Gilbert Romme
Encyclopedia
Biography
Charles-Gilbert Romme was born in RiomRiom
Riom is a commune in the Puy-de-Dôme department in Auvergne in central France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.-History:Until the French Revolution, Riom was the capital of the province of Auvergne, and the seat of the dukes of Auvergne. The city was of Gaulish origin, the Roman Ricomagus...
, Puy-de-Dôme
Puy-de-Dôme
Puy-de-Dôme is a department in the centre of France named after the famous dormant volcano, the Puy-de-Dôme.Inhabitants were called Puydedomois until December 2005...
, in the Auvergne
Auvergne (province)
Auvergne was a historic province in south central France. It was originally the feudal domain of the Counts of Auvergne. It is now the geographical and cultural area that corresponds to the former province....
region of France, where he received an education in medicine and mathematics. After spending five years in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, he went to Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
to become the tutor of Paul Stroganoff
Pavel Alexandrovich Stroganov
Count Pavel Alexandrovich Stroganov was Russian military commander and statesman, Lieutenant General, Adjutant General to Alexander I of Russia. He took part in the Privy Committee that outlined Government reform of Alexander I. Commanded an infantry division in Napoleonic Wars. He could...
. He returned to Paris in 1788 and entered political life.
He was a member of the Masonic lodge, Les Neuf Sœurs
Les Neuf Sœurs
Loge Les Neuf Sœurs , established in Paris in 1776, was a prominent French Masonic Lodge of the Grand Orient de France that was influential in organising French support for the American Revolution. A "Société des Neuf Sœurs," a charitable society that surveyed academic curricula, had been active at...
.
Elected in 10 September 1791 to the Legislative Assembly
Legislative Assembly (France)
During the French Revolution, the Legislative Assembly was the legislature of France from 1 October 1791 to September 1792. It provided the focus of political debate and revolutionary law-making between the periods of the National Constituent Assembly and of the National Convention.The Legislative...
, Romme aligned himself with the Girondist
Girondist
The Girondists were a political faction in France within the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention during the French Revolution...
s, but after his election to the National Convention
National Convention
During the French Revolution, the National Convention or Convention, in France, comprised the constitutional and legislative assembly which sat from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795 . It held executive power in France during the first years of the French First Republic...
on 6 September 1792, he sided with the Montagnards
The Mountain
The Mountain refers in the context of the history of the French Revolution to a political group, whose members, called Montagnards, sat on the highest benches in the Assembly...
.
He voted in favour of the death sentence for Louis XVI
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
. Later, in the events leading up to the Reign of Terror
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror , also known simply as The Terror , was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of...
, he was arrested by Girondist supporters and was imprisoned in Caen
Caen
Caen is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the Calvados department and the capital of the Basse-Normandie region. It is located inland from the English Channel....
for two months.
During his tenure in National Convention, Romme served in the Comité de l’instruction Publique (Committee of Public Education), where he presented his Republican calendar on 17 September 1793. Aware of their military importance, he also was an early supporter of semaphore telegraphs. He served as president of the Convention from 21 November to 6 December 1793.
Because he was on an assignment to organise gun production for the navy, he had no hand in the coup of 9 Thermidor an II (27 July 1794), which resulted in the fall of the Robespierre (and ultimately led to the return of the Girondists).
When rioting sans-culottes
Sans-culottes
In the French Revolution, the sans-culottes were the radical militants of the lower classes, typically urban laborers. Though ill-clad and ill-equipped, they made up the bulk of the Revolutionary army during the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars...
, demanding bread and the Jacobin constitution
French Constitution of 1793
The Constitution of 24 June 1793 , also known as the Constitution of the Year I, or the The Montagnard Constitution , was the constitution instated by the Montagnards and by popular referendum under the First Republic during the French Revolution...
, violently occupied the Convention on Prairial
Prairial
Prairial was the ninth month in the French Republican Calendar. This month was named after the French word prairie, which means meadow. It was the name given to several ships....
an III (20 May 1795), Romme supported their demands. This insurrection was quickly put down however, and he and other Montagnards were arrested. While waiting for their trial, the defendants agreed to commit suicide in case of a death sentence.
On Prairial 29 (17 June 1795), Romme and five others were sentenced to the guillotine
Guillotine
The guillotine is a device used for carrying out :executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which an angled blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the head from the body...
. With a knife hidden by Jean-Marie Goujon
Jean-Marie Claude Alexandre Goujon
Jean Marie Claude Alexandre Goujon was a politician of the French Revolution. He was the brother-in-law of Pierre François Tissot.-Early life:...
, he stabbed himself repeatedly while on the staircase leading from the courtroom, and died — his last words are reported to have been "I die for the republic".
In Romme le Montagnard (1833), Marc de Vissac described Romme as a small, awkward and clumsy man with an ill complexion, and a dull orator, but also as possessing a pleasant and instructive style of conversation.