Radical journalist and publisher of L’Ami du peuple
A physician and scientific writer before the Revolution, he founded L'Ami du peuple in September 1789. Elected to the National Convention in September 1792, he was acquitted by the Revolutionary Tribunal in April 1793 and helped bring down the Girondins. Corday killed him on 13 July 1793.
Originally a physician and scientific writer, Marat published the newspaper L’Ami du peuple during the Revolution. His fierce attacks on alleged counter-revolutionaries and the Girondins made him a radical voice linked to Parisian popular politics and the Mountain. He was assassinated by Charlotte Corday in July 1793.
Career timeline
1743–1789Worked as a physician and scientific writer, publishing experimental studies on optics, electricity and light and political works such as The Chains of Slavery (1774). He received an MD from the University of St Andrews.
1777Appointed in June as physician to the bodyguard of the Comte d'Artois (later Charles X).
1783Resigned his court appointment in April to concentrate on scientific research.
1789When the King called the Estates General in 1788, he abandoned his scientific and medical career and entered revolutionary polemic, anonymously publishing Offrande à la Patrie in February 1789.
1789Launched his own newspaper, the Publiciste parisien, on 12 September, renaming it L'Ami du peuple four days later.
1791After the Champ de Mars massacre and the ensuing crackdown on the radical press, his paper was seized and its printing formes broken up, yet he kept publishing; about 500 issues appeared in 1791.
1792Elected to the National Convention in September. After the fall of the monarchy on 10 August he was appointed one of the Paris Commune's adjoint administrators on its Committee of Surveillance, signed its September circular, and has been credited with drafting it.
1793Indicted on Girondin initiative, he became the first representative of the people tried before the Revolutionary Tribunal in April; defending himself without counsel, he was acquitted.
1793Played an active part in the insurrection of 31 May–2 June that brought down the Girondins, presiding over the Convention and helping determine which deputies were to be arrested.
1793Assassinated on 13 July: Charlotte Corday, a Girondin sympathiser, stabbed him in the chest while he sat in a medicinal bath.
Clergyman and political theorist of Third Estate sovereignty
Amid the 1788–1789 Estates-General crisis he identified the Third Estate with the whole nation, and later ended the Directory through the coup of 18 Brumaire.
A clergyman and political theorist, Sieyès linked the Third Estate to the nation in his 1789 pamphlet What Is the Third Estate? He helped bring the National Assembly into being and later sat with the Plain in the National Convention. Near the end of the Directory he participated in the coup of Brumaire and helped establish the Consulate.
Career timeline
1775–1788Secretary and deputy to the bishop of Tréguier, then vicar general and chancellor of the diocese of Chartres; sat in the Estates of Brittany.
1789Published What Is the Third Estate?; as a Third Estate deputy he pushed for the National Assembly and joined the drafting of the Declaration of the Rights of Man.
1792–1795Sat in the National Convention, voted for the death of Louis XVI, and served on a diplomatic mission to The Hague in 1795.
1799Made a Director in May; helped lead the coup of 18 Brumaire and became a provisional Consul of the Consulate.
1799–1830Served in the Sénat conservateur, was expelled from the Academy after the Restoration, left for Brussels, and returned to France after the July Revolution.
1836Died in Paris aged 88; unpublished manuscripts credit him with the first use of the term sociologie.
Enragé priest who demanded controls on subsistence prices
The leading spokesman of the Enragés, he demanded action against the wealthy in the name of poor Parisians' survival, presented the Enragés' programme to the Convention in 1793, and was arrested amid Montagnard and Jacobin attacks.
A priest and radical activist in Paris’s Gravilliers section, Roux became a leading figure among the Enragés. He attacked food monopoly and speculation, demanded forceful price controls and economic equality, and presented the Enragés’ programme to the Convention in 1793. Arrested after attacks from Montagnard and Jacobin leaders, he died by suicide in prison.
Career timeline
1791Elected to the Paris Commune.
1793When food-price riots broke out in Paris, he defended such direct action.
1793Presented the Enragés' programme to the Convention: the 25 June address demanding taxation of necessities and punishment of speculators.
1793Arrested in August, released, then rearrested on 5 September and interned at Sainte-Pélagie.
1794On being sent before the Revolutionary Tribunal, he tried twice to kill himself in prison and died on 10 February.
Girondin journalist and deputy who championed revolutionary war
In 1791–92 he led the Legislative Assembly's push for war against Austria, which led to the declaration of war in April 1792. Sentenced on 30 October 1793, he was guillotined the next day.
A journalist and deputy in the Legislative Assembly and National Convention, Brissot also participated in antislavery activism. In 1791–92 he became the chief advocate of foreign war in the name of defending and extending the Revolution and emerged as a leading Girondin. He was arrested after the Girondins’ fall in June 1793 and later executed.
Career timeline
1770년대~1780년대Trained as a law clerk, then worked as a journalist contributing to the Mercure de France and the Courier de l'Europe.
1788년Founded the antislavery Society of the Friends of the Blacks and served as its secretary.
1789년Elected a member of the Paris municipality and founded the Patriote français, which he edited until 1793.
1791년 10월~1792년 9월Sat in the Legislative Assembly for Seine and, on the diplomatic committee, shaped much of France's foreign policy.
1792년 9월~1793년 10월Represented Eure-et-Loir in the National Convention; arrested in June 1793 and executed that October.
Convention deputy who bridged the Plain and Committee of Public Safety
As the Committee of Public Safety's voice, he presented its reports on war, mass mobilization and revolutionary government to the Convention. Nicknamed 'the Anacreon of the Guillotine', he joined Robespierre's fall in 1794, then was impeached for the Terror.
A deputy to the Estates-General and National Convention, Barère sat with the Plain in 1792. From 1793 he served on the Committee of Public Safety and acted as a principal spokesman, presenting reports on war, mass mobilization, and revolutionary government. He joined the move against Robespierre in 1794 but was later impeached for his role in the Terror.
Career timeline
1789Elected deputy to the Estates-General by the estates of Bigorre.
1791–1792Served as a judge of the newly instituted Court of Cassation (October 1791 – September 1792).
1792Elected to the National Convention for Hautes-Pyrénées, presided over the Convention, and chaired the trial of Louis XVI.
1793–1794Elected to the Committee of Public Safety and served throughout its existence, presenting its reports on war, mass mobilization, and revolutionary government to the Convention.
1794Joined the Thermidorian coup that brought down Robespierre.
1795Decreed arrested and deported for the Terror; after Oléron and Saintes he escaped on 26 October and hid in Bordeaux.
1799Amnestied by Napoleon; under the First Empire he worked as a writer.
1815Sat in the Chamber of Deputies during the Hundred Days, then was banished for life as a regicide after the Bourbon Restoration.
1830–1841Returned to France, served Louis Philippe under the July Monarchy, and died on 13 January 1841.
Revolutionary leader associated with the Cordeliers and Indulgents
From Cordeliers orator to minister of justice after the monarchy fell on 10 August 1792, and a disputed figure in responsibility for the September Massacres. He sat on the first Committee of Public Safety in 1793, later led the Indulgents demanding an end to the Terror, and was guillotined in 1794.
A prominent Cordelier, Danton became minister of justice after the monarchy fell in August 1792. He rallied support for defence of the Republic and served on the first Committee of Public Safety in 1793. Later associated with calls to moderate the Terror and stabilize the Revolution, he clashed with the ruling committee and was executed in April 1794.
Career timeline
1789–1792Rose to prominence in the radical politics of the Cordeliers district, earning the nickname 'the Thunderer', and became president of the Cordeliers Club in 1790.
1792Became minister of justice after the fall of the monarchy on 10 August and appealed for resistance in his 2 September 'daring' speech.
1793Backed the creation of the Revolutionary Tribunal in March and was appointed to the first Committee of Public Safety on 6 April.
1793–1794After losing his committee seat in June, he became the leading Indulgent demanding an end to the Terror, and was tried and executed in April 1794 on charges of conspiracy and venality.
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.
Revolutionary journalist associated with both the Bastille rising and Indulgents
Journalist and Convention deputy whose 1789 call to arms at the Palais-Royal helped set off the Bastille rising; he died on the guillotine with Danton after Le Vieux Cordelier demanded clemency and an end to the Terror.
On 12 July 1789 Desmoulins called the Palais-Royal crowd to arms, helping mobilize the unrest that preceded the storming of the Bastille. A Cordelier journalist, he later campaigned against the Girondins, but in late 1793 used Le Vieux Cordelier to call for clemency and an easing of the Terror. He was executed with Danton in April 1794.
Career timeline
1785Admitted as an advocate in the Parlement of Paris, but a stammer and weak connections hampered practice
1789Began radical pamphleteering and journalism with La France Libre, the Discours de la lanterne and the Révolutions de France et de Brabant
1790Joined the Club des Cordeliers and became a prominent member
1792Became Secretary-General to Justice Minister Danton, then was elected deputy for Paris to the National Convention in September
1793Led the attack on the Girondins in the Histoire des Brissotins, then from December published Le Vieux Cordelier demanding clemency and an easing of the Terror
1794Arrested on 31 March, tried as a Dantonist and executed on 5 April
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.
Committee of Public Safety member and theorist of revolutionary government
The youngest deputy ever elected to the National Convention and Robespierre's closest ally, he pushed to confiscate the property of the Republic's enemies for poor patriots. He fell with Robespierre on 9 Thermidor.
The youngest deputy in the National Convention, Saint-Just became a leading Montagnard and close ally of Robespierre. On the Committee of Public Safety he served on missions to the armies and delivered reports against the Girondins, Hébertists, and Dantonists. He defended a strongly centralized revolutionary government and was arrested with Robespierre on 9 Thermidor and executed the next day.
Career timeline
1792.9–1794.7Deputy of the National Convention (for Aisne; youngest member)
1792.11–1793Reports condemning the Girondins; speech demanding the King's execution
1793.5–1794.7Member of the Committee of Public Safety
1793.11–1794Representative on mission to the armies, overseeing the Rhine and North armies
