French Directory

The Directory (also called Directorate, French: le Directoire) was a five-member committee in the French First Republic from 2 November 1795 until 9 November 1799, when it was overthrown by Napoleon Bonaparte in the Coup of 18 Brumaire and replaced by the Consulate.

French Directory Media

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  The Convention rises against Robespierre (27 July 1794)

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  François Antoine de Boissy d'Anglas, one of the principal authors of the Constitution of 1795

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  Paul Barras, who defended the government against attacks from the left and right

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  General Lazare Hoche defeated a royalist army that landed in Brittany (July 1795)

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  Government troops under Napoleon fire on insurgents near Saint-Roch, Paris, 5 October 1795

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  Silver 5 francs, Directory. First year of minting (L'AN 4.)

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  François Noël Babeuf, engraving by François Bonneville, 1794 (BNF, Département des Estampes)

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  Attack by the followers of Babeuf on the army camp of Grenelle on 9 and 10 September 1796. Drawing by Abraham Girardet, engraving by Pierre-Gabriel Berthault, 1802. (BNF, Département des Estampes)

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  Bonaparte won his first major victory leading his soldiers across a bridge at the Battle of Arcole (17 November 1796)