Joseph Fouch, duc dOtrante, (born May 21, 1759?

, Le Pellerin, near Nantes, France

died December 25, 1820, Trieste) French statesman and organizer of the police, whose
efficiency and opportunism enabled him to serve every government from 1792 to 1815.
Fouch was educated by the Oratorians at Nantes and Paris but was not ordained a priest. In
1791 the Oratorian order was dissolved and Fouch became principal of their college at Nantes,
joining the local Jacobin club and becoming its president. On September 16, 1792, he was
elected deputy to the Convention where he sided first with the Girondins. At Louis XVIs trial he
voted for the Kings death; thereafter he grew closer to the Montagnards.
After war was declared on England (February 1793) Fouch was sent on several missions to
ensure the loyalty of the provinces. In October he was sent to Lyon to punish that city for
rebelling against the Convention. The rebels were executed by the guillotine or by mass
shootings (mitraillades), and beautiful buildings were destroyed. Fouchs role cannot be
denied, but nonetheless, when the majority of the Committee of Public Safety, under pressure
from Robespierre, began to criticize the massacres and dechristianization, Fouch too
supported moderation. After the execution of the Hbertists, he was recalled to the Convention
(April 1794). In June he became president of the Jacobin society but abandoned it after
Robespierres attacks and amassed a hostile coalition that contributed to Robespierres fall in
July. Under the Directory (179599) Fouch was a Jacobin. After the coup detat of September
4, 1797, had excluded the royalists from legislative councils, he was made an envoy to Milan
and then to The Hague.
On July 20, 1799, he became minister of police and warmly supported Napoleon
Bonapartes coup detat of 18 Brumaire (November 9, 1799). Thereafter he also organized the
secret police. However, in August 1802 his ministry was suppressed because of his efforts to
prevent the Senate from making Bonaparte consul for life. Fouchs departure from office
disorganized the police, and the ministry was reestablished for him after his support of the
Senates proclamation of the empire. He was made count of the Empire (1808) and duc
dOtrante (1809). In June 1809 he became minister of the interior as well as of the police.
The prolonged wars and especially the Spanish rebellion made Fouch doubt the solidity of the
empire, and from 1807 he began to intrigue, mainly with the royalists and with England. In July
1809, Fouch, on his own authority, ordered a levy of the national guard throughout France.
This annoyed Napoleon, especially as the Parisian guard chose his enemies as leaders; and,
when Fouch was denounced, Napoleon dismissed him in October. He was, however, made
governor of the Roman states, but before leaving France his negotiations with England were
discovered and he was disgraced. He lived at Aix-en-Provence for three years. In order to get
him out of France, Napoleon made him governor of the Illyrian Provinces (1812), and after the
occupation of these provinces by the Austrians, he was sent on a mission to Naples in which he
seems to have played a double game with Napoleon and Joachim Murat, king of Naples.
After Napoleons fall, Fouch returned to Paris in April 1814 but was ignored by Louis XVIII,
against whom he therefore intrigued. When he was finally offered the Ministry of Police he
refused, although he accepted it from Napoleon on his return from Elba. During the Hundred
Days, Fouch recommended liberalism to Napoleon and kept on good terms with Louis
XVIII and Austria. After Waterloo he made Napoleon agree to a second abdication and was
elected president of a provisional government. Louis XVIII made him minister of police, but the
ultraroyalists soon forced his resignation and he became minister plenipotentiary to Dresden.
He was proscribed as a regicide on January 5, 1816. He then lived in Prague, Linz, and Trieste.