My Life

Hello citizens of France! My full name is Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès and I am a representative of the Third Estate and a clergyman. I was born in the town of Frejus in southern France as the fifth child of my parents Honoré and Annabelle Sieyès. Originally I wanted to become a soldier and join the military but my poor health combined with my parent's religious lifestyle changed my choice of career. So instead I studied theology and engineering for 10 years at the seminary of Saint Sulpice in Paris to prepare myself for priesthood. Gossip spread around school for my interest in the sciences and "new philosophic principles". Despite my aversion towards religious education, I still managed to obtain my first theology ranking in 1770. It was a pretty slim shot since I was at the bottom of the list for passing candidates. Eventually in 1772 I was ordained as a priest and two years later I received my theology license. As a member of the Third Estate, I encouraged the other members to reunite our chamber as the National Assembly in response to the First Estate's decision to vote by order. I usually do not speak out often and the first time I did was when I proclaimed that I opposed the abolition of tithes and the confiscation of church lands. All I really wanted was to establish a constitution that listed the right of men and equality in France. I even wrote out a pamphlet that questioned the hierarchical order of France and the importance of the Third Estate. "What is the Third Estate? Everybody. What has it been hitherto in the political order? Nothing. What does it desire? Everything." However, this fatal opinion of accepting tithes discredited my reputation in the National Assembly and I was not able to regain my authority back. Maximilien Robespierre's ordinance excluded me and other former members from the position of spots in the Legislative Assembly. However, I was elected again to the National Convention which was the third national assembly of the French revolution. I sought a bourgeoise revolution of representative order "devoted to the peaceful pursuit of material comfort". My initial purposes were to persuade changes in a more passive way to establish a constitutional monarchy. Although I voted for the death of Louis XVI, it was not done fully of my own will and of the terms ascribed to me. Truthfully, even when the monarchy was doomed, I "continued to assert my belief in the monarchy".  However the execution of Louis XVI forcefully ended this with the reality of human nature. After wards I tried to organize my political ideas into a plan for France. I made an alliance with Bonaparte as a means to put my theories into practice. My beliefs took me quite a while to create yet Bonaparte reedited all of it and managed to achieve a coup within The Constitution of the Year VIII. The result of this though landed me the positoin of the Director of France. Later I retired from the post of provisional Consul which I had accepted after Brumaire, and became one of the first members and president of the Senat conservateur. This led to my concession to the large estate at Crosne that I received from Napoleon. After the plot of the Rue Saint-Nicaise in late December 1800, I as the senator defended the arbitrary and illegal processes whereby Bonaparte abolished the leading Jacobins.My retirement was during 1804 to 1814 until Napoleon briefly returned to power in 1815, thus I was named to the Chamber of Peers. After the Second Restoration, Louis XVIII expelled me from the Academy so I moved to Brussels, but returned to France after the July Revolution of 1830. Sadly not all of my goals were accomplished and I lived the rest of my life in Paris.