Milan served as the capital of Napoleon’s Kingdom of Italy. Created in 1805 from the earlier Italian Republic, the kingdom placed Napoleon on its throne and his stepson, Eugène de Beauharnais, in the role of viceroy.
Milan was chosen because it was the political and economic center of Napoleon’s Italian possessions. Napoleon was crowned King of Italy in Milan Cathedral on 23 May 1805, using the Iron Crown of Lombardy in a ceremony designed to link his rule with medieval Italian kingship.
The kingdom was not the same as all of Napoleon’s Italian territories: some areas, including Piedmont and Tuscany, were incorporated directly into the French Empire. Milan remained the royal and administrative center until Napoleon’s defeat in 1814. A common mix-up is Turin, which had been an important capital of Savoy, and Rome, which Napoleon controlled separately rather than making it the capital of this satellite kingdom.