thumb|joseph fouchÃ© joseph fouchÃ©, 1st duc d'otrante (21 may 1759 le pellerin, near nantes, france â 25 december 1820 trieste, then part of the austrian empire, now italy) was a french statesman and minister of police under napoleon i. in english texts, his title is often translated as duke of otranto. ==youth== fouchÃ© was born in le pellerin, a small village near nantes. his mother was marie franÃ§oise croizet (1720â1793), and his father was julien joseph fouchÃ© (1719â1771). he was educated at the college of the oratorians at nantes, and showed aptitude for literary and scientific studies. wanting to become a teacher, he was sent to an institution kept by brethren of the same order in paris. there he made rapid progress, and was soon appointed to tutorial duties at the colleges of niort, saumur, vendÃ´me, juilly and arras. at arras he had had some encounters with maximilien robespierre both before the revolution and in the early days of the french revolution (1789). in october 1790, he was transferred by the oratorians to their college at nantes, in an attempt to control his advocacy of revolutionary principles - however, fouchÃ© became even more of a democrat. his talents and anti-clericalism brought him into favour with the population of nantes, especially after he became a leading member of the local jacobin club. when the college of the oratorians was dissolved in may 1792, fouchÃ© gave up the church, whose major vows he had not taken. ==a revolutionary republican== after the downfall of the monarchy on 10 august 1792 (following the storming of the royal tuileries palace), he was elected as deputy for the dÃ©partment of the loire-infÃ©rieure to the national conventionâwhich met on 22 september and proclaimed the french republic. fouchÃ©'s interests brought him into contact with the marquis de condorcet and the girondists, and he became a girondist himself. however, their lack of support for the trial and execution of king louis xvi (december 1792 - 21 january 1793) led him to join the jacobins, the more decided partisans of revolutionary doctrine. fouchÃ© was strongly in favor of the king's immediate execution, and denounced those who wavered. the crisis that resulted from the declaration of war by the convention against great britain and the dutch republic (1 february 1793, see french revolutionary wars), and a little later against spain, made fouchÃ© famous as one of the jacobin radicals holding p
1759_births 1820_deaths Deputies_to_the_French_National_Convention Dukes_of_the_First_French_Empire French_diplomats French_essayists French_interior_ministers French_police_chiefs French_political_writers French_spies Illyrian_Provinces Members_of_the_Chambre_des_reprA(c)sentants_de_France Members_of_the_SA(c)nat_conservateur People_from_Loire-Atlantique People_of_the_Reign_of_Terror Regicides_of_Louis_XVI ReprA(c)sentants_en_mission Spies_of_the_French_Revolutionary_and_Napoleonic_Wars