The Infernal Machine: The violent plot to kill Napoleon that almost succeeded

Many royalists in France wanted to kill Napoleon because they saw him as the man who had destroyed any chance of a Bourbon restoration.

After the Revolution of 1789, the execution of King Louis XVI in 1793 had shocked Europe and angered monarchists.

In response, they rejected the republican ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity and hoped for the return of the monarchy.

In 1799, Napoleon seized power through the coup of 18 Brumaire, which overthrew the Directory and established the Consulate with Napoleon, Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès, and Charles-François Lebrun as consuls.

As First Consul, Napoleon had created a strong central authority and restored order to France after years of political instability and civil war, especially in regions like the Vendée and Brittany where royalist uprisings had persisted. 

Among royalists, anger only increased as Napoleon consolidated power and adopted increasingly strict policies.

Many nobles had fled France during the Revolution, as they feared that their lands and privileges would never be restored while he controlled the state.

French émigrés funded violent plots against the Consulate because they believed that assassination could create chaos that would allow a Bourbon king to return to power.

Secret royalist networks gave financial aid, weapons, and safe houses to those who planned to kill Napoleon. 

Across Europe, foreign monarchies added to the threat. Britain was still at war with France and viewed Napoleon as the main barrier to defeating the French Republic.

British agents under the government of Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger had even funnelled money to royalist rebels and smuggled weapons into France to help them out.

The Plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise would be a part of a sequence of assassination attempts and conspiracies aimed at Napoleon during these years.

Royalist exiles, priests enraged by the Revolution’s anti-clerical laws, and émigré officers turned to violent action as their last chance to restore the old order. 

The leaders of the plot, Pierre Robinault de Saint-Régeant and François-Joseph Carbon, believed that a single devastating attack could destroy the Consulate and create the conditions for counter-revolution.

They worked with Joseph Picot de Limoëlan, who remained in France after the failed attempt and lived until 1826.

They chose 24 December 1800 for the assassination attempt because Napoleon planned to attend a performance of Joseph Haydn’s oratorio The Creation at the Théâtre-Français. 

At the centre of the conspiracy stood a large bomb known as the “infernal machine.”

It was a barrel packed with gunpowder and mounted on a cart, filled with nails and scrap metal to increase its lethality.

Contemporary accounts described it as a wine cask containing enough powder to create a devastating blast.

The conspirators placed the cart on the Rue Saint-Nicaise, a route that Napoleon’s carriage had to take to the theatre.

They intended to light a fuse so that the bomb would explode at the exact moment his carriage passed by. 

For weeks before the attack, planning needed very careful secrecy and exact timing.

To this end, the conspirators stored the device in a way that avoided detection, and they bribed a coachman to drive the cart to the correct location.

They also rehearsed the timing of the fuse to ensure that it would ignite at precisely the right moment.

Thankfully, the funding from royalist exiles in Britain and Europe gave them the means to acquire materials, but success depended entirely on perfect coordination. 

On the evening of 24 December, Napoleon and Joséphine travelled to the opera in a carriage escorted by guards.

The streets of Paris teemed with carriages and pedestrians as citizens celebrated Christmas Eve.

As the convoy neared the Rue Saint-Nicaise, the conspirators lit the fuse, but their timing was slightly too late. 

A moment later, the device detonated with devastating force, killing five people and injured about twenty-six others.

Houses along the street collapsed or caught fire, and wreckage covered the area.

Napoleon heard the explosion but ordered his driver to continue to the opera.

Eyewitnesses recalled that he remained calm while terrified crowds ran from the scene.

During the hours that followed the blast, Paris fell into confusion. Authorities rapidly sealed off the site and began a sweeping investigation.

Joseph Fouché, the police chief, launched raids across the city and arrested anyone suspected of royalist ties.

Informants supplied names, and the government used the crisis to remove political opponents.

Soldiers patrolled the streets to prevent unrest, and officials described the attack as an act of terrorism against the state. 

At first, the Consulate blamed Jacobins, the radical republicans who had dominated France during the Reign of Terror.

Around 130 former Jacobins were arrested and deported to colonies such as Guiana.

Napoleon justified a purge of political opponents as a necessary defence of the Republic.

Eventually, evidence revealed that royalists had organised the attack rather than Jacobins.

By the time the truth emerged, innocent people had already been punished. 

Public fury over the attack enabled Napoleon to tighten his hold on France and citizens worried by the violence accepted stricter laws against opponents.

In the end, Napoleon justified harsher measures that strengthened his authority. 

Authorities captured Pierre Robinault de Saint-Régeant and François-Joseph Carbon in January 1801, and both men were tried and condemned to death.

Their executions by guillotine took place on 21 April 1801. Several accomplices faced similar fates, either through execution or long imprisonment, while some others evaded capture and escaped abroad. 

In the aftermath, royalist networks lost much of their ability to organise violent resistance.

Many abandoned the idea of uprisings after the plot failed and, by 1804, Napoleon had crowned himself Emperor of the French.

The attack even helped justify his decision to finalise the Concordat of 1801 with Pope Pius VII, which aimed to reduce tensions with Catholics and gain support from moderates.