Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès

Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès
Abbé Sieyès (1817)
President of the Conservative Senate
In office
27 December 1799  13 February 1800
PresidentNapoleon Bonaparte
Succeeded byFrançois Barthélemy
Provisional Consul of France
In office
10 November 1799  12 December 1799
Preceded byOffice created
Succeeded byJean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès (as Second Consul)
Member of the Directory
In office
17 June 1799  10 November 1799
Preceded byJean-François Rewbell
President of the Council of Five Hundred
In office
21 November 1797  20 December 1797
Preceded byFrançois-Toussaint Villers
Succeeded byAntoine Boulay de la Meurthe
President of the National Convention
In office
20 April 1795  5 May 1795
Preceded byFrançois Antoine de Boissy d'Anglas
Succeeded byThéodore Vernier
Member of the National Convention
In office
20 September 1792  2 November 1795
ConstituencyVar
Member of the Estates General for the Third Estate
In office
5 May 1789  9 July 1789
ConstituencyVar
Personal details
Born(1748-05-03)3 May 1748
Fréjus, France
Died20 June 1836(1836-06-20) (aged 88)
Paris, France
Resting placePère Lachaise Cemetery
Political partyThe Plain (1791–1795)
EducationSaint-Sulpice Seminary
ProfessionCatholic priest, writer
Signature

Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès (3 May 1748  20 June 1836), usually known as the Abbé Sieyès (traditional French pronunciation: [sijɛːs]; modern pronunciation: [sjejɛs]), was a French Catholic priest, abbé, and political writer who was a leading political theorist of the French Revolution (1789–1799); he also held offices in the governments of the French Consulate (1799–1804) and the First French Empire (1804–1815). His pamphlet What Is the Third Estate? (1789) became the political manifesto of the Revolution, which facilitated transforming the Estates-General into the National Assembly, in June 1789. He was offered and refused an office in the French Directory (1795–1799). After becoming a director in 1799, Sieyès was among the instigators of the Coup of 18 Brumaire (9 November), which installed Napoleon Bonaparte in power.

In addition to his political and clerical life, Sieyès coined the term "sociologie", and contributed to the nascent social sciences.