Enragé activist who championed section assemblies and direct democracy
Enragé who linked subsistence riots and section politics to the removal of the Girondins; a deputy in the 1792 National Convention.
A former postal employee and Paris section activist, Varlet joined the Enragés in pressing subsistence demands and direct democracy. He participated in the insurrection of 31 May–2 June 1793 that removed the Girondins. He later criticized the revolutionary government for suppressing popular sovereignty and was repeatedly arrested.
Activities and affiliations
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–1792
Social movements and organizing
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EnragésMain
Social movements and organizing
Career Timeline
- 1789–1792In the Revolution's early years he wrote patriotic songs, campaigned by petition against the king's flight and for his deposition, and took part in popular mobilisation in the Paris sections.
- 1792After the Legislative Assembly suspended the king and called elections for a National Convention to write a new constitution, he was elected a deputy and argued for direct universal suffrage and the recall of elected officials.
- 1793He joined the Parisian poor's demands for price controls on 22 February, was arrested on 24 May and released three days later, then sat on the nine-member insurrectionary committee formed by section delegates on 29 May, which led the insurrection of 31 May to 2 June.
- 1793–1795Arrested again at the start of the Terror and released on 29 October 1793, he was arrested once more after the fall of Robespierre and spent almost a year in prison.
- after 1800After his release he settled at Pailly in the Yonne, married and had three children; from 1800 he supported Bonaparte and lived for a time in Nantes.
- 1830–1837He returned to Paris for several months in 1830 to take part in the July Revolution; in 1836 he left Nantes for Corbeil-Essonnes, where he drowned the following year.
Related historical events
Political position and stakes in the Revolution
Varlet held that Paris section assemblies, petitions, and insurrectionary politics were not simply noise outside the Convention. He argued that representative bodies could not monopolise popular sovereignty and that citizens should intervene directly in subsistence and political decisions. The removal of the Girondins at the end of May and beginning of June 1793 shows Parisian pressure materially reshaping parliamentary power.
Direct section action did not automatically mean democracy for everyone. Influence was uneven according to who could attend, and to the power of armed National Guards and administrative bodies. Varlet’s repeated arrests after he criticised revolutionary government show how the Convention and Committees, having gained power with the help of popular mobilisation, restricted its independent pressure.