Joseph, Duke of Otranto (Le
PeIlerin, May 21, 1759 - Trieste, December 26, 1820).
He was prefect of studies with the Oratorians of Nantes when the French Revolution broke out. He embraced the cause with ardor, and was elected in 1792 by the city of Nantes to the Convention, where he was a member of the committee of public instruction. He was part of the Girondins party before voting for the death of Louis XVI and switching to the benches of the Montagnards.
In Nièvre and Côte-d'Or in 1793, he was the leader of the dechristianization movement and anti-nobility repression.
With Collot d'Herbois, he was appointed by the Convention to repress the Lyon insurrection and caused terror to reign there. He was responsible for carrying out the decree which ordered the destruction of this city and took part in the cruelties which were then committed:on this occasion, he earned the nickname of "machine gunner of Lyon", for having replaced the guillotine, which was considered too slow, the mass execution of insurgents by grapeshot. Subsequently, after the ebb of the Terror, he tried to blame Collot d'Herbois.
Driven out of the Convention after the fall of Robespierre, he obtained the protection of Barras. He became one of the main supporters of the 9 Thermidor coup. Appointed Minister of Police after the coup of 30 Prairial Year VII (June 18, 1799), by Barras, he refrained from any police intervention.
He displayed in this position a great activity as well as a rare sagacity, and rendered service to Napoleon Bonaparte during the coup d'etat of 18 brumaire year VIII (9 November 1799) taking no action against it. Without having confidence in his probity, the First Consul kept him in his post and he thus kept his portfolio of minister.
But on 26 Fructidor Year X (September 13, 1802), criticized by Talleyrand, his lifelong enemy, and Bonaparte's brothers, he was dismissed, the ministry was dissolved, retaining however a role in the arrest of Pichegru, Moreau and the Duke of Enghien. As compensation, Napoleon offered him a seat in the Senate (Sénatorie d'Aix) and a bonus of one million two hundred thousand francs.
He again became Minister of Police in July 1804 and remained so until June 1810. Count of the Empire in 1808, Duke of Otrante in 1809, he was again disgraced for having tried to submit peace talks with England to Minister Arthur Wellesley.
Thanks to a return to grace and after the Russian campaign, he was appointed governor of the Illyrian Provinces in 1813, a very difficult position. Once in the Provinces, he shows moderation there, he pleads for the total abolition of serfdom, fully plays his role as governor by organizing receptions for local notables, and by taking an interest in the problems of the population. He only fled from Laybach (now Ljubljana) a few days before the arrival of the Austrians to continue to convince the population that there was nothing to worry about. He again betrayed the Emperor with Joachim Murat in 1814, and found himself in Paris to offer the Count of Artois (the future Charles X) the lieutenancy general of the kingdom after the imperial defeat.
He was again appointed Minister of Police during the Hundred Days. After the defeat at Waterloo, he became president of the provisional government, and negotiated with the allied powers. On July 9, 1815, he became minister to Louis XVIII. The latter appointed him, to get rid of him, ambassador to Dresden.
Then I went to His Majesty's:introduced into one of the rooms which preceded that of the king, I found no one; I sat down in a corner and waited. Suddenly a door opens:Vice enters silently leaning on the arm of crime, M. de Talleyrand walking supported by M. Fouché; the infernal vision passes slowly in front of me, enters the king's study and disappears. Fouché came to swear faith and homage to his lord; the feudal regicide, on his knees, placed his hands which caused the head of Louis XVI to fall into the hands of the brother of the martyr king; the apostate bishop was surety for the oath. François-René de Chateaubriand, Memories from Beyond the Grave
Struck by the ordinance of January 12, 1816, as having voted the death of Louis XVI, he was proscribed and exiled as a regicide. He died in exile in Trieste in 1820, assisted by Prince Jérome Bonaparte, who, under his orders and supervision, burned all his papers for five hours. Thus undoubtedly disappeared the secret history of the Directory, the Consulate and the First Empire.
His ashes did not return to France until 1875 to be placed in the cemetery of Ferrières-en-Brie.