Thérèse Cabarrus (1773-1835): Franco-Spanish Socialite.

Jeanne Thérèse Cabarrus was born on 31st July 1773 in Carabanchel Alto, a suburb of Madrid. Her father, François Cabarrus, originally from Bayonne (French Basque Country) had moved to Spain where he became a Spanish financer. He married Maria Antonia Galabert and founded the bank of San Carlos later known as the Royal Bank of Spain. In 1789, he was granted peerage as a count by King Carlos IV of Spain.

At age 12, Thérèse is sent to a French convent but does not stay long and soon returns to Spain. She had some education in languages, singing, dancing and painting but her real value resided in her beauty. Very precocious and a center of attraction for her stunning looks, her parents decide to marry her before she even turns 15. In Paris, she meets her first husband, the Marquis de Fontenay, who was 26 years old, wealthy but not quite able to keep pace with his young wife. On the 2nd of May 1789, she delivers a son whose paternity is doubted. She had read [[Voltaire, François-Marie Arouet de]], [[Rousseau, Jean-Jacques]], [[Diderot, Denis]] resulting in interest for the notion of liberty and equality. At the beginning of the revolution, she and her friends even attend meetings of the National Assembly. She leads a life of pleasure and gaiety indifferent to her husband. Being the daughter of a count and the spouse of a marquis, she soon feels frightened by the seriousness and goals of the revolution. Her husband decides to leave for Martinique (she will be granted a divorce in 1791) while she prefers to move to Bordeaux, a city in southwestern France.

In Bordeaux, she lives with her uncle and her brother, single and attractive, she is quickly surrounded by many admirers. After the Girondins’ political defeat, Girondins home region is in turmoil. The National Assembly sends two leading Montagnards, Tallien and Ysabeau, to reestablish calm and order. Quickly the guillotine is built and suspects are jailed every week. Tallien’s men must search for and arrest the remaining Girondins leaders, Buzot, [[Louvet]], Pétion and Gaudet, that are still at large unlike their fellow counterparts, [[Brissot, Jacques Pierre]] and [[Vergniaud, Pierre]], who had been already arrested. Thérèse’s brother suspected by Tallien’s men to conspire with the Girondins is subjected to a house visit and some material confiscation. Thérèse on the other hand is directly imprisoned because of her strong reaction during the house visit. Knowing that Tallien is master of Bordeaux, she writes him and begs him to come to her rescue. Once Tallien lays eyes on her, he succumbs to her beauty.

Aware of Tallien’s political power, she positions herself to become his new collaborator. She even gives a speech on education, “Discours sur l’éducation par la Citoyenne Thérèse Cabarrus-Fontenay.” She has her salon where she invites men of the Terror. Tallien, infatuated by her looks, agrees to most of her requests. Her popularity is such that many people accused of crimes against the government come to her for justice. She uses her influence on Tallien to save numerous suspects and convicted from jail or even the guillotine. In Bordeaux patriots and aristocrats alike are saved by the mesmerizing woman nicknaming her the “Goddess of Liberty.” Early in 1794, [[Robespierre, Maximilien François Marie Isidore de]], hearing of Tallien’s liaison and noticing a lull in condemnations, sends one of his own men, Jullien, known for his stern republicanism, to investigate matters. Tallien is recalled to Paris and Thérèse, unable to seduce Jullien, soon joins him in Paris. Robespierre, aware that Cabarrus is the daughter of a Spanish count and responsible for having fouled Tallien’s probity, signs her arrest. By the end of May, she is imprisoned at the Petite Force prison. She writes to Tallien and reproached him of being a coward for not doing everything possible to save her once more.

Determined to rescue her, and backed by Fouché and Barras, on 9 Thermidor (27 July 1794), at the Convention, Tallien accuses Robespierre of abusing his power and being a tyrant. He does not give a chance to Robespierre to defend himself against the allegations, which leads to the fall and death of Robespierre, [[Saint-Just, Louis-Antoine de]] and many other Robespierrists. Thérèse is liberated and both are at the peak of their social and political fame. Tallien is nicknamed the “Man of the 9” and she becomes known as “Notre Dame de Thermidor” (our Lady of Thermidor). They get married on 26 December 1794. A daughter will be born out of their union. As she did in Bordeaux, she uses again her influence on Tallien to save suspects of counter-revolutionary activities. In spite of his political renown and to his wife’s disappointment, Tallien is unable to take advantage of his reputation and fails to become one of the leaders of the Directoire. Madame Tallien opens her own salon to the fashionable and influential people of Paris. Joséphine de Beauharnais, [[Bonaparte, Napoleon]]’s future wife, becomes one of her closest acquaintances and Barras, France’s new leader, her new lover. Along with Joséphine, they reach celebrity for their extravagant and fashionable attires. She wears rubies in her hair, bracelets on her arms and ankles and rings in her toes. She sets a new fashion throughout Paris nicknamed “Sans Chemises,” a political jibe to the fanatical street revolutionaries known as the “Sans Culottes.” Talleyrand will say of Thérèse that “it is impossible to be more richly undressed.” As Barras’ mistress, she has little to do with her husband who has lost most of his influence (Tallien dies forgotten and in severe poverty in 1820). In 1797, she files for divorce, which is finalized in 1802. In November 1795, the Directoire replaces the Convention and lasts until Bonaparte’s coup in November 1799. She is the woman in vogue of that period and is nicknamed the “Queen of the Directoire.” However, France’s economy is in dire trouble and coupled with the shortage of basic necessities, Thérèse Cabarrus’ ostentatiousness irritates many people and makes her the target of antipathy and contempt. As Barras’ star dims down, she turns to a new lover, France’s finance-king, Gabriel-Julien Ouvrard, with whom she bears four children. Her lack of respectability forces Napoleon to forbid his wife, Joséphine, to have any contact with her former friend. Her charm helps her anew when at Madame de Staël’s salon, she meets a very wealthy and respectable aristocrat, the Count of Chimay (later to become Prince of Caraman-Chimay) whom she married in 1805. Four more children will be born out of this marriage. After Napoleon’s defeat in 1815, Louis XVIII also forbids her to appear at court. Later on, while living in present day Belgium, the King of Holland, also refuses to have her at his court (during that period Belgium belonged to Holland).

In Belgium, Thérèse opens her salon where she is surrounded by her husband, her children and many artists. The Goddess of Liberty of Bordeaux, The Lady of Thermidor, Madame Tallien, the Queen of the Directoire has become more discreet and honorable but her fame follows her and in Paris, her public appearance still attracts a lot of attention. Renown for being one of the most beautiful women of France, her beauty, led her to experience a memorable and eventful life. She spends the rest of her days peacefully telling her friends how she saved many people from jail and the scaffold and brought joy and distraction in Paris back when the revolution frightened most Frenchmen. She dies on 15 January 1835 in Chimay, Belgium at age 61.

Further Reading:

J. Mills Whitman, ''Men and Women of the French Revolution'', 1933.

'''Guy Toubiana'''

The Citadel

Louvet

2022-09-28T15:56:57Z

Toubiana:

'''Louvet, Jean-Baptiste''' (1760-1797): French Author and Revolutionary

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.

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 the Pope Pius VI).

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.

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.

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.

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. Louvet justified Dumouriez’s betrayal 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''.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Further Reading:

Bette W. Oliver, ''Witness to the Revolution: Jean-Baptiste Louvet, 1760–1797'', 2020.

'''Guy Toubiana'''

The Citadel

Louvet

2022-09-28T15:52:57Z

Toubiana:

'''Louvet, Jean-Baptiste''' (1760-1797): French Author and Revolutionary

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.

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 the Pope Pius VI).

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.

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.

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.

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. Louvet justified Dumouriez’s betrayal 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''.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

Further Reading:

Bette W. Oliver, ''Witness to the Revolution: Jean-Baptiste Louvet, 1760–1797'', 2020.

'''Guy Toubiana'''

The Citadel