v46_0835 - ITALIE - STATO PONTIFICIO - PIO VII Doppia en or 1803-1804 Rome

ITALY - PAPAL STATES - PIUS VII (Barnaba Chiaramonti)

(14/03/1800-20/08/1823)

Pius VII (08/14/1740-08/20/1823) succeeded Pius VI after a long vacancy on the papal throne. Pius VI had died in captivity in Valencia on August 29, 1799 and the republic had been proclaimed in Rome on February 15, 1798. It lasted until September 29, 1799. Rome was then successively occupied by the Neapolitans and the Austrians until July 3. 1800. Pius VII had been elected on March 14. The first part of his pontificate was occupied by his relations with the French Republic, then with Napoleon I. He signed the concordat with Bonaparte in 1801 and crowned him at Notre-Dame on December 2, 1804. Rome was occupied in 1808 and the Papal States confiscated the following year, while the pope was "invited" to Fontainebleau. He remained there until 1814. Freed by the fall of the emperor, he returned to Rome and spent the last eight years of his pontificate restoring his temporal and spiritual authority. He welcomed Napoleon's family to Rome. He died in 1823.