Source: National Archives & Historic Records of Kingdom of France
Politics • Historical Archive • 🇫🇷 France • 1 views

Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès 🇫🇷

Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès (Known as "Abbé Sieyès")
Constitutional Theorist, Author of 'What Is the Third Estate?', Director, Consul with Bonaparte
Born May 03, 1748 🇫🇷 Fréjus, France
Passed Away Jun 20, 1836 Paris, France
Lifespan 88 years old
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Notice / Correction
"Qu'est-ce que le Tiers-État? Tout. Qu'a-t-il été jusqu'à présent dans l'ordre politique? Rien. Que demande-t-il? À y devenir quelque chose."

Archival Overview

Preeminent political theorist of the French Revolution whose 1789 pamphlet What Is the Third Estate? sparked the revolution, who survived the Terror ('J'ai vécu'), and who orchestrated the Coup of 18 Brumaire with Napoleon Bonaparte.

Biographical Record

A Catholic canon from Chartres, Sieyès published Qu'est-ce que le Tiers-État? in January 1789, famously opening: 'What is the Third Estate? Everything. What has it been heretofore? Nothing. What does it ask? To be something.' He proposed transforming the Third Estate into the National Assembly.

A consummate political survivor who navigated the Terror in quiet obscurity, he was elected to the Directory in 1799. Seeking an 'iron sword' to enforce a stable constitutional republic, he recruited General Napoleon Bonaparte for the Coup of 18 Brumaire, serving as one of the three Provisional Consuls.

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial
Père Lachaise Cemetery (Division 30)
Paris, France
GPS: 48.8617, 2.3944
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