Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve
Encyclopedia
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
.
Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve was the son of a at Chartres
Chartres
Chartres is a commune and capital of the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France. It is located southwest of Paris.-Geography:Chartres is built on the left bank of the Eure River, on a hill crowned by its famous cathedral, the spires of which are a landmark in the surrounding country...
. Though it is known that he was trained as a lawyer, very few specifics are known about Petion’s early life, as he was virtually unknown prior to the French Revolution. He became an advocate in 1778, and at once began to try to make a name in literature. His first printed work was an essay, , which failed to gain the prize for which it was composed, but pleased Brissot so much that he printed it in vol. vii. of his .
Pétion's next works, , and , in which he advocated the marriage of priests, confirmed his position as a bold reformer. He also attacked long-held Ancien Régime
Ancien Régime in France
The Ancien Régime refers primarily to the aristocratic, social and political system established in France from the 15th century to the 18th century under the late Valois and Bourbon dynasties...
traditions such as primogeniture
Primogeniture
Primogeniture is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn to inherit the entire estate, to the exclusion of younger siblings . Historically, the term implied male primogeniture, to the exclusion of females...
, accusing it of dividing the countryside into “proletarians and colossal properties.” Later works penned by Pétion include his account of Haiti entitled "" (1790) and "" in which he chides France for its corruption.
National Constituent Assembly
The National Constituent Assembly was formed from the National Assembly on 9 July 1789, during the first stages of the French Revolution. It dissolved on 30 September 1791 and was succeeded by the Legislative Assembly.-Background:...
Pétion showed himself a radical leader. Although Petion was overshadowed in the Assembly by such orators as 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 Barnave
Barnave
Barnave can refer to:* Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave , French politician* Barnave, Drôme, a commune of the Drôme département in France...
, his close relationship with Girondin leader Brissot provided him with helpful advice on political conduct. He supported Mirabeau on 23 June, attacked the queen on 5 October, and was elected president on 4 December 1790. On 15 June 1791 he was elected president of the criminal tribunal of Paris. On 21 June 1791 he was chosen one of three commissioners appointed to bring back the king from Varennes, and he has left a fatuous account of the journey. After the last meeting of the assembly on 30 September 1791 Robespierre
Maximilien Robespierre
Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre is one of the best-known and most influential figures of the French Revolution. He largely dominated the Committee of Public Safety and was instrumental in the period of the Revolution commonly known as the Reign of Terror, which ended with his...
and Pétion were made the popular heroes and were crowned by the populace with civic crowns.
By late 1791, administrative control of Paris was dominated by the Jacobins and mayor Jean-Sylvain Bailly had resigned due to constant political attacks from the left. Pétion received a still further proof of the affection of the Parisians for himself on 16 November 1791, when he was elected second mayor of Paris in succession to 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...
. In his mayoralty he exhibited clearly his republican tendency and his hatred of the old monarchy, especially on 20 June 1792, when he allowed the mob to overrun the Tuileries
Tuileries Palace
The Tuileries Palace was a royal palace in Paris which stood on the right bank of the River Seine until 1871, when it was destroyed in the upheaval during the suppression of the Paris Commune...
and insult the royal family. For neglecting to protect the Tuileries he was suspended from his functions by the Directory of the Seine
Seine (département)
Seine was a département of France encompassing Paris and its immediate suburbs. Its préfecture was Paris and its official number was 75. The Seine département was abolished in 1968 and its territory divided among four new départements....
département, but the leaders of 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...
felt that Pétion's cause was theirs, and rescinded the suspension on 13 July. On 3 August, at the head of the municipality of Paris, Pétion demanded the dethronement of the king.
Following news of the Duke of Brunswick’s Prussian army reaching the fortress of Verdun
Verdun
Verdun is a city in the Meuse department in Lorraine in north-eastern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.Verdun is the biggest city in Meuse, although the capital of the department is the slightly smaller city of Bar-le-Duc.- History :...
near Paris during the late summer of 1792, fear encouraged frenzied Parisian mobs to target prisoners, royalist sympathizers, and Catholic priests
Priesthood (Catholic Church)
The ministerial orders of the Catholic Church include the orders of bishops, deacons and presbyters, which in Latin is sacerdos. The ordained priesthood and common priesthood are different in function and essence....
in a series of gratuitous acts of violence that would come to be known as 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...
. With disagreements over such items as the necessity of the September Massacres, the Convention was a scene of large-scale political infighting between different factions. The Girondin represented the moderate Right in the Convention while their more radical opponents, 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...
, represented the Left and were distinguished by their preference for occupying the higher rows of benches in the Convention.
Pétion was elected to the Convention for Eure-et-Loir
Eure-et-Loir
Eure-et-Loir is a French department, named after the Eure and Loir rivers.-History:Eure-et-Loir is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790 pursuant to the Act of December 22, 1789...
and became its first president. LP Manuel had the folly to propose that the president of the Assembly should have the same authority as the president of the United States; his proposition was at once rejected, but Pétion got the nickname of "Roi Pétion," which contributed to his fall. His jealousy of Robespierre allied him to the Girondin
Girondist
The Girondists were a political faction in France within the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention during the French Revolution...
party, with which he voted for the king's death and for the appeal to the people. He participated to the Constitution Committee that drafted the Girondin constitutional project
Girondin constitutional project
The Girondin constitutional project, presented to the French National Convention on February 15 and 16, 1793, by Nicolas de Caritat, formerly the Marquis de Condorcet, is composed of three parts:...
. He was elected in March 1793 to the first 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...
; and he attacked Robespierre, who had accused him of having known and having kept secret Dumouriez's project of treason.
His popularity however had waned, and his name was among those of the twenty-two Girondin deputies proscribed on 2 June. Pétion was one of those who escaped to 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....
and raised the standard of provincial insurrection against the Convention; and, when the Norman rising failed, he fled with Marguerite-Élie Guadet
Marguerite-Élie Guadet
Marguerite-Élie Guadet was a French political figure of the Revolutionary period.-Rise to prominence:Born in Saint-Émilion, Gironde, Aquitaine, he had already gained a reputation as a lawyer in Bordeaux by the time of the Revolution...
, François Nicolas Leonard Buzot, Charles Jean Marie Barbaroux
Charles Jean Marie Barbaroux
Charles Jean Marie Barbaroux was a French politician of the Revolutionary period.-Early career:Born in Marseille, Barbaroux was educated at first by the local Oratorians, then studied law in Aix-en-Provence, and became a successful lawyer...
, Jean-Baptiste de la Salle and Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai
Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai
Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai was a French novelist, playwright, journalist, politician, and diplomat.-Early life and literary works:...
to the Gironde
Gironde
For the Revolutionary party, see Girondists.Gironde is a common name for the Gironde estuary, where the mouths of the Garonne and Dordogne rivers merge, and for a department in the Aquitaine region situated in southwest France.-History:...
, where they were sheltered by a wigmaker of Saint Emilion. At last, a month before Robespierre's fall in June 1794, the escaped deputies felt themselves no longer safe, and deserted their asylum; Louvet found his way to Paris, Salle and Guadet to Bordeaux, where they were soon taken; Barbaroux was guillotined after a botched suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
attempt; and the bodies of Pétion and Buzot, who had killed themselves, were found in a field, half eaten by wolves.
See Mémoires inédits du Pétion et mémoires de Buzot et de Barbaroux, accompagnés de notes inédites de Buzot et de nombreux documents inédits sur Barbaroux, Buzot, Brissot, etc., précédés d'une introduction par C. A. Dauban (Paris, 1866); Œuvres du Pétion (3 vols., 1792); FA Aulard
François Victor Alphonse Aulard
François Victor Alphonse Aulard was the first professional French historian of the French Revolution and of Napoleon.He was born at Montbron in Charente...
, Les Orateurs de la Constituante (Paris, 1882).