French Revolutionary general and statesman who defected to Austria in 1793
He saved the Revolution at Valmy and Jemappes in 1792, but after defeat at Neerwinden on 18 March 1793 he tried to march on Paris and handed the Convention's envoys over to Austria before crossing to the Austrian side. That defection buried the Girondins.
A general and politician of the French Revolutionary Wars. An officer of the royal army in the Seven Years' War, he later commanded the port of Cherbourg. After the Revolution he joined the Jacobin Club, and with Girondin backing he became foreign minister in March 1792, pushed for the declaration of war on Austria and briefly served as war minister. After a conflict with Louis XVI he resigned, then took command of the Army of the North and, with Kellermann, defeated the Prussians at Valmy (20 September 1792) and won at Jemappes (6 November 1792). Beaten at Neerwinden on 18 March 1793, he attempted to march on Paris, dissolve the Convention and restore the 1791 constitution and constitutional monarchy; lacking the army's support he went over to the Austrian side. He died in Britain after years of exile, and his name is inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
Career timeline
1739Born at Cambrai; sources disagree, recording 25, 26 or 27 January.
1792Backed by the Girondins, became foreign minister, pushed for the declaration of war on Austria and briefly served as war minister.
1792As commander of the Army of the North, won at Valmy (20 September) and Jemappes (6 November).
1793Defeated at Neerwinden on 18 March and defected to the Austrian side in April.
French king deposed and tried during the Revolution
The National Convention ruled on 3 December 1792 that it would try Louis XVI itself; convicted of high treason by vote, he was guillotined on 21 January 1793.
King of France from 1774, Louis XVI summoned the Estates-General in 1789 amid a fiscal crisis. He accepted the Constitution of 1791, but the Flight to Varennes and foreign war deepened distrust of the crown. The monarchy was suspended in 1792; the National Convention convicted him and he was executed in January 1793.
Career timeline
1774–1792King of France from 1774 until the monarchy was abolished in September 1792.
1789Summoned the Estates-General amid fiscal crisis and, after the storming of the Bastille, recognized the National Assembly’s legislative authority.
1791His flight to Varennes failed in June; he accepted the constitution, and a constitutional monarchy was declared in September.
1792Arrested in the insurrection of 10 August and held in the Temple; on 21 September the National Convention abolished the monarchy.
1792–1793The National Convention ruled on 3 December that it would try him; trial opened on 11 December and he was convicted of high treason.
1793Executed by guillotine on 21 January at the Place de la Révolution in Paris.
Author of the Le Chapelier Law banning guilds and workers’ combinations
On 14 June 1791 the law he moved was adopted, banning guilds and forbidding workers or employers of the same trade to combine for their common interests.
A lawyer from Rennes, he was elected to the Estates-General for the Third Estate in 1789, helped found the Breton Club, and as president of the Constituent Assembly in August 1789 presided over the night session of 4 August that abolished feudalism. On the constitutional committee he drafted much of the 1791 Constitution. The law bearing his name, adopted on 14 June 1791, banned guilds and workers’ combinations, a prohibition that lasted until 1864. In September 1791 he also presented a law restricting concerted political action by popular societies. Suspected during the Terror for his Feuillant ties, he was guillotined on 22 April 1794.
Career timeline
1789Elected to the Estates-General for the Third Estate of the sénéchaussée of Rennes; a founder of the Breton Club.
1789As president of the Constituent Assembly in August he presided over the night of 4 August; joined the constitutional committee in late September.
1791The Le Chapelier Law was adopted on 14 June; after the Champ de Mars massacre in July he left the Jacobins for the Feuillants.
1791Carried a law of 30 September restricting concerted political action by popular societies.
1794Arrested, he was guillotined in Paris on 22 April.
Finance specialist who led the Convention’s finance committee
On 26 July 1794 (8 Thermidor), when Robespierre named him among the enemies in charge of the finances, he answered at once from the tribune that the man paralysing the Convention’s will was Robespierre himself.
From a Montpellier cotton-merchant family, he drew up a petition for a republic after the flight to Varennes in 1791. In the Legislative Assembly and the Convention he led the finance committee and oversaw the treasury, and in August 1793 presented the plan for the Great Book of the Public Debt consolidating the state’s debts. His push to end state pay for the clergy set him against the deist Robespierre. When Robespierre named him on 8 Thermidor he replied at once, a clash often counted among the triggers of Robespierre’s fall the next day. He was nonetheless pursued in the Thermidorian Reaction, and exiled as a regicide in 1816 he died near Brussels.
Career timeline
1791After the flight to Varennes he petitioned the Assembly to proclaim a republic, and was elected to the Legislative Assembly.
1792Re-elected to the Convention and joined its finance committee in October.
1793Presented the plan for the Great Book of the Public Debt on 24 August.
1794On 26 July (8 Thermidor) answered from the tribune Robespierre, who had named him in his speech.
1816–1820Exiled to Belgium under the law against regicides; died near Brussels in 1820.
Count of Artois who led émigré royalism during the Revolution
At his 1825 coronation at Reims he tried to revive the royal touch, asserting the sacredness of monarchy; in July 1830 his ordinances dissolved the chamber and censored the press, and the Paris rising forced his abdication on 2 August.
Louis XVI’s younger brother, the Count of Artois left France soon after the fall of the Bastille in 1789. Abroad he promoted Bourbon restoration and became a political centre of émigré royalism. He succeeded as Charles X in 1824 and was overthrown by the July Revolution of 1830.
Career timeline
1765Death of his father, the Dauphin Louis
1773Married Marie Thérèse of Savoy
1789Left France on 17 July, three days after the storming of the Bastille
1791–1792Set up a court-in-exile in the Electorate of Trier and prepared a counter-revolutionary invasion
1814Acted as Lieutenant General of the realm during the Bourbon Restoration
1824–1830King of France; crowned at Reims in 1825
1830Issued the July Ordinances; abdicated on 2 August
