Born in 1755 at Lohenpoux, Provence; died at Chaillot, near
Paris, 1829.
He entered the army at the age of eighteen, went with his regiment to
the Ile de France in 1775, and eventually joined the French Indian Army
at Pondicherry. After the capture of that town he took service under
Suffren, and spent some time at the Cape of Good Hope, returning to
France with the rank of captain.
He then proceeded to lead a life of debauchery and extravagance. Many
ruined rakes perceived in the Revolution a chance, as they thought, of
retrieving their fallen fortunes; among such was Barras. He was present
at the attack on the Bastille in 1789, and at the sack of the Tuileries
three years later. He was a member of the Convention, and voted for the
instant execution of Louis XVI. without appeal.
As a delegate to the South of France he assisted in those sanguinary
repressions of the revolt against the Republic in Provence. At Nice
he arrested Brunet and Trogoff, whom he accused of ceding Toulon to
the English. He was present at the siege and capture of that town,
and helped to carry out horrible massacres of supposed traitors.
Nevertheless, he was an object of distrust to Robespierre, who disliked
the intense immorality of his private life, and doubted the sincerity
of his Republicanism. Barras therefore directed his efforts towards
the overthrow of the _Montagne_, and was the principal instigator
of the events of Thermidor, which led to the fall of Robespierre.
Later he obtained control of the home military force--and the
Presidency of the Convention. He declared Paris in a state of siege,
and when the mob surrounded the Assembly, shouting for bread and the
Constitution of 1793, he directed the armed force which dispersed the
people.
To him Bonaparte owed the command, by which the latter, in the name of
Barras, suppressed the attempted Royalist revolution.
During the Directorate, Barras reigned practically alone until the
advent of Sièyes. He amassed a vast fortune, although during his
official reign he squandered money lavishly upon his pleasures and
lived in great state.
The Revolution of the 18th Brumaire annulled his political power, and
he sought and obtained permission to leave Paris.
During the rest of his life he ceased to be a man of any public
importance; he was frequently exiled, and perpetually intriguing with
the Bourbons. After the second Restoration he returned to Paris, and
settled at Chaillot, where he died at the age of seventy-four.