French general who fought in the revolutions of two continents
He presented a draft of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen on 11 July 1789, and after the storming of the Bastille was made commander-in-chief of the National Guard. The Guard's firing on the crowd at the Champ de Mars in 1791 cost him popular trust and ended his middle course.
French military officer and politician, born in 1757 to a land-owning family at Chavaniac in Auvergne and dead in Paris in 1834. He volunteered for the American Revolutionary War, served as a Continental Army major general at the siege of Yorktown, sat in the Estates General of 1789, commanded the National Guard, and helped write the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. In the Revolution he sought a middle course and defended constitutional monarchy, but the bloodshed on the Champ de Mars in 1791 cost him popular trust, and the Austrians held him over five years after his arrest was ordered in 1792. He refused to serve Napoleon and sat as a liberal deputy under the restored Bourbons. In the July Revolution of 1830 he again commanded the National Guard and backed Louis-Philippe. He advocated the abolition of slavery and was called the 'Hero of the Two Worlds'.
Career timeline
1777–1781Continental Army major general in the American Revolutionary War; commanded the American right at the siege of Yorktown in 1781
1787–1789Member of the Assembly of Notables; deputy of the nobility to the Estates General of 1789
1789–1791Commander-in-chief of the National Guard; presented a draft of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
1791–1792Commander of the Army of the Centre and then the Army of the North; fled after a warrant for his arrest in August 1792
1792–1797Held prisoner by Austria and Prussia at Olmütz and elsewhere; released in 1797
1814–1830Liberal member of the Chamber of Deputies under the Bourbon Restoration
1830Commanded the National Guard in the July Revolution and backed the accession of Louis-Philippe
Feuillant politician and advocate of judicial reform
One third of the triumvirate of which the Assembly said, “What Duport thinks, Barnave says, Lameth does”, he led the 1791 Feuillant split, arguing the Revolution was over and the constitutional order should be stabilised.
A magistrate and National Assembly deputy, Duport promoted jury trial and criminal-justice reform. He formed the “triumvirate” with Barnave and Lameth and helped organize the Feuillants in 1791. After the monarchy fell in 1792 he went into exile and died in Switzerland.
Career timeline
1778Admitted as an advocate in the Parlement de Paris, and appointed a councillor in that same parlement, remaining in office until 1790.
1787–1788Founded the "Parti des nationaux" in 1787, demanding that the Estates-General be convened, and in 1788 organised the Société des Trente against the distinction between the three orders.
1789Elected deputy for the Paris nobility to the Estates-General on 13 May; in late June joined the Third Estate among the 47 liberal nobles.
1789–1791Formed the "triumvirate" with Barnave and Alexandre de Lameth in the Constituent Assembly, and as rapporteur of the criminal jurisprudence committee advanced the reform of the judiciary (report of 29 March 1790) and the introduction of the jury (8 February 1791); presided over the Assembly from 14 to 26 February 1791.
1791Led the Feuillant split in July, was the chief architect of the decree of 27 September granting full emancipation to the Jews, and took part in the 24 September revocation of the rights of free men of colour.
1792After the fall of the monarchy on 10 August he left his post as president of the criminal tribunal of the Seine, was arrested, then released and fled into exile via England and Switzerland.
1798Forced abroad again after the 18 Fructidor coup (4 September 1797), he died of tuberculosis at Gais in Switzerland.
Politician who moved from the revolutionary triumvirate to the Feuillants
He joined the Third Estate in 1789 but, through the triumvirate and the Feuillants, sought to stabilise the Revolution behind a constitutional monarchy; when the monarchy fell in 1792 he emigrated.
An aristocratic officer and veteran of the American War of Independence, Lameth joined the Third Estate in 1789 and supported the abolition of privilege. He formed the “triumvirate” with Barnave and Duport before becoming a Feuillant defender of constitutional monarchy. After exile and return, he served as a prefect under Napoleon and later as a liberal deputy.
Career timeline
1777–1785Entered the king's bodyguard corps and served as a cavalry officer; in 1782 he fought in the American War of Independence as a colonel under Rochambeau.
1789Elected deputy of the nobility of Péronne to the Estates-General, he rallied to the Third Estate and was among the promoters of the abolition of privilege on the night of 4 August.
1789–1791With Barnave and Duport he formed the triumvirate leading the Assembly's left; on 20 November 1790 he was elected president of the Assembly.
1791–1792A founding Jacobin and then a Feuillant leader defending constitutional monarchy; promoted maréchal de camp in the Army of the North in May 1792, he crossed to the enemy with Lafayette on 10 August and was interned by Austria.
1800–1814Returning to France, he served as prefect of the Basses-Alpes, Rhin-et-Moselle, Roer and Pô, was made a Baron of the Empire in 1810, and became lieutenant general and prefect of the Somme in 1814.
1820–1827Under the Restoration he sat as a liberal opposition deputy for Seine-Inférieure and then Seine-et-Oise, fighting the Villèle ministry.
Leading Feuillant orator who sought to preserve constitutional monarchy
On 15 July 1791 he defended the king’s inviolability: “Are we going to end the Revolution, or begin it again?” One step further, he warned, would destroy the monarchy, and one step further toward equality would destroy property.
A Third Estate deputy and leading National Assembly orator, he formed the “triumvirate” with Duport and Lameth. After the Flight to Varennes he helped lead the Feuillants in defence of constitutional monarchy and secretly advised the royal family. Papers revealing those contacts contributed to his conviction and execution.
Career timeline
1789Elected deputy of the Third Estate for Grenoble to the Estates-General; defended the union of the orders and voting by head.
1790Elected president of the Constituent National Assembly; became mayor of Grenoble the same year.
1791Escorted the royal family from Varennes to Paris, then helped form the Feuillants and defended the king’s inviolability.
1792–1793Denounced in August 1792; imprisoned at Grenoble and Fort Barraux, condemned for treason by the Revolutionary Tribunal and executed in Paris in November 1793.
