FRANCE, Premier Empire. Napoléon I. 1804-1814. AR Medal (42.5mm, 44.19 g, 12h). Coronation of Napoléon as King of Italy. By Manfredini. Dated 23 May 1805 (
in Roman numerals). NAPOLEO GALLORVM IMPERATOR ITALIAE REX, laureate head left / VLTRO, Italia standing right, holding cornucopia in right hand, crowning Napoleon, in the guise of a Roman senatior, standing left, holding mappa in left hand, pointing with right to the Constitution, set on a plinth between; Corinthian helmet to left, caduceus to right; L. M. on groundline; D. XXIII MAII/ A. MDCCCV. in exergue. Bramsen 420; Julius 1382. EF, toned, minor marks.
Napoléon was crowned King of Italy at Milan on 26 May 1805. Other members of the Bonaparte family were also granted positions in Italy. Napoléon’s sisters, Elisa and Pauline, were to become the Grand Duchess of Tuscany and the Duchess of Guatalla. Joachim Murat and Caroline were to reign as King and Queen of Naples. Napoléon’s own son, born in 1810, was to rule as King of Rome. Yet the bickering, disloyal, and greedy Bonaparte family did no credit to the Emperor in Italy, and the most loyal member of the family turned out to be Eugené de Beauharnais, nephew of Napoleon’s first wife Josephine and viceroy of Italy.
