Born Count Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti on August 14, 1742 in Cesena, Romagna, Northern Italy. 1 The coronation in 1804 was attempt by Pius to win back the lost ground and also to re-initialise the relationship. There were three main candidates, two of whom proved to be unacceptable to the Habsburgs, whose candidate, Alessandro Mattei, could not secure sufficient votes. Pius VII, the somewhat progressive pope, saw the concordat of July 1801 as the presage of the great return. He died on August 20, 1823 in Rome. Far more glorious to Pius VII personally is the fact that, after the downfall of his persecutor Napoleon, he gladly offered a refuge in his capital to the members of the Bonaparte family. He was elected as Pope on March 14, 1800. Princess Letitia, the deposed emperor's mother, lived there; likewise did his brothers Lucien and … Pope Pius VII, who had been held a prisoner at Savona near Genoa by the Emperor Napoleon I since 1809, was cruelly dragged over the Alps, in precarious health, to Fontainebleau in France. Pius VII, original name Luigi Barnaba Gregorio Chiaramonti, (born Aug. 14, 1742, Cesena, Papal States [Italy]—died Aug. 20, 1823, Rome), Italian pope from 1800 to 1823, whose dramatic conflicts with Napoleon led to a restoration of the church after the armies of the French Revolution had devastated the papacy under Pius VI. However, Carlo Bellisomialso was a candidate, though not favoured by Austrian cardinals; a "virtual veto" was imposed against him in the na… But the Organic articles (not part of the Concordat negotiations and added to the agreement without Pius’ knowledge) left the Curia with the feeling that they had been duped. Following the death of Pope Pius VI, by then virtually France's prisoner, at Valence in 1799, the conclave to elect his successor met on 30 November 1799 in the Benedictine Monastery of San Giorgio in Venice.