Ceremony of the Champ de Mai

The 'Field of May' took its name from the assemblies of the Franks, where the king consulted his warriors in spring. The reference was calculated: it set the restored regime within a legitimacy older than that of the Bourbons.

Planned for May, the ceremony was put off to 1 June, to allow the plebiscite to be counted; and it was held not on any Field of May but on the Champ-de-Mars, site of the Federation of 1790 and of the distribution of the eagles in 1804.

Two hundred thousand people gathered around an amphitheatre raised before the École Militaire. After mass, the results of the plebiscite on the Additional Act were proclaimed, then the Emperor swore an oath to the new constitution — an unprecedented gesture for him, who had never sworn to anything but his own texts.

Then came the distribution of eagles to the reformed regiments and the national guards. Napoleon appeared in imperial costume of white silk, plumes in his hat; several witnesses judged the staging theatrical and ill-suited to the gravity of the moment.

The ceremony sought to remake the unity of 1804 on liberal foundations: the coronation and the Federation in a single gesture, the nation consulted and the army consecrated. The effect was mixed — the crowd was large, the enthusiasm uneven, and the elected chambers opened a few days later in a climate of distrust.

On 12 June the Emperor left Paris for the Army of the North. On the 18th he lost Waterloo; on the 22nd he abdicated before those same chambers. The Field of May was the last great ceremony of the Empire, and it preceded its end by seventeen days.