The Council of Five Hundred (Conseil des Cinq-Cents), or simply the Five Hundred was the lower house of the legislature of France during the period commonly known (from the name of the executive branch during this time) as the Directory (Directoire), from 22 August 1795 until 9 November 1799, roughly the second half of the period generally referred to as the French Revolution.
Besides functioning as a legislative body, the Council of Five Hundred proposed the list out of which the Ancients chose five Directors, who jointly held executive power.
Each member had to be at least 30 and a third of them would be replaced annually.
Napoleon Bonaparte led a group of grenadiers who drove the Council from its chambers and installed himself as leader of France as its First Consul in the coup of 18 Brumaire.
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French Revolution
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- Timeline
- Ancien Régime
- Causes
- Revolution
- Constitutional Monarchy
- Republic
- Directory
- Consulate
- Glossary
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Significant civil and political events by year
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| 1788 |
- Day of the Tiles
- Assembly of Vizille
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| 1789 |
- Reveillon riot
- Convocation of the Estates-General
- National Assembly
- National Constituent Assembly
- Tennis Court Oath
- Storming of the Bastille
- Great Fear
- Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
- The Women's March on Versailles
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| 1790 |
- Abolition of the Parlements
- Abolition of the Nobility
- Civil Constitution of the Clergy
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| 1791 |
- Flight to Varennes
- Champ de Mars Massacre
- Declaration of Pillnitz
- The Constitution of 1791
- Legislative Assembly
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| 1792 |
- Brunswick Manifesto
- Paris Commune becomes insurrectionary
- 10th of August
- September Massacres
- National Convention
- First republic declared
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| 1793 |
- Louis Capet is guillotined
- Revolutionary Tribunal
- Reign of Terror
- Committee of Public Safety
- Committee of General Security
- Fall of the Girondists
- Assassination of Marat
- Levée en masse
- Law of Suspects
- Marie Antoinette is guillotined
- Anti-clerical laws
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| 1794 |
- Danton & Desmoulins guillotined
- Law of 22 Prairial
- Thermidorian Reaction
- White Terror
- Closing of the Jacobin Club
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| 1795 |
- 1795 Constitution
- Conspiracy of the Equals
- Directoire
- Council of Five Hundred
- Council of Ancients
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| 1797 |
- Coup of 18 Fructidor
- Second Congress of Rastatt
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| 1799 |
- Coup of 30 Prairial Year VII
- Coup of 18 Brumaire
- Constitution of the Year VIII
- Consulate
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Revolutionary wars
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| 1792 |
- Verdun
- Thionville (fr)
- Valmy
- Royalist Revolts
- Chouannerie
- Vendée
- Dauphiné
- Lille
- Mayence (fr)
- Jemappes
- Namur (fr)
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| 1793 |
- First Coalition
- Siege of Toulon
- War in the Vendée
- Battle of Neerwinden)
- Battle of Famars
- Capture of San Pietro and Sant'Antioco
- Battle of Kaiserslautern
- Siege of Mainz
- Battle of Wattignies
- Battle of Hondshoote
- Siege of Bellegarde
- Battle of Peyrestortes (Pyrenees)
- First Battle of Wissembourg
- Battle of Truillas (Pyrenees)
- Second Battle of Wissembourg
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| 1794 |
- Battle of Villers-en-Cauchies
- Battle of Boulou (Pyrenees)
- Battle of Tournay
- Battle of Fleurus
- Chouannerie
- Battle of Tourcoing
- Battle of Aldenhoven
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| 1795 |
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| 1796 |
- Battle of Lonato
- Battle of Castiglione
- Battle of Theiningen
- Battle of Neresheim
- Battle of Amberg
- Battle of Würzburg
- Battle of Rovereto
- First Battle of Bassano
- Battle of Emmendingen
- Battle of Schliengen
- Second Battle of Bassano
- Battle of Calliano
- Battle of the Bridge of Arcole
- The Ireland Expedition
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| 1797 |
- Naval Engagement off Brittany
- Battle of Rivoli
- Battle of the Bay of Cádiz
- Treaty of Leoben
- Battle of Neuwied
- Treaty of Campo Formio
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| 1798 |
- French Invasion of Egypt
- Irish Rebellion of 1798
- Quasi-War
- Peasants' War
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| 1799 |
- Second Coalition
- Siege of Acre
- Battle of Ostrach
- Battle of Stockach
- Battle of Magnano
- Battle of Cassano
- First Battle of Zurich
- Battle of Trebbia
- Battle of Novi
- Second Battle of Zurich
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| 1800 |
- Battle of Marengo
- Battle of Hohenlinden
- League of Armed Neutrality
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| 1801 |
- Treaty of Lunéville
- Treaty of Florence
- Battle of Algeciras
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| 1802 |
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Military leaders
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French
army officers |
- Eustache Charles d'Aoust
- Pierre Augereau
- Alexandre de Beauharnais
- Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte
- Louis Alexandre Berthier
- Jean-Baptiste Bessières
- Guillaume Marie Anne Brune
- Jean François Carteaux
- Jean Étienne Championnet
- Chapuis de Tourville
- Adam Philippe, Comte de Custine
- Louis-Nicolas Davout
- Louis Charles Antoine Desaix
- Jacques François Dugommier
- 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 Kellermann
- Jean-Baptiste Kléber
- Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
- Jean Lannes
- Charles Leclerc
- Claude Lecourbe
- François Joseph Lefebvre
- Jacques MacDonald
- Jean-Antoine Marbot
- Jean Baptiste de Marbot
- François-Séverin Marceau
- Auguste de Marmont
- André Masséna
- Bon-Adrien Jeannot de Moncey
- Jean Victor Marie Moreau
- Édouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier
- Joachim Murat
- Michel Ney
- Pierre-Jacques Osten (fr)
- Nicolas Oudinot
- Catherine-Dominique de Pérignon
- Charles Pichegru
- Józef Antoni Poniatowski
- Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr
- Barthélemy Louis Joseph Schérer
- Jean-Mathieu-Philibert Sérurier
- Joseph Souham
- Nicolas Jean-de-Dieu Soult
- Louis Gabriel Suchet
- Belgrand de Vaubois
- Claude Victor-Perrin, Duc de Belluno
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French
naval officers |
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Opposition
military figures |
- Sir Ralph Abercromby
- József Alvinczi
- Archduke Charles of Austria
- Duke of Brunswick
- Count of Clerfayt
- Luis Firmin de Carvajal
- Karl Aloys zu Fürstenberg
- Prince of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen
- Friedrich Freiherr von Hotze
- Count of Kalckreuth
- Alexander Korsakov
- Pál Kray
- Prince of Lambesc
- Maximilian Baillet de Latour
- Karl Mack von Leiberich
- Rudolf Ritter von Otto
- Antonio Ricardos
- Sir James Saumarez
- Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
- William V, Prince of Orange
- Sir Edward Pellew
- Peter Vitus von Quosdanovich
- Prince Heinrich XV Reuss of Plauen
- Alexander Suvorov
- Johann Mészáros von Szoboszló
- Karl Philipp Sebottendorf
- Dagobert von Wurmser
- Duke of York
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Other important figures and factions
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Royals and
Royalists |
- Charles X of France
- Louis XVI
- Louis XVII
- Louis XVIII
- Louis Antoine, Duke of Enghien
- Louis Henri, Prince of Condé
- Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé
- Louis Philippe of France
- Marie Antoinette
- Madame de Lamballe
- Madame du Barry
- Louis de Breteuil
- Loménie de Brienne
- Charles Alexandre de Calonne
- Chateaubriand
- Jean Chouan
- Grace Elliott
- Arnaud de Laporte
- Jean-Sifrein Maury
- Mirabeau
- Jacques Necker
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| Feuillants |
- Antoine Barnave
- Alexandre-Théodore-Victor, comte de Lameth
- Charles Malo François Lameth
- Lafayette
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| Girondists |
- Jacques Pierre Brissot
- Étienne Clavière
- Marquis de Condorcet
- Charlotte Corday
- Marie Jean Hérault
- Roland de La Platière
- Madame Roland
- Jean Baptiste Treilhard
- Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud
- Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac
- Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve
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| Montagnards |
- Paul Nicolas, vicomte de Barras
- Georges Couthon
- Georges Danton
- Jacques Louis David
- Camille Desmoulins
- Roger Ducos
- Jean Marie Collot d'Herbois
- Jean-Paul Marat
- Prieur de la Côte-d'Or
- Prieur de la Marne
- Maximilien Robespierre
- Gilbert Romme
- Jean Bon Saint-André
- Louis de Saint-Just
- Jean-Lambert Tallien
- Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac
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| Hébertists |
- Jacques Hébert
- Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne
- Pierre Gaspard Chaumette
- Jacques Roux
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| Bonapartists |
- Napoléon Bonaparte
- de Cambacérès
- Jacques-Louis David
- Jean Debry
- Joseph Fesch
- Charles François Lebrun
- Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai
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| Others |
- Jean-Pierre-André Amar
- François-Noël Babeuf
- Jean Sylvain Bailly
- François-Marie, marquis de Barthélemy
- Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne
- Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot
- André Chénier
- Jean-Jacques Duval d'Eprémesnil
- Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville
- Olympe de Gouges
- Father Henri Grégoire
- Philippe-François-Joseph Le Bas
- Jacques-Donatien Le Ray
- Jean-Baptiste Robert Lindet
- Guillaume-Chrétien de Malesherbes
- Antoine Christophe Merlin de Thionville
- Jean Joseph Mounier
- Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours
- François de Neufchâteau
- Louis Michel le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau
- Pierre Louis Prieur
- Jean-François Rewbell
- Louis Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux
- Marquis de Sade
- Antoine Christophe Saliceti
- Abbé Sieyès
- Madame de Staël
- Talleyrand
- Thérésa Tallien
- Gui-Jean-Baptiste Target
- Catherine Théot
- Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier
- Jean-Henri Voulland
- Enragés
- List of people associated with the French Revolution
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Influential thinkers
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- 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
- Voltaire
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The Bonapartes
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- Joséphine de Beauharnais
- Joseph Bonaparte
- Lucien Bonaparte
- Napoleon Bonaparte
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Cultural impact
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- La Marseillaise
- Fabre d'Églantine
- French Tricolour
- Liberté, égalité, fraternité
- Bastille Day
- Panthéon
- French Republican Calendar
- Cult of the Supreme Being
- Cult of Reason
- Sans-culottes
- Metric system
- Quatrevingt-treize
- A Tale of Two Cities
- The Scarlet Pimpernel
- Scaramouche
- La Révolution française
- Orphans of the Storm
- Danton
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