Council of Ancients#Presidents of the Council of Ancients

{{Short description|Upper house of the Directory-era French legislature}}

{{Infobox legislature

| name = Council of Ancients

| native_name = Conseil des Anciens

| legislature = French First Republic

| coa_pic = Conseil des anciens sans txt.svg

| coa_res = 200px

| coa_caption = Emblem of the Council of Ancients

| house_type = Upper house

| members = 250

| meeting_place = Salle du Manège, Paris

| established = 2 November 1795

| disbanded = 10 November 1799

| preceded_by = National Convention (unicameral)

| succeeded_by = Sénat conservateur

}}

The Council of Ancients or Council of Elders ({{langx|fr|Conseil des Anciens}}) was a house of the French bicameral 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.

Role and function

File:Thomas André Marie Bouquerot de Voligny.png (1755–1841) in his uniform as a member of the Council of Ancients (Musée de la Révolution française)]]

File:Conseil des Anciens.jpg

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 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.Paul R. Hanson, Contesting the French Revolution, John Wiley & Sons 2009 p.131.

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.{{cite web |url=http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b6953456x |title=Grand costumes des membres du conseil et : Conseil des Cinq Cent Conseil des Anciens Haute Cour de justice tribunal de cassation : [estampe] / [non identifié] |website=gallica.bnf.fr |access-date=30 April 2017}}{{cite journal |url=https://chrhc.revues.org/4768#tocfrom3n5 |title=Costumes et vêtements sous le Directoire : Signes politiques ou effets de mode ? |journal=Cahiers d'Histoire. Revue d'Histoire Critique |year= 2015|doi= 10.4000/chrhc.4768|access-date=30 April 2017|last1= Waquet|first1= Dominique|issue= 129|pages= 19–54|doi-access= free}} 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.{{cite web |url=https://hal-amu.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01367516/document |title=Modernity and archaism of the first French republican Constitutions (1792-1799) |website=hal-amu.archives-ouvertes.fr |access-date=30 April 2017}}{{title missing|date=May 2022}}{{cite book |url=http://books.openedition.org/pur/19748?lang=fr |title=1795, pour une République sans Révolution |chapter= Les nouveautés constitutionnelles de l'an III|website=books.openedition.org |series= Histoire|date= 9 July 2015|pages= 167–177|publisher= Presses universitaires de Rennes|isbn= 9782753525962|access-date=30 April 2017}}

The name adopted for the body was based on the French translation/adaptation of the term Senate.senate (n.) c. 1200, "legal and administrative body of ancient Rome," from Old French senat or Latin senatus "highest council of the state in ancient Rome," literally "council of elders," from senex (genitive senis) "old man, old" (from PIE root *sen- "old"). Attested from late 14c. in reference to governing bodies of free cities in Europe; of national governing bodies from 1550s; specific sense of upper house of U.S. legislature is recorded from 1775. [https://www.etymonline.com/word/senate Online Etymology Dictionary] accessed 1/11/2017.

Presidents of the Council of Ancients

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
20 May 1796 – 19 June 1796: Charles-François Lebrun
19 June 1796 – 19 July 1796: Jean Étienne Marie Portalis
19 July 1796 – 18 August 1796: Jean Dussaulx
18 August 1796 – 23 September 1796: Honoré Muraire
23 September 1796 – 22 October 1796: Roger Ducos
22 October 1796 – 21 November 1796: Jean-Girard Lacuée
21 November 1796 – 21 December 1796: Jean-Jacques Bréard, known as Bréard-Duplessis
21 December 1796 – 20 January 1797: Boniface Paradis
20 January 1797 – 19 February 1797: Sébastien Ligeret de Beauvais
19 February 1797 – 21 March 1797: Joseph Clément Poullain de Grandprey
21 March 1797 – 20 April 1797: Jean François Bertrand Delmas
20 April 1797 – 20 May 1797: Edme-Bonaventure Courtois
20 May 1797 – 19 June 1797: François Barbé-Marbois
19 June 1797 – 19 July 1797: Louis Bernard de Saint-Affrique
19 July 1797 – 18 August 1797: Pierre Samuel Dupont de Nemours
18 August 1797 – 4 September 1797: André-Daniel Laffon de Ladebat, known as Laffon-Ladébat
6 September 1797 – 23 September 1797: Jean-Antoine Marbot
23 September 1797 – 22 October 1797: Emmanuel Crétet
22 October 1797 – 21 November 1797: Jean-Pierre Lacombe-Saint-Michel
21 November 1797 – 21 December 1797: Jean François Philibert Rossée
21 December 1797 – 20 January 1798: Jean-Baptiste Marragon
20 January 1798 – 19 February 1798: Jean Rousseau
19 February 1798 – 21 March 1798: Pardoux Bordas
21 March 1798 – 20 April 1798: Étienne Mollevaut
20 April 1798 – 20 May 1798: Jacques Poisson de Coudreville
20 May 1798 – 19 June 1798: Claude Ambroise Régnier
19 June 1798 – 19 July 1798: Jean-Antoine Marbot
19 July 1798 – 18 August 1798: Étienne Maynaud Bizefranc de Lavaux
18 August 1798 – 23 September 1798: Pierre Antoine Laloy
23 September 1798 – 22 October 1798: Benoît Michel Decomberousse
22 October 1798 – 21 November 1798: Emmanuel Pérès de Lagesse
21 November 1798 – 21 December 1798: Jean-Augustin Moreau de Vormes
21 December 1798 – 20 January 1799: Jean-Baptiste Perrin des Vosges
20 January 1799 – 19 February 1799: Dominique Joseph Garat
19 February 1799 – 21 March 1799: Jean-Aimé Delacoste
21 March 1799 – 20 April 1799: Mathieu Depère
20 April 1799 – 20 May 1799: Claude-Pierre Dellay d'Agier
20 May 1799 – 19 June 1799: Charles Claude Christophe Gourdan
19 June 1799 – 19 July 1799: Pierre-Charles-Louis Baudin, known as Baudin des Ardennes
19 July 1799 – 18 August 1799: Louis-Thibaut Dubois-Dubais
18 August 1799 – 24 September 1799: Mathieu-Augustin Cornet
24 September 1799 – 23 October 1799: Joseph Cornudet des Chaumettes
23 October 1799 – 10 November 1799: Louis-Nicolas Lemercier