Fructidor Coup

The Coup of Fructidor occurred on the 18th of said month (4th September) 1797.  There was increasing concern that royalists were gaining in influence as people turned towards them hoping for an end to the never ending wars.  The Directory had delayed the elections of autumn 1796 to spring 1797 in the supposed hope of having a smoother election or possibly because the Directory were seeking a more suitable political climate.  This turned out not to be the case as 198 monarchists were returned.  If this was replicated in the autumn elections of 1797 then the monarchists would be able to take control of the Legislature and then the Directory.

General Pichegru was elected President of the Council of Five Hundred and seen as acting in the interests of the monarchy.  However documents were discovered on the person of an Austrian general which showed that Pichegru was working with the enemy.  This allowed the Directors Barras, Reubell and Révellière-Lépeaux to act against the Royalists.  On the 18th Fructidor Pierre Augereau’s 2,000 troops forced their way into the Tuileries and arrested all the Royalist Deputies.  They then went to the Luxembourg Palace to arrest the two more moderate Directors François Barthélemy who was arrested in his bed and Lazare Carnot who had been tipped off escaped.

The next day Parisians awoke to be told that the city had narrowly avoided a royalist plot.  The results of the last election were declared void and fifty three royalists were sent to Guiana.  Forty two opposition papers were shut down across France.  Laws on refractory priests and emigres were harshened as they found themselves under the threat of being sent to the hulks or shot.  The two empty places in the Directory were filled by Philippe Merlin de Douai and Nicolas-Louis François de Neufchâteau.