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The (from French, ) or () was an alleged assassination attempt against First Consul of France
Napoleon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
. The members of the plot were not clearly established. Authorities at the time presented it as an assassination attempt on Napoleon at the exit of the Paris opera house on 18 vendémiaire year IX (10 October 1800), which was prevented by the police force of
Joseph Fouché Joseph Fouché, 1st Duc d'Otrante, 1st Comte Fouché (; 21 May 1759 – 26 December 1820) was a French statesman, revolutionary, and Minister of Police under First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte, who later became a subordinate of Emperor Napoleon. H ...
. However, this version was questioned very early on. In his , Fouché affirmed that, towards mid-September 1800, a plot arose aiming at assassinating Napoleon at the operahouse. Someone named Harel, presented as one of the accomplices, worked in liaison with the war commissioner Lefebvre, to bring the revelations to Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne, Napoleon's secretary, indicating the plotters were Giuseppe Ceracchi, Joseph Diana, Joseph Antoine Aréna (brother of the Corsican deputy who had declared against Napoleon); the painter and patriotic fanatic François Topino-Lebrun, and Dominique Demerville, former clerk of the
Committee of Public Safety The Committee of Public Safety () was a committee of the National Convention which formed the provisional government and war cabinet during the Reign of Terror, a violent phase of the French Revolution. Supplementing the Committee of General D ...
, closely associated with
Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac Bertrand may refer to: Places * Bertrand, Missouri, US * Bertrand, Nebraska, US * Bertrand, New Brunswick, Canada * Bertrand Township, Michigan, US * Bertrand, Michigan * Bertrand, Virginia, US * Bertrand Creek, state of Washington * Saint ...
. Harel was charged with drawing up a trap for the plotters; four armed men, laid out for the assassination of Napoleon, on the evening of October 10, after a performance of '' Les Horaces''. The day of the attack, the men stationed by the police force stopped Diana, Ceracchi and their two accomplices. All the others presumably retreated and were apprehended at their residences. For modern historians this was a manipulation by the police force, made possible by an agent provocateur, Harel, who had infiltrated the group. After
Plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise The Plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise, also known as the plot, was an assassination attempt on the First Consul of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, in Paris on 24 December 1800. It followed the of 10 October 1800 and was one of many Royalist and Catho ...
, the members of the "daggers conspiracy", presented as a
Jacobin The Society of the Friends of the Constitution (), renamed the Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality () after 1792 and commonly known as the Jacobin Club () or simply the Jacobins (; ), was the most influential political cl ...
plot, were judged in front of the criminal court of The Seine. Four of them were condemned to death 19
nivôse Nivôse (; also ''Nivose'') was the fourth month in the French Republican Calendar. The month was named after the Latin word ''nivosus'' 'snowy'. Nivôse was the first month of the winter quarter (''mois d'hiver''). It started between 21 and 23 ...
year IX (January 9, 1801), at eleven o'clock in the evening, after three days of debates and the sentence was carried out January 30 after rejection of the appeal.


Conspirators

The members of the plot were: * Adjudant Joseph Antoine Aréna, brother of Barthelemy Aréna who had tried to stab Bonaparte at the time of the
coup d'état A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...
of the
18 Brumaire The Coup of 18 Brumaire () brought Napoleon Bonaparte to power as First Consul of the French First Republic. In the view of most historians, it ended the French Revolution and would soon lead to the coronation of Napoleon as Emperor of the ...
; * Dominique Demerville, former secretary of Barère; * Giuseppe Ceracchi, Roman sculptor one of the founders of the
Roman republic The Roman Republic ( ) was the era of Ancient Rome, classical Roman civilisation beginning with Overthrow of the Roman monarchy, the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom (traditionally dated to 509 BC) and ending in 27 BC with the establis ...
in 1798; * François Topino-Lebrun, painter, former student of
Jacques-Louis David Jacques-Louis David (; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in ...
and member of the
revolutionary tribunal The Revolutionary Tribunal (; unofficially Popular Tribunal) was a court instituted by the National Convention during the French Revolution for the trial of political offenders. In October 1793, it became one of the most powerful engines of ...
jury; * Joseph Diana, 28 years, other Roman insurgent, notary, discharged; * Armand Daiteg, 67 years, sculptor, discharged; * Denis Lavigne, 66 years, trader, discharged; * Madeleine Fumey, 38 years, cook or mistress of Demerville, dischargedÉmile Marco de Saint-Hilaire, ' ' History of the conspiracies and the executions politiques' ', Paris, Gustave Havard, 1849, p. 228-235. Jules Edouard Alboise of Pujol, Auguste Maquet, ' ' Prisons of l' Europe' ', Paris, Administration of the Bookshop, 1845, p. 143-146 and 217.


Bibliography

*Pierre Marie Desmarest ''Fifteen years of policing under Napoleon'', Editions A. Levavasseur, 1833 *Gustave Hue ''Un Complot de police sous le Consulat'', Editions Hachette, 1909


References

{{Plots and conspiracies 1800 crimes in France 1800 in France Attempted assassinations of Napoleon Conspiracies