Jean Théophile Victor Leclerc

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Jean Théophile Victor Leclerc (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ teɔfil viktɔʁ ləklɛʁ]), a.k.a. Jean-Theophilus Leclerc and Theophilus Leclerc d'Oze (1771–1820[1]), was a radical French revolutionary, publicist, and soldier. After Jean-Paul Marat was assassinated, Leclerc assumed his mantle.

Leclerc was the son of a civil engineer and joined the

King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.[citation needed
]

Leclerc returned to his military duties with the

Army of the Rhine, and was sent on an unsuccessful spy mission across the Rhine in southwest Germany. It seems that he was betrayed by Dietrich, the mayor of Strasbourg. In November 1792, he fought at the Battle of Jemappes. In February 1793 he was transferred to the General Staff of the newly restructured Army of the Alps, in Lyon. It was there that he joined the Club Central and he was sent to Paris as a special deputy from Lyon.[citation needed
]

Leclerc took an extremely radical revolutionary position, even being expelled from the

Société des républicaines révolutionnaires, a radical and revolutionary feminist organization which was banned the following year. He and his wife published a broadsheet called L'Ami du peuple par Leclerc starting in 1793, which advocated a radical purging of the army, the creation of a revolutionary army made up exclusively of the partisans of the Reign of Terror, and the execution of all the suspected anti-revolutionaries. His publishing activities ceased with his arrest in April 1794. After his release in August 1794, he and his wife maintained a low profile until his death in 1820.[citation needed
]

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