page_title: Paris under Napoleon
section_title: The old and new aristocracy
hierarchical_section_title: Paris under Napoleon / The Parisians / The old and new aristocracy
context_page_description: First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte moved into the Tuileries Palace on 19 February 1800 and immediately began to re-establish calm and order after the years of uncertainty and terror of the Revolution. He made peace with the Catholic church; masses were held again in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, priests were allowed to wear ecclesiastical clothing again, and churches to ring their bells. To re-establish order in the unruly city, he abolished the elected position of the Mayor of Paris, and replaced it with a Prefect of the Seine and a Prefect of Police, both appointed by him. Each of the twelve arrondissements had its own mayor, but their power was limited to enforcing the decrees of Napoleon's ministers.
  After he crowned himself Emperor on December 2, 1804, Napoleon began a series of projects to make Paris into an imperial capital to rival ancient Rome. He built monuments to French military glory, including the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, the column in Place Vendôme, and the future church of the Madeleine, intended as a temple to military heroes; and began the Arc de Triomphe.
context_section_description: At the top of the social structure of Paris was the aristocracy, both old and new. In 1788, before the Revolution, the old nobility in Paris had numbered 15-17,000 persons, about three percent of the population. Those who escaped execution during the terror fled abroad to England, Germany, Spain, Russia, and even the United States. Most returned during the reign of Napoleon, and many found positions in the new Imperial court and government. They built new houses, mostly in the area around the Champs-Élysées. They were joined by a new aristocracy created by Napoleon, consisting of his generals, ministers and courtiers, as well as bankers, industrialists, and those who furnished military supplies; about three thousand persons altogether. The new aristocrats often made alliances by marriage with old families, who needed money. One old aristocrat, the Duke of Montmorency, told Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult, who had been made a duke by Napoleon, "You are a duke, but you have no ancestors!" Soult replied, "It's true. We are the ancestors."
  The wealthiest and most distinguished Parisians during the first Empire purchased town houses between the Palais Royale and the Etoile, especially on the rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré and the Chausée d'Antin: Joseph Bonaparte, the older brother of the Emperor, lived at 31 rue de Faubourg Saint-Honoré, his sister Pauline at number 39, Marshal Louis-Alexandre Berthier at number 35, Marshal Bon-Adrien Jeannot de Moncey in number 63, and Marshal Joachim Murat in number 55, which is now the Élysée Palace, the residence of the Presidents of France. Juliette Récamier lived at number 9 Chausée D'Antin, General Jean Victor Marie Moreau at number 20, and Cardinal Fesch, uncle of Napoleon, at number 68. Other notables of the First Empire settled on the left bank, in the faubourg Saint-Germain. Eugène de Beauharnais, son of the Empress Josephine, lived at 78 rue de Lille, Lucien Bonaparte, younger brother of the Emperor, at 14 rue Saint-Dominique, and Marshal Louis-Nicolas Davout at 57 and later 59 on the same street.
caption: Portrait of Madame Récamier by Jacques-Louis David (1800, Louvre). She lived, along with the wealthiest Parisians of the First Empire, in the faubourgs of Saint-Honoré and Chausėe d'Antin.
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