1.
Trial of Louis XVI
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The trial of Louis XVI was a key event of the French Revolution. It involved the trial of the former French king Louis XVI before the National Convention, the trial began on 3 December. On 4 December the Conventions president Bertrand Barère presented it with the indictment and we shall read you the act giving the offenses with which you are charged. On 20 June 1789, Louis shut down the Estates-General, resulting in the commoners swearing not to disband, Mailhe characterized this as an attack on the sovereignty of the people. Louiss answer, No laws then existed to prevent me from it and you ordered an army to march against the citizens of Paris and ceased only after the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789. Louiss answer, It was my right but I never had an intention of spilling blood, despite promises made to the National Constituent Assembly, Louis refused to acknowledge the abolition of feudalism, as stated in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. He invited troops to Versailles and feted them in a banquet where the tricolor cockade was trampled under foot resulting in the insurrectionary Womens March on Versailles on 5 October,1789. Louiss answer, My refusals were just, I never saw the desecration of the cockade, at Fête de la Fédération of 14 July 1790, Louis took an oath which Mailhe said he did not keep by conspiring with the counter-revolutionaries Antoine Omer Talon and Mirabeau. Louiss answer, I do not remember, Louis is accused of disbursing millions to effect this corruption and planning escape. Louiss answer, I felt no greater pleasure, than that of relieving the needy, Louis did attempt to escape to Verennes on 21 June 1791, protesting in writing the activities of the National Constituent Assembly. Louiss answer, Refer to what I told the assembly at that time and that Louis was complicit in the Champ de Mars Massacre on 17 July 1791. Louiss answer, I do know nothing of it, Louiss answer, This is my ministers fault. Louis supported the counter-revolutionary Arles rebellion, Louiss answer, I followed my ministers advice. When Avignon and the Comtat Venaissin were annexed to France following a referendum, Louis delayed, Louiss answer, I dont remember the delay and the fault lies in the commissioners, not me. Louis did nothing about the counter-revolutions in Nîmes, Montauban, Louiss answer, This was done by my ministers. Louis sent twenty-two battalions against the people of Marseilles who were marching to subdue the counter-revolutionaries of Arles, Louis received a letter from M. de Wittgenstein, Commandant General of the Army of Southern France asking for additional time to rally support for the throne. Louiss answer, I dont remember the letter and he doesnt work for me anymore, Louis paid his former bodyguards even after they emigrated out of France to Coblentz along with other noble émigrés. Louiss answer, I stopped paying the bodyguards after they emigrated, as for the nobles, I dont remember
2.
Charles Jean Marie Barbaroux
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Charles Jean Marie Barbaroux was a French politician of the Revolutionary period and Freemason. Born in Marseille, Barbaroux was educated at first by the local Oratorians, then studied law in Aix-en-Provence, in Paris, he was received in the Jacobin club, and contacted Jacques Pierre Brissot and the Rolands - Jean Marie Roland de la Platiere and Madame Roland. Afterwards, he got the Act of Accusation against the king adopted and he participated to the Constitution Committee that drafted the Girondin constitutional project. He succeeded in escaping, first to Caen, where he organized the Girondist rebellion, then to Saint-Émilion near Bordeaux, discovered, he attempted to shoot himself, but was only wounded, and was taken to Bordeaux, where he was guillotined once his identity was established. Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Barbaroux, Charles Jean Marie
3.
Paul Barras
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Paul François Jean Nicolas, vicomte de Barras, commonly known as Paul Barras, was a French politician of the French Revolution, and the main executive leader of the Directory regime of 1795–1799. Descended from a family of Provence, he was born at Fox-Amphoux. At the age of sixteen, he entered the regiment of Languedoc as a gentleman cadet, in 1776, he embarked for French India. Shipwrecked on his voyage, he managed to reach Pondicherry in time to contribute to the defence of that city during the Second Anglo-Mysore War. Besieged by British forces, the city surrendered on 18 October 1778, after the French garrison was released and he took part in a second expedition to the region in 1782/83, serving in the fleet of the renowned Admiral Pierre André de Suffren. Afterwards, he spent several years back home in France at leisure in relative obscurity, at the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789, he advocated the democratic cause, and became one of the administrators of the Var. In June 1792 he took his seat in the national court at Orléans. In January 1793, he voted with the majority for the execution of King Louis XVI, however, he was mostly absent from Paris on missions to the regions of the south-east of France. During this period, he made the acquaintance of Napoleon Bonaparte at the siege of Toulon, when Barras became Director, he gave Napoleon position of general in the battalion of Italians. In 1794, Barras sided with the men who sought to overthrow Maximilien Robespierres faction, the Thermidorian Reaction of 27 July 1794 made him rise to prominence. In the next year, when the Convention felt threatened by the malcontent National Guards of Paris, subsequently, Barras became one of the five Directors who controlled the executive of the French Republic. Owing to his relations with Joséphine de Beauharnais, Barras helped to facilitate a marriage between her and Bonaparte. Some of his contemporaries alleged that this was the reason behind Barras nomination of Bonaparte to the command of the army of Italy early in the year 1796. Barras alleged immorality in public and private life is cited as a major contribution to the fall of the Directory. In any case, Bonaparte met little resistance during his 18 Brumaire coup of November 1799, at the same time, Barras is seen as a supporter of the change, one left aside by the First Consul when the latter reshaped the government of France. Since he had amassed a fortune, Barras spent his later years in luxury. Although a partisan of the Second Restoration, Barras was kept in check during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X. Bibliography Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Barras, Paul François Nicolas, Napoleon, Symbol for an Age, A Brief History with Documents. A Dictionary of Napoleon and His Times, Barras, chef dEtat oublié by Pierre Temin
4.
Claude Basire
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Claude Basire was a French politician of the Revolutionary period. Born in Dijon, he became a deputy for the Côte-dOr in the Legislative Assembly, he made himself prominent by denouncing the Bourbon and the Tuileries Palaces comité autrichien. On 20 June 1792, he spoke in favor of the deposition of King Louis XVI, elected to the National Convention, he affiliated with The Mountain, opposing the adjournment of the kings trial, and voting in favor of his execution. He joined the attack upon the Girondists, but, as member of the Committee of General Security and he was implicated by François Chabot in the falsification of a decree relative to the East India Company. Attrition This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Bazire
5.
Jean Bassal
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Jean Bassal,12 September 1752, Béziers –3 May 1802, Paris, was a French Deputy, a Vincentian, and a revolutionary during the French Revolution. With other representatives on mission he sought to quell federalist impulses in the French provinces, as an aide to the famed Championnet he attempted the geographic and political reorganization of the Kingdom of Naples along republican lines. Member of the Congregation of the Mission before 1789 and vicar of Notre Dame, he took part in the outbreak of the French Revolution. As a juring priest, he was named to the parish of St. Louis on 10 April 1790, to the Executive Board of the department on 6 July 1790, and Vice President of the district in 1791. On 3 September 1791, he was elected with 299 votes out of 553 voters, as deputy of Seine-et-Oise to the Legislative Assembly, reelected to the Convention, he voted for the death without appeal or suspension, during the trial of Louis XVI. Bassal was named with Jacques Garnier de Saintes on the first mission in the Jura, the Ain and this process repeated itself in the Jura, the Ain, and the Côte dOr. Upon his return, he was elected secretary of the meeting, as secretary to the Directorys Consul in Basel, he was reported to have spied upon English agents in Switzerland. Bassal was also charged as a government commissioner to inspect the post offices of the border with Switzerland, in 1798, he went to Naples with Championnet. There, he sought to charge of the reform of the departments, reorganizing the elective. The Neopolitans objected to his seemingly arbitrary organizational methods, bassals project threw existing hierarchies into confusion, and became an unworkable disaster. These measures were part of broader efforts taken to secure the revolution in the Kingdom of Naples along the lines established in France. However, he was accused of causing trouble between the civilian and military commissioners and of seeking to benefit from the squander of public funds, subsequently, he returned to Milan when Championnet was recalled to Paris. Napoleons coup of 30 Prairial Year VII saved him from further prosecution and he retired to Paris, where he died in 1802 in obscurity
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Pierre-Louis Bentabole
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Pierre Louis Bentabole was a revolutionary Frenchman, born in Landau Haut Rhin on 4 June 1756 and died in Paris on 22 April 1798. As lawyer, he presided practiced in the district of Hagenau and Saverne and he voted to execute Louis XVI. On 6 October 1794, he was appointed to the Committee of Public Safety, Bentabole was the son of a military contractor who made his fortune providing food for the military during the Seven Years War. He studied law and was a lawyer in Colmar before the French Revolution, on 4 September 1792, he was elected to the National Convention for the Bas-Rhin, by 293 votes out of 386 possible. In 1792, he stood with the revolutionaries in Paris. In October, he urged the Convention to seek the death penalty for the King. At the trial of Louis XVI, he voted for the Kings death, I see Louis stained with the blood of his victims, for the peace of my country, for his happiness. A bitter enemy of the Girondins, he attacked them vehemently during the question of a plebiscite on whether to execute the King, true to the revolutionary ideals, Bentabole aligned with the Montagnards and he was one of its most ardent enthusiasts. He was faithful friend of Jean-Paul Marat, through this friendship with the so-called LAmi du peuple, Bentabole acquired the nickname Marat Cadet. The death of Marat on 14 July 1793, brought some of the frictions of the Montagnards to head. On the day following Marats assassination, the Convention rushed to praise Marat for his fervor, Robespierre did not join in the praise, simply calling for an inquiry into the circumstances of his death. The dispute between Bentabole and Robespierre continued, Robespierre saw no need neither to bury the body need Mirabeau, at the beginning of the year 1794, he was elected member of the Committee of War. In August 1793, he sent as a representative on mission to the Northern army, among the opinions offered to the Tribunal, I noticed Durand-Maillanes, for which I request that he give us a report. Every honest man should want that the freedom of opinion never be jeopardized by unproven charges or invective and we should not swear at men whom we look upon as weak beings in order to shackle the opinions that they only want to express for the good of the People. If someone here believes that they should make a serious reproach toward one of his colleagues, let him explain himself and stipulate the facts, let the accused be heard, and let us not seek to make people fear from threats. Only the conspirators should be afraid, yet, while watching the Terror spread around him, Bentabole could do little to stop it, or thought as much, and sought as much time as he could away from Paris. In January 1794, he accepted an assignment into Sarthe, during this mission that he started a relationship with a wealthy aristocrat widow Adelaide Charlotte Chabot, when he returned to Paris in March 1795, she came with him, as his wife. When Danton, and his Bentaboles friend Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles, were brought to trial for their treason, Hérault was also of an aristocratic background, another suspicious trait
7.
Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne
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Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne, also known as Jean Nicolas, was a French personality of the Revolutionary period. Though not one of the most well known figures of the French Revolution, Billaud-Varenne climbed his way up the ladder of power during the period of The Terror, becoming a member of the Committee of Public Safety. He was recognized and worked with French Revolution figures Georges Danton and Maximilien Robespierre, no, we will not step backward, our zeal will only be smothered in the tomb, either the Revolution will triumph or we will all die. Billaud-Varenne was born in La Rochelle as the son of a lawyer to the parlement of Paris, since both his grandfather and father were lawyers, and he was the first son in his direct family, Varenne was guaranteed a solid education and the same profession. Billaud-Varenne was educated at the College of Oratorians of Niort and took Philosophy at La Rochelle and his education at Niort was particularly important in shaping his character because its methods of teaching were uncommon to the revolution. At Niort, modernity and tolerance were emphasized, as opposed to overbearing, Billaud-Varenne was also sent to Oratory school at Juilly, where he later became a professor when he felt dissatisfied with practicing law. He then went to Paris, married and bought a position as lawyer in the parlement, in early 1789 he published at Amsterdam a three-volume work on the Despotisme des ministres de la France, and he adopted with enthusiasm the principles of the Revolution. Joining the Jacobin Club, Billaud-Varenne became, from 1790, one of the most violent anti-Royalist orators, after the flight to Varennes of King Louis XVI, he published a pamphlet, LAcéphocratie, in which he demanded the establishment of a federal republic. On 1 July, in speech at the Jacobin Club, he spoke of a republic. But when he repeated his demand for a republic a fortnight later, on the night of 10 August 1792 he was elected one of the deputy-commissioners of the sections who shortly afterwards became the general council of the Paris Commune. He was accused of having been an accomplice in the September Massacres in the Abbaye prison, at the trial of Louis XVI he added new charges to the accusation, proposed to refuse counsel to the king, and voted for death within 24 hours. On 15 July he made a violent speech in the Convention in accusation of the Girondists, sent in August as representative on mission to the départements of the Nord and of Pas-de-Calais, he showed himself inexorable to all suspects. Meanwhile, he published Les Éléments du républicanisme, in which he demanded a division of property among the citizens, becoming concerned about his own safety, he turned against Robespierre, whom he attacked on 8 Thermidor as a moderate and a Dantonist. Surprised by the Thermidorian Reaction, he denounced its partisans to the Jacobin Club and he was then attacked himself in the Convention for his ruthlessness, and a commission was appointed to examine his conduct and that of some other members of the former Committee of Public Safety. After Napoleon Bonapartes 18 Brumaire coup, he refused the pardon offered by the French Consulate, in 1816 he left Guiana, went to New York City for a few months, and finally took refuge in Port-au-Prince, where he died of dysentery. Despotisme des ministres de France, combattu par les droits de la Nation, par les loix fondamentales, Mémoires écrits au Port-au-Prince en 1818, contenant la relation de ses voyages et aventures dans le Mexique, depuis 1815 jusquen 1817. Billaud Varenne membre du comité de salut public, Mémoires inédits et Correspondance, accompagnés de notices biographiques sur Billaud Varenne et Collot dHerbois, Paris, Librairie de la Nouvelle Revue,1893. Attribution This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Billaud-Varenne
8.
Jacques Pierre Brissot
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Jacques Pierre Brissot, who assumed the name of de Warville, was a leading member of the Girondist movement during the French Revolution. Some sources give his name as Jean Pierre Brissot, Brissot was born at Chartres, where his father was an innkeeper. He received an education and worked as a law clerk, first in Chartres then in Paris and he later moved to London because he wanted to pursue a literary career. He published many literary articles throughout his time in London, while there, he Brissot founded two periodicals that later did not do well and failed. He married Félicité Dupont, who translated English works, including Oliver Goldsmith and they lived in London, and had three children. In the preface of Théorie des lois criminelles, Brissot explains that he submitted an outline of the book to Voltaire, Théorie des lois criminelles was a plea for penal reform. Brissot became known as a writer and was engaged on the Mercure de France, soon after his return to Paris, Brissot was placed in the Bastille in 1784 on the charge of having published a pornographic pamphlet Passe-temps de Toinette against the queen. Brissot had an out with Catholicism, and wrote about his disagreements with the churchs hierarchal system. In1791, Brissot along with Marquis de Condorcet, Thomas Paine, as an agent of the society, he paid a visit to the United States in 1788, and subsequently published in 1791 his Nouveau Voyage dans les États-Unis de lAmérique septentrionale. Brissot believed that American ideals could help improve French government and he was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1789. At one point, he was interested in uprooting his family to America, Thomas Jefferson, ambassador in Paris at the time was familiar enough with him to note, Warville is returned charmed with our country. He is going to carry his wife and children to settle there, however, such an emigration never happened. The rising ferment of revolution sucked him back into schemes for progress through political journalism that would make him a household name. From the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789, Brissot became one of its most vocal supporters and he edited the Patriote français from 1789 to 1793 and took a prominent part in politics. Famous for his speeches at the Jacobin Club, he was elected a member of the municipality of Paris, then of the Legislative Assembly, at the National Convention, Brissot represented Eure-et-Loir. Shortly thereafter, Brissot began to align himself with the more conservative Girondins, the Girondins, or Brissotins as they were often called, were a group of loosely affiliated individuals, many of whom came from Gironde, rather than an organized party with a clear ideology. This group was first led by Brissot, following the arrest of King Louis XVI on charges of high treason and crimes against the State, there was much division over what the fate of the king should be. While many argued to end the life and send him to the guillotine, Brissot
9.
Pierre-Joseph Cambon
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Pierre-Joseph Cambon was a French statesman. Born in Montpellier, Cambon was the son of a cotton merchant. Elected to the Legislative Assembly, Cambon was viewed as independent, honest and he was the most active member of the committee of finance and was often charged to verify the state of the treasury. His analytical skills were recorded in his speech of 24 November 1791. This proposal was implemented in 1792 when the Great Book of the Public Debt was created as a consolidation of all the states debts and he held his distance from political clubs and even factions, but nonetheless defended the new institutions of the state. On 9 February 1792, he succeeded in having a law passed confiscating the possessions of the émigrés and he was the last president of the Legislative Assembly. Re-elected to the National Convention, Cambon opposed the pretensions of the Paris Commune, Cambon incurred the hatred of the theist Maximilien Robespierre by proposing the suppression of the pay to the clergy, which would have meant the separation of church and state. On 15 December 1792, he persuaded the Convention to adopt a proclamation to all nations in favour of a universal republic. Although he took part in toppling Robespierre in July 1794, Cambon was targeted and pursued by the Thermidorian Reaction, during the Hundred Days, he was a deputy to the lower chamber, but only took part in debates over the budget. Proscribed by the Bourbon Restoration in 1816, he died at Saint-Josse-ten-Noode and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Cambon, Pierre Joseph
10.
Lazare Carnot
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Lazare Nicolas Marguerite, Count Carnot was a French politician, engineer, freemason and mathematician. He was known as the Organizer of Victory in the French Revolutionary Wars, born on May 13,1753 in the village of Nolay, Côte-dOr, Carnot was the son of local judge and royal notary, Claude Carnot and his wife, Marguerite Pothier. He was the second oldest of eighteen children, at the age of fourteen, Lazare and his brother were enrolled at the Collège d’Autun, in Burgundy where he focused on the study of philosophy and the classics. He held a belief in stoic philosophy and was deeply influenced by Roman civilization. When he turned fifteen, he left the Collège d’Autun to strengthen his philosophical knowledge, during his short time with them, he studied logic, mathematics and theology under the Abbe Bison. Here, he was enrolled in M. de Longpres pension school in 1770 until he was ready to enter one of two engineering and artillery schools in Paris. A year later, in February of 1771, he was ranked the third highest among twelve who were out of his class of more than one hundred who took the entrance exams. It was at point when he entered the Mézières School of Engineering appointed as second lieutenant. Studies at the Mézières included geometry, mechanics, geometrical designing, geography, hydraulics, on January 1,1773, he graduated the school ranked as first lieutenant. It was here where he met and studied with Benjamin Franklin and at the age of twenty, at this moment, he made a name for himself both in the line of theoretical engineering and in his work in the field of fortifications. While in the army, he continued his study of mathematics and this publication earned him the honor of admittance to a literary society. In that same year, he received a promotion to the rank of captain. At the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, Carnot entered political life and he became a delegate to the Legislature in 1791. While a member of the Legislative Assembly, Carnot was elected to the Committee for Public Instruction, after the Legislative Assembly was dissolved, Carnot was elected to the National Convention in 1792. He spent the last few months of 1792 on a mission to Bayonne, upon returning to Paris, Carnot voted for the death of King Louis XVI, although he had been absent for the debates surrounding the king’s trial. On 14 August 1793 Carnot was elected to the Committee of Public Safety, with the establishment of the Directory in 1795, Carnot became one of the five initial directors. For the first year, the Directors did well working harmoniously together as well as with the Councils, Carnot and Barthélemy supported concessions to end the war, and hoped to oust the triumvirate and replace them with more conservative men. Carnot took refuge in Geneva, and there in 1797 issued his La métaphysique du calcul infinitésimal, the creation of the French Revolutionary Army was largely due to his powers of organization and enforcing discipline
11.
Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois
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Jean-Marie Collot dHerbois was a French actor, dramatist, essayist, and revolutionary. Born in Paris, Collot left his home in the rue St. Jacques in his teens to join the travelling theatres of provincial France, in 1784 he became director of the theatre in Geneva, Switzerland, and then at the prestigious playhouse at Lyon in 1787. He contributed to revolutionary agitation from the beginning, but it was not until 1791 that he became a figure of importance. With the publication of LAlmanach du Père Gérard, a book advocating a constitutional monarchy in popular terms and his fame was soon increased by his involvement on behalf of the Swiss of the Château-Vieux Regiment, condemned to the galleys for mutiny at Nancy. Collot dHerbois efforts resulted in their freedom, he went to Brest in search of them, and a civic feast was held on his behalf and theirs and his opinions became more and more radical. Collot dHerbois was a member of the Paris Commune during the insurrection of 10 August 1792, on the first day of the Convention he was the first to demand the abolition of the French monarchy. Collot dHerbois later voted for the death of Louis XVI sans sursis and he was engaged in the struggle between the Mountain and the Girondists. After François Hanriots coup détat of 31 May 1793, he was conspicuous in his attack on the defeated Girondist party, along with his close friend Billaud-Varenne, he sat at the extreme left of the Convention, attacking speculators, and proposing egalitarian programmes. In June, he was president of the Convention, and in September he joined the Committee of Public Safety. After having entrusted him several missions to Nice, Nevers, and Compiègne. There, he introduced the Reign of Terror in its most violent form, with executions, including more than a hundred priests and nuns. His excessive behavior led the Committee of Public Safety to have Collot return to Paris as a suspect, may 1794 saw assassination attempts on both Collot and Maximilien Robespierre. Despite this change of heart, Collot dHerbois was accused of complicity with Robespierre and he was also one of the authors of the first French republican Constitution, which was written in 1793 but never applied. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Collot dHerbois. The 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica, in turn, cites as a reference, F. A. Aulard, Les Orateurs de la Legislative et de la Convention, t. ii. pp. 501–512. The principal documents relative to the trial of Collot dHerbois, Barère and Billaud-Varenne are indicated in Aulard, Recueil des actes du comité de salut public, t. i. pp.5 and 6. Much recent study has been done on Collot dHerbois, in Australia, Peter Bruces Jean-Marie Collot dHerbois dans son théâtre pré-révolutionnaire) and in France. A more easily obtainable work is R. R. Palmers Twelve Who Ruled, which contains a biographical account of the members of the Committee of Public Safety
12.
Georges Couthon
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Georges Auguste Couthon was a French politician and lawyer known for his service as a deputy in the Legislative Assembly during the French Revolution. Couthon played an important role in the development of the Law of 22 Prairial, Couthon was born on 22 December 1755 in Orcet in the province of Auvergne. His father was a notary, his mother the daughter of a shopkeeper, Couthon, like generations of his family before him, was a member of the lower bourgeoisie. Following in his father’s footsteps, Couthon became a notary, the skills he acquired enabled him to serve on the Provincial Assembly of Auvergne in 1787, his first experience of politics. He was well-regarded by others as an honest, well-mannered individual, as the Revolution grew nearer, Couthon started to become disabled due to advancing paralysis in both legs. His political aspirations took him away from Orcet and to Paris, while in Clermont, he became a fixture at its literary society, where he earned acclaim for his discussion on the topic of Patience. In 1791, Couthon became one of the deputies of the Legislative Assembly, in 1791, Couthon traveled to Paris to fulfill his duty as a deputy in the Legislative Assembly. He then joined the growing Jacobin Club of Paris and he chose to sit on the Left at the first meeting of the Assembly, but soon decided against associating himself with such radicals as he feared they were shocking the majority. He was a proficient speaker, and there is evidence that he exploited his condition as a paraplegic in order to gain the ear of the Assembly on issues he found important. In September 1792, Couthon was elected to the National Convention, at the Trial of Louis XVI in December 1792, he argued loudly against the Girondist request for a referendum. He would go on to vote for the sentence without appeal. On 30 May 1793, Couthon was elected to the Committee of Public Safety, three days after rising to this position, Couthon was the first to demand the arrest of proscribed Girondists. Growing unrest had been occurring in Lyon in late February and early May, Couthon would be the representative that Lyon would surrender to on 9 October 1793. He was suspicious of the unrest in Lyon upon his arrival, on 12 October 1793, the Committee of Public Safety passed a decree that they believed would make an example of Lyon. The decree specified that the city itself was to be destroyed, following the decree, Couthon established special courts that would supervise the demolition of the richest homes in Lyon, leaving the homes of the poor untouched. In addition to the demolition of the city, the decree dictated that the rebels, Couthon had difficulty accepting the destruction of Lyon and proceeded slowly with his orders. Eventually, he would find that he could not stomach the task at hand, Republican atrocities in Lyon began after Couthon was replaced on 3 November 1793 by Jean Marie Collot dHerbois, who would go on to condemn 1,880 Lyonnais by April 1794. Following his departure from Lyon, Couthon returned to Paris, and on 21 December and he contributed to the prosecution of the Hébertists and continued serving on the Committee of Public Safety for the next several months
13.
Georges Danton
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Georges Jacques Danton was a leading figure in the early stages of the French Revolution, in particular as the first president of the Committee of Public Safety. He was guillotined by the advocates of revolutionary terror after accusations of venality, Danton was born in Arcis-sur-Aube in northeastern France to Jacques Danton and Mary Camus, a respectable, but not wealthy family. As a child, he was attacked by animals, resulting in the disfigurement and scarring of the skin on his face. After obtaining an education he became an Advocate in Paris. He married Antoinette Gabrielle Charpentier on 14 June 1787 at the church of Saint-Germain-lAuxerrois in Paris, Danton was considered a very mischievous boy. Due to this, he went to different schools, also, he had a very high natural IQ. As a result, he was bored and disinterested in his classes. His first teacher was his grandfather and he was able to pass his classes with little effort, when he was 9, he was sent to a boys school. This is where Danton learned Latin and he was later sent to a school in Troyes for a year due to his mother thinking that he hasnt given up his mischievous ways as a child. Later, he attended a boarding house taught by Oratorians until he was 17, here, he learned more Latin and about the Bible, mainly the Acts of the Apostles and about Christian beliefs. He didnt really take to them, however, as early as age 12, he had already acquired the skills to become a leader. He led fellow classmates to either rebel or riot and this showed his leadership skills and how much his classmates already respected him at such a young age. He also consistently questioned authority, which will be seen later during the French revolution when he openly disrespected and called out Lafayette as a traitor during a meeting. At a young age, he had amazing writing and speech skills, as later during a competition, he took all the prizes for French discourse, Latin narration. Was highly influenced by thinkers of the time, such as Montesquieu. Studied at Reim University where he became a lawyer, later become bored of the career and became an orator. Was seen as a man of the people by then because he pleaded for the poor. Both his classmates, teachers and grandfather revered him as a prodigy and his amazing writing and speaking skills later made people give him the nickname “The Thunderer”
14.
Jacques-Louis David
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Jacques-Louis David was a French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. David later became a supporter of the French Revolution and friend of Maximilien Robespierre. Imprisoned after Robespierres fall from power, he aligned himself with yet another political regime upon his release, at this time he developed his Empire style, notable for its use of warm Venetian colours. After Napoleons fall from Imperial power and the Bourbon revival, David exiled himself to Brussels, then in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, where he remained until his death. David had a number of pupils, making him the strongest influence in French art of the early 19th century. Jacques-Louis David was born into a family in Paris on 30 August 1748. When he was nine his father was killed in a duel. He covered his notebooks with drawings, and he said, I was always hiding behind the instructors chair. Soon, he desired to be a painter, but his uncles and he overcame the opposition, and went to learn from François Boucher, the leading painter of the time, who was also a distant relative. Boucher was a Rococo painter, but tastes were changing, Boucher decided that instead of taking over Davids tutelage, he would send David to his friend, Joseph-Marie Vien, a painter who embraced the classical reaction to Rococo. There David attended the Royal Academy, based in what is now the Louvre, each year the Academy awarded an outstanding student the prestigious Prix de Rome, which funded a three- to five-year stay in the Eternal City. Each pensionnaire was lodged in the French Academys Roman outpost, which from the years 1737 to 1793 was the Palazzo Mancini in the Via del Corso. David competed for, and failed to win, the prize for three years, each failure contributing to his lifelong grudge against the institution. After his second loss in 1772, David went on a hunger strike, confident he now had the support and backing needed to win the prize, he resumed his studies with great zeal—only to fail to win the Prix de Rome again the following year. Finally, in 1774, David was awarded the Prix de Rome on the strength of his painting of Erasistratus Discovering the Cause of Antiochus Disease, a subject set by the judges. In October 1775 he made the journey to Italy with his mentor, Joseph-Marie Vien, while in Italy, David especially studied the works of 17th-century masters such as Poussin, Caravaggio, and the Carracci. Mengs principled, historicizing approach to the representation of classical subjects profoundly influenced Davids pre-revolutionary painting, such as The Vestal Virgin, mengs also introduced David to the theoretical writings on ancient sculpture by Johann Joachim Winckelmann, the German scholar held to be the founder of modern art history. In 1779, David toured the newly excavated ruins of Pompeii, while in Rome, David also assiduously studied the High Renaissance painters, Raphael making a profound and lasting impression on the young French artist
15.
Camille Desmoulins
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Lucie Simplice Camille Benoît Desmoulins, a journalist and politician, played an important role in the French Revolution. He was a friend of Maximilien Robespierre and a close friend and political ally of Georges Danton. Desmoulins was tried and executed alongside Danton when the Committee of Public Safety reacted against Dantonist opposition, Desmoulins was born at Guise, Aisne, in Picardy. His father, Jean Benoît Nicolas Desmoulins, was a rural lawyer, through the efforts of a friend, he obtained a scholarship for the fourteen-year-old Camille to enter the Collège Louis-le-Grand in Paris. Desmoulins proved an exceptional student even among such notable contemporaries as Maximilien Robespierre and he excelled in the study of Classical literature and politics, and gained a particular affinity for Cicero, Tacitus and Livy. Thus stymied, he turned towards writing as an outlet for his talents. In March 1789, Jean Benoît Nicolas Desmoulins was nominated as deputy to the Estates-General from the bailliage of Guise, however, due to illness, he failed to take his seat. Camille Desmoulins, himself limited to the role of spectator at the procession of the Estates-General on 5 May 1789, wrote a response to the event, Ode aux Etats Generaux. Owing to his difficulties in establishing a career as a lawyer, Desmoulins position in Paris was a precarious one, however, he was greatly inspired and enthused by the current of political reform that surrounded the summoning of the Estates-General. The sudden dismissal of popular finance minister Jacques Necker by King Louis XVI on 11 July 1789 proved the spark that lit the fuse of Desmoulins fame. On 12 July, spurred by the news of this politically unsettling dismissal, Desmoulins leapt onto a table outside the Cafe du Foy and delivered an impassioned call to arms. The stationing of a number of troops in Paris, many foreign, had led Desmoulins. This was an idea that his audience also found plausible and threatening, the cockades worn by the crowd were initially green, a color associated with liberty, and made at first from the leaves of the trees that lined the Palais Royal. The forces semi-organized under this banner attacked the Hôtel des Invalides to gain arms and, on 14 July, in May and June 1789, Desmoulins had written a radical pamphlet entitled La France Libre, which his publisher at that time had refused to print. The rioting surrounding the storming of the Bastille, however, and especially Desmoulins personal and publicized involvement in it, on 18 July, Desmoulinss work was finally issued. The politics of the pamphlet ran considerably in advance of public opinion, in it, Desmoulins called explicitly for a republic, popular and democratic government is the only constitution which suits France, and all those who are worthy of the name of men. La France Libre also examined and criticized in detail the role and rights of kings, of the nobility, a famous Revolutionary song, the Ça ira, also immortalizes this lantern, in the lines, Les aristocrates à la lanterne. This hard-edged fervor found an audience in Paris, and Desmoulins, as a result of the pamphlet
16.
Jean-Baptiste Drouet (French revolutionary)
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Jean-Baptiste Drouet was a French politician of the 1789 Revolution, chiefly noted for the part he played in the arrest of King Louis XVI during the Flight to Varennes. Born at Sainte-Menehould, Marne, he served for seven years in the army, for this service the Legislative Assembly awarded him 30,000 francs, but he appears to have declined the reward. In September 1792 he was elected deputy to the National Convention, sent as commissioner to the Army of the North, he was captured at the siege of Maubeuge in 1793 and imprisoned at Spielberg in Brno, Southern Moravia, until the close of the conflict in 1795. He returned to France in December 1795, exchanged with other revolutionaries against Marie Thérèse of France and he then became a member of the Directorys Council of Five Hundred, and was named secretary. He returned to France without being prosecuted, and took his seat in the Council with the Neo-Jacobins, by the First Empire, he had become a sub-préfet of Sainte-Menehould
17.
Roger Ducos
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Pierre Roger Ducos, better known as Roger Ducos, was a French political figure during the Revolution and First Empire, a member of the National Convention, and of the Directory. Born in Montfort-en-Chalosse, Aquitaine, he was elected deputy to the Convention by the département of the Landes and he voted for the death of King Louis XVI, without appeal or delay, but was not prominent in the Convention afterwards. Ducos was a member of the Council of Five Hundred, over which he presided on the 18th of Fructidor Coup and he was many times honored under the Empire, but in 1814 he abandoned Napoleon, and voted for his deposition. He sought to gain the favor of the government of the Restoration and he died in March 1816 near Ulm, from a carriage accident
18.
Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau
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Louis-Bernard Guyton, Baron de Morveau was a French chemist and politician. He is credited with producing the first systematic method of chemical nomenclature, Guyton de Morveau was born in Dijon, where he served as a lawyer, then avocat général, of the Dijon parlement. In 1773, already interested in chemistry, he proposed use of acid gas for fumigation of buildings. However, chlorine was not well characterized at that time, in 1782 he resigned this post to dedicate himself to chemistry, collaborating on the Encyclopédie Méthodique and working for industrial applications. He performed various services in this role, and founded La Société des Mines et Verreries in Saint-Bérain-sur-Dheune. He developed the first system of chemical nomenclature, in 1783, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and in 1788 a Fellow of the Royal Society. Although a member of the wing, he voted in favor of the execution of King Louis XVI. He himself flew in a balloon during the battle of Fleurus on 26 June 1794 and he was among the founders of the École Polytechnique and the École de Mars, and was a professor of mineralogy at the Polytechnique. He became a member of the Académie des sciences in chemistry, on 20 November 1795. In 1798 he married Claudine Picardet, a widowed friend. Under the Directory, he served on the Council of Five Hundred from 1797, elected from Ille-et-Vilaine, with Hugues Maret and Jean François Durande he also published the Élémens de chymie théorique et pratique. During his lifetime, Guyton de Morveau received the cross of the Legion of Honour and was made an Officer of the Legion of Honour for service to humanity and he was made a baron of the First French Empire in 1811. Guyton de Morveau died in Paris on 2 January 1816
19.
Maximin Isnard
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Maximin Isnard, French revolutionary, was a dealer in perfumery at Draguignan when he was elected deputy for the département of the Var to the Legislative Assembly, where he joined the Girondists. Born in 1755, he was the last son of Maximin Isnard and he became perfumer in Draguignan before opening a factory specializing in silk and soap. Isnard was quickly a revolutionary in accepting new ideas at the beginning of the Revolution, on 9 September 1791, he was elected member of Legislative Assembly by the department of Var, in southeastern of France (district of Draguignan. Isnard was linked to Brissot and sat at the left of the Assembly and he was very violent in his talks. For example, in his opinion, the French State had to all priests who have not accepted the Revolution. He supported the brissotins who wanted a war against foreign countries, attacking the court, and the Austrian committee in the Tuileries, he demanded the disbandment of the kings bodyguard, and reproached Louis XVI for infidelity to the constitution. But on 20 June 1792, when the crowd invaded the palace, he was one of the deputies who went to place themselves beside the king to protect him. Elected to the National Convention in September 1792, he was sent to the army of the North, near Nice, to justify the insurrection, he announced the take of Sospel and went back to Paris in autumn. He voted for the death of Louis XVI in January 1793 and he was elected President of the Convention on 16 May 1793. On 3 October, however, his arrest was decreed along with that of several other Girondist deputies who had left the Convention and were fomenting civil war in the departments. Initially proscribed during the Thermidorian Reaction, he was allowed to return to the Convention on December 4,1794, seating to the Right, he became an adversary of more extremist revolutionaries. In May 1795, he was sent to the département of Bouches-du-Rhône to uncover and prosecute fleeing Jacobins, on 13 October 1795, now regarded as a royalist, he was elected deputy for the Var to the Council of Five Hundred, where he played a very insignificant role. In 1797 he retired to Draguignan and he was a supporter of Napoléon Ier, who named him Baron in 1813. Upon the restoration he professed such royalist sentiments that he was not disturbed, in 1825, he died in Grasse, in a deep anonymity. See FA Aulard, Les Orateurs de la Legislative et de la Convention, French Revolution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed
20.
Joseph Lakanal
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Joseph Lakanal was a French politician, and an original member of the Institut de France. Born in Serres, Ariège, his name was originally Lacanal and he studied theology, and joined one of the teaching congregations, and for fourteen years taught in their schools. He was professor of rhetoric at Bourges, and of philosophy at Moulins and he was elected by his native département to the National Convention of the French Republic in 1792, where he sat until 1795, Lakanal was one of the noted administrators of the French Revolution. At the time of his election, he was acting as vicar to his uncle Bernard Font, in the Convention, he sat with The Mountain and voted for the execution of King Louis XVI. In October 1793, he was sent by the Convention to the south-western départements and he became president of the Education Committee, and promptly abolished the system which had had Robespierres support. In 1799 he was sent by the Directory to organize the defence of the four départments on the bank of the Rhine. Under the Consulate and Empire, Lakanal resumed his work, as a professor at the Lycée Charlemagne. He was welcomed there by President James Madison, and the United States Congress gave him a grant of 500 acres in the Vine and Olive Colony in Alabama. He then later became a planter, and was chosen president of the University of Louisiana that he reorganized with the support of local masonic lodges. He returned to France in 1834, and published in 1838 an Expos sommaire des travaux de Joseph Lakanal, shortly afterwards, in spite of his advanced age, Lakanal married a second time. He died in Paris, his widow died in 1881, lakanals éloge at the Academy of Moral and Political Science, of which he was a member, was pronounced by the Comte de Rémusat, and a Notice historique by François Mignet was read on May 2,1857. Probably initiated at a Moulins lodge between 1786 an 1788, Lakanal was member of Le point parfait lodge in Paris from 1790, after the Revolution, he created two High Degree Chapters La Triple Harmonie and LAbeille Impériale. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh. Bio sketch Lakans tomb in Père-Lachaise A book edited by the Centre national de documentation pédagogique of Ariège
21.
Louis-Michel le Peletier, marquis de Saint-Fargeau
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Louis-Michel le Peletier, Marquis of Saint-Fargeau was a French politician and martyr of the French revolution. Born in Paris, he belonged to a family, his great-grandfather, Michel Robert Le Peletier des Forts, count of Saint-Fargeau. After the death of his family, Le Peletier gained a vast amount of wealth. He entered into politics by becoming a lawyer in the employ of the Place du Châtelet, in 1785 Le Peletier was advanced to avocat-general. In 1789 he was elected to the Parlement of Paris, initially, he shared the conservative views of the majority of his class, but by degrees his ideas changed and became increasingly radical. On 13 July 1789 he demanded the recall of Necker, whose dismissal by the king had aroused great excitement in Paris, in the Constituent Assembly he moved the abolition of the death penalty, of the galleys and of branding, and the substitution of beheading for hanging. This attitude won him popularity, and on 21 June 1790 he was made president of the Constituent Assembly. He remained in position until 5 July 1790. During the existence of the Legislative Assembly, he was elected President of the General Council for the Yonne département in 1791 and he was then elected by this département to become a deputy to the Convention. Here he was in favor of the trial of Louis XVI by the Assembly and was a vote for the death of the king. While in the Convention, Le Peletier focused mainly on reform of education. It called for both males and females to be taught in schools and taught revolutionary ideas instead of the customary history, science, mathematics, language. His educational plan was supported by Robespierre and his ideas were borrowed in later schemes, on 20 January 1793, the eve of the kings execution, Le Peletier was assassinated in a restaurant in the Palais Royal. His murderer, Philippe Nicolas Marie de Pâris, a member of the Garde du Corps and his assassin fled to Normandy, where, on the point of being discovered, he supposedly shot himself in the head. Other sources claim the real murderer fled to England where he died years later, the Convention honored Louis Michel Le Peletier with a magnificent funeral. His body was displayed in the Place Vendôme beneath the statue of King Louis XIV, Le Peletier was buried in the Panthéon in Paris in 1793. His body was removed by his family on 14 February 1795, the station Saint-Fargeau of the Paris Métro is named for him. A Sèvres biscuit porcelain bust of Louis Michel Le Peletier is on display in the Château de Vizille, Isère
22.
Jean-Baptiste Robert Lindet
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Jean-Baptiste Robert Lindet was a French politician of the Revolutionary period. His brother, Robert Thomas Lindet, became a constitutional bishop, although his role may not have been spectacular, Jean-Baptiste Lindet came to be the embodiment of the growing middle class that came to dominate French politics during the Revolution. Born at Bernay, he worked in the town as a lawyer before the Revolution and he acted as procureur-syndic of the district of Bernay during the session of the National Constituent Assembly. Appointed deputy to the Legislative Assembly and subsequently to the Convention and he was instrumental in the establishment of the Revolutionary Tribunal, and contributed to the downfall of the Girondists before the start of the. His proposal for the Tribunal had passed with support from Georges Danton, Jean-Baptiste Lindet, being a member of the Commission of Twenty-one, had an instrumental role in the execution of Louis XVI and drew up the accusation in the acte enonciatif. He worked incessantly on the project, and became sleep-deprived to the point of exhaustion and was forced to take to his bed, at the time of trial, Lindet was to have Charles Barbaroux read the document, due to his fatigue. Lindet wrote his accusation as a retelling of the treasonous acts of the King, beginning in May 1789. When this did not prove effective, Louis XVI resorted to the use of force, which catalyzed the storming of the Bastille. From this point, he focused on the actions of the King as showcased by the discovery of the Iron Cupboard. By the summer of 1792, Lindet argued that Louis XVI had realized his counter-revolutionary efforts had proved futile, and he would have to take military action. He provoked the insurrection of August 10 with the gathering of troops at the Tuileries, and when he saw his imminent defeat, Lindet would be known to have a strong opinion in this matter because during the Insurrection, he actually worked to help a Swiss guard escape. In his accusation against the king, Lindet focused strongly on his duplicity and his acte enonciatif characterized the views of the Montagnards, and also violated the Criminal Code of 1791. He became a member of the Committee of Public Safety on April 6,1793. Lindet was unique in the demographics of the Committee of Public Safety, in that he was forty-six, very concerned by the question of food supplies, he showed his administrative talent in coping with the issue. Lindet was the department head, or the examiner of the National Food Commission, the National Food Commission was mainly in charge of economic measures and more specifically was responsible for the provision of subsistence, clothing, and transportation. This body consisted of over 500 members at the height of the Reign of Terror, and would send these members out for tasks. For one of missions, Lindet was sent to the districts of Rhône, Eure, Calvados and Finistère. He was successful and was able to enact a conciliatory policy, when asked to do so, he had replied to Louis de Saint-Just, I am here to protect citizens, and not to murder patriots
23.
Jean-Paul Marat
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Jean-Paul Marat was a French political theorist, physician, and scientist who became best known for his role as a radical journalist and politician during the French Revolution. He was one of the most radical voices of the French Revolution, Marat was assassinated by Charlotte Corday, a Girondist sympathizer, while taking a medicinal bath for his debilitating skin condition. In his death, Marat became an icon to the Jacobins as a martyr, as portrayed in Jacques-Louis Davids famous painting. For this assassination, Corday was executed four days later, on 17 July 1793, Jean-Paul Marat was born in Boudry in the Prussian Principality of Neuchâtel, now part of Switzerland, on 24 May 1743. He was the second of nine born to Jean Mara, a native of Cagliari, Sardinia, and Louise Cabrol. His father was a Mercedarian commendator and religious refugee who converted to Calvinism in Geneva, at the age of sixteen, Marat left home in search of new opportunities, aware of the limited opportunities for outsiders. His highly educated father had turned down for several college teaching posts. His first stop was with the wealthy Nairac family in Bordeaux, after two years there he moved on to Paris where he studied medicine without gaining any formal qualifications. Highly ambitious, but without patronage or qualifications, he set about inserting himself into the scene with works on philosophy. Around 1770, Marat moved to Newcastle upon Tyne and he gave it the subtitle, A work in which the clandestine and villainous attempts of Princes to ruin Liberty are pointed out, and the dreadful scenes of Despotism disclosed. It earned him membership of the patriotic societies of Berwick-upon-Tweed. The Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society Library possesses a copy, and Tyne, a published essay on curing a friend of gleets probably helped to secure his medical referees for an MD from the University of St Andrews in June 1775. On his return to London, he published Enquiry into the Nature, Cause, in 1776, Marat moved to Paris following a brief stopover in Geneva to visit his family. The position paid 2,000 livres a year plus allowances, Marat was soon in great demand as a court doctor among the aristocracy and he used his new-found wealth to set up a laboratory in the marquise de lAubespines house. Soon he was publishing works on fire and heat, electricity and he published, first, a summary of his scientific views and discoveries in Découvertes de M. Marat sur le feu, lélectricité et la lumière in 1779. He then went on to publish three much more detailed and extensive works, expanding on each of his areas of research. His method was to describe in detail the meticulous series of experiments he had undertaken on a problem, seeking to explore and then all possible conclusions. This describes 166 experiments conducted to demonstrate that fire was not, as was widely held and he asked the Academy of Sciences to appraise his work, and it appointed a commission to do so, which reported in April 1779
