On 1 June 1794 Howe commanded the Channel Fleet against the French fleet escorting a grain convoy, capturing seven ships. Known as the Glorious First of June, the battle links directly to the site's French Revolutionary Wars event entry.
Royal Navy officer and politician. Born in London in 1726, he served in the War of the Austrian Succession and won renown in the 1759 Battle of Quiberon Bay during the Seven Years' War, then commanded the North American station and served as a peace commissioner during the American War of Independence. He was First Lord of the Admiralty in 1783 and again from December 1783 to 1788, and in the French Revolutionary Wars commanded the Channel Fleet, defeating the French fleet at the battle of 1 June 1794. During the 1797 Spithead mutiny he restored peace within twelve hours by direct persuasion rather than repression. He died on 5 August 1799.
Career timeline
1739Entered the navy aboard the fifth-rate HMS Pearl
1746Promoted to post-captain
1758Inherited the Irish peerage after his brother George Howe was killed
1776–1778North American naval commander and peace commissioner
1783–1788First Lord of the Admiralty
1788Created Earl Howe
1793–Channel Fleet commander in the French Revolutionary Wars
Commander of the Austro-Prussian army who issued the Brunswick Manifesto
On 25 July 1792 at Koblenz he issued a manifesto in his name warning that Paris and its people would face severe reprisals if the French royal family were harmed.
Ruling prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, a nephew of Frederick the Great and a Prussian field marshal, he took command of the combined Austrian and Prussian armies when war began in 1792. On 25 July he issued the Brunswick Manifesto at Koblenz; it bore his name, but the text is generally attributed to émigré circles. Meant to protect the king, the threat instead hardened feeling against the monarchy in Paris. He took Longwy and Verdun, then halted at Valmy on 20 September and withdrew from France. He was mortally wounded at the Battle of Auerstedt in 1806.
Career timeline
1780Succeeded his father as ruling prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.
1792As commander of the Austro-Prussian army he issued the Brunswick Manifesto on 25 July.
1792Took Longwy and Verdun, then halted at Valmy on 20 September and withdrew from France.
1806Commanded the Prussian army at Auerstedt, was mortally wounded and died at Ottensen on 10 November.
General who commanded the French at Valmy, Marshal of the Empire
At Valmy on 20 September 1792 Kellermann joined Dumouriez with the Army of the Centre at Dumouriez's request and placed his artillery on the western slopes. He steadied infantry shaken by an exploding ammunition cart and rallied them with the cry 'Vive la Nation'; the Prussians withdrew.
French soldier born in Strasbourg on 28 May 1735. His family, of Saxon origin, had settled in Strasbourg and was ennobled in his grandfather's generation. He entered the royal army in 1750 (or 1752), fought in the Seven Years' War, and became a brigadier in 1788, making him the only Marshal of the Empire to reach general rank under the old regime. Favourable to the Revolution of 1789, he commanded the Army of the Centre at Valmy on 20 September 1792 and drove back the Prussians, earning the name 'the victor of Valmy'. Arrested in November 1793 on suspicion of disloyalty, he spent 13 months in prison during the Terror and was released and reinstated after Robespierre's fall. Marshal in 1804 and Duke of Valmy in 1808, he voted in the Senate for Napoleon's abdication in 1814 and became a peer under Louis XVIII. He died in Paris in 1820.
Career timeline
1750Entered the French royal army (1750 or 1752)
1788Promoted maréchal de camp (brigadier)
1792Commanded the Army of the Centre at the battle of Valmy
1799Senator
1804Appointed Marshal of the Empire (19 May)
1808Created Duke of Valmy (3 June)
1814Voted for Napoleon's abdication in the Senate; peer of France under the Restoration
Bourbon prince who commanded the émigré Army of Condé
A Bourbon prince du sang who fled Revolutionary France and commanded the émigré Army of Condé against it.
A Bourbon prince of Condé, Louis Joseph left France soon after the Revolution began. He organized and commanded the émigré Army of Condé, which fought Revolutionary France alongside foreign monarchies. He returned to France after Napoleon’s fall.
Career timeline
1736–1740Born a cadet of the House of Bourbon; succeeded as Prince of Condé in 1740 on his father Louis Henri I's death.
1753Married Charlotte de Rohan at Versailles, consolidating his position at court.
1750s–1760sServed as Grand Maître de France under Louis XV and Louis XVI and fought in the Seven Years' War as a general.
1791Based at Coblenz, where he organized and led an émigré counter-revolutionary corps.
1792–1801Commanded the Army of Condé alongside Austria, later in British and Russian service; the corps was disbanded in 1801.
1814–1818Returned to Paris after Napoleon's defeat, resumed his court duties under Louis XVIII, and died in 1818.
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.
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.
King of Prussia who signed the Declaration of Pillnitz and campaigned against France
In August 1791 he co-signed the Declaration of Pillnitz with Leopold II in support of the French king, and in 1792 he joined in person the campaign led by the Duke of Brunswick.
He succeeded his uncle Frederick II as King of Prussia in 1786 and, at home, turned away from his predecessor’s enlightened style towards tighter censorship and religious control. In reaction to the French Revolution he set aside the old rivalry with Austria: in August 1791 he joined Leopold II in the Declaration of Pillnitz, and a formal alliance followed in February 1792. He took part in person in the 1792 and 1793 campaigns against France, but was held back by lack of money while his advisers looked more to the partitions of Poland. He signed a separate peace with France at Basel in 1795 and died in 1797.
Career timeline
1786Became King of Prussia on the death of his uncle Frederick II.
1791Issued the Declaration of Pillnitz with Leopold II in August in support of the French king.
1792–1793Concluded a formal alliance with Austria in February 1792 and took part in person in the campaigns of 1792 and 1793 against France.
1793–1795Gained territory in the second and third partitions of Poland and made a separate peace with France at Basel in April 1795.
Holy Roman Emperor who co-signed the Declaration of Pillnitz
On 27 August 1791 he and the King of Prussia signed the Declaration of Pillnitz, saying they would act together for the French king if the other powers joined them.
A son of Maria Theresa and brother of Marie Antoinette, he ruled Tuscany as a reforming grand duke from 1765 and abolished the death penalty and torture there in 1786. He succeeded his brother Joseph II as emperor in 1790. In August 1791 at Pillnitz he and Frederick William II declared that they would intervene in France only if the other powers joined them. Historians have called it a formality, since Leopold knew Russia and Britain would not act, but it contributed to the radicalisation of the revolutionary movement in France. He died of pneumonia in Vienna on 1 March 1792, shortly before France declared war.
Career timeline
1765–1790As Grand Duke of Tuscany (Leopold I) he carried out administrative and fiscal reforms.
1786Abolished the death penalty and torture in Tuscany.
1790On the death of his brother Joseph II he became Archduke of Austria and was crowned emperor at Frankfurt in October.
1791Met the King of Prussia at Pillnitz in August and co-signed a declaration of readiness to intervene in France.
1792Died of pneumonia in Vienna on 1 March; his son Francis II succeeded him.
Writer who demanded women’s civil and political rights
She demanded abolition of slavery and the death penalty, and her 1791 Declaration of the Rights of Woman claimed voting rights and legal equality for women. The Revolutionary Tribunal condemned her to death in 1793.
Born Marie Gouze, she was a French playwright and political writer. She criticized slavery and in her 1791 Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen demanded legal equality, public speech and political participation for women. The declaration challenged exclusions in existing declarations; it was not enacted legislation. She opposed revolutionary violence and the power of the Montagnards, and was sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Tribunal and executed in 1793.
Career timeline
1765Married Louis-Yves Aubry, a caterer in Montauban, in a marriage the chronology describes as forced
1766Her son Pierre Aubry was born; after her husband's death soon after, she took the name Olympe de Gouges
1770Moved to Paris, completed her education, and frequented literary salons
1784Published the autobiographical 'Mémoire de Madame de Valmont'
1785Her slavery-critical play 'Zamore et Mirza' entered the Comédie française repertoire but was not performed
1788Published 'Lettre au peuple', advocating free expression, divorce, sex equality, and abolition of slavery and the death penalty
1789Intervened in the revolutionary debates with posters and pamphlets
1791Published 'Les Droits de la femme' containing the Declaration of the Rights of Woman; the Legislative Assembly refused to examine it
1792After the fall of the monarchy she joined the moderate Girondins, opposed the Terror, and attacked Robespierre
1793Imprisoned in July for writings considered counter-revolutionary; the Revolutionary Tribunal condemned her to death in November
His Death of Marat, depicting his friend Jean-Paul Marat after Charlotte Corday assassinated him on 13 July 1793, became a leading image of the Revolution. After Napoleon's fall the painting long disappeared from public view before its rediscovery.
French painter born in Paris in 1748 and died in Brussels in 1825. He was the preeminent Neoclassical painter of his era, winning fame in the 1780s with The Oath of the Horatii, and an active supporter of the French Revolution and friend of Robespierre as a member of the Jacobin Club. As a deputy to the National Convention he voted for the execution of Louis XVI, and as a member of the Committee of General Security he took part in the Reign of Terror. After Robespierre's fall he was imprisoned twice in 1794 and 1795, then released. After the Empire was proclaimed in 1804 he became Napoleon's court painter and painted The Coronation of Napoleon. After Napoleon's fall in 1815 he lived in exile in Brussels, where he died. His pupils included Girodet, Gérard, Gros and Ingres.
Career timeline
1784Won fame with The Oath of the Horatii
1789–1794Supported the Revolution; deputy to the National Convention and member of the Committee of General Security
1794–1795Imprisoned twice after Robespierre's fall
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.
French writer and author of the Manifesto of the Equals
A radical writer of the revolutionary era whose 1796 Manifesto of the Equals demanded real equality and community of property beyond equality in law.
A French writer who also worked as a lawyer and librarian, Maréchal wrote the 1796 Manifesto of the Equals. It demanded equality in everyday life and common enjoyment of property, beyond equality written into law. Although associated with Babeuf’s movement, the text is Maréchal’s work. Its formulations should not all be treated as the leadership’s agreed programme or as enacted policy. It helps trace connections, as well as differences, between revolutionary egalitarianism and later socialism.
Career timeline
1770Appointed assistant librarian at the Mazarin Library in Paris, where he built his classical erudition.
1788His Almanach des Honnêtes Gens was condemned to be burned by the Parlement of Paris, and he was imprisoned for three months; afterwards he published anonymously.
1790–1792As chief editor of Révolutions de Paris he led an anticlerical campaign and published articles opposing the war.
1793–1796Met Babeuf and wrote the 1796 Manifesto of the Equals, sitting on the conspiracy's secret directorate of public safety.
1801Proposed a bill forbidding the teaching of reading to women; his De la vertu appeared posthumously in 1807.
Hébertist general who commanded the Parisian Revolutionary Army
Appointed commander of the Parisian Revolutionary Army in September 1793, he was arrested with Hébert, Vincent, Momoro and others in March 1794 and executed on 24 March.
Born in Soissons, Ronsin served in the army as a young man and after leaving it lived as a playwright and tutor. During the Revolution he became an orator of the Cordeliers Club; in 1793 he took charge of a department of Bouchotte’s War Ministry, was sent to the Vendée and was rapidly promoted to general. In September that year he became commander of the Parisian Revolutionary Army and in November led a detachment to the repression at Lyon. In the course he appears among the Hébertists arrested in March 1794 with Hébert, Vincent, Momoro and others and executed on 24 March. The charge of a military plot built on the Revolutionary Army was the prosecution’s case and should be read as such. The Revolutionary Army was disbanded days after his execution.
Career timeline
1772Left the army and worked as a playwright and tutor.
1792Appointed supply commissioner to Dumouriez’s army in Belgium.
1793Took charge of a department of Bouchotte’s War Ministry in April, was sent to the Vendée in May and was promoted to general in July.
1793Became commander of the Parisian Revolutionary Army in September and led a detachment to Lyon in November.
1793–1794Arrested on 17 December and released on 2 February after a Cordeliers campaign.
1794Re-arrested with the Hébertists in March and executed on 24 March.
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.
Leading Girondin orator in the National Convention
On 31 December 1792 he urged an appeal to the people in the trial of Louis XVI and failed; days later a letter he had signed reached the king's enemies as evidence of treason.
A Bordeaux lawyer, Vergniaud became a celebrated orator in the Legislative Assembly and National Convention. He supported the war policy, spoke for the Girondins, and voted for death in the trial of Louis XVI. Arrested after the purge of the Girondins in June 1793, he was executed with other Girondin deputies.
Career timeline
1789Appointed by Bordeaux as an administrator of the Gironde department.
1791.03.29Served as director of the jury at the Gironde criminal court.
1791.08.31Elected deputy to the Legislative Assembly for the Gironde.
1791.10.30Elected president of the Legislative Assembly.
1792.08.10Presided as the Tuileries was stormed and had the king suspended.
1793.01.10Elected president of the National Convention.
1793.01.16Voted for the death of Louis XVI.
1793.06.02Decreed for arrest with the Girondin deputies.
The mathematician who organized the army of the Revolution
As the Committee of Public Safety member in charge of personnel and troop movements from 1793, he created fourteen armies and contributed to Jourdan's victory at Wattignies in autumn 1793. Mass conscription raised the army from roughly 645,000 in mid-1793 to about 1.5 million by September 1794.
French mathematician, military officer and politician, born at Nolay in Burgundy in 1753 and dead at Magdeburg in 1823. Elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1791 and to the National Convention in September 1792, from 1793 he handled personnel and troop movements on the Committee of Public Safety, directing conscription and organization and steering France's military successes of 1793–94, for which he was called the 'Organizer of Victory'. Known as an honest administrator and a convinced republican, he broke with Robespierre and helped bring about his overthrow on 9 Thermidor in 1794, and was one of the five initial directors of the Directory. Ousted in the Coup of 18 Fructidor in 1797, he went into exile; Napoleon made him Minister of War in 1800, but he opposed the imperial coronation and withdrew from public life. Exiled by the Second Bourbon Restoration, he died in exile.
Career timeline
1791–1792Deputy, Legislative Assembly; Deputy, National Convention
1793–1795Member, Committee of Public Safety; military organization and operations
1795–1797Director of the Directory
1800Minister of War
1815Minister of the Interior during the Hundred Days
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
1770s–1780sTrained as a law clerk, then worked as a journalist contributing to the Mercure de France and the Courier de l'Europe.
1788Founded the antislavery Society of the Friends of the Blacks and served as its secretary.
1789Elected a member of the Paris municipality and founded the Patriote français, which he edited until 1793.
1791.10–1792.09Sat in the Legislative Assembly for Seine and, on the diplomatic committee, shaped much of France's foreign policy.
1792.09–1793.10Represented Eure-et-Loir in the National Convention; arrested in June 1793 and executed that October.
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.
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
Committee of General Security member who reported the ban on women’s clubs
On 30 October 1793, reporting for the Committee of General Security, he argued that women were unsuited to political association, and the Convention banned women’s clubs and popular societies.
A Grenoble lawyer elected to the Convention for Isère in 1792, he sat with the Mountain and voted for Louis XVI’s execution. Joining the Committee of General Security in 1793, he became, with Vadier, one of its most influential members. In October he delivered the report indicting the Brissotin deputies, and on 30 October he presented the report that banned women’s clubs and popular societies, a measure historians see as checking women’s political gains in the Revolution. He later investigated the India Company affair. Imprisoned after Thermidor and then amnestied, he was implicated in Babeuf’s Conspiracy of the Equals but acquitted.
Career timeline
1792Elected to the Convention for Isère and sat with the Mountain.
1793Joined the Committee of General Security; on 3 October reported for the indictment of the Brissotin deputies.
1793On 30 October secured the ban on women’s clubs and popular societies.
1794Reported on the India Company affair, a report Robespierre criticised.
1795–1797Imprisoned in 1795 and amnestied; acquitted at the trial of the Conspiracy of the Equals.
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.
Cordelier printer who spread the motto “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”
As a member of the Paris departmental directory he and Mayor Pache had a motto including “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity or death” inscribed on the façades of public buildings.
A printer and bookseller from Besançon, Momoro became a master in the Paris printers’ guild in 1787 and, once the Revolution began, styled himself “the first printer of national liberty.” As secretary and a leading orator of the Cordeliers Club he printed and circulated its resolutions and posters, and after the flight to Varennes he argued for the king’s deposition. As a member of the Paris departmental directory he and Mayor Pache had a motto containing “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” inscribed on public buildings. In 1793 he assisted Ronsin in the Vendée and helped lead the Festival of Reason in November, a leading figure of dechristianization. In the course he appears among the Hébertists arrested in March 1794 and executed on 24 March.
Career timeline
1787Admitted as a master to the Paris printers’ guild.
1791Elected secretary of the Cordeliers Club, drafting and circulating its resolutions and posters; after Varennes he argued for the king’s deposition.
1793As a member of the Paris departmental directory, had the motto with “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” inscribed on public buildings together with Mayor Pache.
1793Assisted Ronsin in the Vendée from May and led the Festival of Reason on 10 November.
1794Arrested with the Hébertists in March and executed on 24 March.
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.
