Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès

Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès was born in Fréjus in 1748, into a family of local notables. A priest despite himself — his father had dreamed of an ecclesiastical career for him — he was ordained in 1772 and continued his studies in theology and philosophy. An assiduous reader of the Enlightenment, he frequented Parisian salons and developed an original reflection on society and power. In 1788, the convocation of the Estates General offered the occasion for his writings. His pamphlet « What is the Third Estate? » appeared in January 1789 and caused an extraordinary stir. The formula was lapidary: « What is the Third Estate? Everything. What has it been in the political order until now? Nothing. What does it ask? To become something. »

Sieyès argued that the nation resided entirely in the Third Estate — the deputies of the clergy and nobility were not its legitimate representatives. He called for doubling the number of Third Estate deputies and voting by head, not by order. The text spread like wildfire; it helped legitimise the Third Estate deputies' revolt when they proclaimed themselves the National Assembly on 17 June 1789. Sieyès drafted the Tennis Court Oath; he proposed that the assembly declare itself constituent. His influence on the first months of the Revolution was considerable.

Elected deputy for Paris to the Estates General, Sieyès sat on the left of the Assembly. He participated in drafting the 1791 Constitution, defended national sovereignty, invented the distinction between active and passive citizens — later criticised as anti-democratic. He voted for the confiscation of clerical property and the Civil Constitution. But he distanced himself from the Jacobins; his moderate liberalism and attachment to form made him suspect in the eyes of the most radical. After the fall of the monarchy in August 1792, he sat in the Convention without speaking during Louis XVI's trial. He voted for death with reprieve — a position that spared him from the purges. In 1795, he participated in drafting the Constitution of the Year III and joined the Directory.

9 Thermidor Year II (27 July 1794) marked the fall of Robespierre. Sieyès did not take part directly in the plot, but he welcomed the end of the Terror with relief. The Thermidorian Convention and then the Directory attempted to stabilise the Republic. Sieyès joined the Council of Five Hundred in 1795, then was elected Director in May 1799 — he replaced Reubell. It was a late return to the fore: for four years, he had lived in the background, observing the regime's convulsions.

The Directory was in its final months. Military reverses — notably in Italy, where Austrians and Russians threatened —, internal divisions, repeated coups (Floréal, Prairial) had weakened the executive. Sieyès, who had always dreamed of a strong, orderly power, contemplated a constitutional revision. He sought a « sword » — a general capable of supporting a coup — to impose a new constitution. Talleyrand suggested the name of Bonaparte, back from Egypt in October 1799.

Sieyès conferred with the general. The two men hardly liked each other — Napoleon despised « ideologues », Sieyès suspected the soldier's ambition — but their interests converged. Sieyès wanted a constitution that limited the assemblies' power and concentrated authority in the hands of a stable executive; Bonaparte wanted power. A plot was hatched. Roger Ducos, another director, joined the project. Barras had to be removed. The date was set: 18 Brumaire Year VIII (9 November 1799).

On the morning of 18 Brumaire, Sieyès and Ducos resigned as directors. Barras, isolated, followed. The Council of Ancients, forewarned, voted to transfer the assemblies to Saint-Cloud — officially to protect them from an alleged Jacobin plot. Bonaparte took command of the Paris troops. Everything seemed to be going according to plan. But on 19 Brumaire, at Saint-Cloud, the situation shifted. The deputies of the Council of Five Hundred, assembled in the château's orangery, understood they were being subjected to a coup. Some demanded that Bonaparte be declared an outlaw. The grenadiers, massed outside, hesitated.

Lucien Bonaparte, president of the Council of Five Hundred, played a decisive role. Refusing to put the outlawry motion to the vote, he went out to harangue the soldiers, pointed his sword at his brother while declaring he would strike him himself if he betrayed liberty. The grenadiers invaded the hall, dispersed the assembly at bayonet point. Sieyès, present alongside Bonaparte, had no need to intervene: Lucien had saved the coup. That evening, a handful of docile deputies — a « commission » — voted the fall of the Directory and the establishment of a provisional Consulate of three: Bonaparte, Sieyès and Ducos.

Sieyès believed he had found the ideal formula: a Grand Elector, a figurehead without real power, and two consuls who would govern. Bonaparte refused categorically. Constitutional negotiations stalled for weeks. In the end, Bonaparte's vision prevailed: a First Consul with extensive powers, two advisory consuls. Sieyès accepted the title of consul — he would be the second — in exchange for privileges and an annuity. He sat on the Conservative Senate, of which he became president. But real power now belonged to Bonaparte.

Sieyès remained consul until 1800. He participated in drafting the Constitution of the Year VIII, which established the Consulate and consecrated the First Consul's pre-eminence. But his influence declined rapidly. Bonaparte consulted him no longer; real decisions were made at the Tuileries, without him. In 1800, Sieyès was appointed president of the Senate — an honorary dignity. He received the Crosne estate as a reward for his services. In 1804, he voted for the sénatus-consulte proclaiming Napoleon emperor. He was made a count of the Empire. But he had no political role anymore.

After the fall of the Empire in 1814, Sieyès was compromised in royalist eyes. He had voted for the king's death — with reprieve —, taken part in 18 Brumaire, sat under Napoleon. The Restoration placed him on the list of regicides. He left France in 1815 and settled in Brussels, where he lived in exile. He refused to request amnesty — a step he found humiliating. In 1830, the July Revolution changed things. Louis-Philippe granted the former conventionnels a pension. Sieyès could return to France. He settled in Paris and died there in 1836, aged eighty-eight.

His legacy is ambiguous. « What is the Third Estate? » remains a founding text of revolutionary thought — quoted, commented, taught. Sieyès embodied the figure of the intellectual in politics: theorist of the nation and representation, actor in the great turning points (1789, 1799), but ultimately overtaken by those he had helped to power. His role on 18 Brumaire made him, in some eyes, the unwitting godfather of Napoleonic Caesarism. He himself doubtless saw in it only a stopgap solution — a strong constitution to put an end to Directory anarchy. History decided otherwise.