Page "Pope Pius VII" Paragraph 4

Following the death of Pius VI, by then virtually France's prisoner, at Valence in August 1799, the conclave to elect his successor met on 30 November 1799 in the Benedictine Monastery of San Giorgio in Venice.

There were three main candidates, two of whom proved to be unacceptable to the Habsburgs, whose candidate, Alessandro Mattei, could not secure sufficient votes.

After several months of stalemate, on 14 March 1800, Chiaramonti was elected as a compromise candidate, certainly not the choice of die-hard opponents of the French Revolution, and took the name of Pius VII.

He was crowned on 21 March, in a rather unusual ceremony, wearing a papier-mâché papal tiara, since the French had seized the original along with Pius VI.

He then left for Rome, sailing on a barely seaworthy Austrian ship, the " Bellona ", which did not even have cooking facilities.

The voyage took 12 days to carry him to Pesaro, from where he proceeded to Rome.