French Consulate

Government of France from 1799 to 1804

This article is about the government of France from 1799 to 1804. For France's diplomatic missions also known as "consulates", see List of diplomatic missions of France.

French Consulate

Consulat français

Executive government of the French First Republic

The three consuls Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Charles-François Lebrun (left to right) by Auguste Couder

History
Established| 9 November 1799
Disbanded| 18 May 1804
Preceded by| French Directory
Succeeded by|

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The Consulate (French: Consulat) was the top-level government of the First French Republic from the fall of the Directory in the coup of 18 Brumaire on 9 November 1799 until the start of the French Empire on 18 May 1804.

During this period, Napoleon Bonaparte, with his appointment as First Consul, established himself as the head of a more autocratic and centralised republican government in France while not declaring himself sole ruler. Due to the long-lasting institutions established during these years, Robert B. Holtman has called the consulate "one of the most important periods of all French history."[1] By the end of this period, Bonaparte had engineered an authoritarian personal rule now viewed as a military dictatorship.[2]

## Fall of the Directory

[edit]

Main articles: 30 Prairial and 18 Brumaire

French military disasters in 1798 and 1799 had shaken the Directory, and eventually shattered it in November 1799. Historians sometimes date the start of the political downfall of the Directory to 18 June 1799 (Coup of 30 Prairial VII by the French Republican calendar). This was when anti-Jacobin Director Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, after only a month in office, with the help of the Directory's only surviving original member, Paul Barras, also an anti-Jacobin, successfully rid himself of the other three then-sitting directors.[citation needed] The elections held for the two councils in March and April had produced a new "Neo-Jacobin" majority in the two bodies, and being unhappy with the existing five man Directory, by 5 June 1799, these councils had found an irregularity in the election of the Director Jean Baptiste Treilhard, who thus retired in favour of Louis-Jérôme Gohier, a Jacobin more "in tune" with the feelings in the two councils. The next day, 18 June 1799, anti-Jacobins Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai and Louis Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux were also driven to resign, although one long time anti-Jacobin, popularly known for his cunning, survived the day's coup; they were replaced by the Jacobin baron Jean-François-Auguste Moulin and by non-Jacobin, or "weak" Jacobin, Roger Ducos. The three new directors were generally seen by the anti-Jacobin elite of France as non-entities, but that same elite could take some comfort in knowing that the five man Directory was still in anti-Jacobin hands, but with a reduced majority.

Additional military disasters, royalist insurrections in the south, Chouan disturbances in a dozen departments of the western part of France (mainly in Brittany, Maine, and eventually Normandy), royalist intrigues, and the end became certain.[citation needed] In order to soothe the populace and protect the frontier, more than the French Revolution's usual terrorist measures (such as the Law of Hostages) was necessary. The new Directory government, led by Sieyès, decided that the necessary revision of the constitution would require "a head" (his own) and "a sword" (a general to back him). With General Jean Victor Marie Moreau being unattainable as his sword, Sieyès favoured General Barthélemy Catherine Joubert; but, when Joubert was killed at the Battle of Novi on 15 August, he turned to General Napoleon Bonaparte.[3]

Although Generals Guillaume Brune and André Masséna won battles at Bergen and Zurich, and the Allies of the Second Coalition lingered on the frontier as they had done after the Battle of Valmy, the fortunes of the Directory were still not restored. Success was reserved for Bonaparte, suddenly landing at Fréjus with the prestige of his victories in the East, and now, after General Lazare Hoche's death (1797), appearing as sole master of the armies.[3]

On 9 November 1799 (18 Brumaire VIII), Bonaparte led the coup of 18 Brumaire, seizing French parliamentary and military power and forcing the sitting directors of the government to resign. On the night of 10 November, a remnant of the Council of Ancients abolished the Constitution of the Year III, ordained the consulate, and legalised the coup in favour of Bonaparte with the Constitution of the Year VIII.[3]

## The new government

[edit]

Initially, the 18 Brumaire coup seemed to be a victory for Sieyès, rather than for Bonaparte. Sieyès was a proponent of a new system of government for the Republic, and the coup initially seemed certain to bring his system into force. Bonaparte's cleverness lay in counterpoising Pierre Claude François Daunou's plan to that of Sieyès, and in retaining only those portions of each which could serve his ambition.[4][3]

Constitution of the year VIII and later the French Empire

The new government was composed of three parliamentary assemblies: the Council of State which drafted bills, the Tribunate which could not vote on the bills but instead debated them, and the Corps législatif, whose members could not discuss the bills but voted on them after reviewing the Tribunate's debate record. The Sénat conservateur was a governmental body equal to the three aforementioned legislative assemblies and verified the draft bills and directly advised the First Consul on the implications of such bills. Ultimate executive authority was vested in three consuls, who were elected for ten years. Popular suffrage was retained, though mutilated by the lists of notables (on which the members of the Assemblies were to be chosen by the Senate). The four aforementioned governmental organs were retained under the Constitution of the Year XII, which recognised Bonaparte as the French sovereign, but their respective powers were greatly diminished.

Bonaparte vetoed Sieyès's original idea of having a single Grand Elector as supreme executive and head of state. Sieyès had intended to reserve this important position for himself, and by denying him the job Bonaparte helped reinforce the authority of the consuls, an office which he would assume. Nor was Bonaparte content simply to be part of an equal triumvirate. As the years progressed he would move to consolidate his own power as First Consul, and leave the two other consuls, Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès and Charles-François Lebrun, as well as the Assemblies, weak and subservient. By consolidating power, Bonaparte was able to transform the aristocratic constitution of Sieyès into an unavowed dictatorship.[3]

On 7 February 1800, a public referendum confirmed the new constitution. It vested all of the real power in the hands of the First Consul, leaving only a nominal role for the other two consuls. A full 99.9% of voters approved the motion, according to the released results.

While this near-unanimity is certainly open to question, Bonaparte was genuinely popular among many voters, and after a period of strife, many in France were reassured by his dazzling but unsuccessful offers of peace to the victorious Second Coalition, his rapid disarmament of the Vendée, and his talk of stability of government, order, justice, and moderation. He gave everyone a feeling that France was governed once more by a real statesman, and that a competent government was finally in charge.[3]

## Bonaparte's consolidation of power

[edit]

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|

Portrait of First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte, by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

Bonaparte needed to rid himself of Sieyès and of those republicans who had no desire to hand over the republic to one man, particularly Moreau and Masséna, his military rivals. At the Battle of Marengo on 14 June 1800, what briefly seemed like a potential defeat for France was ultimately secured by the generals Louis Desaix and François Christophe de Kellermann. This offered a further opportunity to Napoleon's ambitions by increasing his popularity. The royalist plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise on 24 December allowed Napoleon to make a clean sweep of the democratic republicans, who despite their innocence, were deported to French Guiana. Napoleon annulled the Assemblies and made the Senate omnipotent in constitutional matters.[3]

The Treaty of Lunéville with Austria, which restored peace to Europe, was signed in February 1801. Austria, which had been disarmed by Moreau's victory at the Battle of Hohenlinden, gave nearly the whole of Italy to France, and permitted Bonaparte to eliminate from the Assemblies all the leaders of the opposition in the discussion of the Civil Code. The Concordat of 1801, drawn up not in the Catholic Church's interest but in that of his own policy, by giving satisfaction to the religious feeling of the country, allowed him to put down the constitutional democratic Church, to rally round him the consciences of the peasants, and above all to deprive the royalists of their best weapon. The Organic Articles hid from the eyes of his companions-in-arms and councillors a reaction which, in fact if not in law, restored to a submissive Church, despoiled of her revenues, her position as the religion of the state.[3]

The March 1802 Peace of Amiens with the United Kingdom, of which France's allies, Spain and the Batavian Republic, paid all the costs, gave Napoleon a pretext for endowing himself with a consulate, not for ten years but for life, as a recompense from the nation. Bonaparte's path to emperor began with the Constitution of the Year X dated 4 August 1802 (16 Thermidor).[3]

On 2 August 1802 (14 Thermidor, X), a second national referendum was held, this time to confirm Bonaparte as "First Consul for Life".[5] Once again, a vote claimed 99.7% approval.[6][7]

As Bonaparte increased his power, he borrowed many techniques of the ancien régime in his new form of one-man government. Like the old monarchy, he re-introduced plenipotentiaries; over-centralised, strictly utilitarian administrative and bureaucratic methods, and a policy of subservient pedantic scholasticism[clarification needed] towards the nation's universities. He constructed or consolidated the funds necessary for national institutions, local governments, a judiciary system, organs of finance, banking, codes, and traditions of conscientious of a well-disciplined labour force.[8]

France enjoyed a high level of peace and order under Bonaparte that helped to raise the standard of comfort. Prior to this, Paris had often suffered from hunger and thirst, and lacked fire and light, but under Bonaparte, provisions became cheap and abundant, while trade prospered and wages ran high.[8]

In strengthening the machinery of the state, Bonaparte created the Légion d'honneur (Legion of Honour), the Concordat, and restored indirect taxes, an act seen as a betrayal of the Revolution.

Bonaparte was largely able to quell dissent within government by expelling his more vocal critics, such as Benjamin Constant and Madame de Staël. The Saint-Domingue expedition reduced the republican army to a nullity. Constant war helped demoralise and scatter the military's leaders, who were jealous of their "comrade" Bonaparte. The last major challenge to Bonaparte's authority came from Moreau, who was compromised in a royalist plot; he too was sent into exile.[8]

In contradistinction to the opposition of senators and republican generals, the majority of the French populace remained uncritical of Bonaparte's authority. No suggestion of the possibility of his death was tolerated.[8]

## Duke of Enghien affair

[edit]

Portrait of Louis Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Enghien, by Jean-Michel Moreau

Because Bonaparte's hold on political power was still tenuous, French royalists devised a plot that involved kidnapping and assassinating him and inviting Louis Antoine de Bourbon, the Duke of Enghien, to lead a coup d'état that would precede the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy with Louis XVIII on the throne. The British government of William Pitt the Younger had contributed to this royalist conspiracy by financing one million pounds and providing naval transport (with the ship of Captain John Wesley Wright) to the conspirators Georges Cadoudal and General Jean-Charles Pichegru for their return to France from England. Pichegru met Moreau, one of Bonaparte's generals and a former protege of Pichegru, on 28 January 1804. The next day, a British secret agent named Courson was arrested and he, under torture, confessed that Pichegru, Moreau, and Cadoudal were conspiring to overthrow the consulate. The French government sought more details of this plot by arresting and torturing Louis Picot, Cadoudal's servant. General Joachim Murat ordered the city gates of Paris to be closed from 7 pm to 6 am while Pichegru and Moreau were arrested during the next month.

These further arrests revealed that the Royalist conspiracy would eventually involve the active participation of the Duke of Enghien, who was a relatively young Bourbon prince and thus another possible heir to a restored Bourbon monarchy. The Duke, at that time, was living as a French émigré in the Electorate of Baden, but he also kept a rented house in Ettenheim, which was close to the French border. Possibly at the urging of Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périogord, Bonaparte's foreign minister, and Joseph Fouché, Bonaparte's minister of police who had warned that "the air is full of daggers", the First Consul came to the conclusion that the Duke must be dealt with. Two hundred French soldiers crossed the border, surrounded the Duke's home in Baden and arrested him.

On the way back to France, d'Enghien stated that "he had sworn implacable hatred against Bonaparte as well as against the French; he would take every occasion to make war on them."[9]

After three plots to assassinate him and the further financing of a supposed insurrection in Strasbourg, Bonaparte had enough. Based on d'Enghien's[clarification needed] who were seized at his home in Germany and the material from the police, d'Enghien was charged as a conspirator in time of war and was subject to a military court. He was ordered to be tried by a court of seven colonels at Vincennes.

D'Enghien during his questioning at the court told them that he was being paid 4,200 pounds per year by Britain "in order to combat not France but a government to which his birth had made him hostile." Further, he stated that "I asked England if I might serve in her armies, but she replied that that was impossible: I must wait on the Rhine, where I would have a part to play immediately, and I was in fact waiting."[10]

D'Enghien was found guilty of being in violation of Article 2 of a law of 6 October 1791, to wit, "Any conspiracy and plot aimed at disturbing the State by civil war, and arming the citizens against one another, or against lawful authority, will be punished by death." He was executed in the ditch of the fortress of Vincennes.

The aftermath caused hardly a ripple in France, but abroad, it produced a storm of anger. Many of those who had favoured or been neutral to Bonaparte now turned against him, but Bonaparte always assumed full responsibility for allowing the execution and continued to believe that, on balance, he had done the right thing.

## Consuls

[edit]

Provisional consuls (10 November – 12 December 1799)

|  |
Napoleon Bonaparte
| Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès
| Roger Ducos

Consulate (12 December 1799 – 18 May 1804)
|  |
Napoleon Bonaparte
First Consul  | J.J. Cambacérès
Second Consul  | Charles-François Lebrun
Third Consul

## Ministers

[edit]

See also: Cabinet of the French Consulate

The ministers under the Consulate were:[11] Ministry | Start | End | Minister

|
|
|

Foreign Affairs | 11 November 1799 | 22 November 1799 | Charles-Frédéric Reinhard
22 November 1799 | 18 May 1804 | Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord
Justice | 11 November 1799 | 25 December 1799 | Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès
25 December 1799 | 14 September 1802 | André Joseph Abrial
14 September 1802 | 18 May 1804 | Claude Ambroise Régnier
War | 11 November 1799 | 2 April 1800 | Louis-Alexandre Berthier
2 April 1800 | 8 October 1800 | Lazare Carnot
8 October 1800 | 18 May 1804 | Louis-Alexandre Berthier
Finance | 11 November 1799 | 18 May 1804 | Martin-Michel-Charles Gaudin
Police | 11 November 1799 | 18 May 1804 | Joseph Fouché
Interior | 12 November 1799 | 25 December 1799 | Pierre-Simon Laplace
25 December 1799 | 21 January 1801 | Lucien Bonaparte
21 January 1801 | 18 May 1804 | Jean-Antoine Chaptal
Navy and Colonies | 12 November 1799 | 22 November 1799 | Marc-Antoine Bourdon de Vatry
22 November 1799 | 3 October 1801 | Pierre-Alexandre-Laurent Forfait
3 October 1801 | 18 May 1804 | Denis Decrès
Secretary of State | 25 December 1799 | 18 May 1804 | Hugues-Bernard Maret
Treasury | 27 September 1801 | 18 May 1804 | François Barbé-Marbois
War Administration | 12 March 1802 | 18 May 1804 | Jean François Aimé Dejean

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Robert B. Holtman, The Napoleonic Revolution (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1981), 31.
2. ^ Jones, Colin (1994). The Cambridge Illustrated History of France (1st ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 193–94. ISBN 0-521-43294-4.
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiriath 1911, p. 860.
4. ^ Antoine-Claire Thibaudeau, "Creation of the Consular Government," Napoleon: Symbol for an Age, A Brief History with Documents, ed. Rafe Blaufarb (New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008), 54–56.
5. ^ "From Life Consulship to the hereditary Empire (1802–1804)". Napoleon.org. Retrieved 9 January 2012.
6. ^ Frank McLynn (2002). Napoleon. Arcade. pp. 253–54. ISBN 978-1-55970-631-5. "August 1802 referendum."
7. ^ Lucius Hudson Holt; Alexander Wheeler Chilton (1919). A Brief History of Europe from 1789–1815. Macmillan. p. 206. "August 1802 referendum napoleon."
8. ^ a b c d Wiriath 1911, p. 861.
9. ^ Cronin 1994, p. 242
10. ^ Cronin 1994, pp. 243–44
11. ^ *Muel, Léon (1891). Gouvernements, ministères et constitutions de la France depuis cent ans: Précis historique des révolutions, des crises ministérielles et gouvernementales, et des changements de constitutions de la France depuis 1789 jusqu'en 1890 ... Marchal et Billard. p. 61. Retrieved 3 May 2014.

## Bibliography

[edit]

* Histoire et Figurines website (English language version). Accessed October 2006.
* Tom Holmberg, "The d'Enghien Affair: Crime or Blunder?" (September 2005), The Napoleonic Series website. Accessed October 2006.
* "Louis Antoine Henri, duke of Enghien"
* This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wiriath, Paul (1911). "France § History". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 10 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 859–860.

* v
* t
* e

French Consulate (10 November 1799 – 18 May 1804)

Provisional consuls|

* Napoleon Bonaparte
* Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès
* Roger Ducos

Bonaparte
First Consul

Consuls|

* Napoleon Bonaparte
* Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès
* Charles-François Lebrun, duc de Plaisance

Ministers|

| Foreign Affairs|

* Charles-Frédéric Reinhard
* Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord

|

Justice|

* Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès
* André Joseph Abrial
* Claude Ambroise Régnier

War|

* Louis-Alexandre Berthier
* Lazare Carnot
* Louis-Alexandre Berthier

Finance|

Martin-Michel-Charles Gaudin

Police|

Joseph Fouché

Interior|

* Pierre-Simon Laplace
* Lucien Bonaparte
* Jean-Antoine Chaptal

Navy and Colonies|

* Marc-Antoine Bourdon de Vatry
* Pierre-Alexandre-Laurent Forfait
* Denis Decrès

Secretary of State|

Hugues-Bernard Maret, duc de Bassano

Treasury|

François Barbé-Marbois

War Administration|

Jean François Aimé Dejean

* Preceded by French Directory
* Followed by First Cabinet of Napoleon I

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Napoleon

* Napoleonic era
* timeline
* First French Empire

Life and career|

* Stay in Auxonne [fr]
* Coup of 18 Brumaire
* Consulate
* Assassination attempts
* Le souper de Beaucaire
* Constitutions
* 1799
* 1802
* 1804
* 1815
* Napoleonic Wars
* Coronation
* Sale of Louisiana
* Planned invasion of the United Kingdom
* Holland
* Mesures usuelles
* Looting of art
* Tactics
* Weaponry and warfare
* 1st abdication
* 1st exile
* Route Napoléon
* 2nd abdication
* 2nd exile
* Death of Napoleon
* mask

Battles and wars|

* French Revolutionary Wars
* Siege of Toulon
* French Revolution
* 13 Vendémiaire
* Battle of Lodi
* Battle of Arcole
* Battle of Rivoli
* French campaign in Egypt and Syria
* Battle of the Pyramids
* Siege of Jaffa
* Battle of Marengo
* War of the Third Coalition
* Battle of Austerlitz
* War of the Fourth Coalition
* Battle of Jena
* War of the Fifth Coalition
* Battle of Wagram
* French invasion of Russia
* Battle of Borodino
* War of the Sixth Coalition
* Battle of Leipzig
* Battle of Vauchamps
* Battle of Arcis-sur-Aube
* Hundred Days
* Battle of Ligny
* Battle of Waterloo

Views|

* Catholic Church
* Concordat of 1801
* Tiara
* Jewish people
* Grand Sanhedrin
* Infamous Decree
* Protestants
* Organic Articles
* Slavery
* Law of 20 May 1802
* Saint-Domingue expedition

Homes and honours|

* Arc de Triomphe
* Hôtel Bonaparte
* Château de Malmaison
* Column of the Grande Armée
* Emperor Napoleon I Monument
* Equestrian statue
* Palace of Fontainebleau
* Hôtel des Invalides
* Longwood House
* Maison Bonaparte
* Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker
* Milan
* Rue de la Victoire
* Vendôme Column

Legacy and memory|

* Bank of France
* Bonapartism
* Conseil d'État
* Cultural depictions
* "China is a sleeping giant" quote
* German Romanticism
* Memorial of Saint Helena
* Napoleonic Code
* Propaganda
* Tomb
* Retour des cendres
* Penis
* Studies
* Symphony No. 3 (Beethoven)

Family|

* Joséphine de Beauharnais (first wife)
* Marie Louise (second wife)
* Charles Léon (son)
* Alexandre Walewski (son)
* Napoleon II (son)
* Carlo Maria Buonaparte (father)
* Letizia Ramolino (mother)
* Joseph Bonaparte (brother)
* Lucien Bonaparte (brother)
* Louis Bonaparte (brother)
* Jérôme Bonaparte (brother)
* Caroline Bonaparte (sister)
* Pauline Bonaparte (sister)
* Elisa Bonaparte (sister)

Category / Commons

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Significant civil and political events by year

1788|

* Day of the Tiles (7 Jun 1788)
* Assembly of Vizille (21 Jul 1788)

1789|

* What Is the Third Estate? (Jan 1789)
* Réveillon riots (28 Apr 1789)
* Convocation of the Estates General (5 May 1789)
* Death of the Dauphin (4 June 1789)
* National Assembly (17 Jun – 9 Jul 1790)
* Tennis Court Oath (20 Jun 1789)
* National Constituent Assembly (9 Jul – 30 Sep 1791)
* Storming of the Bastille (14 Jul 1789)
* Great Fear (20 Jul – 5 Aug 1789)
* Abolition of Feudalism (4–11 Aug 1789)
* Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (26 Aug 1789)
* Women's March on Versailles (5 Oct 1789)
* Nationalization of the Church properties (2 Nov 1789)

1790|

* Abolition of the Parlements (Feb–Jul 1790)
* Avignon–Comtat Venaissin War (Jun 1790 – 1791)
* Abolition of the Nobility (23 Jun 1790)
* Civil Constitution of the Clergy (12 Jul 1790)
* Fête de la Fédération (14 Jul 1790)

1791|

* Flight to Varennes (20–21 Jun 1791)
* Champ de Mars massacre (17 Jul 1791)
* Declaration of Pillnitz (27 Aug 1791)
* The Constitution of 1791 (3 Sep 1791)
* National Legislative Assembly (1 Oct 1791 – Sep 1792)

1792|

* France declares war (20 Apr 1792)
* Brunswick Manifesto (25 Jul 1792)
* Paris Commune becomes insurrectionary (Jun 1792)
* 10th of August (10 Aug 1792)
* September Massacres (Sep 1792)
* National Convention (20 Sep 1792 – 26 Oct 1795)
* First republic declared (22 Sep 1792)

1793|

* Execution of Louis XVI (21 Jan 1793)
* Revolutionary Tribunal (9 Mar 1793 – 31 May 1795)
* Reign of Terror (27 Jun 1793 – 27 Jul 1794)
* Committee of Public Safety
* Committee of General Security
* Fall of the Girondists (2 Jun 1793)
* Assassination of Marat (13 Jul 1793)
* Levée en masse (23 Aug 1793)
* The Death of Marat (painting)
* Law of Suspects (17 Sep 1793)
* Marie Antoinette is guillotined (16 Oct 1793)
* Anti-clerical laws (throughout the year)

1794|

* Danton and Desmoulins guillotined (5 Apr 1794)
* Law of 22 Prairial (10 Jun 1794)
* Thermidorian Reaction (27 Jul 1794)
* Robespierre guillotined (28 Jul 1794)
* White Terror (Fall 1794)
* Closing of the Jacobin Club (11 Nov 1794)

1795–6|

* Insurrection of 12 Germinal Year III (1 Apr 1795)
* Constitution of the Year III (22 Aug 1795)
* Directoire (1795–99)
* Council of Five Hundred
* Council of Ancients
* 13 Vendémiaire (5 Oct 1795)
* Conspiracy of the Equals (May 1796)

1797|

* Coup of 18 Fructidor (4 Sep 1797)
* Second Congress of Rastatt (Dec 1797)

1798|

* Law of 22 Floréal Year VI (11 May 1798)

1799|

* Coup of 30 Prairial VII (18 Jun 1799)
* Coup of 18 Brumaire (9 Nov 1799)
* Constitution of the Year VIII (24 Dec 1799)
* Consulate

Revolutionary campaigns

1792|

* Verdun
* Thionville
* Valmy
* Royalist Revolts
* Chouannerie
* Vendée
* Dauphiné
* Lille
* Siege of Mainz
* Jemappes
* Namur

1793|

* First Coalition
* War in the Vendée
* Battle of Neerwinden
* Battle of Famars (23 May 1793)
* Expedition to Sardinia (21 Dec 1792 – 25 May 1793)
* Battle of Kaiserslautern
* Siege of Mainz
* Battle of Wattignies
* Battle of Hondschoote
* Siege of Bellegarde
* Battle of Peyrestortes (Pyrenees)
* Siege of Toulon (18 Sep – 18 Dec 1793)
* First Battle of Wissembourg (13 Oct 1793)
* Battle of Truillas (Pyrenees)
* Second Battle of Wissembourg (26–27 Dec 1793)

1794|

* Battle of Villers-en-Cauchies (24 Apr 1794)
* Second Battle of Boulou (Pyrenees) (30 Apr – 1 May 1794)
* Battle of Tourcoing (18 May 1794)
* Battle of Tournay (22 May 1794)
* Glorious First of June (1 Jun 1794)
* Battle of Fleurus (26 Jun 1794)
* Chouannerie
* Battle of Aldenhoven (2 Oct 1794)
* Siege of Luxembourg (22 Nov 1794 – 7 Jun 1795)

1795|

* Siege of Luxembourg (22 Nov 1794 – 7 Jun 1795)
* Peace of Basel

1796|

* Italian campaign (1796)
* Battle of Lonato (3–4 Aug 1796)
* Battle of Castiglione (5 Aug 1796)
* Battle of Theiningen
* Battle of Neresheim (11 Aug 1796)
* Battle of Amberg (24 Aug 1796)
* Battle of Würzburg (3 Sep 1796)
* Battle of Rovereto (4 Sep 1796)
* First Battle of Bassano (8 Sep 1796)
* Battle of Emmendingen (19 Oct 1796)
* Battle of Schliengen (26 Oct 1796)
* Second Battle of Bassano (6 Nov 1796)
* Battle of Calliano (6–7 Nov 1796)
* Battle of Arcole (15–17 Nov 1796)
* Ireland expedition (Dec 1796)

1797|

* Italian campaign (1797)
* Naval Engagement off Brittany (13 Jan 1797)
* Battle of Rivoli (14–15 Jan 1797)
* Battle of the Bay of Cádiz (25 Jan 1797)
* Treaty of Leoben (17 Apr 1797)
* Battle of Neuwied (18 Apr 1797)
* Treaty of Campo Formio (17 Oct 1797)

1798|

* French invasion of Switzerland (28 January – 17 May 1798)
* French Invasion of Egypt (1798–1801)
* Irish Rebellion of 1798 (23 May – 23 Sep 1798)
* Quasi-War (1798–1800)
* Peasants' War (12 Oct – 5 Dec 1798)

1799|

* Second Coalition (1798–1802)
* Siege of Acre (20 Mar – 21 May 1799)
* Battle of Ostrach (20–21 Mar 1799)
* Battle of Stockach (25 Mar 1799)
* Battle of Magnano (5 Apr 1799)
* Battle of Cassano (27–28 Apr 1799)
* First Battle of Zurich (4–7 Jun 1799)
* Battle of Trebbia (17–20 Jun 1799)
* Battle of Novi (15 Aug 1799)
* Second Battle of Zurich (25–26 Sep 1799)

1800|

* Battle of Marengo (14 Jun 1800)
* Convention of Alessandria (15 Jun 1800)
* Battle of Hohenlinden (3 Dec 1800)
* League of Armed Neutrality (1800–02)

1801|

* Treaty of Lunéville (9 Feb 1801)
* Treaty of Florence (18 Mar 1801)
* Algeciras campaign (8 Jul 1801)

1802|

* Treaty of Amiens (25 Mar 1802)
* Treaty of Paris (25 Jun 1802)

Military leaders

France|

| French Army|

* Eustache Charles d'Aoust
* Charles-Pierre Augereau
* Alexandre de Beauharnais
* Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte
* Louis-Alexandre Berthier
* Jean-Baptiste Bessières
* Napoléon Bonaparte
* Guillaume Brune
* Jean François Carteaux
* Jean-Étienne Championnet
* Chapuis de Tourville
* Adam Philippe, Comte de Custine
* Louis-Nicolas Davout
* Louis Desaix
* Jacques François Dugommier
* Thomas-Alexandre Dumas
* Charles François Dumouriez
* Pierre Marie Barthélemy Ferino
* Louis-Charles de Flers
* Paul Grenier
* Emmanuel de Grouchy
* Jacques Maurice Hatry
* Lazare Hoche
* Jean-Baptiste Jourdan
* François Christophe de Kellermann
* Jean-Baptiste Kléber
* Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
* Jean Lannes
* Charles Leclerc
* Claude Lecourbe
* François Joseph Lefebvre
* Étienne Macdonald
* Jean-Antoine Marbot
* Marcellin Marbot
* François Séverin Marceau
* Auguste de Marmont
* André Masséna
* Bon-Adrien Jeannot de Moncey
* Jean Victor Marie Moreau
* Édouard Mortier, Duke of Trévise
* Joachim Murat
* Michel Ney
* Pierre-Jacques Osten [fr]
* Nicolas Oudinot
* Catherine-Dominique de Pérignon
* Jean-Charles Pichegru
* Józef Poniatowski
* Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr
* Barthélemy Louis Joseph Schérer
* Jean-Mathieu-Philibert Sérurier
* Joseph Souham
* Jean-de-Dieu Soult
* Louis-Gabriel Suchet
* Belgrand de Vaubois
* Claude Victor-Perrin, Duc de Belluno

|

French Navy|

* Charles-Alexandre Linois

Opposition|

|  Austria|

* József Alvinczi
* Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen
* Count of Clerfayt (Walloon)
* Karl Aloys zu Fürstenberg
* Friedrich Freiherr von Hotze (Swiss)
* Friedrich Adolf, Count von Kalckreuth
* Pál Kray (Hungarian)
* Charles Eugene, Prince of Lambesc (French)
* Maximilian Baillet de Latour (Walloon)
* Karl Mack von Leiberich
* Rudolf Ritter von Otto (Saxon)
* Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
* Peter Vitus von Quosdanovich
* Prince Heinrich XV of Reuss-Plauen
* Johann Mészáros von Szoboszló (Hungarian)
* Karl Philipp Sebottendorf
* Dagobert von Wurmser

|

Britain|

* Sir Ralph Abercromby
* James Saumarez, 1st Baron de Saumarez
* Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth
* Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany

Netherlands|

* William V, Prince of Orange

Prussia|

* Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick
* Frederick Louis, Prince of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen

Russia|

* Alexander Korsakov
* Alexander Suvorov
* Andrei Rosenberg

Spain|

* Luis Firmin de Carvajal
* Antonio Ricardos

Other significant figures and factions

Patriotic Society of 1789|

* Jean Sylvain Bailly
* Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette
* François Alexandre Frédéric, duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt
* Isaac René Guy le Chapelier
* Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau
* Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès
* Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord
* Nicolas de Condorcet

Feuillants
and monarchiens

* Grace Elliott
* Arnaud de La Porte
* Jean-Sifrein Maury
* François-Marie, marquis de Barthélemy
* Guillaume-Mathieu Dumas
* Antoine Barnave
* Lafayette
* Alexandre-Théodore-Victor, comte de Lameth
* Charles Malo François Lameth
* André Chénier
* Jean-François Rewbell
* Camille Jordan
* Madame de Staël
* Boissy d'Anglas
* Jean-Charles Pichegru
* Pierre Paul Royer-Collard
* Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac

Girondins|

* Jacques Pierre Brissot
* Jean-Marie Roland de la Platière
* Madame Roland
* Father Henri Grégoire
* Étienne Clavière
* Marquis de Condorcet
* Charlotte Corday
* Marie Jean Hérault
* Jean Baptiste Treilhard
* Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud
* Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve
* Jean Debry
* Olympe de Gouges
* Jean-Baptiste Robert Lindet
* Louis Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux

The Plain|

* Abbé Sieyès
* de Cambacérès
* Charles-François Lebrun
* Pierre-Joseph Cambon
* Bertrand Barère
* Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot
* Philippe Égalité
* Louis Philippe I
* Mirabeau
* Antoine Christophe Merlin de Thionville
* Jean Joseph Mounier
* Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours
* François de Neufchâteau

Montagnards|

* Maximilien Robespierre
* Georges Danton
* Jean-Paul Marat
* Camille Desmoulins
* Louis Antoine de Saint-Just
* Paul Barras
* Louis Philippe I
* Louis Michel le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau
* Jacques-Louis David
* Marquis de Sade
* Georges Couthon
* Roger Ducos
* Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois
* Jean-Henri Voulland
* Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai
* Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville
* Philippe-François-Joseph Le Bas
* Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier
* Jean-Pierre-André Amar
* Prieur de la Côte-d'Or
* Prieur de la Marne
* Gilbert Romme
* Jean Bon Saint-André
* Jean-Lambert Tallien
* Pierre Louis Prieur
* Antoine Christophe Saliceti

Hébertists
and Enragés|

* Jacques Hébert
* Jacques-Nicolas Billaud-Varenne
* Pierre Gaspard Chaumette
* Charles-Philippe Ronsin
* Antoine-François Momoro
* François-Nicolas Vincent
* François Chabot
* Jean Baptiste Noël Bouchotte
* Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Gobel
* François Hanriot
* Jacques Roux
* Stanislas-Marie Maillard
* Charles-Philippe Ronsin
* Jean-François Varlet
* Theophile Leclerc
* Claire Lacombe
* Pauline Léon
* Gracchus Babeuf
* Sylvain Maréchal

Others|

| Figures|

* Charles X
* Louis XVI
* Louis XVII
* Louis XVIII
* Louis Antoine, Duke of Enghien
* Louis Henri, Prince of Condé
* Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé
* Marie Antoinette
* Napoléon Bonaparte
* Lucien Bonaparte
* Joseph Bonaparte
* Joseph Fesch
* Joséphine de Beauharnais
* Joachim Murat
* Jean Sylvain Bailly
* Jacques-Donatien Le Ray
* Guillaume-Chrétien de Malesherbes
* Talleyrand
* Thérésa Tallien
* Gui-Jean-Baptiste Target
* Catherine Théot
* Madame de Lamballe
* Madame du Barry
* Louis de Breteuil
* de Chateaubriand
* Jean Chouan
* Loménie de Brienne
* Charles Alexandre de Calonne
* Jacques Necker
* Jean-Jacques Duval d'Eprémesnil
* List of people associated with the French Revolution

|

Factions|

* Jacobins
* Cordeliers
* Panthéon Club
* Social Club

Influential thinkers

* Les Lumières
* Beaumarchais
* Edmund Burke
* Anacharsis Cloots
* Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
* Pierre Claude François Daunou
* Diderot
* Benjamin Franklin
* Thomas Jefferson
* Antoine Lavoisier
* Montesquieu
* Thomas Paine
* Jean-Jacques Rousseau
* Abbé Sieyès
* Voltaire
* Mary Wollstonecraft

Cultural impact

* La Marseillaise
* Cockade of France
* Flag of France
* Liberté, égalité, fraternité
* Marianne
* Muscadin
* Bastille Day
* Panthéon
* French Republican calendar
* Metric system
* Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
* Cult of the Supreme Being
* Cult of Reason
* Temple of Reason
* Sans-culottes
* Phrygian cap
* Women in the French Revolution
* Incroyables and merveilleuses
* Symbolism in the French Revolution
* Historiography of the French Revolution
* Influence of the French Revolution
* Films

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Governments of France (1792–1870)

First Republic (1792–1804)|

* National Convention
* Committee of Public Safety
* French Directory
* French Consulate
* Paris Commune

First Empire (1804–14)|

* Napoleon
* Provisional Government of 1814
* First restoration
* Hundred Days
* Provisional Government of 1815

Restoration (1814–30)|

* Talleyrand
* Richelieu (1)
* Dessolles
* Decazes
* Richelieu (2)
* Villèle
* Martignac
* Polignac
* Mortemart

July Monarchy (1830–48)|

* Paris Municipal Commission
* Provisional Ministry
* First ministry of Louis-Philippe
* Laffitte
* Casimir Perier
* Soult (1)
* Gérard
* Maret
* Mortier
* de Broglie
* Thiers (1)
* Molé (1)
* Molé (2)
* Transitional cabinet of 1839
* Soult (2)
* Thiers (2)
* Soult (3)
* Guizot

Second Republic (1848–52)|

* Provisional Government
* Executive Commission
* Cavaignac
* Barrot (1)
* Barrot (2)
* Hautpoul
* Petit ministère
* Faucher
* Last cabinet of the French Second Republic
* Louis Napoleon (1)
* Louis Napoleon (2)

Second Empire (1852–70)|

* Third cabinet of Napoleon III
* Fourth cabinet of Napoleon III
* Ollivier
* Cousin-Montauban

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