Council of Five Hundred

The Council of Five Hundred (Conseil des Cinq-Cents), or simply the Five
Council of Five Hundred
Hundred was the lower house of the legislature of France under the
Conseil des Cinq-Cents
Constitution of the Year III, during the period commonly known (from the name
of the executive branch during this time) as the Directory (Directoire), from 26 French First Republic
October 1795 until 9 November 1799, roughly the second half of the period
generally referred to as theFrench Revolution.

Contents
1 Role and function
2 Elections of 1795
3 Elections of 1797
4 elections of 1798
5 Coup of 18th Brumaire Year VIII
6 References
General Bonaparte surrounded by
members of the Council of Five
Hundred during the 18 Brumaire coup
Role and function d'tat.
The Council of Five Hundred was established under the Constitution of Year III Type
which was adopted by a referendum on 24 September 1795,[1] and constituted
Type Lower house
after the first elections which were held from 1221 October 1795. Voting rights
were restricted to citizens owning property bringing in income equal to 150 days
History
of work.[2] Each member elected had to be at least 30 years old, meet residency Established 2 November 1795
qualifications and pay taxes. To prevent them coming under the pressure of the Disbanded 10 November 1799
sans-culottes and the Paris mob, the constitution allowed the Council of the Five
Preceded by National Convention
Hundred to meet in closed session.[3] A third of them would be replaced
(unicameral)
annually.[4][5]
Succeeded by Corps lgislatif
Besides functioning as a legislative body, the Council of Five Hundred proposed Seats 500
the list out of which the Ancients chose five Directors, who jointly held
Meeting place
executive power. The Council of Five Hundred had their own distinctive official
uniform, with robes, cape and hat, just as did the Council of Ancients and the Salle du Mange, rue de Rivoli, Paris
Directors.[6][7] Under the Thermidorean constitution, as Boissy d'Anglas put it,
[8][9]
the Council of Five Hundred was to be the imagination of the Republic, and the Council of Ancients its reason.

Elections of 1795

Elections of 1797
In the elections of April 1797, there were a number of voting irregularities a very low turnout, resulting in a strong showing for
Royalist tendencies. A number of the newly elected deputies formed the Club de Clichy in the Council.[10] Jean-Charles Pichegru,
widely assumed to be a monarchist, was elected President of the Council of Five Hundred.[11] After documentation of Pichegru's
treasonous activities was supplied byNapoleon Bonaparte, the Directors accused the
entire body of plotting against the Revolution and moved quickly to annul the
elections and arrest the royalists in what was known as theCoup of 18 Fructidor.[11]

To support the coup, General Lazare Hoche, then commander of the Army of
Sambre-et-Meuse, arrived in the capital with his troops, while Napoleon sent an
army under Pierre Augereau. Deputies were arrested and 53 were exiled to Cayenne
in French Guiana. Since death from tropical disease was likely, it was referred to as
the "dry guillotine". The 42 opposition newspapers were closed. The chambers were 1795 election results - 33
purged, and elections were partly cancelled. Republicans, 54 moderate
Monarchists, 33 ultra-Monarchists

elections of 1798
The elections of April 1798 were heavily manipulated. The Council of the Five
Hundred passed a law on 8 May barring 106 recently elected deputies from taking
their seats, all of whom were of a left-wing persuasion. Elections in 48 departments
were annulled.[12] Nevertheless, left-wing opinion grew in strength in the Council in
1799, and on 18 June 1799, the Council of Five Hundred and the Council of
Ancients forced the resignations of the most anti-Jacobin Directors, Merlin de
Douai, La Rvellire-Lpeauxand Treilhard[13] in the co-called 'Coup of 30 Prairial
1797 election results: 28
VII'. Republicans, 44 Independents, 105
Moderate Monarchists

Coup of 18th Brumaire Year VIII

In October 1799 Napoleon's brother Lucien Bonaparte was appointed President of the Council of
Five Hundred.[14] Soon afterwards, in the coup of 18 Brumaire, Napoleon led a group of
grenadiers who drove the Council from its chambers and installed him as leader of France as its
First Consul. This ended the Council of Five Hundred, the Council of Ancients and the
Directory.[15]

References
Lucien Bonaparte, the
Last President of the
Council
1. Chronicle of the French Revolutions,
Longman 1989 p.495
2. Chronicle of the French Revolutions,
Longman 1989 p.495
3. Chronicle of the French Revolutions,
Longman 1989 p.505
Gillray's caricature of the 18
4. Neely, Sylvia. A concise history of the
Brumaire coup
French Revolution. Rowman and
Littlefield. p. 226.
5. https://chrhc.revues.org/4768#tocfrom3n5
accessed 30/4/2017
6. http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b6953456x
accessed 30/4/2017
7. https://chrhc.revues.org/4768#tocfrom3n5
accessed 30/4/2017
8. https://hal-amu.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-
01367516/document accessed
30/4/2017
 9. http://books.openedition.org/pur/19748?
lang=fr accessed 30/4/2017
10. Chronicle of the French Revolutions,
Longman 1989 p.561
11. Doyle, William (2002). The Oxford
History of the French Revolution.
Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 330.
ISBN 978-0-19-925298-5.
12. Chronicle of the French Revolution,
Longman Group 1989 p.601
13. Chronicle of the French Revolution,
Longman Group 1989 p.637
14. Chronicle of the French Revolution,
Longman Group 1989 p.645
15. Chronicle of the French Revolution,
Timefem in 1670 p.650

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