Council of Ancients

The Council of Ancients or Council of Elders (Conseil des Anciens) was the upper house of the French legislature under the Constitution of the Year III, during the period commonly known as the Directory (French: Directoire), from 22 August 1795 until 9 November 1799, roughly the second half of the period generally referred to as the French Revolution. The Council of Ancients was the senior of the two-halves of the republican legislative system. The Ancients were 250 members who could accept or reject laws put forward by the lower house of the Directory, the Council of Five Hundred (Conseil des Cinq-Cents). Each member had to be at least forty years of age, and a third of them would be replaced annually. They had no authority to draft laws, but any bills that they renounced could not be reintroduced for at least a year. Besides functioning as a legislative body, the Ancients chose five Directors, who jointly held executive power, from the list of names put forward by the Council of Five Hundred. The Council of Ancients had their own distinctive official uniform, with robes, cape and hat, just as did the Council of Five Hundred and the Directors. Under the Thermidorean constitution, as Boissy d'Anglas put it, the Council of Five Hundred was to be the imagination of the Republic, and the Council of Ancients its reason. The name adopted for the body was based on the French translation/adaptation of the term Senate. 28 October 1795: Claude Antoine Rudel Du Miral (due to age) 28 October 1795 – 2 November 1795: Louis-Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux 2 November 1795 – 23 November 1795: Pierre-Charles-Louis Baudin, known as Baudin des Ardennes 23 November 1795 – 22 December 1795: François Denis Tronchet 22 December 1795 – 22 January 1796: Théodore Vernier 22 January 1796 – 20 February 1796: Guillaume François Charles Goupil de Préfelne 20 February 1796 – 21 March 1796: Claude Ambroise Régnier 21 March 1796 – 20 April 1796: Jacques Antoine Creuzé-Latouche 20 April 1796 – 20 May 1796: Jean-Barthélemy Lecouteulx de Canteleu 2

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Related concepts (6)

Corps législatif

The Corps législatif was a part of the French legislature during the French Revolution and beyond. It is also the generic French term used to refer to any legislative body. The Constitution of the Year I foresaw the need for a corps législatif. During the period of the French Directory, beginning in 1795, the Corps législatif referred to the bicameral legislature of the Conseil des Cinq-Cents (Council of Five Hundred) and the Conseil des Anciens (Council of Ancients).

Council of Five Hundred

The Council of Five Hundred (Conseil des Cinq-Cents), 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 (from the name of the executive branch during this time) as the Directory (Directoire), from 31 October 1795 (9 Brumaire) until 9 November 1799: roughly the second half of the period generally referred to as the French Revolution.

National Convention

The National Convention (Convention nationale) was the constituent assembly of the Kingdom of France for one day and the French First Republic for its first three years during 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.