Consulate (redirected from Consul (representative))

Consulate, 1799–1804, in French history, form of government established after the coup of 18 Brumaire (Nov. 9–10, 1799), which ended the Directory. Three consuls were appointed to rule France—Napoleon Bonaparte (see Napoleon I), Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès, and Roger Ducos. Sieyès and Ducos were soon replaced by Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès and C. F. Lebrun, and the Consulate became little more than a scheme for autocratic government by Bonaparte, who was made first consul for life in 1802 and emperor in 1804.

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Consulate

(1799–1804) French government established after the Coup of 18–19 Brumaire. The Constitution of the Year VIII created an executive consisting of three consuls, but the First Consul, Napoleon, wielded all real power, while the other two, Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes and Pierre-Roger Ducos (1747–1816), were figureheads. The principles of representation and legislative supremacy were discarded. The executive branch was given the power to draft new laws, and the legislative branch became little more than a rubber stamp. Elections became an elaborate charade, with voters stripped of real power. Napoleon abolished the Consulate when he declared himself emperor.