Coup of 18 Fructidor
The Coup of 18 Fructidor, Year V (4 September 1797 in the French Republican Calendar), was a seizure of power in France by members of the Directory, the government of the French First Republic, with support from the French military. The coup was provoked by the results of elections held months earlier, which had given the majority of seats in the country's Corps législatif (Legislative body) to royalist candidates, threatening a restoration of the monarchy and a return to the ancien régime. Three of the five members of the Directory, Paul Barras, Jean-François Rewbell and Louis Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux, with support of foreign minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, staged the coup d'état that annulled many of the previous election's results and ousted the monarchists from the legislature.
Coup of 18 Fructidor | |||||||
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Part of the French Revolution | |||||||
Acting for the coup's leaders, General Pierre Augereau stormed the Tuileries Palace to arrest Charles Pichegru and others accused of plotting a counter-revolution. | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
French Directory |
Royalists in the Council of Ancients and the Council of Five Hundred | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Political: Military: Pierre Augereau Lazare Hoche |
François-Marie Barthélemy Charles Pichegru François Barbé-Marbois | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
30,000 soldiers | 216 royalist deputies | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
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