Jean Joseph Mounier was a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

 and judge

Judge

A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...

.

He was born at Grenoble

Grenoble

Grenoble is a city in southeastern France, at the foot of the French Alps where the river Drac joins the Isère. Located in the Rhône-Alpes region, Grenoble is the capital of the department of Isère...

 (Isère

Isère

Isère is a department in the Rhône-Alpes region in the east of France named after the river Isère.- History :Isère is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Dauphiné...

). He studied law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

, and in 1783 obtained a judgeship at Grenoble. He took part in the struggle between the parlement

Parlement

Parlements were regional legislative bodies in Ancien Régime France.The political institutions of the Parlement in Ancien Régime France developed out of the previous council of the king, the Conseil du roi or curia regis, and consequently had ancient and customary rights of consultation and...

s and the court in 1788, and promoted the meeting of the estates of Dauphiné at Vizille

Vizille

Vizille is a commune in the Isère department in south-eastern France.Vizille is home to the Musée de la Révolution Française de Vizille, a rich depository of archival and rare materials devoted to the French Revolution, housed since 1984 in the Château de Vizille, a Monument Historique. The library...

 (20 July 1788), on the eve of 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...

. He was secretary of the assembly, and drafted the cahiers ("notebooks") of grievances and remonstrances presented by it to 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....

. Thus brought into prominence, Mounier was unanimously elected deputy of the third estate to the states general

French States-General

In France under the Old Regime, the States-General or Estates-General , was a legislative assembly of the different classes of French subjects. It had a separate assembly for each of the three estates, which were called and dismissed by the king...

 of 1789; Mounier also founded the Monarchiens

Monarchiens

Monarchiens is a derogatory term used to describe one of the revolutionary factions in the earliest stages of the French Revolution. The Monarchiens were briefly a conservative, stabilising force, criticized by the left wing of the National Constituent Assembly, the spectators in the galleries and...

 party in August 1789.

There, and in the Constituent Assembly

Constituent assembly

A constituent assembly is a body composed for the purpose of drafting or adopting a constitution...

, he was at first an upholder of the new ideas, pronouncing himself in favour of the union of the Third Estate with the two privileged orders, proposing the famous Tennis Court Oath

Tennis Court Oath

The Tennis Court Oath was a pivotal event during the first days of the French Revolution. The Oath was a pledge signed by 576 of the 577 members from the Third Estate who were locked out of a meeting of the Estates-General on 20 June 1789...

, assisting in the preparation of the new constitution, and demanding the return of Jacques Necker

Jacques Necker

Jacques Necker was a French statesman of Swiss birth and finance minister of Louis XVI, a post he held in the lead-up to the French Revolution in 1789.-Early life:...

. On 28 September 1789 he was elected president of the Constituent Assembly. Being unable, however, to approve the proceedings which followed, Mounier withdrew to Dauphiné, resigned as deputy, and, becoming suspect, took refuge in Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 in 1790.

He returned to France in 1801, was named by Napoleon Bonaparte prefect of the department of Ille-et-Vilaine

Ille-et-Vilaine

Ille-et-Vilaine is a department of France, located in the region of Brittany in the northwest of the country.- History :Ille-et-Vilaine is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...

, which he reorganized, and in 1805 was appointed councillor of state. He died in Paris. His principal writings are Considérations sur les gouvernements (1789); Recherches sur les causes qui ont empeché les Français de devenir libres (1792), and De l'influence attribuée aux philosophes, aux francs-maçons et aux illuminés sur la Révolution Française. (1801).

External Links

• Full text online versions of pamphlets written by Jean Joseph Mounier from the Ball State University Digital Media Repository