French Consulate

• 1. The Directory's Collapse

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  French military disasters in 1798 and 1799 had shaken the Directory, and eventually shattered it in November 1799. Historians sometimes date the start of the political downfall of the Directory to the 18th of June 1799 by the French Republican calendar. This was when anti-Jacobin Director Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès rid himself of the other three then-sitting directors with the help of Paul Barras. The elections held for the two councils in March and April produced a new Neo-Jacobin majority in the two bodies. By the 5th of June 1799 these councils found an irregularity in the election of Jean Baptiste Treilhard who retired in favour of Louis Jérôme Gohier. The next day Philippe Antoine Merlin de Douai and Louis Marie de La Révellière Lépeaux were driven to resign. They were replaced by the Jacobin baron Jean François Auguste Moulin and Roger Ducos. Additional military disasters royalist insurrections in the south and Chouan disturbances in a dozen departments of western France made the end certain. In order to soothe the populace more than usual terrorist measures became necessary.

• 2. Seizing Power On Brumaire

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  On the 9th of November 1799 Napoleon Bonaparte led the coup of 18 Brumaire seizing French parliamentary and military power. He forced the sitting directors of the government to resign on that date. On the night of the 10th of November a remnant of the Council of Ancients abolished the Constitution of the Year III. This body ordained the consulate and legalised the coup in favour of Bonaparte with the Constitution of the Year VIII. Initially the 18 Brumaire coup seemed to be a victory for Sieyès rather than for Bonaparte. Sieyès was a proponent of a new system of government for the Republic. Bonaparte's cleverness lay in counterpoising Pierre Claude François Daunou's plan to that of Sieyès. He retained only those portions of each which could serve his ambition. The new government was composed of three parliamentary assemblies including the Council of State which drafted bills. The Tribunate could not vote on the bills but instead debated them. The Corps législatif members could not discuss the bills but voted on them after reviewing the Tribunate's debate record.

• 3. Consolidating Authority

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  Bonaparte needed to rid himself of Sieyès and of those republicans who had no desire to hand over the republic to one man. At the Battle of Marengo on the 14th of June 1800 what briefly seemed like a potential defeat for France was ultimately secured by generals Louis Desaix and François Christophe de Kellermann. This offered a further opportunity to Napoleon's ambitions by increasing his popularity. The royalist plot of the rue Saint Nicaise on the 24th of December allowed Napoleon to make a clean sweep of the democratic republicans. They were deported to French Guiana despite their innocence. Napoleon annulled the Assemblies and made the Senate omnipotent in constitutional matters. On the 7th of February 1800 a public referendum confirmed the new constitution. It vested all of the real power in the hands of the First Consul leaving only a nominal role for the other two consuls. A full 99.9% of voters approved the motion according to the released results. Bonaparte moved to consolidate his own power as First Consul and leave the two other consuls Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès and Charles François Lebrun weak and subservient.

• 4. Reforming The State

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  France enjoyed a high level of peace and order under Bonaparte that helped to raise the standard of comfort. Prior to this Paris had often suffered from hunger and thirst lacking fire and light. Under Bonaparte provisions became cheap and abundant while trade prospered and wages ran high. In strengthening the machinery of the state Bonaparte created the Legion of Honour and restored indirect taxes an act seen as a betrayal of the Revolution. He constructed or consolidated the funds necessary for national institutions local governments a judiciary system organs of finance banking codes and traditions of conscientious labour force. The Treaty of Lunéville with Austria which restored peace to Europe was signed in February 1801. Austria gave nearly the whole of Italy to France and permitted Bonaparte to eliminate from the Assemblies all the leaders of the opposition in the discussion of the Civil Code. The Concordat of 1801 drawn up not in the Catholic Church's interest but in that of his own policy allowed him to put down the constitutional democratic Church.

• 5. The Duke Of Enghien

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  Because Bonaparte's hold on political power was still tenuous French royalists devised a plot involving kidnapping and assassinating him. They invited Louis Antoine de Bourbon the Duke of Enghien to lead a coup d'état that would precede the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy. The British government of William Pitt the Younger had contributed to this royalist conspiracy by financing one million pounds. General Joachim Murat ordered the city gates of Paris to be closed from 7 pm to 6 am while Pichegru and Moreau were arrested during the next month. These further arrests revealed that the Royalist conspiracy would eventually involve the active participation of the Duke of Enghien who was living as a French émigré in the Electorate of Baden. Two hundred French soldiers crossed the border surrounded the Duke's home in Baden and arrested him. D'Enghien stated that he had sworn implacable hatred against Bonaparte as well as against the French. He was found guilty of being in violation of Article 2 of a law of the 6th of October 1791. He was executed in the ditch of the fortress of Vincennes.

• 6. Peace And Diplomacy

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  The March 1802 Peace of Amiens with the United Kingdom gave Napoleon a pretext for endowing himself with a consulate not for ten years but for life. As recompense from the nation France's allies Spain and the Batavian Republic paid all the costs. On the 4th of August 1802 the Constitution of the Year X dated 16 Thermidor marked his path to emperor. A second national referendum was held on the 2nd of August 1802 this time to confirm Bonaparte as First Consul for Life. Once again a vote claimed 99.7% approval. The Treaty of Lunéville with Austria restored peace to Europe and was signed in February 1801. Austria which had been disarmed by Moreau's victory at the Battle of Hohenlinden permitted Bonaparte to eliminate opposition leaders. Many of those who had favoured or been neutral to Bonaparte now turned against him after the Duke of Enghien affair. Abroad it produced a storm of anger while the aftermath caused hardly a ripple in France.