Editing Lucien Bonaparte (section)

==Political career==
In 1798, Lucien was [[1798 French legislative election|elected]] member of the [[Council of Five Hundred]] for Corsica's [[Liamone]] department (although he was not old enough to run for election).<ref name=FN/> In the legislature, he mostly voted with the Neo-Jacobins, and participated in the [[Coup of 30 Prairial VII]]. However, [[Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès]]' influence and news of the [[French campaign in Egypt and Syria|events in Egypt]] led to a shift in his political stance, and Lucien became one of the main plotters of ''coup d'état'' of [[18 Brumaire]], in which Napoleon overthrew the government of the [[French Directory|Directory]] to replace it by the [[French Consulate|Consulate]].

On 23 October 1799, Lucien was elected president of the Council of Five Hundred. On 9 November 1799 (18 Brumaire Year VIII on the [[French Republican Calendar]]), he had pamphlets distributed in Paris that detailed a fake Jacobin plot, which he used to justify the relocation of the Council to the suburban security of [[Saint-Cloud]].<ref name=FN/> The next day, while presiding over a heated council session, Lucien managed to buy time until Napoleon's sudden entrance into the chamber surrounded by [[grenadiers]].<ref name=FN/> During the coup, Lucien swore he would stab his brother in the chest if he ever betrayed the principles of ''[[Liberté, égalité, fraternité]]''.<ref name=FN/> The following day, Lucien arranged for Napoleon's formal election as [[First Consul]].

Under the Consulate, Lucien was appointed [[list of Interior Ministers of France|Minister of the Interior]] on 25 December 1799.<ref name=FN/>  In this capacity, Lucien oversaw the appointment of the first [[Prefect (France)|prefects]] and falsified the results of the [[1800 French constitutional referendum|constitutional referendum]] of February 1800.<ref name=FN/> He clashed over the right to oversee Paris police matters with [[Joseph Fouché]],<ref name=FN/> the Minister of Police, who showed Napoleon a subversive pamphlet possibly written by Lucien and effected a breach between the brothers. Some evidence exists that Napoleon himself wrote the pamphlet and scapegoated his brother when it was received poorly.<ref name=scur>Scurr, Ruth, ''Napoleon: A Life Told in Gardens and Shadows'', (Liveright, 2021), pp 119.</ref> He resigned as minister in November 1800.<ref name=FN/>

Following his resignation, on 7 November 1800 Lucien was sent as [[ambassador]] to the [[Royal court|court]] of King [[Charles IV of Spain]], where his diplomatic talents won over the [[House of Bourbon|Bourbon]] royal family and, perhaps as importantly, the minister [[Manuel de Godoy]].<ref name=shom>Schom, Alan, ''Napoleon Bonaparte'', (HarperCollins Publishers, 1997), pp 237, 238.</ref> In March 1801, Lucien and Godoy signed the [[Treaty of Aranjuez (1801)|Treaty of Aranjuez]], establishing the French client kingdom of [[Kingdom of Etruria|Etruria]].<ref name=FN/> On 4 August 1801 he was created a Grand-Officer of the [[National Order of the Legion of Honour]].{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}

===Disputes with Napoleon===
Though he was a member of the ''[[Tribunat]]'' and on 4 August 1801 was made a [[senator]] of the [[First French Empire]], Lucien came to oppose many of Napoleon's ideas. In 1804, with Lucien disliking Napoleon's intention to declare himself as Emperor of the French and to marry Lucien off to a Bourbon Spanish princess, [[Maria Luisa of Spain, Duchess of Lucca|the Queen of Etruria]], Lucien spurned all imperial honours and went into self-imposed exile by living initially in [[Rome]], where he bought the [[Villa Rufinella]] in [[Frascati]].{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}}