French Directory

Executive Directory (in French Directoire exécutif), commonly known as the Directory (or Directoire) held executive power in France from 2 November, 1795 until 10 November,1799: from the end of the Convention to the beginning of the Consulate. Five Directors shared power. In the history of France, the period of this regime, commonly referred to as the Directoire era, constitutes the last stage of the French Revolution and precedes the coming of the Consulate, which, in turn, was followed by the First Empire.

18 Brumaire

See main article 18 Brumaire.

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The Directory, and, in most scholars' view, the French Revolution itself, came to an end with the coup d'état of 18 Brumaire, by which General Napoleon Bonaparte overthrew the Directory and replaced it with the Consulate. This occurred on November 9, 1799, which was 18 Brumaire in the year VIII under the French Revolutionary Calendar.

Related Topics:
Coup d'état - 18 Brumaire - Napoleon Bonaparte - Consulate - November 9 - 1799 - French Revolutionary Calendar

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In November 1799, France was suffering the effects of military reverses brought on by Bonaparte's adventurism in the Middle East. The looming threat of opportunistic invasion by the Second Coalition had provoked internal unrest, with Bonaparte stuck in Egypt. A return to Jacobinism seemed possible.

Related Topics:
France - Middle East - Second Coalition - Jacobin

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The coup was first prepared by the Abbé Sieyès, then one of the five Directors. Bonaparte returned from Egypt a hero to the public despite his reverses. Sieyès believed he had found the general indispensable to his coup. However, Bonaparte promptly began a coup within the coup. Ultimately, the coup brought to power Bonaparte, not Sieyès.

Related Topics:
Abbé Sieyès - Egypt

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The plan was, through the use of troops conveniently arrayed around Paris, first to persuade the Directors to resign, then to persuade the two Councils to appoint a pliant commission to draw up a new constitution.

Related Topics:
Paris - Constitution

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On the morning of 18 Brumaire, members of the Council of Ancients sympathetic to the coup warned their colleagues of a Jacobin conspiracy and persuaded them to remove to Saint-Cloud, west of Paris. Bonaparte was charged with the safety of the two Councils. Three directors, including Sieyès himself resigned, destroying quorum. However, the two Jacobin Directors, Gohier and Moulin, refused to resign. Moulin escaped, Gohier was taken prisoner, and the two Councils were not immediately intimidated and continued to meet.

Related Topics:
Council of Ancients - Saint-Cloud - Gohier - Moulin

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By the following day, the deputies had worked out that they were facing an attempted coup rather than being protected from a Jacobin rebellion. Faced with their recalcitrance, Bonaparte stormed into the chambers accompanied by a small escort of grenadiers. He met with heckling in both houses; he was first jostled, then outright assaulted. His brother Lucien, President of the Council, called upon the grenadiers to defend their leader. Napoleon escaped, but only through the use of military force. Ultimately, military force also dispersed the legislature.

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The Consulate was declared, with Bonaparte, Sieyès, and Roger Ducos as consuls.

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The lack of reaction from the streets proved that the revolution was, indeed, over. In the words of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, "A shabby compound of brute force and imposture, the 18th Brumaire was nevertheless condoned, nay applauded, by the French nation. Weary of revolution, men sought no more than to be wisely and firmly governed." Resistance by Jacobin officeholders in the provinces was quickly crushed, twenty Jacobin legislators were exiled, and others were arrested.

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Bonaparte completed his coup within a coup by the adoption of a constitution under which the First Consul, a position he was sure to hold, had greater power than the other two.

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