French+Gov't+1795-1848

 French Gov’t: Le Directoire – Second Empire

__Le Directoire (The Directory)__
//Reign: September 26, 1795 - November 9, 1799//

The new constitution set up right after the French Revolution installed the Directoire (English: Directory) and created the first bicameral legislature in French history. The parliament consisted of 500 representatives (the Conseil des Cinq-Cent/Council of the Five Hundred) and 250 senators (the Conseil des Anciens/Council of Seniors). Executive power went to five "directors," named annually by the Conseil des Anciens from a list submitted by the Conseil des Cinq-Cent.

The new régime met with opposition from remaining Jacobins and royalists. The army suppressed riots and counter-revolutionary activities. Napoleon Bonaparte, the army's famed general, was basically the one person standing in the way of the fall of the Directoire. In this way the army gained much power.

On **November 9, 1799** (18 Brumaire of the Year VIII) Napoleon staged the coup d'etat and installed the Consulate; this effectively led to his dictatorship and eventually (in **1804**) to his proclamation as emperor, which brought to a close the specifically republican phase of the French Revolution.                <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"> Napol eon Bon aparte <span style="direction: ltr; display: block; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; unicode-bidi: embed; word-break: normal;"><span style="color: #000000; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">//" Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily." //

//Reign: November 9, 1799 - April 11, 1814 ; March 1815 - June 18th 1815//

Napoleon Bonaparte (or Bounaparte) was born August 15th, 1769 in Ajaccio, Corsica. He attended the military academy at Brienne in 1779, then moved to the Parisian Ecole Royale Militaire in 1784. The death of his father, Carlo Bonaparte, in February 1785 gave him the determination to finish the course in a year. It took most men three. Napoleon became a second-lieutenant in the Artillery, but because of the French Revolution he spent about eight years posted on his native island of Corsica. When Corsica erupted into a civil war, Napoleon and his remaining family fled to France. Napoleon fought in the Siege of Toulon (the French seaport used as a prison), 13 Vendemiaire, and the Italian Campaign. The campaign was the first time Napoleon led France into battle, and was highly successful. After that was the Egyptian Campaign, which was unsuccessful only because of a lack of supplies and an outbreak of the Bubonic plague. This campaign was highly lucrative on the cultural front, however, because during the Egyptian Campaign the Rosetta Stone was discovered by French engineer Captain Pierre-Francois Bouchard. Napoleon then left his decimated forces in Egypt and returned to France in 1799, where he was to become the figurehead for a new French government. ==<span style="font-size: 1.3em; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;"> ==
 * __Birth, Childhood, and Military Background__ **

<span style="font-size: 1.3em; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">**__Political Rise and Fall of Napoleon__**
Napoleon Bonaparte came to power in 1799, when he pulled a //coup d'état// (funnily enough, Napoleon's overthrow was the first time this phrase became popular) and declared himself First Consul. The French Senate made him emperor in 1804, and he did somewhat improve life in France. His Napoleonic Code set a standard for most of Europe that existed some time after his death. Once sure of his country's stability, Napoleon then set about to conquer the entirety of Europe, in which every major European power took part. These battles became known as the Napoleonic Wars, and under their leader's military genius, France owned almost all of Europe. Napoleon was finally defeated by a conjoinment of his enemies (Britain, Russia, Prussia, Sweden, and Germanic tribes) and forced to abdicate the throne in 1814. He escaped abdication, rejoined his country, and suffered a horrible defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. After that, he was sent to the British island of Saint Helena for six years as a prisoner and died of mysterious causes in 1821. He was succeeded by Louis XVIII.

<span style="font-size: 1.1em; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">** Napoleonic Code **
The Napoleonic Code was a code of laws set about to stabilize and reform France. It had several Enlightenment idealisms such as equality before the law, social advancement based on virtue, and religious toleration. However, the Code eliminated some individual rights. Women lost almost all rights and held the same position as minors. Men gained back all authority over their wives and household.

<span style="font-size: 1.3em; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">**__ Myths __**
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Napoleon was considered a tyrant, a cannibal, and a midget. These are all myths propagated by the British media over the course of the Napoleonic Wars. France, for the most part, thought he was a wise and popular ruler; all of his enemies called him a fool and a tyrant. Napoleon was feared in the mind of ever <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">y British child, who thought of him as a bogeyman. Angry mothers threatened disobedient children by saying that if they weren't good, Napoleon would eat them. He wasn't very short, either. The rea l man was actually five foot seven, which was normal for that time. He was, however, a complete misogynist. This was proven in his interview with Anne-Louise Germaine de Stael, and with his Napoleonic Code.

Loui s XV III

__Birth, Childhood, and Early Adulthood__
Louis Stanislas Xavier (apparently the French had no last names back then) was born on November 17th, 1755 in the Palace of Versailles. He was the second youngest brother and fourth in the line of the House of Bourbon (after his two older brothers and his father). Louis Stanislas was educated in the same way as his brothers before him, even though no one thought he would eventually win the King's title. He had a more religious education, in the realm of ecclesiastics. When he came of age he married Princess Marie Josephine of Savoy, even though he was disgusted by her and thought her tedious and ignorant of court. His wife allegedly never used perfume and never brushed her teeth (ew). Louis Stanislas himself was immensely obese and ate unhealthy amounts of food.

__Adulthood and Reign__
On April 27th, 1774, Louis XV fell ill of smallpox and died May 4th. Louis Auguste (Louis XVI) took over and ruled until his death during the French revolution. Louis XVIII didn't actually get the throne until after Napoleon, when the Bourbon Restoration began and France wanted the old monarchy back. He was a popular ruler and created the Charter of 1814 which abolished the senatorial constitution. On May 30th, 1814, Louis XVIII signed the Treaty of Paris which helped define France's borders. The armies of the Sixth Coalition withdrew from France, and France payedno war indemnities. But Louis' favor with the people did not last long. He had promised France that the taxes on tobacco, wine, and salt would be abolished, but due to another promise of his that France wouldn't fall into deficit, he was unable to do so. This led to rioting in Bordeaux, a royalist section of France that had heavily supported Louis XVIII.

February 1815, when Napoleon escaped from Elba, he and 1000 troops marched towards France. Louis XVIII knew about this but did nothing, because of Napoleon's meager force. But he hadn't counted on the unforseen masses of soldiers in France's army that were Bonapartist. On the 19th of March, the French army stationed outside Paris deserted to join with Napoleon, leaving the capital city vunerable to attack. Louis snuck out of the city and headed to the Netherlands, fearing for his life, and Napoleon took over. His short reign was known as the Hundred Days before his defeat at Waterloo. Promptly afterwards, Louis XVIII headed back to France for his chance to regain the throne in the Second Bourbon Restoration, escorted by the Duke of Wellington's troops. He formed a sort of alliance with them, and they thought he was an easily malleable figurehead for their aims. Nothing much happened until September 16th, 1824, when Louis XVIII died of gout (swelling joints) and gangrene (rotting of the flesh). He was succeded by Charles X, his youngest brother.

Cha rle s X Charles Philippe, Comte d'Artois, was born in 1757 and was the youngest brother of Louis XVI and XVIII. He lived in the Palace of Versailles and was raised by Madame de Marsan, the Governess of the Children of France.

Charles was most appreciated as a king by the nobles of France. His first acts of Kingmanship were to install a series of laws benefiting the nobility and clergy. He had a new list of laws to be passed almost every morning. His laws lost France around 988 million francs. He also passed the Anti-Sacrilege act ( Which involved punishments for crimes/insults against holy objects or people. If profanation had been done on vessels containing holy objects, the crime was supposed to be punished by infinite forced labor. If the profanation had been done on vessels containing consecrated hosts, the punishment was death. If it was on the hosts themselves, the death sentence was the same as that given to familial-murderers: cutting off the right hand followed by decapitation.). It was removed in the first few months of Charles' successors' reign. He was by all means not a popular ruler, even among the nobility, despite his favoritism of them.

A bill was introduced demanding that the King's ministers have the backing of the Chambers. It passed, but since it boded ill for Charles he put the general elections on hold and the chamber was suspended. Elections were held on June 23rd, but the result was infavourable to the government. On July 6th, the King suspended the constitution by use of Article 14 of the Charter in case of emergency. He issued four ordinances, which respectively censored the press, broke up the newly elcted chamver, altered the electoral system and moved elections to September. This form of oppression was not taken lightly by the People. In the evening of July 26th, crowds stampededthe palace gardens shouting "Down with the Bourbons!" and "Vive la Charte!". On the 28th, rioters erected barricades in certain streets. The police were called in but some began to defect to the rioters and the ones loyal to France were forced to retreat.

Charles left France shortly after and tried to get his ten year old grandson to gain the throne, but failed. Louis Philippe took the throne. Charles died of cholera November 6th 1836. The remains of Charles X are in a crypt with that of the other members of the exiled French Royal Family.

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