Armand-Guy-Simon de Coetnempren, comte de Kersaint, in short Armand de Kersaint, was a French sailor and politician. A Girondin, Kersaint held important naval posts during the early stages of the French Revolution.
Comte de Koetnempren
The Girondins, or Girondists, were a political group during the French Revolution. From 1791 to 1793, the Girondins were active in the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention. Together with the Montagnards, they initially were part of the Jacobin movement. They campaigned for the end of the monarchy, but then resisted the spiraling momentum of the Revolution, which caused a conflict with the more radical Montagnards. They dominated the movement until their fall in the insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793, which resulted in the domination of the Montagnards and the purge and eventual mass execution of the Girondins. This event is considered to mark the beginning of the Reign of Terror.
The Girondins in the La Force Prison after their arrest, a woodcut from 1845
Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David
Brissot et 20 de ses complices condamnés à mort par le tribunal révolutionnaire (Brissot and 20 of his accomplices are sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Tribunal)
The Last Meal of the Girondins (François Flameng, c. 1850) — the body of Charles Éléonor Dufriche-Valazé, who stabbed himself in the courtroom, is in the foreground.
