| Coup of 18 Fructidor | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theFrench Revolution | |||||||
 Acting for the coup's leaders, GeneralCharles-Pierre Augereau stormed theTuileries Palace to arrestCharles Pichegru and others accused of plotting a counter-revolution. | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| French Directory | Royalists in the Council of Ancients and the Council of Five Hundred | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Political: Military: Charles-Pierre Augereau Lazare Hoche | François-Marie Barthélemy Charles Pichegru François Barbé-Marbois[1] | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 30,000 soldiers[1] | 216 royalist deputies[citation needed] | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| |||||||
TheCoup of 18Fructidor, Year V (4 September 1797 in theFrench Republican Calendar), was a seizure of power in France by members of theDirectory, then forming the government of theFirst French Republic, with support from the military.[2] The coup was provoked by the results of elections held months earlier, which had given the majority of seats in the country'sCorps législatif (Legislative body) toroyalist candidates, threatening a restoration of themonarchy and a return to theancien régime.[3] Three of the five members of the Directory,Paul Barras,Jean-François Rewbell andLouis Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux, with support of foreign ministerCharles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord,[4] staged thecoup d'état that annulled many of the previous election's results and ousted the monarchists from the legislature.[5]
Royalist candidates had gained 87 seats in the1795 elections, where a third of the seats were at stake. A reversal of the majority in favor of royalists and moderate republicans in the two chambers of the legislature, theCouncil of Five Hundred and theCouncil of the Ancients, took place in theelections of April 1797.[1] Soon the new majority repealed laws against priests who did not take the oath of theCivil Constitution of the Clergy andemigrés, and demanded the removal of fourJacobin government ministers from office.[1]
Under the royalist majority, theMarquess of Barthélemy, a known monarchist, was elected member of the Directory by the chambers, in replacement of the leaving directorLetourneur.François Barbé-Marbois was elected president of the Council of the Ancients,[1] andJean-Charles Pichegru, a figure widely assumed to be a sympathetic to the monarchy and its restoration, was elected President of the Council of Five Hundred.[2] After documentation of Pichegru's activities was supplied by GeneralNapoleon Bonaparte, the republican Directors accused the entire body of plotting against the Republic and moved quickly to annul the elections and arrest the royalists.[2]
At dawn 4 September 1797, Paris was declared to be under martial law, while a decree was issued, asserting that anyone supporting royalism or the restoration of the Constitution of 1793 was to be shot without trial.[citation needed] To support the coup, GeneralLazare Hoche, then commander of theArmy of Sambre-et-Meuse, arrived inthe capital with his troops, while Bonaparte sent troops underCharles-Pierre Augereau.[3] Pichegru,Dominique-Vincent Ramel-Nogaret, Barthélemy andAmédée Willot were arrested, whileLazare Carnot made good his escape. 214 deputies were arrested and 65 were subsequently exiled toCayenne in French Guiana including Pichegru, Ramel, Barthélemy and Carnot[dubious –discuss]. The election results in 49departments were annulled. In the aftermath 160 recently returnedémigrés were sentenced to death, and around 1320 priests accused of "conspiring against the Republic" were deported.[1] The two newly vacant places in the Directory were filled byPhilippe Merlin de Douai andFrançois de Neufchâteau.[4]
The 80-gunship of the lineFoudroyant was briefly namedDix-huit fructidor in after the event.
