PIERRE

See also:

• ROGER (d. 1139)
• ROGER (d. 1181)

ROGER

See also:

• PIERRE ROGER DUCOS (1754-1816)

DUCOS (1754-1816)  , French politician and director, was born at Dax . He was an advocate when elected deputy to the Convention by the department of the Landes . He sat in the " Plain," i.e. in the party which had no opinion of its own, which always leaned to the stronger side . He voted for the death of Louis XVI., without appeal or delay, but played no noticeable part in the Convention . He was a member of the Council of the Five Hundred, over which he presided on the 18th of Fructidor in the year V . (see FRENCH REVOLUTION) . At the end of his term he became a judge of the peace, but after the parliamentary coup d'etat of the 3oth of Prairial of the year VIII. he was named a member of the executive Directory, thanks to the influence of Barras, who counted on using him as a passive instrument . Ducos accepted the coup d'etat of Bonaparte on the 18th of Brumaire, and was one of the three provisional consuls . He became vice-president of the senate . The Empire heaped favours upon him, but in 1814 he abandoned Napoleon, and voted for his deposition . He sought to gain the favour of the government of the Restoration, but in 1816 was exiled in virtue of the law against the regicides . He died in March 1816 at Ulm, from a carriage accident .

In spite of his

absolute lack of talent, he attained the highest of positions—an exceptional fact in the history of the French Revolution .