Jacques-Nicolas Billaud-Varenne
Jacques-Nicolas Billaud-Varenne | |
---|---|
Pierre Joseph Cambon | |
Member of the National Convention | |
In office 7 September 1792 – 26 October 1795 | |
Constituency | Seine |
Member of the Committee of Public Safety | |
In office 6 September 1793 – 1 September 1794 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Jacques Nicolas Billaud 23 April 1756 La Rochelle, Kingdom of France |
Died | 3 June 1819 Port-au-Prince, Haiti | (aged 63)
Political party | The Mountain |
Spouse | Anne-Angélique Doye |
Alma mater | University of Poitiers |
Occupation | Lawyer, politician |
Nickname | "The Tiger" |
Jacques-Nicolas Billaud-Varenne (French pronunciation: [ʒak nikɔla bijo vaʁɛn]; 23 April 1756 – 3 June 1819), also known as Jean Nicolas or by his nicknames, the Righteous Patriot[1][2] or the Tiger,[2] was a French lawyer and a major figure in the French Revolution. A close associate of Georges Danton and Maximilien Robespierre, he was one of the most militant members of the Committee of Public Safety, and is often considered a key architect of the Reign of Terror.
Billaud-Varenne subsequently broke with Robespierre, partly due to their ideological conflicts relating to the centralization of power. Ultimately he played a major role in Robespierre's downfall on 9 Thermidor, an act for which he later expressed remorse.[3][4] After Thermidor, Billaud-Varenne was part of the Crêtois, the last group of deputies from The Mountain. He presided over the persecution of Louis-Marie Turreau and Jean-Baptiste Carrier for their actions during the War in the Vendée.[5][6][7]
Billaud-Varenne was later arrested during the Thermidorian Reaction.[8] Deported to Cayenne without trial, he married a black ex-slave, refused Napoleon's pardon there and finally died in Port-au-Prince in 1819.[9]
Billaud-Varenne was one of the central figures of the first part of the French Revolution, but he remains little studied or little understood.[10]
Biography
Early life
Billaud-Varenne was born in
He then went to Paris, married and bought a position as lawyer in the parlement. In early 1789 he published at Amsterdam a three-volume work on the Despotisme des ministres de la France, and a well-received anti-clerical text titled "The Last Blow Against Prejudice and Superstition."[12] As events moved closer to Bastille Day, he adopted with enthusiasm the principles of the French Revolution.[13] An example of his beliefs regarding the Church can be found in this text:[12]
However painful an amputation may be, when a member is gangrened it must be sacrificed if we wish to save the body.
Early activism
Joining the
On 1 July, in another speech at the Jacobin Club, he spoke of a republic, arousing the derision of partisans of the constitutional monarchy. But when he repeated his demand for a republic a fortnight later, the speech was printed and sent to the Jacobin branch societies throughout France.[13]
On the night of 10 August 1792 (during
Projects in the Convention
Elected, like
At the trial of Louis XVI he added new charges to the accusation, proposed to refuse counsel to the king, and voted for death "within 24 hours". On 2 June 1793, in the context of
Mission and Reign of Terror
On 15 July he made a violent speech in the Convention in accusation of the Girondists. Sent in August as
On his return, the calamities of the summer of 1793 caused the Paris Commune to begin to organize an insurrection – an insurrection that would lead to Billaud-Varenne's ascension to the most powerful body in all of France. When the popular uprising did come on 5 September and the Commune marched on the
Once named to the committee, Billaud-Varenne became a vocal defender of that body. Based in Paris during much of this year, Billaud-Varenne and
No, we will not step backward, our zeal will only be smothered in the tomb; either the revolution will triumph or we will all die.
The law enabling right of defense was overturned the next day.
Thermidor and exile
As 1794 progressed,
Throughout the early days of Thermidor,
That night, Robespierre retreated to the
The next day,
However, after 9 Thermidor, Billaud-Varenne was soon enough to find himself in prison. Too closely associated with the excesses of the Reign of Terror, he was shortly attacked himself in the convention for his ruthlessness, and a commission was appointed to examine his conduct and that of some other members of the former Committee of Public Safety.
President of
The biggest fault you committed, in the course of the revolution of this country, is not having sacrificed all the settlers, down to the last one. In France we made the same mistake, by not causing the last of the Bourbons to perish.
He died in Port-au-Prince in 1819. Among his last words, he declared: "My bones, at least, will rest on a land that wants Liberty; but I hear the voice of posterity accusing me of having spared the blood of the tyrants of Europe too much."[33][34]
He bequeathed all his possessions to his wife, Brigitte, and expressed it as follows in his will: "I give this surplus, whatever its value may be, to this honest girl; as much to repay her for the immense services she has rendered me for over eighteen years as to acknowledge the new and most complete proof of her unwavering attachment, by consenting to follow me wherever I go."[31]
Works
- Despotisme des ministres de France, combattu par les droits de la Nation, par les loix fondamentales, par les ordonnances... [Despotism of the ministers of France, combatted by the rights of the Nation, by the fundamental laws, by the ordinances...] (in French), Paris, 1789
- Mémoires écrits au Port-au-Prince en 1818, contenant la relation de ses voyages et aventures dans le Mexique, depuis 1815 jusqu'en 1817. ("Memoirs written in Port-au-Prince in 1818, containing the relation of his voyages and adventures in Mexico, from 1815 to 1817"), Paris, 1821 [probably forgeries].
- Billaud Varenne membre du comité de salut public : Mémoires inédits et Correspondance. Accompagnés de notices biographiques sur Billaud Varenne et Collot d'Herbois ("Billaud Varenne, member of the Committee of Public Safety: Unpublished memoirs and correspondence. Accompanied by biographical notes on Billaud Varenne and Collot d'Herbois"), Paris, Librairie de la Nouvelle Revue, 1893 (edited by Alfred Begis).
References
- OCLC 1289918904. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
- ^ ISBN 978-2-7062-1345-8. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
- OCLC 397368958. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
- ^ Billaud-Varenne (1893). Mémoires inédits et correspondance: accompagnés de notices biographiques sur Billaud Varenne et Collot-D'Herbois (in French). Libr. de la Nouvelle Revue. pp. 232–235. Archived from the original on 5 January 2024. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
- ^ Clauzel, Jean-Baptiste; Billaud-Varenne, Jacques Nicolas; Delaunay, Pierre Marie; Lequinio de Kerblay, Joseph Marie; Duquesnoy, Ernest Dominique François Joseph; Carnot, Lazare Nicolas Marguerite; Laignelot, Joseph François; Maignen, François; Duroy, Jean-Michel; Merlin de Thionville, Antoine Christophe; Le Cointre, Laurent; Carrier, Jean-Baptiste; Lofficial, Louis-Prosper; Goupilleau de Fontenay, Jean-François; Goupilleau de Montaigu, Philippe Charles Aimé (1994). "Discussion sur la guerre de Vendée, notamment sur les atrocités commises par Carrier et le général Turreau, lors de la séance du 8 vendémiaire an III (29 septembre 1794)". Archives Parlementaires de la Révolution Française. 98 (1): 154–161. Archived from the original on 16 December 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
- ^ Delaunay, Pierre Marie; Bernard de Saintes, André Antoine; Dugenne, François Elie; Pénières-Delzors, Jean Augustin; Bourdon de la Cronière, Louis Jean Joseph Léonard; Guérin, Pierre; Lombard-Lachaux, Pierre; Le Clerc, Claude Nicolas; Dartigoeyte, Pierre Arnaud; Veau de Launay, Pierre Louis Athanase; Bodin, Pierre Joseph François; Duval, Charles François Marie; Sevestre, Joseph Marie François; Cambon, Pierre-Joseph; Bousquet, François (2012). "Appel nominal sur la question : "y a-t-il lieu à accusation contre le représentant du peuple Carrier ?", lors de la séance du 3 frimaire an III (23 novembre 1794)". Archives Parlementaires de la Révolution Française. 102 (1): 99–117. Archived from the original on 16 December 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
- ^ Legendre, Louis; Camboulas, Simon; Clauzel, Jean-Baptiste; Le Tourneur, Etienne Francois Louis Honoré; Thierriet, Claude; Duhem, Pierre Joseph; Lesage-Senault, Gaspard Jean Joseph; Prieur de la Marne, Pierre Louis; Billaud-Varenne, Jacques Nicolas; Pérès de Lagesse, Emmanuel; Baudin, Pierre Charles Louis; Duroy, Jean-Michel; Goupilleau de Fontenay, Jean-François (2005). "Reprise de la discussion sur les évènements de la veille aux Jacobins, lors de la séance du 20 brumaire an III (10 novembre 1794)". Archives Parlementaires de la Révolution Française. 101 (1): 80–83. Archived from the original on 16 December 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
- ^ Albert Mathiez, La Réaction thermidorienne, Paris, Armand Colin, 1929, p. 72.
- from the original on 16 December 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
- ^ "Dernières justifications politiques publiques puis " remords " de (...) - L'ARBR- Les Amis de Robespierre". www.amis-robespierre.org. Archived from the original on 16 December 2022. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
- ^ Levitine, George. Culture and Revolution: Cultural Ramifications of the French Revolution (College Park, Maryland: Department of Art History, 1989), 70-79.
- ^ a b Palmer, 1949, 12
- ^ a b c d e f g h Anchel 1911, p. 933.
- ^ Palmer, 1949, 48
- ^ Palmer, 1949, 54
- ^ Schama, 1989, 766
- ^ Palmer, 1949, 124-127
- ^ Schama, 1989, 809
- ^ Palmer, 1949, 368-369
- ^ Palmer,1949,366-369
- ^ Palmer, 1949, 369
- ^ Schama, 1989, 837
- ^ Palmer, 1949, 379
- ^ Schama, 1989, 841
- ^ a b Schama, 1989, 842
- ^ Palmer, 1949, 374
- ^ Palmer, 1949. 374
- ^ Palmer, 1949, 377
- ^ Schama, 1989, 846
- ^ a b Anchel 1911, p. 934.
- ^ a b "Une lettre inédite de Billaud-Varenne, déporté en Guyane, à son père, en (...) - L'ARBR- Les Amis de Robespierre". www.amis-robespierre.org. Archived from the original on 3 October 2023. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
- ^ Billaud-Varenne (1893). Mémoires inédits et correspondance: accompagnés de notices biographiques sur Billaud Varenne et Collot-D'Herbois (in French). Libr. de la Nouvelle Revue. pp. 232–235. Archived from the original on 5 January 2024. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
- ^ Palmer, 1949, Epilogue
- OCLC 1289918904. Archivedfrom the original on 5 January 2024. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
Attribution
- public domain: Anchel, Robert (1911). "Billaud-Varenne, Jacques Nicolas". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 933–934. In turn, it gives the following references:
- Billaud-Varenne's autobiographical sketch of his youth, Tableau du prémier age, composed in 1786 – published in 1888 in the review La Révolution française.
- François Victor Alphonse Aulard, Les Orateurs de la législative et de la convention (2nd ed., 1906).
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
Sources
- Arthur Conte, Billaud Varenne : Géant de la Révolution, Paris, Editions Orban, 1989
- Jacques Guilaine, Billaud-Varenne : l'ascète de la Révolution (1756–1819), Paris, Fayard, 1969
- Auguste Kuscinski: Dictionnaire des conventionnels, Paris, Société de l'Histoire de la Révolution française, F. Rieder, 1916 <New edition: Brueil-en-Vexin, Editions du Vexin français, 1973>
- Robert R. Palmer, Twelve Who Ruled : The Year of the Terror in the French Revolution, ISBN 0-691-12187-7>
- Schama, Simon. Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution (New York: Vintage Books, 1989), 809, 840.
- Levitine, George. Culture and Revolution: Cultural Ramifications of the French Revolution (College Park, Maryland: Department of Art History, 1989), 70–79.
- Tom Malone: "Billaud-Varenne – Anwalt des Terrors". BOD, Hamburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-7347-3899-9.