Charles-Philippe Ronsin

Charles-Philippe Ronsin (French pronunciation:

Jacques-René Hébert, known as the Hébertists.^[1]

Life

Born in 1751 in Soissons, Aisne, a city northeast of Paris, Ronsin was son of a master cooper or barrel maker. At the age of seventeen, Charles-Philippe Ronsin joined the Parisian army. By 1772 he left the army with the position of corporal and soon became a playwright and a tutor. In these years he met the artist Jacques-Louis David and they became good friends.

Welcoming the Revolution, Ronsin became the

Bourgeois Guard Captain in the district of Saint-Roch in 1789. He presented several patriotic pieces in some of the theatres in the capital between the years 1790 and 1792. It was in this period that Ronsin became a club orator and joined the club of the Cordeliers

.

Influences

In August and September 1792, the Executive Council entrusted him three missions. In November, the minister of war, Pache, named him commissioner-organizer in Belgium to the army of

Dumouriez

. In this post, Ronsin denounced the acts of violence of the suppliers to the armed forces, who were protected by the general.

Ronsin was named assistant of the minister of war of Bouchotte on 23 April 1793, without ever commanding a squadron. It is possible that Ronsin received that position thanks to his friendship with

Vendeans

took over Beaulieu and managed to convince the Committee to get rid of Canclaux.

Ronsin's support among the

Fabre d'Eglantine

.

Ronsin created a bill that was posted in Paris after his return from Lyon that stated that there were one hundred and forty thousand people living in Lyon, fifteen hundred of which had nothing to do with the rebellions. Ronsin stated that before the end of September, all of the people who were guilty would die. On 17 December

Fabre d'Eglantine denounced Ronsin for being an ultra-revolutionist. Ronsin was arrested along with François-Nicolas Vincent, who was another member of the Cordeliers

Club.

Last days

While in prison the

Collot d'Herbois

, who was also part of the Committee. Collot d'Herbois defended Ronsin, saying that while fighting in the South along with all of the other patriots of the Revolution, Ronsin showed great determination in enforcing respect for the republic.

With the help of

Fouquier-Tinville

called him one of the "new Cromwell".

Ronsin was finally arrested along with Hébert, Momoro, and Vincent. While in prison Ronsin is quoted with saying these words to his co-accused: "...you will be condemned. When you should have acted, you talked. Know how to die. For my part, I swear that you shall not see me flinch. Strive to do the same." Some of his final words before his death were, "Liberty undone!...because a few paltry fellows are about to perish! Liberty is immortal. Our enemies will fall in their turn, and liberty will survive them all!" On 24 March 1794, five carts full of condemned Hébertists were taken to the guillotine, Charles-Philippe Ronsin among them.^[2] Their death of was a sort of carnival, a pleasant spectacle according to Michelet's witnesses. Ronsin stayed true to his words in prison: as Thomas Carlyle relates the event, he alone among the Hébertists went to the scaffold with an "air of defiance", still maintaining a steely "eye of command".^[3] Within a week of his death, Ronsin's army (l'Armée Révolutionnaire de Paris) was disbanded.^[4]

Works

1786 -Théatre de M. Ronsin, imprimé au profit de sa belle-mere. A Paris: De l'imprimerie Cailleau
1789 - La ligue aristocratique, ou, Les catilinaires françoises. Paris: Au Palais-Royal, de l'imprimerie de Josseran
1790 - Louis XII, Père du Peuple. Tragédie, dédiée a la Garde Nationale. A Paris, chez L. Potier de Lille
1792 - Discours prononcé par Ch. Ph. Ronsin, le samedi 18 août 1792, l'an 4ème. de la liberté et le premier de l'egalité, à la section du Théâtre François, dite de Marseille, à l'occasion de la cérémonie funèbre ordonnée en l'honneur de nos frères d'armes morts à la journée du 10, pour la défense de la liberté et de l'égalite. A Paris: De l'imprimerie de Pougin
1792 - Grand discours fait par Ch.-Ph. Ronsin, l'an 4me. de la liberté, et le 1er. de l'égalité, à l'occasion de la cérémonie funèbre, faite le 26 août 1792, au jardin des Tuileries, ordonnée en l'honneur de nos frères d'armes morts à la journée du 10, pour la défense de la liberté et de l'égalité. Paris]: De l'imprimerie de Pougin
1793 - Arétaphile, ou, La révolution de Cyrene : tragédie, en cinq actes, en vers, faite en 1786. Représentée, pour la première fois, sur le théâtre de la rue de Louvois, le 23 juin 1792. A Paris, Chez Guillaume, junior

References

^ The Oxford History of the French Revolution; William Doyle; Clarendon Press, 1989; p.252. |"The Revolutionary Army was at last set on foot, and command of it went... to Ronsin, one of the fiercest allies of Hébert."
^ Doyle, 1989; p.270. |"The trial took place on 21–4 March, its result a foregone conclusion. Among those who went to the scaffold with Père Duchesne on the afternoon of the twenty-fourth were Vincent, Ronsin, and the leader of section Marat, Momoro."
^ The French Revolution (Part III, The Guillotine), Thomas Carlyle; Scribner, NY, 1871; p.215. |"General Ronsin too, he still looks forth with some air of defiance, eye of command: the rest are sunk in a stony paleness of despair."
^ Carlyle, 1871; p.216. |"In the course of a week, the Revolutionary Army itself is disbanded."

- Adolphe Thiers, Frederic Shoberl, The History of the French Revolution (France,1866).
- Henri Martin, Abby Landgon Alger, A popular History of France from the First Revolution to the Present Time (France, 1877).
- Paul R. Hanson, Historical Dictionary of the French Revolution (Scarecrow Press, 2004).
- Albert Soboul (dir.), Dictionnaire historique de la Révolution française, Quadrige/PUF, 1989, article « Ronsin, Charles Philippe » de Raymonde Monnier

[1] The Oxford History of the French Revolution; William Doyle; Clarendon Press, 1989; p.252. |"The Revolutionary Army was at last set on foot, and command of it went... to Ronsin, one of the fiercest allies of Hébert."

[2] Doyle, 1989; p.270. |"The trial took place on 21–4 March, its result a foregone conclusion. Among those who went to the scaffold with Père Duchesne on the afternoon of the twenty-fourth were Vincent, Ronsin, and the leader of section Marat, Momoro."

[3] The French Revolution (Part III, The Guillotine), Thomas Carlyle; Scribner, NY, 1871; p.215. |"General Ronsin too, he still looks forth with some air of defiance, eye of command: the rest are sunk in a stony paleness of despair."

[4] Carlyle, 1871; p.216. |"In the course of a week, the Revolutionary Army itself is disbanded."

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