Jean-Baptiste Drouet (revolutionary)
Jean-Baptiste Drouet was a French politician of the Revolution and the Empire, best known for his key role in the arrest of King Louis XVI and his family during the Flight to Varennes.
Portrait of Drouet in 1791, published with a caption reporting his role in the Flight to Varennes
The royal Flight to Varennes during the night of 20–21 June 1791 was a significant event in the French Revolution in which King Louis XVI of France, Queen Marie Antoinette, and their immediate family unsuccessfully attempted to escape from Paris to Montmédy, where the King wished to initiate a counter-revolution by joining up with royalist troops. They escaped as far as the small town of Varennes-en-Argonne, where they were arrested after being recognized at their previous stop in Sainte-Menehould.
Louis XVI and his family, dressed as bourgeois, arrested in Varennes. Picture by Thomas Falcon Marshall (1854)
Declaration to the French People (June 1791)
The arrest of Louis XVI and his family – Stamp by Jean-Louis Prieur, (Musée de la Révolution française).
Jean-Baptiste Drouet, who recognised the royal family