Constitution of the Year XII

The Constitution of the Year XII was a national constitution of the French state, ratified in 1804 during Year XII of the French Revolutionary Calendar, and it is best known for establishing the First French Empire, transforming Napoleon Bonaparte from First Consul for Life into Napoleon I, Emperor of the French. Composed of 142 articles, it amended the earlier constitutions of Years VIII and X and adapted the existing consular institutions to the new imperial regime rather than replacing them outright, keeping a Senat conservateur as an upper chamber and a Corps legislatif as a lower one under an emperor holding sweeping executive authority. The document also created the House of Bonaparte as France's new imperial dynasty, making the throne hereditary within Napoleon's family. It remained the constitutional basis of the First Empire until Napoleon's fall, when it was repealed and superseded by the Charter of 1814 that restored the Bourbon monarchy.