https://enlightenment-revolution.org/index.php?title=Special:NewPages&feed=atomEnlightenment and Revolution - New pages [en]2024-03-29T01:45:26ZFrom Enlightenment and RevolutionMediaWiki 1.39.2https://enlightenment-revolution.org/index.php?title=Theroigne_de_MericourtTheroigne de Mericourt2023-03-06T14:21:51Z<p>Toubiana: </p>
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<div>'''Méricourt, Théroigne de''' (1762-1817): Feminist, Belgian Revolutionary Woman<br />
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Théroigne de Méricourt was born Anna-Josépha, in Marcourt, Belgium on August 13, 1762. She was the first child of Pierre Terwagne, a peasant, and his wife Anne-Elizabeth Lahaye. She had two brothers: Pierre-Joseph, born in 1764, and Nicolas Joseph, born in 1767. Elizabeth Lahaye passed away 3 months after the birth of her second son, when Anna-Josepha was 5 years old. Her aunt sent her to a convent for her education where she learned to read, but not write. At 9 years old, she came back from the convent to serve as a cowherd, and, in 1773, as a domestic to take care of her father’s children from his second wife, Thérèse Ponsard. She left her father’s house in 1774, with her two brothers. In 1777, she became a companion to the daughter of an English lady, Madame Colbert, who provided her with education and singing lessons. However, she fell in love and soon followed an English man who had promised to marry her as soon as he would inherit, but he instead abandoned her. He nevertheless gifted her 200,000 pounds. She had one daughter with him, Francoise Louise Septenville, who died in early childhood from the smallpox.<br />
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Théroigne then followed Ferdinand-Justin Tenducci, an Italian castrato and a crook, who had her sign a contract that would force her to pay him each time she would refuse to sing but she managed to withdraw from this contract. While in Italy, Théroigne discovered that she suffered from the syphilis, and she started to be treated with mercury. In May 1789, Louis XVI convened the Estates General. At age 27, Théroigne left Italy for Versailles, in order to witness and perhaps participate in the great turmoil that was shaking France. On July 17, 1789, she was with the people when the king visited Paris, wearing a white amazon and a round hat, a costume that would make her famous and contribute to her subsequent fame. She was symbolically setting herself apart, as long Amazon skirts were usually worn only by women riding horses. In France, she first attended the debates at the National Assembly, and became close to important revolutionary men such as Jérome Pétion, then a deputy for the Third Estate. Contrarily to some later accusations, she did not participate in the Women’s March on Versailles on October 5-6, 1789, that brought the Royal Family back to Paris. She was instead at the Assembly, focused on its debates.<br />
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Back in Paris, she held a Salon that would gather Pétion, [[Brissot, Jacques Pierre]], [[Fabre d'Eglantine]], and[[ Sieyès, Emmanuel Joseph]]. In January 1790, she founded a political club, ''La Société des Amis de la Loi'', with Gilbert Romme. The club met at her place, at the Grenoble Hotel on the Bouloi Street but it was short-lived and with very limited influence. In both her Salons and her political club, Théroigne was often the only woman. Because of her political activities and her demands for freedom for Jews, women and the press, she became a target of vicious attacks from the royalists. The French particle “de” was added to her name, so she would appear as nobility. A ''Catéchisme Libertin à l’Usage des Filles de Joie et des Demoiselles qui se Destinent à Embrasser cette Profession'' (Libertine Catechism for the Use of Prostitutes and Young Ladies who Intend to Embrace this Profession) (1791) was published under her name in an attempt to sully her reputation and activities.<br />
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Accused of having violently participated in the Women’s March, Théroigne avoided an imminent arrestation by fleeing from Paris to Liege. Unfortunately, she was abducted by two former French officers, and was turned in to Austria after a ten day-travel period. Imprisoned in the Fortress of Kufstein, Austria, she was suspected of acting as a spy on behalf of the Jacobins. There, she wrote her Confessions – originally at the demand of her interrogator, Aulic councilor Francois de Blanc. Convinced of her innocence, he succeeded in having her heard by Prince Kaunitz. At her request, in October 1791, she met Emperor Leopold II. After a fruitful conversation with her, Leopold II ordered Théroigne’s release. She was given 600 florins to cover her travel expenses. She left for Brussels, and then Paris, where the Jacobins gave her a triumphal welcome. The accusation of “crimes against the queen”, because of her supposed participation in the Women’s March, no longer stood, thanks to the amnesty law of 1791. A feminist, Théroigne kept fighting for equality between men and women whether in political participation to clubs or even in the physical defense of the nation. In 1792, she created some female battalions, the Amazons, as a means to both defend the country and to attempt to have equality recognized between men and women. Yet, women’s Clubs were forbidden on October 1793. She was opposed by Royalists and Patriots on that front. On April 23rd, 1792, the Deputy Chabot notoriously affirmed that “a man must not be blinded by a female” – “femelle” being a French derogatory word when it refers to a woman.<br />
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Théroigne participated in the Insurrection of August 10, 1792 and was rumored to have murdered the journalist and polemist, Francois-Louis Suleau. This was also part of the campaign against Théroigne, even though she did not participate in the killing. On May 15, 1793, she was partially undressed and publicly beaten, in front of the Convention by Jacobine women who were accusing her of supporting Brissot, a leader of the Girondins. This attack had a physically profound effect on Théroigne, but it also greatly destabilized her mentally.<br />
In the Spring 1794, her brother Nicolas-Joseph Terwagne, a laundryman in Paris, sent a letter to the judge and president of the first arrondissement, declaring that his sister was in a state of “absolute dementia”. This was certainly done in the hopes of sparing her an arrest as an “enemy of liberty” for participating in the assault of the Tuileries on August 10, 1792. In Spring 1794, she was jailed until September for being Brissot’s friend and for making suspicious remarks. The worsening of her mental health caused her to be locked up at the Asylum on the Faubourg Saint-Marceau in July 1795. In 1797, she was interned at the Hôtel-Dieu Hospital and finally transferred on December 9, 1799 at the Salpêtrière Hospital where she passed away on June 8th, 1817. Her body was autopsied by Esquirol’s students, and her cranium molded by Dumontier.<br />
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Théroigne de Méricourt inspired numerous artists and writers, such as Baudelaire, Jules Michelet, Edmond and Jules de Goncourt. She also inspired Delacroix in his "Liberty Leading the People" painting (1830).<br />
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Further Readings:<br />
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Lacour, Léopold, and Ligaran, ''Trois Femmes de la Révolution : Olympe De Gouges, Théroigne de Méricourt, Rose Lacombe'', 2016.<br />
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Roudinesco, Elisabeth, ''Théroigne de Méricourt : a Melancholic Woman During the French Revolution'', 1991.<br />
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'''Caroline Strobbe'''<br />
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The Citadel</div>Toubianahttps://enlightenment-revolution.org/index.php?title=Madame_RolandMadame Roland2023-01-20T04:31:25Z<p>Toubiana: </p>
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<div>Madame Roland (1754-1793): French salonniere and writer <br />
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Madame Roland, also known as Manon Roland, was born Jeanne-Marie Phlipon on 17 March 1754 in Paris. Her parents were well off and had seven children. Except for Jeanne-Marie, all the children died at a young age. As a result, she received all her parents’ affection. Her father was a master-engraver. As a child, she was a very avid reader; she read the bible, Plutarch, Fénelon, and Tasso. As a young adult, she read [[Montesquieu, Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de]], [[Voltaire, François-Marie Arouet de]], Shakespeare, Richardson and [[Rousseau, Jean-Jacques]]. The latter exercised great influence in her life.<br />
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When she was 10 years of age, one of her father’s apprentices attempted to force her into sexual acts. (She was not raped but forced to help the apprentice to gratify himself). This episode had a profound and painful impact on her life; she recounted this moment in her Mémoires because of its lasting effect on her character. In 1765, she entered a convent where she met Sophie and Henriette Cannet, with whom she would keep a lifelong friendship and epistolary exchange. In 1776, the Cannet sisters introduced her to Jean-Marie Roland de la Platière. Roland was twenty years older, grim, morose, and anxious; he worked as an Inspector of Commerce. The courtship lasted a few years due to her father’s reluctance to the wedding. After much hesitation from her part, they married in 1780. She was 26 and he, 46. They had one daughter in 1781. She clearly held the leadership in their couple. Their relation was very platonic, more philosophical than carnal, and her love regressed into simple friendship. Roland, thanks to his ''Dictionnaire des Manufactures, Arts et Métiers'', was promoted General Inspector. <br />
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When the revolution started, she embraced it with great passion, pouring her soul into it. She pushed her husband into politics because she herself wanted to be in the heart of the new movement that was shaking France. In 1790, he was elected representative to the General Council of his Lyon commune. Both husband and wife got more involved in the revolution. The couple wrote accounts of their new views for France which they sent to [[Brissot, Jacques Pierre]] and [[Desmoulins, Camille]] to be published in their journals. Always encouraged and pushed by his wife, Roland was chosen to go to the National Assembly to inform deputies of the situation that paralyzed trade in Lyon. His wife accompanied him to Paris, convinced that there was the real theater of the revolution and felt she had an important role to play in its development. <br />
Once in Paris, one of her admirers, Bosc d’Antic, helped the couple to find lodging. She finally met Brissot in person and got acquainted with Petion, Buzot, Claviere, [[Danton, Georges]] and Robespierre. She attended meetings of the Assembly and formed her opinion on most men whom she judged mediocre because of the Ancien Regime’s influence on them. She opened her house to the men of the left four days a week to discuss the future of the country, and that was the making of her first salon. She saw herself continuing the centuries old tradition of great women who through their salon contributed to the brilliance of France such as Marguerite de Valois, Madame de Rambouillet, Mademoiselle de Scudéry or Madame du Deffand. Madame Roland rarely invited other women and neither did she attend herself other salons. Petion, Buzot, Bosc d’Antic, Lanthenas and her husband formed the nucleus of her first salon. The king’s flight to Varennes in June 1791 had greatly upset her. She believed that a successful escape would have been more beneficial to France because it would have caused a civil war. According to her war regenerated men. She had lost confidence in Lafayette; despite her mistrust of [[Robespierre, Maximilien François Marie Isidore de]], she believed only the men on the left were the ones able to save the nation. Early autumn 1791, the couple returned to Lyon but she did not stop publishing anonymous articles. Roland lost his job and decided to take his wife and daughter back to Paris hoping to get a pension from the government. Unable to get a pension, his desire was to go back to a tranquil life in Lyon countryside but Madame Roland did not want to leave Paris and abandon the possibility of being in the center of the political turmoil that roused French society. She not only convinced her husband to remain in Paris but also to go back into politics. She surrounded herself with a group of admirers and threw the base of her second salon with many Gironde members, particularly Bosc d’Antic who harbored a deep unrequited love for her. <br />
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In 1792, the king was faced with a new crisis and had to form a new government. In an attempt to stop the looming calamity, Louis XVI called on Dumouriez to choose the new ministers. With his own ambition in mind, [[Dumouriez]] offered many portfolios to Brissotins (Brissot’s followers) later on called Girondins. Deputies were not eligible to ministry appointment, Brissot, [[Vergniaud, Pierre]] and Louvet consequently could not be selected. The Ministry of the Interior was given to Roland thanks to Brissot’s friendship and more specifically to the friendship between [[Brissot, Jacques Pierre]] and Madame Roland. Roland was dubious about the appointment but Manon Roland saw it as her opportunity to be the real Minister of the Interior. She took charge and composed many of his speeches and checked on much of his official writings. Barbaroux, Buzot, Gaudet, Brissot, Petion, [[Louvet]] all frequented her salon, which was firmly under her aegis. She had her theories on the revolution and managed to impose them on her admirers; the Sans-Culottes were just dangerous rabble and riffraff, Robespierre could not be trusted since he did not show her much respect and did not make much effort to be included in her circle. She also disliked [[Dumouriez]] and Danton who refused to accept her influence like so many Girondins did. She believed that to be true to France and its future, she must be in the center of the action, unyielding and steadfast, willing and ready to give her life for the good of her country. She considered her salon the real Ministry of the Interior. <br />
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The Girondins were opposed to the Montagnards because the former wanted to declare war to Austria, Prussia and England, following Madame Roland’s policy. She regarded [[Robespierre, Maximilien François Marie Isidore de]] as a political rival and her hostility had been considered a significant source of the divide between Girondins and Montagnards. According to her, for the sake of liberty, aristocracy should lose all power and the king should strictly follow Girondin policy. She wrote Robespierre criticizing his political stance and expected him to understand her obligation to show him his errors. Robespierre chose to ignore her, which grieved her further. The new ministry only lasted three months, March to June 1792. A few days before the end of his ministry, Roland had sent a letter to the king admonishing him on his constitutional obligations. The letter had been written by Manon. The king, anticipating yet another crisis, and unpleased with the letter’s tone dismissed his Girondin administration with Roland, Claviere and Servan. Roland decided then to read the letter directly to the National Assembly, which won him much ovation from the deputies. After the fall of the monarchy and with the king’s arrest on August 10, Roland gained back his position as Minister of the Interior; however, the Girondins’ influence was weakening. They held an ambiguous position during the king’s trial; in spite of violently criticizing Louis XVI they were hesitant to condemn him. They only did so not to lose their popularity, this edging stance backfired on them. The defection to the Austrians of General [[Dumouriez]] who was a great Girondin supporter contributed to their decline. The divergence between Robespierre’s party and Brissot’s was growing stronger. Manon blamed Danton, Robespierre and Marat for the September 1792 massacre in which the crowd brutally killed thousands of royalist sympathizers and refractory priests (priests which rejected the constitution). In order to limit the influence of Paris on French politics, she wanted to create a federation of provinces which could balance the domination of the capital. Buzot, her new impassionate admirer, was still a Convention member and fervently espoused all her ideas. This new platform only served to further accentuate the split between Montagnards and Girondins. Two days after Louis XVI’s execution on 21 January 1793, Roland gave his resignation as Interior Minister. [[Danton, Georges]] along with [[Fabre d'Eglantine]] tried reconciliation with some Girondin leaders but completely dismissed Madame Roland which enraged her to no end. <br />
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Manon Roland had formed a “Bureau de l’Esprit publique” in her husband’s name in order to educate people but quickly transformed it into Girondin propaganda and a tool against the Montagnards. The Convention suspected her of conspiracy against the government; she successfully deflected blame, but her attacks on Danton did not cease. Danton, who first attempted to work as an intermediary with the Girondins, ended up by abandoning them and joining Robespierre, [[Saint-Just, Louis-Antoine de]] and [[Marat, Jean-Paul]] against them. Madame Roland chose this crucial period to inform her husband of her remorseless and ardent love for another man, Buzot. She expected her spouse to understand her infidelity because in her eyes he was supposed to be her friend, loyal and sensitive to her feelings. <br />
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In the Spring of 1793, the worsening of the economy infuriated Parisians who hold the Girondins responsible for the crisis. Camille Desmoulins’s ''Histoire des Brissotins'', a vitriolic attack on the Girondins, combined with [[Corday, Charlotte]]’s assassination of Marat sounded the final blows to Brissot’s party. Roland’s ''Observations de l’ex-ministre Roland'' written under his wife’s dictation, to counter the Montagnards’ accusations, did not have the expected outcome. Manon decided then to write letters hoping to trigger a revolt in the provinces against the Convention but that was to no avail. At the end of May, foreseeing the approaching downfall, she sent letters to the Convention President but the Sans-Culottes were already demanding Girondins’ arrest. On 31st May, the Paris Commune, the governing body of Paris, demanded the arrest of Girondin deputies. Robespierre and Saint-Just supported the request. On June 1st 1793, the Paris Commune declared an insurrection against the Convention to ensure the Girondin deputies would be arrested. On the night of June 1st, 1793 the comité insurrectionnel led by François Hanriot, a sans-culotte leader, along with 40,000 men surrounded the Convention and required the arrest of several leaders of the Gironde. The Montagnards were now in control of the Convention; thus began the Reign of Terror. She had chosen to stay in Paris even though her husband had fled to Rouen some days before. She was arrested on that very night. She hoped Buzot would rally the provinces and march with an army to save her and punish the Montagnards. During her imprisonment, she continued writing letters to the Convention, to different ministries, to journalists to prove her innocence. After one month, she was interrogated by the police, she was first set free on June 24th but was immediately re-arrested and sent to Sainte-Pélagie prison. She was charged because of her husband’s escape, her involvement with conspirators, and her discovered letters revealing her ambition to incite the provinces. She denied all the charges and started writing her Mémoires. She then went on a hunger strike but was transferred to the prison hospital. She planned to publicly poison herself at the coming Girondin trial after exposing all the treacheries and duplicities of the Montagnard leaders. She relied on Bosc d’Antic to supply the poison but he refused her request. The trial came but she did not have a chance to express herself. She still had the need to write and plead her emotions and unfair experience. She was moved to the Conciergerie under suspicion of promoting civil war. On November 8th, 1793, she was condemned to death by the very law that her husband’s ministry had passed previously, anyone attempting to divide the unity of the government or the republic was subjected to the guillotine. She went to the scaffold the same day with another man, Lamarche. Some sources suggested that she asked the executioner to be guillotined after Lamarche. Custom was to have women go first to save them from witnessing the savagery and violence of decapitation. Realizing that the man was significantly more distressed than she was she asked the executioner to break away from usual practice. Upon seeing her courage and resolve, the executioner accepted her request. This anecdote has not been verified. After learning the news of her death, her husband stabbed himself with a sword. <br />
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In her utmost devotion to her country, Madame Roland sacrificed her husband, her lover, her friends and the Girondins. Her antipathies and rage for [[Danton, Georges]] was undoubtedly the biggest of her mistakes. The Girondins’ refusal for reconciliation with the Montagnards was partly due to Manon’s rage for Danton. She could not stand how he casually dismissed her tragic and grand posture. Madame Roland’s critical fault was to let her sentiments affect her politics. <br />
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'''Guy Toubiana'''<br />
<br />
The Citadel</div>Toubianahttps://enlightenment-revolution.org/index.php?title=LouvetLouvet2022-09-28T14:50:50Z<p>Toubiana: </p>
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<div>'''Louvet, Jean-Baptiste''' (1760-1797): French Author and Revolutionary<br />
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Jean-Baptiste Louvet also known as Jean Baptiste Louvet de Couvray (an addition that he added to differentiate himself from his older brother) was born in Paris on 12 June 1760. His father, known to be brutal, owned a stationer’s shop. At 17 years of age, Jean Baptiste was working as a printer’s foreman, then became secretary for a famed mineralogist, Philippe-Frederic de Dietrich, and also worked as an assistant bookseller. <br />
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Very early on, he saved enough money to devote much of his time to writing love novels that enjoyed great success in France. In 1787, he published at his own expenses, the first volume of his novel ''Faublas'', titled ''Les Amours du Chevalier de Faublas''. In 1788, a second part is published, ''Six Semaines de la vie du Chevalier de Faublas'' followed in 1790 by ''Fin des amours du Chevalier de Faublas''. The novel is much inspired by the love he had since childhood for Marguerite Denuelle who was unhappily married with a jeweler. After many attempts to divorce her husband, she finally managed to leave him and in 1789 moved in with Louvet. The latter chose to change her name to Lodoiska, who was the main female protagonist of ''Faublas''. In 1791, he published ''Emilie de Varmont ou le divorce nécessaire et les amours du curé Sévin'', a melodramatic novel based on Marguerite Denuelle’s failed attempts to divorce her husband. Louvet also composed three highly satirical plays, ''La Grande Revue des armées blanche et noire'' (a satire of the émigré army), ''L’Annobli Conspirateur'' (a critic of the royalists), and ''L’Election et l’audience du grand Lama Sispi'' (a mockery of Pope Pius VI). <br />
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In 1789, he embraced the revolution ideals with great passion. In October, he answered Jean-Joseph Mounier, a member of the new French National Assembly, who had blamed people for their march to Versailles with a pamphlet, ''Paris Justifié'', which gained him admittance to the Jacobin club and put him in the public eye. He first hesitated to take leadership positions but as the revolution progressed he was swallowed by its great turmoil. After consulting his mistress, “Lodoiska”, he decided to get fully involved and in December 1791, presented a discourse at the Assembly that he considered as one of his best, “Petition against the Princes”, in which he demanded the Princes and émigrés ’arrestations. He never wrote another romance after that speech. <br />
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On 17 January 1792, at the Jacobin club, Louvet made a pivotal presentation which captured his vision of French politics. He stated that there were four dominant parties. First, the Feuillants who were in favor of a constitutional monarchy and did not want to overthrow the king Louis XVI. Second, the Cordeliers (led by [[Danton, Georges]], [[Marat, Jean-Paul]], and [[Desmoulins, Camille]]) which associated themselves with the Jacobins (led by [[Robespierre, Maximilien François Marie Isidore de]], [[Saint-Just, Louis-Antoine de]] and Collot d'Herbois); the two clubs joined to become the Montagnard party. Third, the Girondins or Brissotins led by [[Brissot, Jacques Pierre]] and [[Vergniaud, Pierre]]. Fourth, the party of the court which according to Louvet hoped for an invasion of foreign armies to get rid of the 1791 constitution. The Girondins were opposed to the Montagnards because the formers wanted to rush to war against foreign armies but the latter considered France was not yet ready to fight England, Austria and Prussia. <br />
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Louvet clearly positioned himself for the war and rallied Brissot, Vergniaud and Roland. His speech against the Princes had been so successful that [[Brissot, Jacques Pierre]] praised it on his own journal, ''Le Patriote français''. By siding with the Girondins, he was making himself Robespierre’s adversary. In March 1792, encouraged by [[Madame Roland]] and her husband, he started his newspaper ''La Sentinelle''. In September, he was elected deputy at the Convention where he directly confronted Robespierre accusing him of being involved in the massacre of September when the Parisian mob murdered 1,600 inmates (mainly royalist sympathizers and refractory priests -priests that rejected the new constitution-) as well as scheming against the lives of the Girondin leaders. Robespierre was given a week to clear himself which he did with the approval of the majority of the Convention’s deputies. Louvet wrote a reply “A Maximilien Robespierre et à ses royalistes” in which he maintained his attacks. From then on, Louvet was targeted for elimination by Robespierre. <br />
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The balance of popularity between Girondins and Montagnards was switching in favor of the latter after important developments. The first was the king’s trial. The ambiguous position of the Girondins who violently criticized Louis XVI but were hesitant to condemn him but did so not to lose their popularity backfired on them. Louvet himself was ambivalent. He strongly slated the king, voted for his death but also voted the final decision to be decided by the people. The second was General [[Dumouriez]]’s defection to the Austrians who was one of the Girondins’ strongest supporters. His betrayal incited [[Fabre d'Eglantine]], an important member of the Montagne and close ally to Danton, to use his journal "La Gazette de France nationale" to lead a violent campaign against the Gironde. Louvet justified Dumouriez’s double-crossing as a Montagnard’s orchestration to discredit the Girondins. Louvet even imputed Dumouriez’s defeat at Neerwinden to Pache, the minister of war, who conspired to ill-provide [[Dumouriez]]’s army to cause defeat and by repercussion to shame and disrepute the Girondins. Louvet was persuaded that Robespierre, [[Danton, Georges]] and even Marat were royalists who only wanted to get rid of Louis XVI to replace him with his cousin, [[Philippe Egalité]], Duke of Orléans, whom they would easily control. Louvet was so convinced of it that he wrote a pamphlet to the Convention ''A La Convention National et à mes Commettants sur la Conspiration du 10 Mars et la Faction d’Orléans''. <br />
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The worsening of the economy infuriated Parisians who hold the Girondin ministers responsible for the crisis. On 31st May, the Paris Commune, the governing body of Paris, demanded the arrestation of 22 Girondin deputies. Robespierre, Marat and Saint-Just seized the opportunity to blame the Girondins and supported the request. On June 1st 1793, the Paris Commune declared an insurrection against the Convention to ensure the Girondin deputies would be arrested. On the night between June 1st and 2nd, the comité insurrectionnel led by François Hanriot, a sans-culotte leader, along with 40,000 men surrounded the Convention and required the arrest of several leaders of the Gironde. On the 2nd, the Convention put those leaders, Louvet included, on house arrest. The Montagnards were now in control of the Convention, it was the start of the Reign of Terror. The assassination of Marat by [[Corday, Charlotte]] on 13 July 1793 was the coup de grâce to the Gironde. Marat's murder had the opposite effect expected by Charlottte Corday; it incited the Montagnards to take harsher measures on anyone suspected of counter-revolutionary activities. <br />
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On the 28, the Convention decreed the arrest of more Girondins. The purge of the Girondins was acted. Some like Vergniaud, Pétion, and Gensonnet accepted their house arrest, others like Brissot, Roland, [[Condorcet, Marie Jean Antoine Nicholas Caritat, Marquis de]] and Louvet did not believe in the justice of the revolutionary tribunal and fled in the hope to gather the provinces to lead a movement against Paris and the Convention. Louvet first went to Caen in Normandy then moved around France but finally decided to hide in the Jura and in Switzerland. He spent the first months unaware of what happened to other Girondins and to his mistress Lodoiska. The latter managed to join him and having obtained her divorce in 1792 was finally able to marry him. While in hiding, Louvet had begun his Memoirs, which would be partly published in 1795. A lot of it is devoted to his hardships and his emotions caused by his wanderings. Many have considered it one of the best refugee-story of the time. <br />
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After 9 Thermidor (27 July 1794) and the demise of Robespierre, the Reign of Terror ended. Louvet therefore wrote his ''Appel des victimes du 31 mai aux Parisiens du 9 Thermidor'' in which he requested the Convention to clear all the proscribed Girondins. Upon his return to Paris in October 1794, he opened a little bookstore. In March 1795, he was readmitted as a member of the Convention. In April, he was part of the committee to first revise the constitution and thereafter to completely rewrite it. After the attempted royalist reaction of 13 vendémiaire an IV (5 October 1795) he stayed true to his republican ideals and did not give up to the street hostility that targeted him. On 23 Vendémiare (15 October), he was elected member of the Conseil des Cinq Cents which functioned as the new French senate. The Directoire, the new French Revolutionary government (1795-1799) had selected him to be Consul to Palermo but unfortunately Louvet could not occupy his new position since he died at only 37 years of age of exhaustion and probably tuberculosis on 25 August 1797. <br />
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In spite of the political changes and instability, Louvet remained republican till the end. His last speech was against a decree excluding royalists from public employment. His tolerance stemmed from his own miseries and distresses while in hiding. Louvet is one of the very few Girondins that died of natural causes. Vergniaud, Barbaroux, Brissot, Gensonné, Madame Roland died at the guillotine. Condorcet, Guadet, Roland, Pétion and Buzot committed suicide.<br />
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Further Reading:<br />
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Bette W. Oliver, ''Witness to the Revolution: Jean-Baptiste Louvet, 1760–1797'', 2020.<br />
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<br />
'''Guy Toubiana'''<br />
<br />
The Citadel</div>Toubianahttps://enlightenment-revolution.org/index.php?title=Fabre_d%27EglantineFabre d'Eglantine2022-07-20T23:51:58Z<p>Toubiana: </p>
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<div>'''Philippe-François-Nazaire Fabre '''(1750-1794): French playwright and Revolutionaire<br />
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Philippe-François-Nazaire Fabre was born on 28 July 1750 in Carcassonne, a city in the Southwest of France. His family was from the low middle class and his father was a linen draper. In 1757, the family moved to Limoux, a neighboring city to Carcassonne. Young Fabre studied in Toulouse where he learned Greek and Latin languages and literatures, music, painting, drawing and engraving and in 1771, was hired as a teacher. That same year, he competed in the Academy of Floral Sports, a literary society founded by the Troubadours in the XIVth Century. He composed a poem in the honor of the Virgin Mary. His success is still a subject of a controversy, he won the lys d’argent (silver lily) but did not win the top prize, the eglantine d’argent (silver briar rose). However, judging his name much too common (Fabre being the equivalent of Smith in English) he chose to add “d’Eglantine” to his last name and that is the name that history and posterity retained.<br />
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Fabre d’Eglantine decided to join a company of strolling actors and for the next fifteen years he acted on stage across France and part of Europe. In December 1776, while in the Austrian Netherlands (roughly present-day Belgium and Luxembourg), he seduced a young member of the troop, a fifteen-year-old girl, Catherine Deresmond, and convinced her to elope with him. Deresmond being the daughter of the troop directors, her mother accused Fabre of rape and seduction. Fabre avoided jail and execution thanks to his fellow actors who addressed a petition letter to the Governor. The latter changed the punishment into banishment. <br />
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Fabre started to write on his own, he composed three poems in honor of the famed French scientist, [[Buffon, George-Louis Leclerc, Comte de]]. In 1778, he married Marie-Nicole Godin, granddaughter of [[Lesage, Alain-René]], famous early XVIIIth Century French writer. In 1779, he wrote the libretto for a comic opera, ''Laure et Petrarque'', which contained a very well-known song, ''Il pleut, il pleut bergère'' still taught in preschool and kindergarten and still used as a popular lullaby. He also started his own theater company but must give it up for lack of success. He wrote poems in honor of several great aristocrats such as Gustavus III of Sweden. In 1781, because of financial trouble he left his infant with a nurse. Finally, in 1787, he settled in Paris with his wife and for the next years produced several works, all in verse, comedies, tragedies, comic operas and farces. Most were played on stage with a limited degree of success, some were quickly rejected because of their strong satirical twists of society and politics. <br />
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In 1789, he left his wife for another woman, Caroline Remy, who will give him three children, the first two dying at a very early age. In 1790, at 40 years of age, he composed and produced his most successful and famous play, ''Le Philinte de Molière'', which was intended to be a continuation of Molière’s play, ''Le Misanthrope''. His success motivated him to create more plays, among the more notable ''L’Apothécaire'', ''Isabelle de Salisbury'', ''L’ Intrigue Epistolaire'' and ''Le Convalescent'', the last one being staged in 1799, five years after his death. Fabre d ’Eglantine’s literary talent has not been recognized because of the strong political and moralist overtones included in his writings. Being a Montagnard (more extreme revolutionaries opposed to the Girondins, more moderate ones led by [[Brissot, Jacques Pierre]], [[Louvet]] and [[Vergniaud, Pierre]]) and a Dantonist, his plays tended to be political propaganda. He espoused the revolution ideals with great fervor, he joined the Cordeliers club and soon became the president of it. There, he met [[Marat, Jean-Paul]] and the great revolutionary orator, [[Danton, Georges]] and was going to become one of his closest allies. <br />
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Early in the revolution, he was still a royalist but Louis XVI’s flight to Varennes, the king's failed attempt to join the royalist troops, changed the tone of the revolution and gave it a republican impetus. Therefore, Fabre’s inclination changed and in September 1792, he took part in the attacks on the Tuileries but paradoxically was also accused to have offered his help to the court. 1792 and 1793 are the two years that saw Fabre reached the height of his political career, he was elected Convention Deputy, was chosen by Danton to be his secretary (along with [[Desmoulins, Camille]]), participated in attempt of reconciliation with the Girondins, and was member of the war committee and the powerful committee of public safety. However, qualms of corruption crept up and will be used in 1794 during his trial. He was suspected of selling 10,000 pairs of defective army boots with a large benefit which fell apart after twelve hours of use. <br />
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Fabre was criticized for regarding the revolution in the same way he viewed his plays and was said to observe the Assembly through his pair of lorgnette like a spectator at the theater which had a knack for irritating [[Robespierre, Maximilien François Marie Isidore de]]. As a member of the Convention, he followed Danton’s politics. He voted for the king’s death and after general [[Dumouriez]]’s defection to the Austrians in 1793, he turned against the Girondins and led a campaign against them as the chief editor of ''La Gazette de France nationale''. His main reproach to the Girondins was that he believed they used the common people to generate turmoil when needed but discarded them when making political decisions. <br />
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In October 1793, the Convention wanted to get rid of the Gregorian calendar to adopt a calendar starting the year on September 22 -the day of the monarchy’s abolishment- renaming the days and months on republican and agricultural principles. Because of his literary reputation, Fabre was the main member of the committee in charge of the task comprising Marie-Joseph Chénier (brother of the revolution poet, André Chénier) and the famous painter, [[David, Jacques-Louis]]. Fabre was credited with the new names’ creativity. He considered the Gregorian calendar a tool used by the church to keep the people in a life of superstition contaminated with bigotry, deceit and falseness. Every month lasted thirty days. Starting September 22nd, Vendémiaire (Vintage month) was the first month, October 22nd came Brumaire (Misty), November 22nd came Frimaire (Frosty), December 22nd came Nivose (Snowy), January 22nd came Pluviose (Rainy), February 22nd came Ventose (Windy), March 22nd came Germinal (Buddy), April 22nd came Floréal (Flowery), May 22nd came Prairial (Meadowy), June 22nd came Messidor (Harvesty), July 22nd came Thermidor (Sunny) and August 22nd came Fructidor (Fruty). The five missing days to complete the year were devoted to different holidays at the end of the year, the first devoted to Virtue, the second to Intelligence, the third to Labor, the fourth to Opinion and the fifth one to Rewards. On a leap year, the extra day would be devoted to celebrate liberty, equality and fraternity to strengthen national unity. <br />
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Earlier in the same year, in the month of August, he got implicated with the French East India Company which was going to be one the main causes of his demise. In October, he accused two deputies, François Chabaud and Hérault de Seychelles for their association to a foreign conspiracy led by Pitt to ruin French economy. Then Fabre along with Delaunay, another Convention member, falsified a decree of liquidation of the India Company. The fraud consisted in liquidating first the company which shares would drop tremendously then at a later point to pass a new decree favorable to the company. Shares would come back up and could be sold with a huge profit. Delaunay and Fabre d’Eglantine falsified signatures to let believe the government had already approved the liquidation. However, when Chabaud, Delaunay and several other Convention members were detained, Fabre, [[Danton, Georges]] and [[Hebert, Jacques]] (the last two also suspected) were not arrested. Fabre made the mistake to try too hard to divert attention from him and overexaggerate the role and responsibility of a foreign conspiracy and accused the India Company to disregard government laws, to have foreign agents in every branch of the government and to promote dishonest concepts of equality and liberty. <br />
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Unfortunately, his efforts had the opposite effect and instead of distancing himself from his connection, it shed more light on his fraudulent activities. In January 1794, Amar, a Convention deputy, denounced Fabre’s misdeeds who was arrested on the 18th . When [[Danton, Georges]] attempted to save his friend he only managed to cast more doubt upon his own involvement. In March, Robespierre and [[Saint-Just, Louis-Antoine de]] seized the opportunity to get rid of their more dangerous rivals in their own party, the Montagne, and transform a financial scandal into a political scheme. A few days before, they had eliminated [[Hebert, Jacques]] and his followers, the Enragés (the Enraged, the Ultra-Revolutionary Montagnards), they could now strike a fatal blow to Danton’s faction, the Indulgents (the more moderate Montagnards) who had pointed out the excess committed during the Terror. On 16 March 1794, Amar presented a second report and consequently Fabre d’Eglantine was brought to the revolutionary tribunal. While in prison, he wrote a ''Précis apologétique'', in which he tried to exonerate himself of all charges regarding the India Company. The trial started on March 30. Robespierre and [[Saint-Just, Louis-Antoine de]] strongly expected Fouquier-Tinville, the public prosecutor, to influence the issue of the judgment. The jury quickly rendered a guilty verdict. Fabre was guillotined on 5 April along with Danton and other Dantonists. The falsified decree was not even shown at the trial. Like [[Desmoulins, Camille]], Fabre d’Eglantine was one of Danton’s close supporters and that by itself was enough to send him to the scaffold.<br />
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Further Reading:<br />
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Louis Jacob, ''Fabre d'Eglantine, Chef des fripons'', 1946.<br />
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<br />
'''Guy Toubiana'''<br />
<br />
The Citadel</div>Toubianahttps://enlightenment-revolution.org/index.php?title=Corday,_CharlotteCorday, Charlotte2021-02-25T03:20:39Z<p>Toubiana: </p>
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<div>'''Charlotte Corday''' (1768-1793): French revolutionary woman<br />
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Charlotte Corday was born Marie-Anne-Charlotte de Corday d’Armont on 27 July 1768 in the village of Saint-Saturnin-des-Ligneries in Normandy (northwestern part of France) and was the descendant of the great XVIIth century playwright, Pierre Corneille. She was the third child of a minor noble family and had two older brothers, one younger sister, Eleonore, and another sister who died shortly after birth. She spent a lot of time reading Corneille and was inspired by the heroism and valor of his characters who would make a lifelong impression on her. On 9 April 1782, she lost her mother a few months before turning 14.<br />
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Her father faced with financial difficulties placed her and his other daughter, Eleonore, in an abbey in Caen. There, she deepened her faith and belief in God. She was educated by both the nuns who let her read classic authors like Plutarch and her father who encouraged her to read the great French philosophers like [[Montesquieu, Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de]], [[Voltaire, François-Marie Arouet de]] and Rousseau. The latter was particularly influential on her young mind. While at the abbey, she developed a friendship with the abbess’s nephew, Louis Gustave Doulcet de Pontécoulant, a young lawyer, who would later become Convention President and would be made Count of the Empire by [[Bonaparte, Napoleon]]. Charlotte and her new acquaintance shared political inclinations; both were enraptured by the new ideals of equality and the Declaration of the Rights of Man. She believed that the ideals of Rousseau were close to realization and that France would see a new dawn with equality as the status quo. However, Charlotte was first awakened to the bloody reality of the Revolution when she witnessed first-hand the murder, mutilation, and subsequent parading on a pike the head of a young soldier from the Bourbon regiment.<br />
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In 1791, monasteries in France were being closed down and after a brief stay in her father’s estates, she moved back to Caen with a wealthy cousin, Madame de Bretteville, who was a widow and childless. 1791 also saw the revival of Marat’s journal, ''L’Ami du peuple'', in which he let out his virulent and vitriolic hatred of the monarchy and the Gironde, the more moderate revolutionary party. Corday’s entourage has often described her as serene, attractive and even angelical. While in Caen, she continued to follow the happenings in Paris. She considered the leaders of the Girondin Party—Roland, [[Brissot, Jacques Pierre]], [[Vergniaud, Pierre]], Buzot, [[Condorcet, Marie Jean Antoine Nicholas Caritat, Marquis de]], and Louvet—as true republican disciples of [[Rousseau, Jean-Jacques]] and the only force capable of withstanding the violent inclinations of [[Robespierre, Maximilien François Marie Isidore de]], Marat and [[Danton, Georges]] of the Montagnard Party. Charlotte, who adopted the new last name of “Corday” during the revolution, devoured Girondin newspapers, such as ''Le Courrier français'' and ''Le Patriote français'', and became a staunch supporter of the Party. Her admiration for the Gironde caused conflicts with her father who was still loyal to the king, Louis XVI. She renewed her friendship with Doulcet de Pontécoulant who provided her with yet more Girondin literature. In spite of her close relationship with Pontécoulant, she fiercely wanted to stay single; in correspondence to a friend she wrote that her liberty and independence would not be sacrificed for marriage. Her love seemed to have been exclusively for her country. <br />
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The September 1792 massacres in which the Parisian mob murdered 1,600 inmates (mainly royalist sympathizers and refractory priests) tormented and distressed her; she blamed Marat and his venomous articles for inciting the bloodshed. In April 1793, when General [[Dumouriez]], a Girondin ally, defected to the Austrians, the Montagnards used the General’s desertion to accuse the Girondin leaders of betraying the revolution. The Girondins’ link to a traitor triggered their arrest and [[Marat, Jean-Paul]] in his ''L’Ami du peuple'', played a major role in their detention. In Charlotte Corday’s eyes, Marat had been responsible at every step of the Girondins’ fall. The Reign of Terror had started and would not end before July 1794. Several proscribed Girondins had escaped before being jailed and found refuge in Caen, the very city where Charlotte Corday resided. They had chosen this region (Calvados) because at the same time a counter revolution movement was being staged in Normandy and Brittany. The deputies that had managed to escape were hoping to recruit an army and march to Paris. Charlotte had met several of the deputies but had specifically befriended Barbaroux, from Marseille, for his courage in denouncing the massacres of September 1792 and open criticism of Marat for the part he played in it. <br />
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On July 9th 1793, Charlotte left for Paris with the goal of eliminating [[Marat, Jean-Paul]], the man who had served as the impetus for the wave of violence. Her plan was to kill him either at the Convention or during outdoors activities on the Champ de Mars. However, she had to modify her strategy upon learning that Marat suffered a painful skin disease and had to rest in a slipper sulfur bath to alleviate his aches. On July 13th, she went to the Palais-Egalité, a gallery of shops and restaurants owned by the Duc d’Orléans, aka [[Philippe Egalité]], where she bought a six-inch knife. She had left behind a document entitled, “L’Adresse aux Français,” in which she justified her actions and cleared herself of criminal intent. She would give her life to get rid of the tyrant that had terrorized the nation and obstructed the hope for peace and justice. She finally arrived at 20 rue des Cordeliers, Marat’s home who lived with his lover, Simonne Evrard and her sister Catherine. The two sisters refused to let Charlotte in. Determined to kill Marat that very day, Charlotte sent him two messages asking to meet. At seven o’clock, she again tried to carry on her mission but again the two sisters denied her request. This time however, she insisted on an audience, claiming to have critical information on the Girondins hiding in Caen. Marat hearing of the commotion decided to grant his soon to be assassin her wish and started taking notes back in his bath. Charlotte Corday took advantage of the distraction to plunge her knife in his chest all the way to the hilt. Unable to leave the scene, she was arrested and showed great composure in front of the two Evrard sisters along with the neighbors screaming insults and assaulting her. A doctor who tried to save Marat observed that the knife stab was surgically precise, leading to a death almost as instantaneous as the guillotine. Chabot, a Convention deputy, in charge of her interrogation, in spite of his rage, was amazed by her coolness and courage. Even [[Desmoulins, Camille]] who had precipitated the fall of the Girondins, admitted that her answers ridiculed the people in charge of the investigation. While in jail, she asked the Comité de Salut Public for an artist to make her portrait. The Comité accepted and sent one of Jacques-Louis David‘s students, Hauer, who did several sketches and worked on a portrait. Jacobins, Montagnards, and Sans Culottes expected an immediate execution. [[Hebert, Jacques]] in his ''Père Duchesne'' demanded a harder punishment than the guillotine. At her trial, on July 17th, she impressed the crowd with her beauty and calm. She had wanted her old acquaintance Doulcet de Pontécoulant to be her lawyer but her request only reached him after the trial. She unjustly reproached him of being a coward. She openly admitted her crime and justified it by her desire to serve and save France. She went to the scaffold without displaying neither fear nor dread. <br />
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The court was unwilling to believe she acted on her own and tried to push the narrative that she was merely the tool that executed the conspiracy to murder Marat. They suspected her chastity and had to verify the fact after her death. She was declared a virgin which gained her the epithet, “the Virgin of Peace.” [[David, Jacques-Louis]] immortalized the assassination in one of the most famous paintings of the revolution, “The Death of Marat.” In 1847, Lamartine (XIXth century Romantic writer) wrote a book on Corday, ''L’Ange de l’assassinat'' (The Angel of Assassination) a title which also earned her another nickname. <br />
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The demise of Marat did not have the expected effect, the Montagnards used it to take much harsher measures against people suspected of counter revolutionary activities, the terror worsened, and the Girondins, considered responsible for Charlotte Corday’s crime, were hunted without mercy.<br />
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Further Reading:<br />
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Bernardine Melchior-Bonnet, ''Charlotte Corday'', 2000.<br />
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'''Guy Toubiana'''<br />
<br />
The Citadel</div>Toubianahttps://enlightenment-revolution.org/index.php?title=DumouriezDumouriez2021-01-28T22:06:51Z<p>Toubiana: </p>
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<div>'''Dumouriez Charles François (1739-1823): French Revolutionary Wars General'''.<br />
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Born Charles François Du Perier du Mourier on 26 January 1739 in Cambrai (Northern France), Dumouriez is of noble stock and of Provencal origin (Southeastern part of France). His father is a war commissary, and his six uncles all served in the Picardy regiment (top northern France). His mother dies when Dumouriez is only six years old and his older sister takes care of him until he is about ten years old. His father sends him to Louis Le Grand, one of the very best school in France. At 14, he is educated in English, Italian, Spanish, Greek, German, mathematics, history and politics. He announces that he would follow any career his father would choose for him, except the one of monk.<br />
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Throughout his life, he is an avid reader and devours books on varied subjects. He reads the great French, Latin and Greek authors. It is believed that the ''Provincial Letters'' from Pascal (XVIIth century French philosopher) saved his life by stopping a bullet. At 17, he enters the army at the outbreak of the Seven Year War and takes advantage to study battlefield tactics and diplomacy. By the end of the war, he has reached the rank of captain, has received over twenty wounds, and is decorated with the Cross of Saint Louis.<br />
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His family objecting to the marrying of his cousin, Dumouriez spends the next ten years as a military adventurer throughout Italy, Corsica, Flanders, Spain, Portugal and Poland. In 1767, the Duc de Choiseul, Foreign Minister of France, retains him to take part in the Corsican campaign as lieutenant-colonel to repress the resistance led by Paoli (leader of the Corsican struggle against Genoese and French rules). Impressed by the Corsican patriotism, Dumouriez feels that the Corsicans should have the right to choose their destiny. <br />
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In 1770, Choiseul entrusts him in a diplomatic mission in Poland. His assignment is to help rise enough patriotic sentiment in Poland so that the partition plan of the country, intended by Prussia and Russia, fails. In order to succeed, Dumouriez needs to incite Turkey against Russia as well as triggering a nationalistic revolt in Sweden so that the latter can avoid the same partition planned for Poland. Dumouriez manages to master many of the elements to realize his goal; however, in December 1770, his mission is aborted because of Choiseul’s fall. In 1772, thanks to the Marquis de Monteynard, Secretary of State for War, he obtains a staff position with the Lorraine regiment in the Northeast part of France. Unfortunately, in 1773, targeted because of his past closeness to Choiseul, he is jailed for six months; he is accused of using government funds for personal ends. After his release from jail, he marries his cousin, Mademoiselle de Broissy, whom he had courted years before. His marriage does not bring him much happiness. His wife is ill humored and is said to have fired over 100 servants in 15 years. In 1774, he is back in Paris called by Louis XVI’s new minister of war, the Count of Saint Germain, who gives him military appointments in Lille and Boulogne. In 1778, France opts to support the United States in its war of independence against England. Consequently, Dumouriez, for the next 11 years, is charged with the command of the port and garrison of Cherbourg in Normandy in front of the British coast. <br />
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In 1789, at the outbreak of the revolution, he is already a middle-aged man but feels that prospects will rise during the social and political turmoil and is waiting to seize his opportunity for fame and grandeur. In Paris, he joins the Jacobin club and also meets Gensonné (future Girondin leader), Lafayette and [[Mirabeau, Honoré Gabriel Riquetti, Comte de]]. In 1790, Lafayette chooses him to investigate the situation in Belgium, which recently gained its independence but might come under Austrian attack. Dumouriez produces excellent reports in which he advocates ways to help and strengthen Belgium military and independence but also underlines the dire state of the French revolutionary troops. In June 1791, he is therefore appointed in charge of the 12th division. Dumouriez wants to instill a new spirit in his troops. He no longer wants to command an army strictly and only through blind discipline, like the Prussians, but aims to impart in his men an intelligent sense of duty. Generals must foster within their troops a feeling of citizenship that later will contribute to the victories of the French revolutionary armies unexpected by European powers.<br />
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In March 1792, the new Girondin ministry (a party led by [[Brissot, Jacques Pierre]], Roland, Gensonné, [[Vergniaud, Pierre]],) selects Dumouriez as their foreign minister thanks to his previous political and diplomatic experiences in Corsica, Spain, Poland, Sweden and Belgium. For Dumouriez, French foreign relations must be based on the French Declaration of Rights; thus people must be free and governments should follow democratic ideals. The Girondins being in favor of the war with Austria, Dumouriez is severely criticized by the Montagnards (led by [[Robespierre, Maximilien François Marie Isidore de]], [[Danton, Georges]], [[Saint-Just, Louis-Antoine de]]) who stood firmly against the war. Dumouriez’s diplomacy keeps England neutral in the coming conflict but cannot impede the natural alliance between Prussia and Austria. Even though the first battles prove disastrous for France, Dumouriez reorganizes the troops and launches counterattacks that succeed in stopping the enemies’ march to Paris. On June 13, 1792 the king, Louis XVI, dismisses his Girondin ministry led by Roland, and Dumouriez is appointed minister of war. He remains only two days in office for two reasons, the first is that the king refuses to agree with the National Assembly and the second is that he comes under violent criticisms from [[Brissot, Jacques Pierre]]. <br />
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On August 10, he rejects Lafayette’s request to swear allegiance to the king and informs the National Assembly that his only allegiance is to the people. On August 16, he is named supreme commander of the Northern Army. Dumouriez’s first intention is to face the Austrians in Holland and let General Kellerman fight with the Duke of Brunswick’s Prussian army. However, Brunswick’s powerful, disciplined, and veteran troops are joined by Austrian and French Royalists. Brunswick intends to easily defeat the poorly trained French revolutionary men, march to Paris, crush the revolution, and restore the monarchy. He is leading about 84,000 men. Dumouriez, realizing the gravity of the situation, changes his plan and joins Kellerman’s army. The two French armies combined sums up to about 54,000 men. On 20 September 1792, the battle of Valmy is fought and what was supposed to be an easy victory for the Duke of Brunswick turns out into a shameful retreat. Valmy is considered a pivotal battle because it saved the revolution during this critical stage. Back in Paris, General Dumouriez is a national hero. On 6 November 1792, he obtains another great victory, crushing the Austrians at the Battle of Jemmapes (present day Belgium). In his Memoirs, Dumouriez commented that he truly believed that his military victories would usher in a period of peace. However, the situation in France is quickly deteriorating; the king is trialed and guillotined, and the Girondins are divided. Dumouriez finds himself at odds with the National Convention, which believes Belgium should be annexed to France. In a bid to respect Belgium’s desire for independence, the General opposes the National Convention.<br />
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In February 1793, Dumouriez, leading around 14,000 new recruits, marches on Holland. He first obtains minor victories and takes the cities of Bréda, Klundert, and Geertruidenberg; however, on 18 March 1793, he is defeated by the Austrians and Dutch at the battle of Neerwinden. No longer a victor, several leading members of the Convention find him insubordinate and dangerous, and suspect him to sympathize with the monarchists. [[Hebert, Jacques]], leader of the Enragés, accuses him of conspiring with Danton to reestablish the monarchy. His harsh treatment of new recruits, having their head and eyebrows shaved upon acts of cowardice in battle, is strongly condemned. His loyalty to the revolution is in doubt and Convention deputies are sent to investigate his conduct. It is then suspected that at this point, Dumouriez enters in secret negotiations with the Austrians. In an audacious attempt, he marches his army to Paris with plans to overthrow the government and either put Louis XVII on the throne or take the power for himself. Unfortunately, not all his men support his coup and Dumouriez stalls on his way to Paris. In April, fearing arrest and imprisonment, Dumouriez along with the Duc de Chartres, one of his high-ranking officers and future French monarch from 1830 to 1848, defect to the Austrians. His betrayal has detrimental repercussions on his allies in the French government; the Girondins, Danton and even [[Philippe Egalité]], the Duc de Chartres’s father, are all suspected of treason because of their link to a traitor. <br />
From then on, Dumouriez travels across Europe offering his expertise in different courts but with his reputation preceding him, he cannot find employment. In 1794, his Memoirs are being published. He also proposes to Napoleon his services but the French emperor ignores his request. In 1804, he settles in England where he advises the British against Napoleon. He spends much of his days writing reports on the political situation of Europe. He dies on 14 March 1823 in Turville Park, a small town close to London; a quaint little place in contrast to the tumultuous and intrepid life that thrust him in the limelight of the French revolution and Europe. Even though his name is inscribed on the Arc of Triumph in Paris for the glorious victories he brought his country, France has yet to bring his remains back home. <br />
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Further Reading:<br />
<br />
Isabelle Henry, ''DUMOURIEZ: Général de la Révolution (1739-1823)'', 2002.<br />
<br />
'''Guy Toubiana'''<br />
<br />
The Citadel</div>Toubiana