Paul François Jean Nicolas, vicomte de Barras

Paul François Jean Nicolas, Vicomte de Barras ( , ; 30 June 1755 – 29 January 1829), commonly known as Paul Barras, was a French politician of the French Revolution, and the main executive leader of the Directory regime of 1795–1799.

Early life Descended from a noble family of Provence, he was born at Fox-Amphoux, in today's Var département. At the age of sixteen, he entered the regiment of Languedoc as a "gentleman cadet". In 1776, he embarked for French India.

Shipwrecked on his voyage, he still managed to reach Pondicherry in time to contribute to the defence of that city during the Second Anglo-Mysore War.

He took part in a second expedition to the region in 1782/83, serving in the fleet of the renowned Admiral Pierre André de Suffren. When Barras became Director, he gave Napoleon position of general in the battalion of Italians.

Thermidor and the Directory

James Gillray's caricature of 1805. Barras being entertained by the naked dancing of two wives of prominent men, Thérésa Tallien and Joséphine Bonaparte. On the right, Napoleon Bonaparte takes a peek.

In 1794, Barras sided with the men who sought to overthrow Maximilien Robespierre's faction. The Thermidorian Reaction of 27 July 1794 made him rise to prominence. In the next year, when the Convention felt threatened by the malcontent National Guards of Paris, it appointed Barras to command the troops engaged in its defence. His nomination of Bonaparte led to the adoption of violent measures, ensuring the dispersion of royalists and other malcontents in the streets near the Tuileries Palace, remembered as the 13 Vendémiaire (5 October 1795). Subsequently, Barras became one of the five Directors who controlled the executive of the French Republic.

Owing to his intimate relations with Joséphine de Beauharnais, Barras helped to facilitate a marriage between her and Bonaparte. Some of his contemporaries alleged that this was the reason behind Barras's nomination of Bonaparte to the command of the army of Italy early in the year 1796. Bonaparte's success gave the Directory unprecedented stability, and when, in the summer of 1797, the royalist and surviving Girondist opposition again met the government with resistance, Bonaparte sent General Charles-Pierre Augereau, a Jacobin, to repress their movement in the Coup of 18 Fructidor (4 September 1797).

Downfall and later life

Bonaparte met little resistance during his 18 Brumaire coup of November 1799. Barras supported the change of government, but was left aside by the First Consul when the latter reshaped the government of France.

Since he had amassed a large fortune, Barras spent his later years in luxury. Napoleon had him confined to the Château de Grosbois (Barras's property), then exiled to Brussels and Rome, and ultimately, in 1810, interned in Montpellier; set free after the fall of the Empire, he died in Chaillot (now Paris), and was interred in Père Lachaise Cemetery. Although a partisan of the Second Restoration, Barras was kept in check during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X (and his Memoirs were censored after his death).

Films and television In Abel Gance‘s epic 1927 film Napoléon, the role of Barras was played by Max Maxudian.

Richard McCabe played Barras in the Napoleon episode of the BBC series Heroes and Villains (2007).

Barras was portrayed by Tahar Rahim in the 2023 film Napoleon.