ABSTRACT
On 17 Germinal Year VIII (6 April1800), a tall figure alighted from a carriage and stepped out into the city of Rouen. A native of the department of the Aube, he was not acquainted with the ancient Norman capital. If Rouen seemed unfamiliar to him, the converse was also true. For the local inhabitants must have viewed this stranger with a mixture of curiosity and circumspection, providing their first glimpse of a Napoleonic prefect. Jean-Claude Beugnot's presence in the city, five months after Bonaparte's coup d'etat of 18 Brumaire Year VIII (9 November 1799), symbolised the arrival of the new regime in the region and heralded 14 years of Napoleonic rule. This study is an investigation of the Napoleonic era in Rouen, and to a lesser extent in the department of the Seine-Inferieure, focusing on the impact of the Napoleonic state upon civil society.
