France

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The Council of Five Hundred (Conseil des Cinq-Cents), or simply the Five Hundred was the lower house of the legislature of France during the period commonly known (from the name of the executive branch during this time) as the Directory (Directoire), from August 22, 1795 until November 9, 1799, roughly the second half of the period generally referred to as the French Revolution. The upper house was the Council of Ancients (Conseil des Anciens).

Besides functioning as a legislative body, the Council of Five Hundred proposed the list out of which the Ancients chose five Directors, who jointly held executive power.

Napoleon Bonaparte led a group of grenadiers who drove the Council from its chambers and installed himself as leader of France as its the First Consul in the Coup d'État of Eighteenth Brumaire.

Athens

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An earlier Council of 500 existed in ancient Athens. This Council was created by Cleisthenes around 500 BC, for preparing legislation in Athens' first attempts at democracy. All adult male citizens of Athens could vote to select members of the Council of 500. (from Pericles of Athens and the Birth of Democracy, by Donald Kagan)

see Boule (Ancient Greece)

French Revolution | Historical lower houses | 1795 establishments | 1799 disestablishments

Conseil des Cinq-Cents