Coup of 18 Fructidor — Directors Purge Royalists
The elections of spring 1797 returned a majority of moderate royalists to the legislative councils, threatening to undo the Revolution's work. Three of the five Directors — Barras, Reubell, and La Révellière-Lépeaux — responded on 18 Fructidor (4 September 1797) by calling in the army. General Augereau, acting on Napoleon Bonaparte's orders, surrounded the Tuileries with troops. Some 200 deputies were arrested; 65 were deported to French Guiana ("the dry guillotine"). Election results from 49 departments were annulled. Two of the five Directors were replaced. The coup reversed France's drift toward constitutional normality and consolidated the Directory's reliance on military power to govern. It demonstrated that the Revolutionary government could only survive by suspending its own constitutional rules. The precedent directly inspired Napoleon's more sweeping coup of 18 Brumaire two years later.
- Year: 1797 CE
- Category: Political
