Editing Paul Barras

{{Short description|French politician, nobleman and military officer (1755-1829)}}
{{more citations needed|date=June 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2019}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Paul François Jean Nicolas
| birth_name          = Paul François Jean Nicolas
| image               = Barras.jpg
| caption             = Colored engraving by [[Pierre Alexandre Tardieu]] after a drawing by Hilaire Ledru, 1798
| office              = [[French Directory#Presidentes of the Directory|President of the Directory]]
| term_start          = 26 November 1798
| term_end            = 26 May 1799
| predecessor         = [[Jean-François Reubell]]
| successor           = [[Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai|Philippe-Antoine Merlin]]
| term_start1         = 4 December 1797
| term_end1           = 25 February 1798
| predecessor1        = [[Louis-Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux]]
| successor1          = [[Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai|Philippe-Antoine Merlin]]
| office2             = Member of the [[French Directory|Directory]]
| term_start2         = 2 November 1795
| term_end2           = 10 November 1799
| predecessor2        = ''Office created''<br />(preceded by the President of the [[Committee of Public Safety]] [[Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès|De Cambacérès]])
| successor2          = ''Office abolished''<br />(succeeded by the [[First Consul]] [[Napoleon Bonaparte]])
| office3             = [[President of the National Convention]]
| term_start3         = 4 February 1795
| term_end3           = 19 February 1795
| predecessor3        = [[Stanislas Joseph François Xavier Rovère]]
| successor3          = [[François Louis Bourdon]]
| office4             = Member of the [[French National Convention|National Convention]]
| constituency4       = [[Var (department)|Var]]
| term_start4         = 20 September 1792
| term_end4           = 10 November 1795
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|df=y|1755|6|30}}
| birth_place         = [[Fox-Amphoux]], [[Kingdom of France|France]]
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|df=y|1829|1|29|1755|9|30}}
| death_place         = [[Trocadéro, Paris|Chaillot]] (present-day [[Paris]]), [[Bourbon Restoration in France|France]]
| resting_place       = [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]]
| party               = [[The Mountain]] (1792–1794)<br>[[Thermidorian]] (1794–1799)
| spouse              = Unknown wife (left)
| partner             = [[Sophie Arnould]],<br>[[Thérésa Tallien]],<br>[[Joséphine de Beauharnais]]
| profession          = [[Officer (armed forces)|Military officer]]
| signature           = Signatur Paul de Barras.PNG
| allegiance          = {{flag|Kingdom of France}}
| branch              = [[File:Pavillon royal de France.svg|20px]] [[French Royal Army (1652–1830)|Royal Army]]
| serviceyears        = 1771–1783
| rank                = [[Captain]]
| unit                = ''[[Régiment Royal Roussillon]]''
| battles             = 
{{tree list}}
* [[American Revolutionary War]]
** [[Siege of Pondicherry (1778)|Siege of Pondicherry]]
{{tree list/end}}
| honorific_prefix    = Vicomte de Barras
| office5             = [[French Directory#Leadership and composition|Director of the Directory]]
| alongside5          = [[Louis Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux|Louis-Marie de la Révellière]], [[Roger Ducos]], [[Jean-François Rewbell]], [[Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès]], [[Lazare Carnot]], [[Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai|Phillipe Antoine Merlin]], [[Jean-François Moulin]], [[Étienne-François Letourneur]], [[François Barthélemy]], [[François de Neufchâteau]], [[Jean Baptiste Treilhard]] and [[Louis-Jérôme Gohier]]
| termstart5          = 2 November 1795
| termend5            = 9 November 1799
}}

'''Paul François Jean Nicolas, [[Viscount|Vicomte]] de Barras''' ({{IPA|fr|bara:s|lang}}; 30 June 1755 – 29 January 1829), commonly known as '''Paul Barras''', was a [[French people|French]] politician of the [[French Revolution]], and the main executive leader of the [[French Directory|Directory]] regime of 1795–1799.

==Early life==
Descended from a noble family of [[Provence]], he was born at [[Fox-Amphoux]], in today's [[Var (département)|Var]] ''[[Département in France|département]]''.<ref name=Richardson30>Richardson, p. 30.</ref> At the age of sixteen, he entered the regiment of [[Languedoc]] as a "[[gentleman]] [[cadet]]". In 1776, he embarked for [[French India]].<ref name=Richardson30/><ref name=EB1911>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Barras, Paul François Nicolas | volume= 3 |last= Rose | first= John Holland |author-link= John Holland Rose | pages = 431&ndash;432 |short= 1}}</ref>

Shipwrecked on his voyage, he still managed to reach [[Pondicherry (city)|Pondicherry]] in time to contribute to the defence of that city during the [[Second Anglo-Mysore War]].<ref name=Richardson30/> Besieged by British forces, the city surrendered on 18 October 1778; after the French garrison was released, Barras returned to France.<ref name=EB1911/><ref group=Note>He left on a [[cartel (ship)|cartel]] named ''Sartine''. This was not the [[HMS Sartine (1778)|''Sartine'']] that the British [[Royal Navy]] had captured at Pondicherry and taken into service.</ref> He took part in a second expedition to the region in 1782/83, serving in the fleet of the renowned Admiral [[Pierre André de Suffren]].<ref name=Richardson30/> Afterwards, he spent several years back home in France at leisure in relative obscurity.<ref name=Richardson30/><ref name=EB1911/>

==National Convention==
At the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789, he advocated the [[Democracy|democratic]] cause, and became one of the administrators of the [[Var (department)|Var]]. In June 1792 he took his seat in the high national court at [[Orléans]]. Later in that year, on the outbreak of the [[French Revolutionary Wars]], Barras became [[commissioner]] to the [[French Revolutionary Army|French Army]], which was facing the forces of [[Kingdom of Sardinia (1720-1861)|Sardinia]] in the [[Italian Peninsula]], and entered the [[National Convention]] as a deputy for the Var.

In January 1793, he voted with the majority for the [[execution of Louis XVI]]. However, he was mostly absent from Paris on missions to the regions of the south-east of France. During this period, he made the acquaintance of [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] at the [[Siege of Toulon]] (his later clash with Napoleon made him downplay the latter's abilities as a soldier: he noted in his ''Memoirs'' that the siege had been carried out by 30,000 men against a minor [[Armée des Émigrés|royalist]] defending force, whereas the real number was 12,000; he also sought to minimize the share taken by Bonaparte in the capture of the city).<ref>Canteleu, pp. 35–37.</ref>  When Barras became Director, he gave Napoleon position of general in the battalion of Italians.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Haine|first1=Scott|title=The History of France|year=2000|publisher=Greenwood Press|isbn=0-313-30328-2|pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyoffrance00hain/page/88 88]|edition=1st|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/historyoffrance00hain/page/88}}</ref>

==Thermidor and the Directory==
{{unreferencedsect|date=September 2023}}
[[File:Ci-devant Occupations; or, Madame Talian and the Empress Josephine Dancing Naked before Barrass in the Winter of 1797. - A Fact! MET DP116255.jpg|thumb|[[James Gillray]]'s caricature of 1805. Barras being entertained by the naked dancing of two wives of prominent men, [[Thérésa Tallien]] and [[Joséphine Bonaparte]]. On the right, [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] takes a peek.]]

In 1794, Barras sided with the men who sought to overthrow [[Maximilien Robespierre]]'s faction. The [[Thermidorian Reaction]] of 27 July 1794 made him rise to prominence. In the next year, when the Convention felt threatened by the malcontent [[National Guard (France)|National Guards]] of Paris, it appointed Barras to command the troops engaged in its defence. His nomination of Bonaparte led to the adoption of violent measures, ensuring the dispersion of royalists and other malcontents in the streets near the [[Tuileries Palace]], remembered as the ''[[13 Vendémiaire]]'' (5 October 1795). Subsequently, Barras became one of the five [[French Directory|Directors]] who controlled the executive of the [[First French Republic|French Republic]].

Owing to his intimate relations with [[Joséphine de Beauharnais]], Barras helped to facilitate a marriage between her and Bonaparte. Some of his contemporaries alleged that this was the reason behind Barras's nomination of Bonaparte to the [[French Revolutionary Wars: Campaigns of 1796|command of the army of Italy]] early in the year 1796. Bonaparte's success gave the Directory unprecedented stability, and when, in the summer of 1797, the royalist and surviving [[Girondist]] opposition again met the government with resistance, Bonaparte sent General [[Charles-Pierre Augereau]], a [[Jacobin Club|Jacobin]], to repress their movement in the [[Coup of 18 Fructidor]] (4 September 1797).

==Downfall and later life==
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Barras was alleged to have dozens of mistresses and male lovers.{{citation needed|date=March 2022}} The corruption of his administration was claimed to be extraordinary even for France.{{sfn|Bernard|1973|pp=172-173}} Barras's alleged immorality in public and private life is often cited{{By whom|date=April 2021}} as a major contribution to the fall of the Directory, and the creation of the [[French Consulate|Consulate]]. In any case, Bonaparte met little resistance during his [[18 Brumaire|18 Brumaire coup]] of November 1799. Barras supported the change of government, but was left aside by the [[First Consul]] when the latter reshaped the government of France.

Since he had amassed a large fortune, Barras spent his later years in luxury. Napoleon had him confined to the [[Château de Grosbois]] (Barras's property), then exiled to Brussels and Rome, and ultimately, in 1810, [[Internment|interned]] in [[Montpellier]]; set free after the fall of the [[First French Empire|Empire]], he died in [[Trocadéro, Paris|Chaillot]] (now Paris), and was interred in [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]]. Although a partisan of the [[Second Restoration]], Barras was kept in check during the reigns of [[Louis XVIII]] and [[Charles X of France|Charles X]] (and his ''Memoirs'' were censored after his death).
==Films and television==
[[Richard McCabe]] played Barras in the ''[[Napoleon (Heroes and Villains episode)|Napoleon]]'' episode of the [[BBC]] series ''Heroes and Villains'' (2007).

Barras was portrayed by [[Tahar Rahim]] in the 2023 film ''[[Napoleon (2023 film)|Napoleon]]''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://thedirect.com/article/napoleon-2023-movie-cast-characters-actors| website =thedirect.com|title= Full Cast of Napoleon 2023 Movie: Every Main Character & Actor Who Appears (Photos)| date= 22 November 2023}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Barras, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence]]

==Bibliography==
* 1895–1896 – [https://archive.org/details/memoirsbarrasme01durugoog/page/n12/mode/2up ''Memoirs of Barras, member of the Directorate''. Vol. I: The ancien régime and the revolution]; [https://archive.org/details/memoirsbarrasme00conggoog/page/n10/mode/2up Vol. II: The directorate up to the 18th Fructidor]; [https://archive.org/details/memoirsbarrasme01conggoog/page/n12/mode/2up Vol. III: The directorate from the 18th Fructidor to the 18th Brumaire]; [https://archive.org/details/memoirsbarrasme06durugoog/page/n10/mode/2up Vol. IV: The consulate – The empire – The restoration – Analytical index]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=Note}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}
;Literature
* {{cite book | last=Bernard |first=Jack F. | title=Talleyrand: A Biography | publisher=Putnam | location=New York | year=1973 | isbn=0-399-11022-4 | url=https://archive.org/details/talleyrand00jack}}
*{{Cite book |last=Canteleu |first=Jean-Barthélemy Le Couteulx de |editor1-last=Blaufarb |editor1-first=Rafe |title=Napoleon: Symbol for an Age, A Brief History with Documents |year=2008 |chapter=Bonaparte in Barras's Salon |location=New York |publisher=Bedford/St. Martin's |isbn=978-0312431105 }}
*{{Cite book |last=Richardson |first=Hubert N. B. |year=1920 |title=A Dictionary of Napoleon and His Times |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924024329991 |page=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924024329991/page/n41 30] |location=London |publisher=Cassell & Co. }}
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Barras, Paul François Nicolas | volume= 3 |last= Rose | first= John Holland |author-link= John Holland Rose | pages = 431&ndash;432 |short= 1}}

==Further reading==
* ''Barras et son temps'' by Henri Alméras (Albin Michel, n.d.)
* ''Barras, chef d'État oublié'' by Pierre Temin (1992). {{ISBN|2884150137}}. {{in lang|fr}}
* ''Mémoires de Barras, membre du Directoire'' by Paul Barras (Hachette, 1895)

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Barras, Paul Francois Nicolas}}
[[Category:1755 births]]
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[[Category:People from Var (department)]]
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