page_title: Charles-François Lebrun
section_title: Consulate, Empire, and Restoration
hierarchical_section_title: Charles-François Lebrun / Biography / Consulate, Empire, and Restoration
caption_attribution_description: English: Histoire Naturelle 1810 - Painting in the entrance of Herengracht 40 in Amsterdam with the portrait of Charles François LeBrun, Napoleons Gouverneur to the Netherlands. Peter Korver 2011 (Photo; Eddy Wenting) Nederlands: Histoire Naturelle 1810 - Schildering in de entree van Herengracht 40 te Amsterdam met het portret van Charles François LeBrun, Napoleons Gouverneur in de Nederlanden. Peter Korver 2011 (Foto; Eddy Wenting)
context_page_description: Charles-François Lebrun, 1st duc de Plaisance, was a French statesman who served as Third Consul of the French Republic and was later created Arch-Treasurer and Prince of the Empire by Napoleon I.
context_section_description: Lebrun was made Third Consul following Napoleon Bonaparte's 18 Brumaire coup in the Year VIII (9–10 November 1799; see French Consulate). In this capacity, he took an active part in Napoleon's reorganization of the national finances and in the administration of France's départements. He was made a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in 1803, and in 1804, he was appointed Arch-Treasurer of the French Empire. From 1805 to 1806, he was governor-general of Liguria, during which time he completed its annexation by France.
  He opposed Napoleon's restoration of the noblesse and, in 1808, only reluctantly accepted the title of duc de Plaisance (Duke of Piacenza), a rare, nominal, but hereditary duché grand-fief, extinguished in 1926. From 1811 to 1813, he served as governor-general of a part of the annexed Netherlands, reorganizing its départements - Zuyderzée and Bouches-de-la-Meuse. He was assisted by Antoine de Celles and Goswin de Stassart.
  Although to a certain extent opposed to the autocracy of the Emperor, he was not in favor of his deposition, although he accepted the fait accompli of the Bourbon Restoration in April 1814. Louis XVIII made him a Peer of France, but during the subsequent Hundred Days, he accepted from Napoleon the post of grand maître de l'Université. As a consequence, he was suspended from the House of Peers when the Bourbons returned again in 1815, but was recalled in 1819. He died five years later in Sainte-Mesme (then in Seine-et-Oise, now in Yvelines).
caption: Histoire Naturelle, 1810 - one of the paintings recently installed in the entrance of Herengracht 40 in Amsterdam, this one with the portrait of Charles-François LeBrun, Napoleon's governor of the Netherlands
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