Joseph Fouché

Joseph Fouché was born in 1759 in Le Pellerin, near Nantes, France.  He had a good education and would go on to become a teacher at various locations including Arras where he would meet Robespierre.

With the coming of the Revolution the Oratorians who he was working for called for him to go to Nantes so they might control his wayward tendencies.  They failed and he left the profession. He was elected to the National Convention in 1792.  Initially he became a Girondin but he was to switch to the Jacobins when he saw that they lacked commitment to the execution of Louis XVI.  Fouché was given the position of representative on mission to make sure areas across France were upholding the principles of the Revolution.

He would be sent to Lyon alongside Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois to mop up operations against the city where Kellermann had defeated a revolt against Republican rule.  Fouché would take suspects, tie them in batches and execute them with grapeshot from canons.  A bloody and non to effective method.  He would replace these methods with the more traditional firing squad and more modern guillotine.  His time in Lyon saw the death of over 1,800 prisoners.

From 1793 he had become one of the key movers in dechristianisation.  In Nièvre he would empty the churches of gold and have a secular christening for his own daughter (named Nièvre).   He was also the instigator of the practice across France of placing the words "Death is an eternal sleep" over the gates to cemeteries. This stance on Christianity put him at direct odds with Robespierre and his creation the Cult of the Supreme Being.  As antagonism arose between them Robespierre sought to evict him from the Jacobin Club.

When Robespierre was overthrown in the events surrounding Thermidor on the 28th July 1794 it would appear that Fouché was directly involved in the conspiracy.  He was arrested and placed in prison only to be released in 1795.  On his release he still had a series of well-placed friends to assist him in the time of the Directory.  It was one of these Barras who enabled him to first deal in military supplies and then to act as French Ambassador to the Cisalpine Republic, although this was short lived as was his time at The Hague. In 1799 he was appointed Minister of Police to Paris.  He went about his task with gusto dealing with both left wing and right wing characters.  He would shut down the Jacobin Club.

With the return of Bonaparte from Egypt Fouché was more than happy to support his overthrow of the Directory in the  18 Brumaire coup November 9–10, 1799.  He would be central to Bonaparte’s regime seeking out and removing opponents to the First Consul.  He would track down Royalists and Jacobins in the wake of the Infernal Machine Plot.  Bonaparte would never fully trust Fouché but would appoint him the Duke of Otranto.  He would eventually lose his position when Bonaparte found he had been negotiating with the British.

Fouché would oversee the reconciliation of the French government with the Bourbons in 1814 and would encourage Bonaparte to leave for the USA.  When Bonaparte returned from Elba in 1815 Fouché was quick to threw his weight behind the newly returned Emperor. At the same time and throughout the Hundred Days Campaign he would communicate with the Allied leaders.  When Bonaparte once again went into exile Fouché would lead negotiations with the allies.  Fouche would become minister of police under the restored Bourbon monarchy of Louis XVII despite being a regicide.  He would instigate a rigorous assault on perceived Bonapartists including overseeing the execution of Marshal Ney.  Eventually he would be dismissed and exiled dying in Trieste in 1820.