François Aubry

François Aubry
François Aubry
Born	12 December 1747; Paris, France
Died	17 July 1798 (aged 50); Demerara, Dutch Guiana
Nationality	French
Occupation	Soldier, politician
Known for	Member of the National Convention

Last updated April 02, 2019

François Aubry (12 December 1747 – 17 July 1798) was a French soldier who became a member of the National Convention of France and the Council of Five Hundred during the French Revolution. At first a moderate supporter of the revolution, he moved towards a monarchical position and worked to overthrow the Directory. When the Directory seized power, he was arrested and deported to Cayenne. He escaped, but died in Dutch Guiana soon after.

The National Convention was the first government of the French Revolution, following the two-year National Constituent Assembly and the one-year Legislative Assembly. Created after the great insurrection of 10 August 1792, it was the first French government organized as a republic, abandoning the monarchy altogether. The Convention sat as a single-chamber assembly from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795.

France, officially the French Republic, is a country whose territory consists of metropolitan France in Western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The metropolitan area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany to the northeast, Switzerland and Italy to the east, and Andorra and Spain to the south. The overseas territories include French Guiana in South America and several islands in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. The country's 18 integral regions span a combined area of 643,801 square kilometres (248,573 sq mi) and a total population of 67.3 million. France, a sovereign state, is a unitary semi-presidential republic with its capital in Paris, the country's largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Other major urban areas include Lyon, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Lille and Nice.

The Council of Five Hundred, or simply the Five Hundred, was the lower house of the legislature of France under the Constitution of the Year III. It existed during the period commonly known as the Directory (Directoire), from 26 October 1795 until 9 November 1799: roughly the second half of the period generally referred to as the French Revolution.

Early years

François Aubry was born in Paris on 12 December 1747. He joined the army, and in 1789 was a captain of artillery. He declared his support for the ideas of the revolution. He was appointed mayor of Nîmes in 1790.^[1]

Girondin member

On 6 September 1792 he was elected a member of the National Convention for the department of Gard. Aubry was dispatched on a mission to the south of France. At the siege of Toulon he fell out with Napoleon Bonaparte, since he disagreed with his plan of attack. On returning to the convention, he attended the trial of King Louis XVI of France. He declared that Louis was guilty of conspiracy against freedom and attacks against the general security of the State, and voted in favor of the death penalty. On 3 August 1793 Aubry decreed that in all towns all the bells except one would be available to the Minister of War. Aubry signed a protest against the Insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793, and was arrested and detained until 9 Thermidor (27 July 1794).^[1]

Gard is a department in Southern France, located in the Occitanie region. It had a population of 742,006 as of 2016; its prefeture is Nîmes. The department is named after the Gardon River; the Occitan name of the river, Gard, has been replacing the French name in recent decades, both administratively and among French speakers.

The Siege of Toulon was a military operation by Republican forces against a Royalist rebellion in the southern French city of Toulon.

Napoléon Bonaparte was a French statesman and military leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars. He was Emperor of the French as Napoleon I from 1804 until 1814 and again briefly in 1815 during the Hundred Days. Napoleon dominated European and global affairs for more than a decade while leading France against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars. He won most of these wars and the vast majority of his battles, building a large empire that ruled over much of continental Europe before its final collapse in 1815. He is considered one of the greatest commanders in history, and his wars and campaigns are studied at military schools worldwide. Napoleon's political and cultural legacy has endured as one of the most celebrated and controversial leaders in human history.

Later career

After 9 Thermidor (27 July 1794), Aubry returned to the Convention and succeeded Carnot in the Committee of Public Safety for military affairs. In this position he dismissed many officers accused of terrorism, including Massena and Bonaparte. He took a very active part in suppressing the revolt of 1 Prairial Year III (20 May 1795). Accused on that basis at the meeting of 14 Thermidor Year III (1 August 1795), he left the Committee and allied himself closely with the Clichy monarchical club, where he dominated the counter-revolutionary movement and became the most influential member.^[1]

Committee of Public Safety De facto executive government in France (1793–1794)

The Committee of Public Safety, created in April 1793 by the National Convention and then restructured in July 1793, formed the de facto executive government in France during the Reign of Terror (1793–1794), a stage of the French Revolution. The Committee of Public Safety succeeded the previous Committee of General Defence and assumed its role of protecting the newly established republic against foreign attacks and internal rebellion. As a wartime measure, the Committee—composed at first of nine and later of twelve members—was given broad supervisory powers over military, judicial and legislative efforts. It was formed as an administrative body to supervise and expedite the work of the executive bodies of the Convention and of the government ministers appointed by the Convention. As the Committee tried to meet the dangers of a coalition of European nations and counter-revolutionary forces within the country, it became more and more powerful.

The insurrection of 1 Prairial Year III was a popular revolt in Paris on 20 May 1795 against the policies of the Thermidorian Convention. It was the last and one of the most remarkable and stubborn popular revolts of the French Revolution. After their defeat in Prairial, the sans-culottes ceased to play any effective part until the next round of revolutions in the early nineteenth century. To a lesser extent, these movements are also important in that they mark the final attempt of the remnants of the Mountain and the Jacobins to recapture their political ascendancy in the Convention and the Paris Sections; this time, though they gave some political direction to the popular movement which arose in the first place in protest against worsening economic conditions, their intervention was timorous and halfhearted and doomed the movement to failure.

The Clichy Club was a political group active during the French Revolution from 1794 to 1797.

Aubry was among the members of the Convention who entered the Council of Five Hundred on 23 Vendémiaire year IV (15 October 1795). An arrest warrant was issued against him for his unconstitutional attitude on 13 Vendémiaire (5 October 1795), but was not executed. He supported Armand-Gaston Camus's proposed general amnesty. He opposed the law which declared nobles and relatives of emigrants ineligible for public office, and actively worked to overthrow the Directory.^[1]

13 Vendémiaire Year 4 is the name given to a battle between the French Revolutionary troops and Royalist forces in the streets of Paris.

Armand-Gaston Camus French archivist and revolutionary

Armand-Gaston Camus, French revolutionist, was a successful advocate before the French Revolution. He was the son of Pierre Camus, a lawyer in the Parlement of Paris.

After the coup of 18 Fructidor (4 September 1797) he was arrested and transported to Rochefort, from where he was shipped to Cayenne. He escaped from Cayenne in a small boat with Jean-Charles Pichegru and others, and landed in Demerara, Dutch Guiana. He died there soon after on 17 July 1798.^[1]

The Coup of 18 Fructidor, Year V, was a seizure of power by members of the French Directory on 4 September 1797 when their opponents, the Royalists, were gaining strength. Howard G. Brown, Professor of History at Binghamton University, stresses the turn toward dictatorship and the failure of liberal democracy under the Directory, blaming it on "chronic violence, ambivalent forms of justice, and repeated recourse to heavy-handed repression."

Rochefort is a commune in southwestern France, a port on the Charente estuary. It is a sub-prefecture of the Charente-Maritime department.

Cayenne is the capital city of French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France located in South America. The city stands on a former island at the mouth of the Cayenne River on the Atlantic coast. The city's motto is "fert aurum industria", which means "work brings wealth".

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References

1 2 3 4 5 Robert & Cougny 1891.

Sources

Robert, Adolphe; Cougny, Gaston (1891). "AUBRY, François". Dictionnaire des parlementaires français de 1789 à 1889 . Retrieved 2014-06-03.

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[FOOTNOTERobertCougny1891-1] 1 2 3 4 5 Robert & Cougny 1891.

François Aubry
Born	(1747-12-12)12 December 1747 Paris, France
Died	17 July 1798(1798-07-17) (aged 50) Demerara, Dutch Guiana
Nationality	French
Occupation	Soldier, politician
Known for	Member of the National Convention