Georges Couthon
Georges Auguste Couthon
French First Republic state institutions
Jacobins and French revolutionary radicals
1755–1794
✕ Executed
1755–1794
✕ Executed
Committee of Public Safety member allied with Robespierre
A lawyer elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1791 and the National Convention in 1792, he joined the Committee of Public Safety in 1793. Working with Robespierre and Saint-Just, he drafted the Law of 22 Prairial, which stripped defendants of counsel and sharply increased executions.
A lawyer and deputy in the Legislative Assembly and National Convention, Couthon joined the Mountain. On the Committee of Public Safety he worked closely with Robespierre and Saint-Just and played a central role in the Law of 22 Prairial, which sharply restricted defendants’ rights. Arrested on 9 Thermidor, he was executed with Robespierre.
Career timeline
- 1787Member, Provincial Assembly of Auvergne
- 1791Deputy for Puy-de-Dôme in the Legislative Assembly
- 1792Deputy for Puy-de-Dôme in the National Convention
- 1793Member of the Committee of Public Safety
- 1793Representative on mission to the Army of the Alps and Rhône-et-Loire; took Lyon
- 1793President of the National Convention
- 1794Rapporteur of the Law of 22 Prairial
- 1794Arrested on 9 Thermidor; guillotined on 28 July