Constitution of the Year XII in the context of "Napoleon I of France"

A constitution, or supreme law, is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed.

When these principles are written down into a single document or set of legal documents, those documents may be said to embody a written constitution; if they are encompassed in a single comprehensive document, it is said to embody a codified constitution. The constitution of the United Kingdom is a notable example of an uncodified constitution; it is instead written in numerous fundamental acts of a legislature, court cases, and treaties.

The Constitution of the Year X (French: Constitution de l'an X) was a national constitution of France adopted during the Year X (10) on 16 Thermidor (4 August) of the French Revolutionary Calendar (1802 in the Gregorian calendar). It amended the Constitution of the Year VIII, revising the Consulate to augment Napoleon Bonaparte's authority by making him First Consul for Life.

Both the Constitution of the Year X and the Constitution of the Year VIII were further amended by the Constitution of the Year XII, which established the First French Empire with Napoleon as Emperor.

The Charter of 1815, signed on 22 April 1815, was the French constitution prepared by Benjamin Constant at the request of Napoleon I when he returned from exile on Elba. Officially named the Additional Act to the Constitutions of the Empire, the document extensively amended (in fact virtually replacing) the previous Napoleonic Constitutions (Constitution of the Year VIII, Constitution of the Year X and Constitution of the Year XII). The Additional Act reframed the Napoleonic constitution into something more along the lines of the Bourbon Restoration's Charter of 1814 of Louis XVIII, while otherwise ignoring the Bourbon charter's existence. It was very liberal in spirit, and gave the French people rights which had previously been unknown to them, such as the right to elect the mayor in communes of less than 5,000 in population. Napoleon treated it as a mere continuation of the previous constitutions, and it therefore took the form of an ordinary legislative act "additional to the constitutions of the Empire".

The Imperial House of France during the First French Empire was the family of Napoleon, including the House of Bonaparte, who held imperial titles as Emperor, Empress, Imperial Prince, or French Prince, and who were in the order of succession to the French imperial throne in accordance with the French constitution of 1804. According to Title III, Article 9 ("The Imperial Family"), "the members of the imperial family in the order of succession, bear the title of Princes of France (princes français)" and "the eldest son of the Emperor bears the title Prince Imperial (prince impérial)."

The non-Bonapartes who were members of the imperial family were Napoleon's uncle, brother-in-law and stepson of the families Fesch, Murat, and Beauharnais. This article lists their titles of the First French Empire; several held other titles in vassal states.