27 Messidor
An CCXXXIV
18 Brumaire VIII
18 Brumaire was the beginning of Napoleon’s seizure of power in France. In the early hours of that day, the conspirators summoned selected deputies in order to transfer supreme command over the city of Paris to Napoleon Bonaparte – under the pretext of a Jacobin coup attempt. The following day, the Directory was officially overthrown and a new government with Napoleon at its head was elected. The session of the two councils, which was supposed to give the general’s coup a veneer of legality, nearly went wrong. In the end, however, the deputies, intimidated by the army, signed away their own power. In a rushed procedure, the new First Consul had a new constitution drawn up that effectively made him dictator of the Republic. The Revolution was over.
1799
- November 6, 1799 · Napoleon, Sieyès, Talleyrand, Fouché and the Director Roger Ducos agree, after lengthy secret negotiations, on the concrete steps for overthrowing the Directory system.
- November 9, 1799 · 18 Brumaire. In the early hours of the morning, selected members of the Council of Ancients are summoned to a session. Under the pretext of a Jacobin coup attempt, Sieyès secures a resolution that the Council of Ancients and the Council of Five Hundred are to meet the following day outside Paris at the Château de Saint-Cloud. Napoleon is given supreme command of all military forces in Paris. The Directors Sieyès, Roger Ducos and Barras resign. The two remaining Directors, Gohier and Moulin, are placed under guard at the Palais du Luxembourg.
- November 10, 1799 · The councils meet at Saint-Cloud. In the Council of Five Hundred, resistance grows against the attempt to establish a consular government and to approve a revision of the Directory constitution. Napoleon is harassed, and soldiers lead him out of the hall. When the deputies try to vote to declare Napoleon an outlaw, grenadiers march into the hall and disperse the representatives. Only shortly before midnight do the councils meet again. By then, however, they are reduced to a minority selected by the coup plotters.
- November 11, 1799 · After midnight, the councils decide to appoint Napoleon, Roger Ducos and Sieyès as Consuls of the Republic. Two commissions, each made up of 25 members from the two councils, are to draft a new constitution.
- December 15, 1799 · The Consulate proclaims the Constitution of Year VIII and declares the Revolution over.
Quotes
General, you had better leave! You no longer know what you are saying!
Bourienne whispered this to Napoleon as, before the furious Council of Five Hundred, he tried to push through his appointment as consul
Outlaw! Outlaw! Down with the dictator!
Shouts from deputies on 19 Brumaire (10 November) directed at Bonaparte
The legislative body provisionally creates an executive consular commission, composed of citizens Sieyès, Roger-Ducos, and Bonaparte, general; they shall bear the name Consuls of the French Republic.
Resolution of the Councils on 20 Brumaire (11 November), 3 a.m.
Le Moniteur
The session of the Council of Five Hundred on the night before 20 Brumaire
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