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TheCoup of 30 Prairial Year VII (French:Coup d'État du 30 prairial an VII), also known as theRevenge of the Councils (French:revanche des conseils), was abloodless coup in France that occurred on 18 June 1799 (30 Prairial Year VII by theFrench Republican Calendar). It leftEmmanuel-Joseph Sieyès as the dominant figure of the French government, and prefigured the coup of18 Brumaire that broughtNapoleon Bonaparte to power.
The March–April 1799 elections of 315 new deputies into the two councils had produced a new neo-Jacobin (The Mountain) majority in these two bodies, particularly in the lower house. TheCouncil of Five Hundred — thelower house in the legislature under theFrench Directory — became unhappy with the directors' conduct of theWar of the Second Coalition, and in particular with their recall of GeneralJean Étienne Championnet, a formerJacobin. TheCouncil of Ancients andCouncil of Five Hundred—the two legislative branches under theFrench Directory—voted an act declaring that the election of DirectorJean-Baptiste Treilhard had been illegal, and on 29 Prairial/17 June had replaced him withLouis Gohier, erstwhile Jacobin deputy and minister during theFrench Convention.
But the Councils were not satisfied with one removal. The new anti-Jacobin DirectorEmmanuel-Joseph Sieyès shared, in some degree, the Councils' sentiments and, by holding this view, it likely helped him into his new appointment to office in May 1799. He was glad to see his colleagues removed, and was perfectly willing to work with Jacobin generals to achieve his ends. In the Council of Five Hundred, the deputyAntoine, comte Boulay de la Meurthe, generally seen as a moderate, demanded the resignation or removal of directorsLouis-Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux andPhilippe Antoine Merlin de Douai. In this he was soon joined not only by his own Council but by the Council of Ancients, and by directorsPaul Barras, a Directory veteran since 1795 who was popularly known for his cunning, a trait which likely ensured that he was not to be yet another director who should have been removed, and by the newly appointed Sieyès.
When Révellière de Lépeaux and Merlin de Douai resisted, GeneralBarthélémy Catherine Joubert, recently placed in command of the 17th military division (Paris) organized some troop movements of soldiers in Paris. By the evening of 18 June, Révellière-Lépeaux and Merlin had both tendered their resignations. Although nothing in this sequence of events formally violated theFrench Constitution of 1795, it is generally considered a coup.
