Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes
On May 3, 1748, Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes, also referred to as Abbe Sieyes, was born in Frejus to a notary. He was a minister and a writer, and is one of the most important leaders of the French Revolution. Emmanuel Joseph was greatly influenced by the political ideologies of the Age of Enlightenment. What is the Third Estate? is the title of a pamphlet he published. It included a lack of sincere representatives in the country's government.
Even though Sieyes supported the King's execution in January 1793, he changed his mind once the Jacobin Club took over the Revolution ( June 1793 ). After serving for around six months on the Committee of Public Safety in 1795, he was appointed to the Council of Five Hundred in October and was able to get a position on the Directory, France's supreme executive body.
He worked together with Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Fouche, and C.M. de Talleyrand to plan the military coup d'état that succeeded in toppling the Directory on 18 Brumaire on November 9, 1799.
When Napoleon briefly retook power in 1815, Sieyes became well-known in the Chamber of Peers. But King Louis XVIII dismissed him from the Academy of Political and Moral Sciences in 1816. At the age of 88, Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes passed away in Paris on June 20, 1836.
Lifespan: May 3, 1748 – June 20, 1836
