Siey�s, Emmanuel Joseph, called the Abb� Siey�s 1748-1836
French cleric and political theorist

Born in Fr�jus, he studied theology. He became canon at Tr�guier (1775), then chancellor and vicar-general of Chartres (1788), and as such was sent to the assembly of the clergy of France. His three pamphlets gained him popularity: Vues sur les moyens d'ex�cution (1788, 'Views on the Methods of Execution'), Essai sur les privil�ges (1788, 'Essay on the Privileged'), and, the most famous of all, Qu'est-ce que le tiers-�tat? (1789, 'What is the Third Estate?'). He was elected to the Estates General, and suggested the name National Assembly when it was united into one body. He was a prominent figure in the early years of the French Revolution, being one of the founders of the Jacobin club. As the Revolution became more extreme, he withdrew from centre stage, and became famous for his reply to the question as to what he had done during the Revolution: 'I survived'. He became one of the Directors, and in 1799 was a leading figure in the Brumaire coup that brought Napoleon I to power. He withdrew from public life under the First Empire; he was exiled at the Restoration (1815) and lived in Brussels until 1830, when the July Revolution allowed him to return to Paris.