Template:Short description Template:For Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox legislature The Council of Five Hundred ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) was the lower house of the legislature of the French First Republic under the Constitution of the Year III. It operated from 31 October 1795<ref>Gazette nationale ou le Moniteur universel, 1 novembre 1795, p. 4</ref> to 9 November 1799 during the Directory (Template:Langx) period of the French Revolution.
Role and functionEdit
The Council of Five Hundred was established under the Constitution of Year III which was adopted by a referendum on 24 September 1795,<ref name="French Revolutions p.495">Chronicle of the French Revolutions, Longman 1989 p.495</ref> and constituted after the first elections which were held from 12–21 October 1795. Voting rights were restricted to citizens owning property bringing in income equal to 150 days of work.<ref name="French Revolutions p.495"/> Each member elected had to be at least 30 years old, meet residency qualifications and pay taxes. To prevent them coming under the pressure of the sans-culottes and the Paris mob, the constitution allowed the Council of the Five Hundred to meet in closed session.<ref>Chronicle of the French Revolutions, Longman 1989 p.505</ref> A third of them would be replaced annually.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="chrhc.revues.org">Template:Cite journal</ref>
Besides functioning as a legislative body, the Council of Five Hundred proposed the list out of which the Ancients chose five Directors, who jointly held 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 Directors.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="chrhc.revues.org"/> Under the Thermidorean constitution, as Boissy d'Anglas put it, the Council of Five Hundred was to be the imagination of the Republic, and the Council of Ancients its reason.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Verification needed<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Elections of 1795Edit
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Elections of 1797Edit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} In the elections of April 1797, there were a number of voting irregularities and 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.<ref>Chronicle of the French Revolutions, Longman 1989 p.561</ref> Jean-Charles Pichegru, widely assumed to be a monarchist, was elected President of the Council of Five Hundred.<ref name=Doyle330>Template:Cite book</ref> After documentation of Pichegru's activities was supplied by Napoleon 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 the Coup of 18 Fructidor.<ref name=Doyle330/>
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, this punishment was nicknamed the "dry guillotine". The 42 opposition newspapers were closed, the chambers were purged, and elections were partly cancelled.
Elections of 1798Edit
{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} 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.<ref>Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman Group 1989 p.601</ref> 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 Révellière-Lépeaux and Treilhard<ref>Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman Group 1989 p.637</ref> in the co-called 'Coup of 30 Prairial VII'.
Coup of 18th Brumaire Year VIIIEdit
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In October 1799 Napoleon's brother Lucien Bonaparte was appointed President of the Council of Five Hundred.<ref>Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman Group 1989 p.645</ref> 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.<ref>Chronicle of the French Revolution, Longman Group 1989 p.650</ref>
ReferencesEdit
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