Barras, Paul, viscount de

(1755-1829)

   political figure

   Born in Fox-Amphoux, Provence, to a noble family of the region, Paul, viscount de Barras, served as an officer in the indies campaigns before being elected deputy in 1792 to the Convention. There, he took his place with the Montagnards, the radical group that abolished the monarchy during the Revolution. Barras was soon sent as an envoy to the French army in italy and then to southeastern France, where he organized and directed the suppression of the counterrevolutionaries after the siege of Toulon (December 19, 1793). With jean-lambert tallien and Joseph fouché, he was one of the principal figures responsible for the overthrow of maximilien robespierre (9 Thermidor, Year II— July 27, 1794) and, as commander in chief of the Army of the Interior under the Thermidorian Convention, suppressed the royalist insurrection against the government (13 vendémiaire, Year IV — october 5, 1795). As a director in 1795, Barras was one of the organizers of the coup d'etat of 18 Fructidor, Year V (September 4, 1797), and served as head of state until the coup d'etat of 18 Brumaire, Year v III (November 9, 1799), that brought Napoléon Bonaparte to power (see napoléon i). Bonaparte subsequently forced Barras to retire. Exiled in 1810, then interned at Montpellier, he reemerged after the Restoration. Barras's Mémoires give an interesting account and description of political and social life under the Directory.