Background
Joseph Fouché was born on May 21, 1759, near Nantes. Joseph Fouché, 1st Duc d'Otrante, was a son of Julien Joseph Fouché (1719 – 1771) and wife Marie Françoise Croizet (1720 – 1793).
Joseph Fouché was born on May 21, 1759, near Nantes. Joseph Fouché, 1st Duc d'Otrante, was a son of Julien Joseph Fouché (1719 – 1771) and wife Marie Françoise Croizet (1720 – 1793).
Joseph received an excellent education with the Oratorians, first at Nantes and then at Paris.
Joseph took minor religious orders and became a teacher. When the Revolution began to transform French society, he was teaching at the Oratorians' college at Nantes and became a prominent member of the local Jacobin club. Elected to the National Convention in August 1792, he voted for the establishment of the republic and the death of Louis XVI.
As a representative of the Convention, first in the Vendée and then at Lyons (1793-1794), he earned the name of terrorist by crushing all opposition to the Paris government. Because of a falling-out with Robespierre, he supported the Thermidorians in overthrowing the Jacobin regime on July 27-28, 1794.
During the 4 years of the Directory (1795-1799), Fouché had contacts with both the extreme left and the right while remaining on good terms with the government. In 1798 he was ambassador to the Cisalpine Republic and in 1799 to Holland. By the summer of 1799 he was back in Paris as minister of police and placed his services at the disposal of Abbé Sieyès and Napoleon Bonaparte when, on 18 Brumaire (Nov. 9, 1799), they overthrew the government and established the Consulate. Fouché continued as minister of police, with but a 2-year interval (1802-1804), until he was relieved by Napoleon in 1810 after they had a falling-out.
The creation of the empire in 1804 led to his ennoblement with the title of Duke of Otranto. Furthermore, he amassed a large fortune during his years in office. In 1810 he settled at his estate at Point Carré until after the Russian campaign of 1812, when he again served Napoleon, first as administrator to the Illyrian provinces and then as a spy on Murat in Italy. He returned to Paris in April 1814 and vainly attempted to attach himself to the returning Bourbons.
During the Hundred Days, Fouché was once again minister of police. But believing that Napoleon could not survive the approaching war, he entered into correspondence with the royalists. Upon the Emperor's second abdication, on June 22, 1815, Fouché vigorously worked for the restoration of Louis XVIII, from whom he expected a high political position in return. The royalists, however, could not forgive the regicide and terrorist of the Revolution, and he finished his days in self-imposed exile first at Prague and then at Trieste, where he died on December. 25, 1820.
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Upon entering public life, Fouché renounced his clerical vows and his religion.
Quotations:
"The blood of criminals fertilises the soil of liberty. "
"Death is an eternal sleep. "
"It is worse that a crime, it is a blunder. "
Quotes from others about the person
The 1911 Britannica portrays Fouché in the following manner:
"Marked at the outset by fanaticism, which, though cruel, was at least conscientious, Fouché's character deteriorated in and after the year 1794 into one of calculating cunning. The transition represented all that was worst in the life of France during the period of the Revolution and Empire. In Fouché the enthusiasm of the earlier period appeared as a cold, selfish and remorseless fanaticism; in him the bureaucracy of the period 1795-1799 and the autocracy of Napoleon found their ablest instrument. Yet his intellectual pride prevented him sinking to the level of a mere tool. His relations to Napoleon were marked by a certain aloofness. He multiplied the means of resistance even to that irresistible autocrat, so that though removed from office, he was never wholly disgraced. Despised by all for his tergiversations, he nevertheless was sought by all on account of his cleverness. He repaid the contempt of his superiors and the adulation of his inferiors by a mask of impenetrable reserve or scorn. He sought for power and neglected no means to make himself serviceable to the party whose success appeared to be imminent. Yet, while appearing to be the servant of the victors, present or prospective, he never gave himself to any one party. In this versatility he resembles Talleyrand, of whom he was a coarse replica. Both professed, under all their shifts and turns, to be desirous of serving France. Talleyrand certainly did so in the sphere of diplomacy; Fouché may occasionally have done so in the sphere of intrigue. "
By his first marriage to Bonne Jeanne Coiquaud (1 April 1763 – 8 October 1812), Joseph had seven children.
By his second marriage to Ernestine de Castellane-Majastres (5 July 1788 – 4 May 1850), he had no children.
(1719 – 1771)
(1720 – 1793)
(25 June 1801 – 10 February 1886)
(25 March 1800 – 26 November 1878)
(29 June 1803 – 30 December 1893)
(10 August 1793 – August 1794)
(22 July 1796 – 31 December 1862)
(1 April 1763 – 8 October 1812)
