This Day in History

November 10, 1799

:

The 

Coup of 19th Brumaire

  

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Much had changed in Europe while Napoleon was fighting in Egypt. At first, the French republic had achieved success after success in war. In March 1798, French armies overran Switzerland and forced the cantons to accept a centralized, republican government called the Helvetic Republic. In Italy, King Fernando IV of Naples declared war on France; in October, Neapolitan troops were able to enter Rome, but a French counterattack drove them from the city. When news of the defeat reached Naples, Fernando and his court fled by ship to Palermo in Sicily. For over two months, southern Italy had no government. Though the poor of Naples were devoted to their king, the nobility and educated classes surrendered to the French and established a republic -- called the Parthenopean Republic.

King Fernando IV of Naples

This new republic, however, had a very short life. French victories, Napoleon's invasion of Egypt, and the Directory's decision in September 1798 to draft more men into the army convinced the monarchies of Europe that they had to destroy the French republic or be destroyed by it. By December 1798, Great Britain, Russia, and Austria had formed a new coalition against France. War began in March 1799, and over the next few months, allied armies were able to roll back the French conquests in Italy. In June, the Parthenopean Republic fell after an existence of only five months, and Fernando IV resumed his reign over Naples.

In France, many thought that the Directory was leading the republic into ruin. There had been continuous war, and France was losing everything she had won. The problem, many thought, was the government. Both the Council of Ancients and the Council of 500 were filled with incompetent men, many of whom used their offices to enrich themselves. Most of the directors themselves were corrupt and venal. The whole thing had become very unpopular. What could be done to restore glory to France and assure a lasting peace for the republic?

Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès

One man who asked such questions was Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès. Since the days of the Oath of the Tennis Court, Sieyès had been a keen, firsthand observer of the revolution. He had been a member of the first French Assembly and a delegate to the Convention. In 1795, when Hébert and Chaumette established the worship of Reason, he had renounced his faith and priesthood to escape the guillotine. Since the establishment of the Directory, he had served as a diplomat; and in May 1799, he replaced Rewbell as one of the five directors of France.

Sieyès was known for his rather fanciful constitutional ideas. But in the fall of 1799, he came up with a very workable plan of government to replace the Directory. The plan was workable because it was so simple. The directors would be replaced by three men called consuls, who would act as dictators over France. Sieyès was able to interest others in his plan -- his fellow director, Roger-Ducos; the apostate bishop and current foreign minister, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord; and Napoleon's brother, Lucien Bonaparte, president of the Council of 500. These men, and others, now secretly planned a coup d'etat. They only awaited someone who had the character and popularity to serve as their leader. But who would that be?

Lucien Bonaparte

The answer came on October 9, 1799, when Napoleon returned to France from his Egyptian adventure. Landing at Fréjus, a small port on the southern coast of France, the Little Corporal began a seven-day, triumphal march to Paris. Everywhere cheering crowds came out to meet him; at night the towns were brilliant with lights to welcome the man who stood for France victorious and proud. No sooner had Napoleon arrived in Paris than his brother told him of the plot and the part he, Napoleon, could play in it. Talleyrand, too, approached Napoleon. Soon the Little Corporal was concocting plans with Sieyès to overthrow the government.

Joachim Murat

Joining Napoleon in this desperate and dangerous plot were men who had served, or would serve, him as soldiers. There was Jacques Etienne MacDonald, who had been made governor of Rome in November 1798, and Joachim Murat, the cavalry officer who had helped Napoleon save the Convention on the 13th Vendémiare and had just returned with him from Egypt. These two, with Berthier, the conqueror of Rome, came to Napoleon on 18th Brumaire (November 9) to prepare for the great event. They doubtless agreed with the words Napoleon spoke that day -- words that, in a few hours, were printed and posted all over Paris. Speaking as if to the government, Napoleon said, "What have you done with the France which I left so high? . . . Where is the fruit of the victories that I had won? Where are those 100,000 of my young companions-in-arms? They are dead!"

The next day -- 19th Brumaire of the Year VIII (November 10, 1799) -- Napoleon, leading troops from Paris, conducted the members of the two legislative councils to the Paris suburb of Saint-Cloud. The legislators would not hold their meeting in Paris because of rumors of a Jacobin plot against them. Meeting in two separate buildings, the Council of Ancients and the Council of 500 debated throughout the day, while Napoleon and Sieyès waited to spring their trap. At dusk, about 5:00 p.m. of that cold, autumn day, Napoleon formed his men into two columns and, to the beating of drums, surrounded the chambers of the 500. The soldiers, with bayonets lowered, entered the chambers and put the terrified delegates to flight.

Napoleon on the 19th Brumaire

When news of the coup was announced in their chamber, the Ancients voted to adjourn both councils for three months. In their place they appointed three men -- Sieyès, Ducos, and Napoleon -- as consuls to govern France. To make all of this look legal, Lucien Bonaparte gathered a small number of the 500, who, in a session that same night of 19th Brumaire, approved the new government.

Thus began the Consulate, as the new government of France came to be called. On December 15, 1799, the "Constitution of the Year VIII" established a government of three executives, each having the title of consul, and together holding all power in France. Along with the consuls, the constitution established a three-house legislature -- an 80-member Senate of men over 60 years old, a 100-member Tribunate, and a 300-member Legislative Body.

Yet this was the government only as it appeared on paper. Three consuls there were, but only one among them had the title of First Consul. Three consuls there were, but only one came to hold the reins of power. In 10 years' time, France had gone from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy to a republic; now it was a dictatorship of, really, only one man. And that one man was the Little Corporal himself, Napoleon Bonaparte.

Napoleon as First Consul