king.”
