Barras came to the top of power in 1794, and when the French Directory was formed he became its president.
Paul François Jean Nicolas Barras, former President of the Directory in France, died on January 29, 1829. In the years before Napoleon came to power, Barras was more or less the most powerful man in France. Indeed, it was he who was responsible for the rise of young Bonaparte because he had participated in his appointment as commander of the French Revolutionary Army in Italy, which was Napoleon’s first high-level military command. There is a theory that she was assisted by Josephine de Beauharnais, with whom Barras was allegedly in a very close relationship, who married Napoleon at that time.
Barras was of noble descent and even had an aristocratic Viscount title (French vicomte de Barras). He fought in his youth in the French colonies of India. At the time of the attack on the Bastille at the beginning of the French Revolution, Barras was 34 years old. He came to the top of power in 1794, and when the French Directory was formed (a kind of government of five directors who headed France from 1795 to 1799), it was Barras who became its president. Interestingly, Barras was the only member of the Directors who held this position throughout his existence (the other four directors changed). In 1799, Barras left Bonaparte quite calmly, although he was later imprisoned and even remanded in custody. Still, Barras survived both Napoleon’s fall and his death on St. Helena.
He lived until 1829, and died in Chaillot (today part of Paris, at the age of 74).
