Jacques Hébert
Encyclopedia
Jacques René Hébert was a French journalist, and the founder and editor of the extreme radical newspaper Le Père Duchesne
during the French Revolution
. His followers are usually referred to as the Hébertists
or the Hébertistes; he himself is sometimes called Père Duchesne, after his newspaper.
He was born November 15, 1757 at Alençon
, to goldsmith, former trial judge, and deputy consul, Jacques Hébert (died 1766) and Marguerite Beunaiche de Houdrie (1727–1787). Jacques-René Hébert studied law at the College of Alençon and went into practice as a clerk in a solicitor of Alençon, at which time he was ruined by a lawsuit against a Dr. Clouet. Hébert fled first to Rouen
and then to Paris
. For a while he passed through a difficult financial time and lived through the support of a hairdresser in rue des Noyers. There he found work in a theater, la République, where he wrote plays in his spare time, but these were never produced. He was fired for stealing. He then entered the service of a doctor. It is said he lived through expediency and scams.
In 1789 he began his writing with a pamphlet "la Lanterne magique ou le Fléau des Aristocrates" (Magic Lantern, or Scourge of Aristocrats). He published a few booklets. In 1790, he attracted attention through a pamphlet he published, and became a prominent member of the club of the Cordeliers
in 1791.
Père Duchesne's appearance as a bristly old man with pipe and liberty cap contrasted sharply against the formal attire of the crown and aristocracy. This enabled the general population of France to more easily relate to the character, giving his "words" increased strength.
Initially, 1790–1791, Le Père Duchesne supported a constitutional monarchy
and was even favorable towards King Louis XVI
and the opinions of the Marquis de La Fayette
. His violent attacks of the period were aimed at Jean-Sifrein Maury
, a great defender of papal authority and the main opponent of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy
.
With the king's failed flight to Varennes
his tone significantly hardened. Starting in 1792 the Paris Commune
and the ministers of war Jean-Nicolas Pache
and, later, Jean Baptiste Noël Bouchotte
bought several thousand copies of Le Père Duchesne which were distributed free to the public and troops.
Knowing that the queen was an easy target for ridicule after the Diamond Necklace Affair
, she became a consistent target in the paper. He referred to Marie Antoinette
as 'Madame Veto' and addressed Louis XVI
as a 'drunken and lazy; a cuckolded pig.'
His venomous attacks on Marie-Antoinette were not entirely out of hatred for the queen, at least not initially. Originally, Hébert was trying to not only educate his readers who she was but simultaneously awaken her to how she was viewed by the French public. Many of the conversations that Père Duchesne carries with her in the newspaper are attempts at either showcasing her supposed nymphomania or attempts to beg her to reconcile her wicked ways.
by troops under Lafayette. This put him in the revolutionary mindset, and the Le Père Duchesne adopted a sloppier style to better to appeal to the masses. Le Père Duchesne began to attack Lafayette, Mirabeau
, and Bailly
. Following Louis's failed flight to Varennes
he began to attack both Louis and Pope Pius VI as well.
He met his future wife, Marie Goupil
(born 1756), who was a 37-year-old nun who left convent life at the "Sisters of Providence" convent at rue Saint-Honoré
. Marie's passport from this time shows regular use. They married on February 7, 1792, and had a daughter, Virginia Scipion-Hébert (7 February 1793 - 13 July 1830). During this time, Hébert had a luxurious, bourgeois life. He entertained Jean-Nicolas Pache
, the mayor of Paris and Minister of War, for weeks, as well as other influential men.
Hébert was like Robespierre and liked to dress elegantly and surround himself with beautiful objects as beautiful tapestries—an attitude that can be contrasted to that of Pierre Gaspard Chaumette
. Where he got the financial resources to support his lifestyle, is unclear, however Jean-Nicolas Pache
's commissions to print thousands of issues of Le Père Duchesne and his relationship to Delaunay d'Angers, mistress and wife of Andres Maria de Guzman.
As a member of Cordeliers
club, he had a seat in the revolutionary Paris Commune
where on the 9th and 10th of August, 1792 he was sent to the Bonne-Nouvelle section
of Paris. As a public journalist, he supported the September Massacres
. On December 22, 1792, he was appointed the second substitute of the procureur of the commune, and through to August of 1793 supported the attacks against the Girondin faction. In April–May of 1793 he, along with Marat
and others, violently attacked Girondins.
In February 1793 he voted with fellow bourgeois Hébertists
against the Maximum Price Act, a Price ceiling
on grain, on the grounds it would cause hoarding and stir resentment. On May 20, 1793 the moderate majority of the National Convention
formed the Special Commission of Twelve, which was designed to investigate and prosecute conspirators. At the urging of the Twelve on May 24, 1793 he was arrested.
However, Hébert had been warned in time, and, with the support of the Sans Culottes, the National Convention was forced to order his release three days later.
("enraged ones") Jacques Roux
and Jacques Hébert — took over the Convention, calling for administrative and political purges, a low fixed price for bread
, and a limitation of the electoral franchise
to sans-culottes
alone. With the backing of the National Guard
, they convinced the Convention to arrest 31 Girondin leaders, including Jacques Pierre Brissot
. Following these arrests, the Jacobins gained control of the Committee of Public Safety
on 10 June, installing the revolutionary dictatorship
. On 13 July the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat
— a Jacobin leader and journalist
known for his agressive rhetoric
— by Charlotte Corday
, a Girondin, resulted in further increase of Jacobin political influence. Georges Danton
, the leader of the August 1792 uprising
against the King
, was removed from the Committee. On July 27, Maximillien Robespierre, known as "the Incorruptible", made his entrance, and quickly became the most influential member of the Committee as it moved to take radical measures against the Revolution's domestic and foreign enemies.
Meanwhile, on June 24, the Convention adopted the first republican constitution of France, the French Constitution of 1793
. It was ratified by public referendum
, but never put into force; like other laws, it was indefinitely suspended by the decree of October that the government of France would be "revolutionary until the peace". The eventual constitution under the Directory
was quite different.
Facing local revolts, foreign invasions and riots in both the East and West of the country, the most urgent government business was the war. On August 17, the Convention voted for general conscription
, the levée en masse
, which mobilized all citizens to serve as soldiers or suppliers in the war effort. On 5 September the Convention institutionalized The Reign of Terror: systematic and lethal repression of perceived enemies within the country.
The result was policy through which the state used violent repression to crush resistance to the government. The guillotine became the symbol of a string of executions: Louis XVI had already been guillotined before the start of the terror; Marie-Antoinette, the Girondins, Philippe Égalité, Madame Roland
and many others lost their lives under its blade. The Revolutionary Tribunal
summarily condemned thousands of people to death by the guillotine, while mobs beat other victims to death. Sometimes people died for their political opinions or actions, but many for little reason beyond mere suspicion, or because some others had a stake in getting rid of them. Most of the victims received an unceremonious trip to the guillotine in an open wooden cart (the tumbrel
). Loaded onto these carts, the victims would proceed through throngs of jeering men and women.
The victims of the Reign of Terror totaled approximately 50,000. Among people who were condemned by the revolutionary tribunals, about 18 percent were aristocrats, 6 percent clergy, 4 percent middle class
, and 72 percent were workers or peasants accused of hoarding, evading the draft
, desertion
, rebellion, and other purported minimal crimes. Of these social groupings, the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church suffered proportionately the greatest loss.
Another anti-clerical
uprising was made possible by the installment of the Revolutionary Calendar on October 24. Against Robespierre's concepts of Deism
and Virtue
, Hébert's (and Chaumette's) atheist
movement initiated a religious campaign in order to dechristianize
society. The program of dechristianization waged against Catholicism
, and eventually against all forms of Christianity
, included the deportation
of clergy and the condemnation of many of them to death, the closing of churches, the institution of revolutionary and civic cult
s, the large scale destruction of religious monuments, the outlawing of public and private worship and religious education, forced marriages of the clergy and forced abjurement of their priesthood. The enactment of a law on 21 October 1793 made all suspected priests and all persons who harbored them liable to death on sight. The climax was reached with the celebration of the goddess "Reason" in Notre Dame
Cathedral on 10 November. Because dissent was now regarded as counterrevolutionary, extremist enragés such as Hébert and moderate Montagnard
indulgents such as Danton were guillotined in the Spring of 1794. On 7 June Robespierre, who had previously condemned the Cult of Reason
, advocated a new state religion and recommended that the Convention acknowledge the existence of God
. On the next day, the worship of the deistic Supreme Being
was inaugurated as an official aspect of the Revolution. Compared with Hébert's somewhat popular festivals, this austere new religion of Virtue was received with signs of hostility by the Parisian public.
The government, supported by the Jacobins was exasperated and finally decided to strike on the night of March 13, 1794, despite the reluctance of Barère of Vieuzac, Collot d'Herbois and Billaud-Varenne. The order was to arrest the leaders of the Hébertists
, these included individuals in the War Ministry and others.
In the Revolutionary Tribunal
, Hébert was treated very differently from Danton, more like a thief than a conspirator, his earlier scams were brought to light and criticized. He was sentenced to death, along with his co-defendants, on the third day of deliberations. Their execution by guillotine took place on March 24, 1794. His corpse was disposed of in the Madeleine Cemetery
. His widow was executed twenty days later on April 13, 1794. Her corpse was disposed of in the Errancis Cemetery
.
On the day that Marie-Antoinette was on trial, Hébert himself spoke, alleging that she had committed incest with her own son (who was only 7 years old at the time), which sealed her fate in the eyes of the court.
Le Père Duchesne
Le Père Duchesne was an extreme radical newspaper during the French Revolution, edited by Jacques Hébert, who published 385 issues from September 1790 until eleven days before his death by guillotine, which took place on March 24, 1794...
during the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. His followers are usually referred to as the Hébertists
Hébertists
The Hébertists were an ultra-revolutionary political faction associated with the populist journalist Jacques Hébert. They came to power during the Reign of Terror and played a significant role in the French Revolution....
or the Hébertistes; he himself is sometimes called Père Duchesne, after his newspaper.
Early life
Alençon
Alençon is a commune in Normandy, France, capital of the Orne department. It is situated west of Paris. Alençon belongs to the intercommunality of Alençon .-History:...
, to goldsmith, former trial judge, and deputy consul, Jacques Hébert (died 1766) and Marguerite Beunaiche de Houdrie (1727–1787). Jacques-René Hébert studied law at the College of Alençon and went into practice as a clerk in a solicitor of Alençon, at which time he was ruined by a lawsuit against a Dr. Clouet. Hébert fled first to Rouen
Rouen
Rouen , in northern France on the River Seine, is the capital of the Haute-Normandie region and the historic capital city of Normandy. Once one of the largest and most prosperous cities of medieval Europe , it was the seat of the Exchequer of Normandy in the Middle Ages...
and then to 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...
. For a while he passed through a difficult financial time and lived through the support of a hairdresser in rue des Noyers. There he found work in a theater, la République, where he wrote plays in his spare time, but these were never produced. He was fired for stealing. He then entered the service of a doctor. It is said he lived through expediency and scams.
In 1789 he began his writing with a pamphlet "la Lanterne magique ou le Fléau des Aristocrates" (Magic Lantern, or Scourge of Aristocrats). He published a few booklets. In 1790, he attracted attention through a pamphlet he published, and became a prominent member of the club of the Cordeliers
Cordeliers
The Cordeliers, also known as the Club of the Cordeliers, Cordeliers Club, or Club des Cordeliers and formally as the Society of the Friends of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen , was a populist club during the French Revolution.-History:The club had its origins in the Cordeliers district, a...
in 1791.
Père Duchesne
Hébert's influence was mainly due to his articles in his journal, Le Père Duchesne, which appeared from 1790 to 1794. The first publication of Le Père Duchesne occurred in September 1790 and opened a new period in his life. The polemic articles he penned were written with wit, but were also violent and abusive, and purposely couched in foul language in order to appeal to the sans culottes. Street hawkers would yell: Il est bougrement en colère aujourd’hui le père Duchesne! (Father Duchesne is very angry today!). The style in which they were written was first person narrative from Père Duchesne's point of view, and often contained fictitious accounts of conversations the character held with figures of the French government, or monarchy.Père Duchesne's appearance as a bristly old man with pipe and liberty cap contrasted sharply against the formal attire of the crown and aristocracy. This enabled the general population of France to more easily relate to the character, giving his "words" increased strength.
Initially, 1790–1791, Le Père Duchesne supported a constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy is a form of government in which a monarch acts as head of state within the parameters of a constitution, whether it be a written, uncodified or blended constitution...
and was even favorable towards King 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....
and the opinions of the Marquis de La Fayette
Gilbert du Motier, marquis de La Fayette
Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette , often known as simply Lafayette, was a French aristocrat and military officer born in Chavaniac, in the province of Auvergne in south central France...
. His violent attacks of the period were aimed at Jean-Sifrein Maury
Jean-Sifrein Maury
Jean-Sifrein Maury was a French cardinal and Archbishop of Paris.-Biography:The son of a poor cobbler, he was born on at Valréas in the Comtat-Venaissin, the enclave within France that belonged to the pope. His acuteness was observed by the priests of the seminary at Avignon, where he was educated...
, a great defender of papal authority and the main opponent of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy
Civil Constitution of the Clergy
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy was a law passed on 12 July 1790 during the French Revolution, that subordinated the Roman Catholic Church in France to the French government....
.
With the king's failed flight to Varennes
Flight to Varennes
The Flight to Varennes was a significant episode in the French Revolution during which King Louis XVI of France, his wife Marie Antoinette, and their immediate family attempted unsuccessfully to escape from Paris in order to initiate a counter-revolution...
his tone significantly hardened. Starting in 1792 the Paris Commune
Paris Commune (French Revolution)
The Paris Commune during the French Revolution was the government of Paris from 1789 until 1795. Established in the Hôtel de Ville just after the storming of the Bastille, the Commune became insurrectionary in the summer of 1792, essentially refusing to take orders from the central French...
and the ministers of war Jean-Nicolas Pache
Jean-Nicolas Pache
Jean-Nicolas Pache was a French politician.-Biography:Pache was born in Verdun, but grew up in Paris, of Swiss parentage, the son of the concièrge of the hotel of Marshal de Castries...
and, later, Jean Baptiste Noël Bouchotte
Jean Baptiste Noël Bouchotte
Jean Baptiste Noël Bouchotte was a minister in the French government. He was born in Metz.At the outbreak of the Revolution he was a captain of cavalry, and his zeal led to his being made colonel and given the command at Cambrai...
bought several thousand copies of Le Père Duchesne which were distributed free to the public and troops.
Knowing that the queen was an easy target for ridicule after the Diamond Necklace Affair
Affair of the diamond necklace
The Affair of the Diamond Necklace was a mysterious incident in the 1780s at the court of Louis XVI of France involving his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette. The reputation of the Queen, which was already tarnished by gossip, was ruined by the implication that she had participated in a crime to defraud...
, she became a consistent target in the paper. He referred to Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette ; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was an Archduchess of Austria and the Queen of France and of Navarre. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I....
as 'Madame Veto' and addressed 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....
as a 'drunken and lazy; a cuckolded pig.'
His venomous attacks on Marie-Antoinette were not entirely out of hatred for the queen, at least not initially. Originally, Hébert was trying to not only educate his readers who she was but simultaneously awaken her to how she was viewed by the French public. Many of the conversations that Père Duchesne carries with her in the newspaper are attempts at either showcasing her supposed nymphomania or attempts to beg her to reconcile her wicked ways.
Revolutionary role
On July 17, 1791 Hébert was at the Champ de Mars to sign a petition to demand the removal of King Louis XVI and was involved with the subsequent Champ de Mars massacreChamp de Mars Massacre
During the French Revolution, on 17 July 1791, the Champ de Mars in Paris was the site of a massacre, the . On that day, the National Constituent Assembly issued a decree that the king, Louis XVI, would remain king under a constitutional monarchy...
by troops under Lafayette. This put him in the revolutionary mindset, and the Le Père Duchesne adopted a sloppier style to better to appeal to the masses. Le Père Duchesne began to attack Lafayette, Mirabeau
Mirabeau
Mirabeau can refer to:People* Victor de Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau, a French physiocrat and economist.* Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, renowned orator, a figure in the French Revolution and son of Victor....
, and Bailly
Bailly
Bailly may refer to:* Jean Sylvain Bailly , French astronomer and orator, one of the leaders of the early part of the French Revolution* Joseph Bailly , French-Canadian fur trader and pioneer...
. Following Louis's failed flight to Varennes
Flight to Varennes
The Flight to Varennes was a significant episode in the French Revolution during which King Louis XVI of France, his wife Marie Antoinette, and their immediate family attempted unsuccessfully to escape from Paris in order to initiate a counter-revolution...
he began to attack both Louis and Pope Pius VI as well.
He met his future wife, Marie Goupil
Marie Marguerite Françoise Hébert
Marie Marguerite Françoise Hébert, née Goupil, was a figure in the French Revolution. She was the daughter of Jacques Goupil and of Louise Morel...
(born 1756), who was a 37-year-old nun who left convent life at the "Sisters of Providence" convent at rue Saint-Honoré
Rue Saint-Honoré
The rue Saint-Honoré is an ancient street in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France.It is named after the collegial Saint-Honoré church situated in ancient times within the cloisters of Saint-Honoré....
. Marie's passport from this time shows regular use. They married on February 7, 1792, and had a daughter, Virginia Scipion-Hébert (7 February 1793 - 13 July 1830). During this time, Hébert had a luxurious, bourgeois life. He entertained Jean-Nicolas Pache
Jean-Nicolas Pache
Jean-Nicolas Pache was a French politician.-Biography:Pache was born in Verdun, but grew up in Paris, of Swiss parentage, the son of the concièrge of the hotel of Marshal de Castries...
, the mayor of Paris and Minister of War, for weeks, as well as other influential men.
Hébert was like Robespierre and liked to dress elegantly and surround himself with beautiful objects as beautiful tapestries—an attitude that can be contrasted to that of Pierre Gaspard Chaumette
Pierre Gaspard Chaumette
Pierre Gaspard Chaumette was a French politician of the Revolutionaryperiod.-Early activities:Born in Nevers France, 24 May 1763, his main interest was botany and science. Chaumette studied medicine at the University of Paris in 1790, but gave up his career in medicine at the start of the Revolution...
. Where he got the financial resources to support his lifestyle, is unclear, however Jean-Nicolas Pache
Jean-Nicolas Pache
Jean-Nicolas Pache was a French politician.-Biography:Pache was born in Verdun, but grew up in Paris, of Swiss parentage, the son of the concièrge of the hotel of Marshal de Castries...
's commissions to print thousands of issues of Le Père Duchesne and his relationship to Delaunay d'Angers, mistress and wife of Andres Maria de Guzman.
As a member of Cordeliers
Cordeliers
The Cordeliers, also known as the Club of the Cordeliers, Cordeliers Club, or Club des Cordeliers and formally as the Society of the Friends of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen , was a populist club during the French Revolution.-History:The club had its origins in the Cordeliers district, a...
club, he had a seat in the revolutionary Paris Commune
Paris Commune (French Revolution)
The Paris Commune during the French Revolution was the government of Paris from 1789 until 1795. Established in the Hôtel de Ville just after the storming of the Bastille, the Commune became insurrectionary in the summer of 1792, essentially refusing to take orders from the central French...
where on the 9th and 10th of August, 1792 he was sent to the Bonne-Nouvelle section
Revolutionary sections of Paris
The revolutionary sections of Paris were subdivisions of Paris during the French Revolution. They first arose in 1790 and were suppressed in 1795.-History:At the time of the Revolution, Paris measured 3440 hectares, compared to the 7800 hectares of today...
of Paris. As a public journalist, he supported the September Massacres
September Massacres
The September Massacres were a wave of mob violence which overtook Paris in late summer 1792, during the French Revolution. By the time it had subsided, half the prison population of Paris had been executed: some 1,200 trapped prisoners, including many women and young boys...
. On December 22, 1792, he was appointed the second substitute of the procureur of the commune, and through to August of 1793 supported the attacks against the Girondin faction. In April–May of 1793 he, along with Marat
Marat
Marat may refer to:People*Jean-Paul Marat , Swiss-born scientist and physician and noted character of the French Revolution*Allan Marat, Papua New Guinean politician*Marat for discussion of the given nameArt and culture...
and others, violently attacked Girondins.
In February 1793 he voted with fellow bourgeois Hébertists
Hébertists
The Hébertists were an ultra-revolutionary political faction associated with the populist journalist Jacques Hébert. They came to power during the Reign of Terror and played a significant role in the French Revolution....
against the Maximum Price Act, a Price ceiling
Price ceiling
A price ceiling is a government-imposed limit on the price charged for a product. Governments intend price ceilings to protect consumers from conditions that could make necessary commodities unattainable. However, a price ceiling can cause problems if imposed for a long period without controlled...
on grain, on the grounds it would cause hoarding and stir resentment. On May 20, 1793 the moderate majority of 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...
formed the Special Commission of Twelve, which was designed to investigate and prosecute conspirators. At the urging of the Twelve on May 24, 1793 he was arrested.
However, Hébert had been warned in time, and, with the support of the Sans Culottes, the National Convention was forced to order his release three days later.
Reign of Terror and campaign to dechristianize France
On 7 June 1793 Paris sections — encouraged by the enragésEnragés
Les Enragés were a loose amalgam of radicals active during the French Revolution. Politically they stood to the left of the Jacobins. Represented by Jacques Roux, Théophile Leclerc, Jean Varlet and others, they believed that liberty for all meant more than mere constitutional rights...
("enraged ones") Jacques Roux
Jacques Roux
Jacques Roux was a radical Roman Catholic priest that took an active role in the revolutionary politics of Paris 1789, during the French Revolution...
and Jacques Hébert — took over the Convention, calling for administrative and political purges, a low fixed price for bread
Bread
Bread is a staple food prepared by cooking a dough of flour and water and often additional ingredients. Doughs are usually baked, but in some cuisines breads are steamed , fried , or baked on an unoiled frying pan . It may be leavened or unleavened...
, and a limitation of the electoral franchise
Suffrage
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply the franchise, distinct from mere voting rights, is the civil right to vote gained through the democratic process...
to 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...
alone. With the backing of the National Guard
National Guard (France)
The National Guard was the name given at the time of the French Revolution to the militias formed in each city, in imitation of the National Guard created in Paris. It was a military force separate from the regular army...
, they convinced the Convention to arrest 31 Girondin leaders, including Jacques Pierre Brissot
Jacques Pierre Brissot
Jacques Pierre Brissot , who assumed the name of de Warville, was a leading member of the Girondist movement during the French Revolution. Some sources give his name as Jean Pierre Brissot.-Biography:...
. Following these arrests, the Jacobins gained control of the Committee of Public Safety
Committee of Public Safety
The Committee of Public Safety , created in April 1793 by the National Convention and then restructured in July 1793, formed the de facto executive government in France during the Reign of Terror , a stage of the French Revolution...
on 10 June, installing the revolutionary dictatorship
Dictatorship
A dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual, the dictator. It has three possible meanings:...
. On 13 July the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat
Jean-Paul Marat
Jean-Paul Marat , born in the Principality of Neuchâtel, was a physician, political theorist, and scientist best known for his career in France as a radical journalist and politician during the French Revolution...
— a Jacobin leader and journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
known for his agressive rhetoric
Rhetoric
Rhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
— by Charlotte Corday
Charlotte Corday
Marie-Anne Charlotte de Corday d'Armont , known to history as Charlotte Corday, was a figure of the French Revolution. In 1793, she was executed under the guillotine for the assassination of Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat, who was in part responsible, through his role as a politician and...
, a Girondin, resulted in further increase of Jacobin political influence. Georges Danton
Georges Danton
Georges Jacques Danton was leading figure in the early stages of the French Revolution and the first President of the Committee of Public Safety. Danton's role in the onset of the Revolution has been disputed; many historians describe him as "the chief force in theoverthrow of the monarchy and the...
, the leader of the August 1792 uprising
10th of August (French Revolution)
On 10 August 1792, during the French Revolution, revolutionary Fédéré militias — with the backing of a new municipal government of Paris that came to be known as the "insurrectionary" Paris Commune and ultimately supported by the National Guard — besieged the Tuileries palace. King Louis XVI and...
against the King
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....
, was removed from the Committee. On July 27, Maximillien Robespierre, known as "the Incorruptible", made his entrance, and quickly became the most influential member of the Committee as it moved to take radical measures against the Revolution's domestic and foreign enemies.
Meanwhile, on June 24, the Convention adopted the first republican constitution of France, the French Constitution of 1793
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...
. It was ratified by public referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
, but never put into force; like other laws, it was indefinitely suspended by the decree of October that the government of France would be "revolutionary until the peace". The eventual constitution under the Directory
French Directory
The Directory was a body of five Directors that held executive power in France following the Convention and preceding the Consulate...
was quite different.
Facing local revolts, foreign invasions and riots in both the East and West of the country, the most urgent government business was the war. On August 17, the Convention voted for general conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
, the levée en masse
Levée en masse
Levée en masse is a French term for mass conscription during the French Revolutionary Wars, particularly for the one from 16 August 1793.- Terminology :...
, which mobilized all citizens to serve as soldiers or suppliers in the war effort. On 5 September the Convention institutionalized The Reign of Terror: systematic and lethal repression of perceived enemies within the country.
The result was policy through which the state used violent repression to crush resistance to the government. The guillotine became the symbol of a string of executions: Louis XVI had already been guillotined before the start of the terror; Marie-Antoinette, the Girondins, Philippe Égalité, Madame Roland
Madame Roland
Marie-Jeanne Roland, better known simply as Madame Roland and born Marie-Jeanne Phlipon , was, together with her husband Jean-Marie Roland de la Platière, a supporter of the French Revolution and influential member of the Girondist faction...
and many others lost their lives under its blade. The Revolutionary Tribunal
Revolutionary Tribunal
The Revolutionary Tribunal was a court which was instituted in Paris by the Convention during the French Revolution for the trial of political offenders, and eventually became one of the most powerful engines of the Reign of Terror....
summarily condemned thousands of people to death by the guillotine, while mobs beat other victims to death. Sometimes people died for their political opinions or actions, but many for little reason beyond mere suspicion, or because some others had a stake in getting rid of them. Most of the victims received an unceremonious trip to the guillotine in an open wooden cart (the tumbrel
Tumbrel
A tumbrel , is a two-wheeled cart or wagon typically designed to be hauled by a single horse or ox. Their original use was for agricultural work in particular they were associated with carrying manure. Their most notable use was taking prisoners to the guillotine during the French Revolution. They...
). Loaded onto these carts, the victims would proceed through throngs of jeering men and women.
The victims of the Reign of Terror totaled approximately 50,000. Among people who were condemned by the revolutionary tribunals, about 18 percent were aristocrats, 6 percent clergy, 4 percent middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
, and 72 percent were workers or peasants accused of hoarding, evading the draft
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
, desertion
Desertion
In military terminology, desertion is the abandonment of a "duty" or post without permission and is done with the intention of not returning...
, rebellion, and other purported minimal crimes. Of these social groupings, the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church suffered proportionately the greatest loss.
Another anti-clerical
Anti-clericalism
Anti-clericalism is a historical movement that opposes religious institutional power and influence, real or alleged, in all aspects of public and political life, and the involvement of religion in the everyday life of the citizen...
uprising was made possible by the installment of the Revolutionary Calendar on October 24. Against Robespierre's concepts of Deism
Deism
Deism in religious philosophy is the belief that reason and observation of the natural world, without the need for organized religion, can determine that the universe is the product of an all-powerful creator. According to deists, the creator does not intervene in human affairs or suspend the...
and Virtue
Republic of Virtue
The "Republic of Virtue" was a period in French history where Maximilien Robespierre remained in power. Many proponents of the Republic of Virtue developed their notion of civic virtue from the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The "Republic of Virtue" was part of the de-Christianization of the...
, Hébert's (and Chaumette's) atheist
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
movement initiated a religious campaign in order to dechristianize
Dechristianisation of France during the French Revolution
The dechristianisation of France during the French Revolution is a conventional description of the results of a number of separate policies, conducted by various governments of France between the start of the French Revolution in 1789 and the Concordat of 1801, forming the basis of the later and...
society. The program of dechristianization waged against Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
, and eventually against all forms of Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, included the deportation
Deportation
Deportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation...
of clergy and the condemnation of many of them to death, the closing of churches, the institution of revolutionary and civic cult
Cult
The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...
s, the large scale destruction of religious monuments, the outlawing of public and private worship and religious education, forced marriages of the clergy and forced abjurement of their priesthood. The enactment of a law on 21 October 1793 made all suspected priests and all persons who harbored them liable to death on sight. The climax was reached with the celebration of the goddess "Reason" in Notre Dame
Notre Dame de Paris
Notre Dame de Paris , also known as Notre Dame Cathedral, is a Gothic, Roman Catholic cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France. It is the cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Paris: that is, it is the church that contains the cathedra of...
Cathedral on 10 November. Because dissent was now regarded as counterrevolutionary, extremist enragés such as Hébert and moderate Montagnard
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...
indulgents such as Danton were guillotined in the Spring of 1794. On 7 June Robespierre, who had previously condemned the Cult of Reason
Cult of Reason
The Cult of Reason was an atheistic belief system established in France and intended as a replacement for Christianity during the French Revolution.-Origins:...
, advocated a new state religion and recommended that the Convention acknowledge the existence of God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
. On the next day, the worship of the deistic Supreme Being
Cult of the Supreme Being
The Cult of the Supreme Being was a form of deism established in France by Maximilien Robespierre during the French Revolution. It was intended to become the state religion of the new French Republic.- Origins :...
was inaugurated as an official aspect of the Revolution. Compared with Hébert's somewhat popular festivals, this austere new religion of Virtue was received with signs of hostility by the Parisian public.
Clash with Robespierre, Arrest, Conviction, and Execution
After successfully attacking the Girondins, he continued to attack others whom he viewed as too moderate including Danton, Philippeau, and Robespierre in the fall of 1793.The government, supported by the Jacobins was exasperated and finally decided to strike on the night of March 13, 1794, despite the reluctance of Barère of Vieuzac, Collot d'Herbois and Billaud-Varenne. The order was to arrest the leaders of the Hébertists
Hébertists
The Hébertists were an ultra-revolutionary political faction associated with the populist journalist Jacques Hébert. They came to power during the Reign of Terror and played a significant role in the French Revolution....
, these included individuals in the War Ministry and others.
In the Revolutionary Tribunal
Revolutionary Tribunal
The Revolutionary Tribunal was a court which was instituted in Paris by the Convention during the French Revolution for the trial of political offenders, and eventually became one of the most powerful engines of the Reign of Terror....
, Hébert was treated very differently from Danton, more like a thief than a conspirator, his earlier scams were brought to light and criticized. He was sentenced to death, along with his co-defendants, on the third day of deliberations. Their execution by guillotine took place on March 24, 1794. His corpse was disposed of in the Madeleine Cemetery
Madeleine Cemetery
Cimetière de la Madeleine is also the name of a cemetery in AmiensMadeleine Cemetery in French known as Cimetière de la Madeleine is a former cemetery in Paris, part of the land on which the Chapelle expiatoire now stands.-History and location:...
. His widow was executed twenty days later on April 13, 1794. Her corpse was disposed of in the Errancis Cemetery
Errancis Cemetery
Errancis Cemetery or Cimetière des Errancis is a former cemetery in Paris and was used to dispose of the corpses of guillotine victims.-History and location:...
.
Influence
Hébert's influence within the French Revolution due to his publication, Le Père Duchesne had a strong impact on the outcomes of certain political events. A majority of the political decisions that occurred during the Revolution were a culmilation of small events over time, so Le Père Duchesne's ability to influence the general population of France was indeed notable. Along with his ability to manipulate his reader's perceptions of the revolution, he manipulated the way they perceived the king and queen.On the day that Marie-Antoinette was on trial, Hébert himself spoke, alleging that she had committed incest with her own son (who was only 7 years old at the time), which sealed her fate in the eyes of the court.
External links
- Jacques Hébert Internet Archive on Marxists.org