In 1804, after rising to lead the French Revolutionary Republic's government as head of the Napoleon-Ducos-Sieyès triumvirate executive branch, . . .
Napoleon, already supreme commander of the French army, sidelined his sham regime and openly usurped absolute power of the nation's government and religious institutions by crowning himself Emperor of France.
He accomplished this feat through coercing the French Revolutionary Republic's enfeebled Senate and Tribunate, and then holding sham plebiscites to legitimize publicly his seizure of absolute power.
