Fructidor, Coup of 18

Fructidor, Coup of 18

(Sept. 4, 1799) Purge of conservatives during the French Directory period. Fearing it was losing popularity, the government sent Gen. Pierre F.C. Augereau to command troops guarding the legislative assembly at the Tuileries. On 18 Fructidor, Year V, in the republican calendar (Sept. 4, 1799), Augereau purged more than 130 royalists and counterrevolutionaries from the legislative body; many others, including journalists and the director, were deported to French Guiana. The republican constitution was also fatally weakened, which confirmed the new power of the army and led to the Coup of 18–19 Brumaire, Year VII (Nov. 9–10, 1799), and Napoleon's military despotism.