 |
Joseph Fouché b. c. 1760, Le Pellerin, near Nantes, France [1] |
| Title: | Président de la Commission de gouvernement (President of the Commission of Government) |
| Term: | 23 Jun 1815 - 7 Jul 1815 |
| Chronology: | 22 Jun 1815, elected a member of the Commission of Government by the Chambre des représentants (Chamber of the Representatives), session of the Chamber, Palais-Bourbon [2, vol. 40, p. 237] |
| 23 Jun 1815, elected President of the Commission of Government by its members, constituent meeting, Palais des Tuileries, Paris [2, vol. 40, p. 247], [3] | |
| 7 Jul 1815, collective resignation of the Commission of Government submitted to the Chamber of Representatives; no formal acceptance voted [2, vol. 40, pp. 371-374] | |
| Names/titles: | Comte de Fouché, comte de l'Empire (count of Fouché, count of the Empire) [from 24 Apr 1808]; duc d'Otrante (duke of Otranto) [from 15 Aug 1809] |
| Biography: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Son of the captain of a merchant vessel; was educated at colleges of the Oratorians at Nantes and Paris; worked as a teacher; was a founder of a patriotic association in Nantes and a member of the Jacobin club; elected deputy from Loire-Inférieure to the Convention nationale (National Convention) (1792-1795); voted for death sentence at the trial of King Louis XVI; was an initiator of the atheistic movement aimed at the extinction of Christianity in France; assisted Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois in the ruthless massacre of the counterrevolutionaries in Lyon (1793); excluded from the Jacobin Club (1794) after a split with Maximilien Robespierre; succeeded in engineering the fall of the Jacobin dictatorship (27 Jul 1794); was briefly arrested (9 Aug 1795) for his active role during the Reign of Terror; amnestied (26 Oct 1795) and returned to private life; offered services to Paul Barras; served as ambassador to the Cisalpine Republic (1798) and then to Batavian Republic (1799); appointed minister of police (20 Jun 1799 - 15 Sep 1802); helped Napoléon Bonaparte in preparation of the coup of 18 Brumaire, Year VIII (9 Nov 1799 - 10 Nov 1799); worked on organizing secret police, curbing the royalists and extreme Jacobins; was created member of the Sénat conservateur (15 Sep 1802); restored to the office of the minister of police (18 Jul 1804 - 3 Jun 1810) after he supported the proclamation of Napoléon as emperor; provisionally put in charge of the interior ministry (29 Jun 1809 - 12 Oct 1809); intrigued with the English against Napoléon; dismissed from his ministerial post and appointed governor general of Rome (1809); served as minister of police (20 Mar 1815 - 23 Jun 1815) during the Cent-Jours (Hundred Days); nominated a peer of France (2 Jun 1815); following the abdication of Napoléon, was elected to the Commission of Government (22 Jun 1815); served as president of the Commission (23 Jun 1815 - 7 Jul 1815); while ostensibly working for the recognition of Napoléon II, facilitated the return of the Bourbons; appointed minister of police (9 Jul 1815 - 24 Sep 1815); was elected to the Chambre des députés [Chamber of Deputies] (1815-1816); sent as ambassador to Saxony (1815); proscribed as a regicide (1816) and died in exile. Biography source: [5] |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Election results: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Information source: [2, vol. 40, pp. 237-238, 246-247] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sources and notes: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| [1] | The date of Fouché's birth is in dispute. Dictionnaire de biographie française asserts that he was born on 21 May 1759 and that the year of his birth is often confused with 1754, when his elder brother was born. Dictionnaire historique de la France provides a different date: 29 May 1763, while Historical Dictionary of Napoleonic France 1799-1815 (ed. by Owen Connelly, Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 1985) puts it as 27 May 1760. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| [2] | "Histoire parlementaire de la Révolution française, ou Journal des assemblées nationales, depuis 1789 jusqu'en 1815", ed. by P.-J.-B. Buchez et P.-C. Roux (Paris: Paulin, 1838) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| [3] | At the constituent meeting of the Commission (23 Jun 1815), Paul Grenier and duc de Vicence proposed the candidature of Lazare Carnot, but the latter and baron Quinette nominated Fouché, who agreed to accept the chair. [4, vol. 3, p. 107] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| [4] | "Histoire des deux Restaurations: jusqu'à l'avénement de Louis-Philippe, de janvier 1813 à octobre 1830", by Achille de Vaulabelle (Paris: Perrotin, 1860). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| [5] | Dictionnaire des parlementaires français: depuis le 1er mai 1789 jusqu'au 1er mai 1889, ed. by Adolphe Robert, Edgar Bourloton, Gaston Cougny (Paris: Bourloton, 1889-1891). | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Image: portrait by Claude Dubufe. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Main Projects
RSS feed 