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Jacques-Nicolas Billaud-Varenne
Billaud-Varenne portrayed by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, c. 1790 (Dallas Museum of Art)
26th President of the National Convention
In office 5 September 1793 – 19 September 1793
Preceded by	Maximilien Robespierre
Succeeded by	Pierre Joseph Cambon
Member of the National Convention
In office 7 September 1792 – 26 October 1795
Constituency	Seine
Member of the Committee of Public Safety
In office 6 September 1793 – 1 September 1794
Personal details
Born	Jacques Nicolas Billaud (1756-04-23)23 April 1756 La Rochelle, Kingdom of France
Died	3 June 1819(1819-06-03) (aged 63) Port-au-Prince, Republic of Haiti
Political party	The Mountain
Spouse(s)	Anne-Angélique Doye Brigitte Billaud-Varenne
Alma mater	University of Poitiers
Occupation	Lawyer, politician
Nickname	"The Tiger"

Jacques-Nicolas Billaud-Varenne (French pronunciation: [ʒak nikɔla bijo vaʁɛn]; 23 April 1756 – 3 June 1819), also known as Jean Nicolas or by his nicknames, the Righteous Patriot or the Tiger, was a French lawyer and a major figure in the French Revolution. A close associate of Georges Danton and Maximilien Robespierre, he was one of the most militant members of the Committee of Public Safety, and is often considered a key architect of the Reign of Terror.

Billaud-Varenne subsequently broke with Robespierre, partly due to their ideological conflicts relating to the centralization of power. Ultimately he played a major role in Robespierre's downfall on 9 Thermidor, an act for which he later expressed remorse. After Thermidor, Billaud-Varenne was part of the Crêtois, the last group of deputies from The Mountain. He presided over the persecution of Louis-Marie Turreau and Jean-Baptiste Carrier for their massacres during the War in the Vendée, which ended by their execution.

Billaud-Varenne was later arrested during the Thermidorian Reaction. Deported to Cayenne without trial, he married a black ex-slave named Brigitte, refused Napoleon's pardon there and finally died in Port-au-Prince in 1819.

Billaud-Varenne was one of the central figures of the first part of the French Revolution, but he remains little studied or little understood.

Biography

Early life

Billaud-Varenne was born in La Rochelle as the son of a lawyer to the parlement of Paris. Since both his grandfather and father were lawyers, and he was the first son in his direct family, Varenne was guaranteed a solid education and the same profession. Billaud-Varenne was educated at the college at Niort run by the French Oratorians, and took Philosophy at La Rochelle. His education at Niort was particularly important in shaping his character because its methods of teaching were uncommon to the revolution. At Niort, modernity and tolerance were emphasized, as opposed to most other schools of the time. Billaud-Varenne was also sent to another Oratory of Jesus school, the College of Juilly, where he was Hall prefect of studies. Here he later became a professor when he felt dissatisfied with practicing law, remaining for a short while, until his writing of a comédie strained his relationship with those who ran the school and he was obliged to leave in 1785.

He then went to Paris, married and bought a position as lawyer in the parlement. In early 1789 he published at Amsterdam a three-volume work on the Despotisme des ministres de la France, and a well-received anti-clerical text titled "The Last Blow Against Prejudice and Superstition." As events moved closer to Bastille Day, he adopted with enthusiasm the principles of the French Revolution. An example of his beliefs regarding the Church can be found in this text:

However painful an amputation may be, when a member is gangrened it must be sacrificed if we wish to save the body.

Early activism

Joining the Jacobin Club, Billaud-Varenne became, from 1790, one of the most violent anti-Royalist orators, closely linked to Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois. After the flight to Varennes of King Louis XVI, he published a pamphlet, L'Acéphocratie (from the Greek: ακεφοκρατια, meaning 'power without head), in which he demanded the establishment of a federal republic.

On 1 July, in another speech at the Jacobin Club, he spoke of a republic, arousing the derision of partisans of the constitutional monarchy. But when he repeated his demand for a republic a fortnight later, the speech was printed and sent to the Jacobin branch societies throughout France.

On the night of 10 August 1792 (during the attack on the Tuileries Palace) he met with Danton, Desmoulins, and other members of the Insurrectionary Commune during the critical hours before the overthrow of the monarchy. Later that day, he was elected one of the deputy-commissioners of the sections who shortly afterwards became the general council of the Paris Commune. He was accused of having been an accomplice in the September Massacres in the Abbaye prison.

Projects in the Convention

Elected, like Maximilien Robespierre, Georges Danton, and Collot d'Herbois, a deputy of Paris to the National Convention, he spoke in favour of the immediate abolition of the Bourbon monarchy, and the next day demanded that all acts be dated from the Year I of the French Republic (a measure adopted a little over a year later in the form of the French Revolutionary Calendar).

At the trial of Louis XVI he added new charges to the accusation, proposed to refuse counsel to the king, and voted for death "within 24 hours". On 2 June 1793, in the context of Jean-Paul Marat's anti-Girondist instigations, he proposed a decree of accusation against the Girondists; a week later, at the Jacobin Club, he outlined a programme which the convention was to fulfil soon after: the expulsion of foreigners, the establishment of a tax on the rich, the deprivation of the rights of citizenship of all "anti-social" men, the creation of a French Revolutionary Army, the monitoring of all officers and ci-devant nobles (i.e.: those of aristocratic families who no longer held status after the abolition of feudalism), and the death penalty for unsuccessful generals fighting in the French Revolutionary Wars.

Mission and Reign of Terror

On 15 July he made a violent speech in the Convention in accusation of the Girondists. Sent in August as representative on mission to the départements of the Nord and of Pas-de-Calais, he showed himself inexorable to all suspects.

On his return, the calamities of the summer of 1793 caused the Paris Commune to begin to organize an insurrection – an insurrection that would lead to Billaud-Varenne's ascension to the most powerful body in all of France. When the popular uprising did come on 5 September and the Commune marched on the National Convention, Billaud-Varenne was one of the chief speakers agitating for change in leadership. He called for a new war plan from the Ministry of War and that a new Committee be created to oversee the whole government – thus superseding the existing Committee of Public Safety. To mollify the insurrectionists, that night Billaud-Varenne was named President of the National Convention for a special two week session, followed by him being named to the Committee of Public Safety the next day. Along with Collot d'Herbois, who was named the same day, his addition was seen as a way to co-opt the Paris Commune. Once added to Committee of Public Safety, he then played a major role in defending it – calling for unity instead of change – on 25 October when the National Convention complained about the committee and then officially sanctioned them. He was included in the Reign of Terror's Committee of Public Safety, which had decreed the mass arrest of all suspects and the establishment of a revolutionary army, caused the extraordinary criminal tribunal to be named officially "Revolutionary Tribunal" (on 29 October 1793), demanded the execution of Marie Antoinette, and then attacked Jacques René Hébert and Danton. Meanwhile, he published Les Éléments du républicanisme, in which he demanded a division of property among the citizens.

Once named to the committee, Billaud-Varenne became a vocal defender of that body. Based in Paris during much of this year, Billaud-Varenne and Barère worked to develop the administrative apparatus and consolidate the power of the committee. To that end, in early December he proposed a radical centralization of authority, a law that became known as the Law of 14 Frimaire. This law brought surveillance, economic requisition, the dispatch of legislative news, local administrators, and representatives on mission under the control of the committee. He was also instrumental in defending the Terror: when a measure was passed into law in mid November 1793 allowing the accused the right of defense, Billaud-Varenne uttered his famous words in defense of the Terror:

No, we will not step backward, our zeal will only be smothered in the tomb; either the revolution will triumph or we will all die.

The law enabling right of defense was overturned the next day.

Thermidor and exile

As 1794 progressed, Robespierre began to speak out against over zealous factions: he believed both pro-Terror and indulgent positions were dangerous to the well-being of the Revolution. Robespierre saw danger in members of the Revolution, like Billaud-Varenne, Collot d'Herbois, and Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier who had been too committed to attacks on Church property or had been too vigorous in their pursuit of revolutionary justice (such as Collot at Lyon). The dechristianization program was seen as divisive and unnecessary by some in the convention. Furthermore, the law of 22 Prairial had isolated the police wing of the convention: the Committee of General Security, a body that was extremely anti-clerical, had seen their power severely diminished by the law. The law of 22 Prairial reduced the right of defense to simply an appearance before court, while greatly expanding the list of crimes punishable by death. This is what led directly to the Great Terror, in which more were killed by the Revolutionary Tribunal in Paris in those seven weeks than in the preceding fourteen months. Though Billaud-Varenne publicly defended it in the convention, this law was a driving factor in the eventual reprisal against the committee. Serious arguments began to fracture the committee, with Billaud-Varenne and Collot d'Herbois pitted against Robespierre and Saint-Just. On 26 June, they argued over the imposition of a new prosecutor to the Revolutionary Tribunal. On 29 June, an argument once again broke out between members of the Committee of Public Safety. Though it could have been about the Catherine Théot affair or the law of 22 Prairial, it led to Billaud-Varenne branding Robespierre a dictator and the latter storming out of the Committee headquarters and ceasing to attend meetings. With tensions being heightened and more guillotined every day – the rate of executions per day in Paris rose from five a day in Germinal to twenty-six a day in Messidor – Billaud-Varenne and Collot d'Herbois began to fear for their safety.

Throughout the early days of Thermidor, Bertrand Barère attempted to forge compromise between the splintering Committee. However, Robespierre was still convinced that the Convention needed further purging, and on 8 Thermidor he rose before that body to give a speech that would spark the Thermidorian Reaction. Speaking of "monsters" that threatened the Republic with conspiracy, his speech was pointed enough to serve as a warning while being vague enough to worry many in the body. When he was asked for the names of those in the conspiracy, Robespierre declined to provide them, and he was charged with indicting members of the Convention en masse without a hearing.

That night, Robespierre retreated to the Jacobin Club, where he gave the same speech to rousing applause. Collot d'Herbois and Billaud-Varenne, as members who the speech may have been aimed at, attempted to defend themselves but were shouted down and expelled from the club as cries for "la guillotine," rained down upon them. They returned to the Committee of Public Safety where they found Saint-Just, the protege of Robespierre, working on a speech he intended to deliver the next day. As one of the chief messengers of the terror, Collot and Billaud-Varenne both assumed that Saint-Just was writing their denunciation. At this moment the last argument of the Committee erupted, with Collot, Billaud-Varenne, and Barère attacking Saint-Just for "dividing the nation." After sometime, they departed the committee and organized the last elements of the Thermidorian Reaction.

The next day, 9 Thermidor, Billaud-Varenne would play a critical role in the final stroke against Robespierre and his allies. As Saint-Just delivered his speech, he was interrupted near the beginning by another conspirator, Jean-Lambert Tallien. Billaud-Varenne was next to speak, with Collot d'Herbois controlling the debates from the President's Chair, and in an eloquent planned denunciation directly accused Robespierre of a conspiracy against the Republic. This speech and others were warmly received, and after continued debate arrest warrants were issued for Robespierre, Saint-Just, and their allies. After a brief armed standoff, the conspirators would carry the day, and Robespierre and his allies would be executed the next day.

However, after 9 Thermidor, Billaud-Varenne was soon enough to find himself in prison. Too closely associated with the excesses of the Reign of Terror, he was shortly attacked himself in the convention for his ruthlessness, and a commission was appointed to examine his conduct and that of some other members of the former Committee of Public Safety. Billaud-Varenne was arrested, and as a result of the Jacobin-led insurrection of 12 Germinal of the Year III (1 April 1795), the Convention decreed his immediate deportation to French Guiana, along with Collot d'Herbois and Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac, where he picked up farming and took as concubine a black slave girl called Brigitte. After Napoleon Bonaparte's 18 Brumaire coup, he refused the pardon offered by the French Consulate. In 1816 he left Guiana, went to New York City for a few months, and finally moved to Port-au-Prince (Haiti), where he became advisor and counsellor to the high court.

President of Haiti, Alexandre Pétion granted him a pension which he received until his death. Regarding the colonization of Haiti by the Kingdom of France and the attempts of Louis XVIII to regain control of the island by diplomatic means, he announced to Pétion :

The biggest fault you committed, in the course of the revolution of this country, is not having sacrificed all the settlers, down to the last one. In France we made the same mistake, by not causing the last of the Bourbons to perish.

He died in Port-au-Prince in 1819. Among his last words, he declared: "My bones, at least, will rest on a land that wants Liberty; but I hear the voice of posterity accusing me of having spared the blood of the tyrants of Europe too much."

He bequeathed all his possessions to his wife, Brigitte, and expressed it as follows in his will: "I give this surplus, whatever its value may be, to this honest girl; as much to repay her for the immense services she has rendered me for over eighteen years as to acknowledge the new and most complete proof of her unwavering attachment, by consenting to follow me wherever I go."

Works

• Despotisme des ministres de France, combattu par les droits de la Nation, par les loix fondamentales, par les ordonnances... [Despotism of the ministers of France, combatted by the rights of the Nation, by the fundamental laws, by the ordinances...] (in French), Paris, 1789
• Mémoires écrits au Port-au-Prince en 1818, contenant la relation de ses voyages et aventures dans le Mexique, depuis 1815 jusqu'en 1817. ("Memoirs written in Port-au-Prince in 1818, containing the relation of his voyages and adventures in Mexico, from 1815 to 1817"), Paris, 1821 .
• Billaud Varenne membre du comité de salut public : Mémoires inédits et Correspondance. Accompagnés de notices biographiques sur Billaud Varenne et Collot d'Herbois ("Billaud Varenne, member of the Committee of Public Safety: Unpublished memoirs and correspondence. Accompanied by biographical notes on Billaud Varenne and Collot d'Herbois"), Paris, Librairie de la Nouvelle Revue, 1893 (edited by Alfred Begis).

References

1. LENOIR, PHILIPPE (2021). PATRIOTE RECTILIGNE : billaud-varenne. BOOKS ON DEMAND. ISBN 978-2-322-40504-6. OCLC 1289918904. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
2. ^ Guilaine, Jacques (1 January 1969). Billaud-Varenne: L'ascète de la Révolution, 1756-1819 (in French). (Fayard) réédition numérique FeniXX. ISBN 978-2-7062-1345-8. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
3. Brunel, Françoise (1989). 1794, thermidor : la chute de Robespierre. Complexe. p. 86. ISBN 2-87027-275-8. OCLC 397368958. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
4. Billaud-Varenne (1893). Mémoires inédits et correspondance: accompagnés de notices biographiques sur Billaud Varenne et Collot-D'Herbois (in French). Libr. de la Nouvelle Revue. pp. 232–235. Archived from the original on 5 January 2024. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
5. Clauzel, Jean-Baptiste; Billaud-Varenne, Jacques Nicolas; Delaunay, Pierre Marie; Lequinio de Kerblay, Joseph Marie; Duquesnoy, Ernest Dominique François Joseph; Carnot, Lazare Nicolas Marguerite; Laignelot, Joseph François; Maignen, François; Duroy, Jean-Michel; Merlin de Thionville, Antoine Christophe; Le Cointre, Laurent; Carrier, Jean-Baptiste; Lofficial, Louis-Prosper; Goupilleau de Fontenay, Jean-François; Goupilleau de Montaigu, Philippe Charles Aimé (1994). "Discussion sur la guerre de Vendée, notamment sur les atrocités commises par Carrier et le général Turreau, lors de la séance du 8 vendémiaire an III (29 septembre 1794)". Archives Parlementaires de la Révolution Française. 98 (1): 154–161. Archived from the original on 16 December 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
6. Delaunay, Pierre Marie; Bernard de Saintes, André Antoine; Dugenne, François Elie; Pénières-Delzors, Jean Augustin; Bourdon de la Cronière, Louis Jean Joseph Léonard; Guérin, Pierre; Lombard-Lachaux, Pierre; Le Clerc, Claude Nicolas; Dartigoeyte, Pierre Arnaud; Veau de Launay, Pierre Louis Athanase; Bodin, Pierre Joseph François; Duval, Charles François Marie; Sevestre, Joseph Marie François; Cambon, Pierre-Joseph; Bousquet, François (2012). "Appel nominal sur la question : "y a-t-il lieu à accusation contre le représentant du peuple Carrier ?", lors de la séance du 3 frimaire an III (23 novembre 1794)". Archives Parlementaires de la Révolution Française. 102 (1): 99–117. Archived from the original on 16 December 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
7. Legendre, Louis; Camboulas, Simon; Clauzel, Jean-Baptiste; Le Tourneur, Etienne Francois Louis Honoré; Thierriet, Claude; Duhem, Pierre Joseph; Lesage-Senault, Gaspard Jean Joseph; Prieur de la Marne, Pierre Louis; Billaud-Varenne, Jacques Nicolas; Pérès de Lagesse, Emmanuel; Baudin, Pierre Charles Louis; Duroy, Jean-Michel; Goupilleau de Fontenay, Jean-François (2005). "Reprise de la discussion sur les évènements de la veille aux Jacobins, lors de la séance du 20 brumaire an III (10 novembre 1794)". Archives Parlementaires de la Révolution Française. 101 (1): 80–83. Archived from the original on 16 December 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
8. Albert Mathiez, La Réaction thermidorienne, Paris, Armand Colin, 1929, p. 72.
9. d'Allonnes, Myriam Revault (1989). "Billaud-Varenne, Ou les Malheurs de la Vertu en Politique". Le Cahier (Collège international de philosophie) (7): 83–92. ISSN 0980-1626. JSTOR 40972538. Archived from the original on 16 December 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
10. "Dernières justifications politiques publiques puis " remords " de (...) - L'ARBR- Les Amis de Robespierre". www.amis-robespierre.org. Archived from the original on 16 December 2022. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
11. Levitine, George. Culture and Revolution: Cultural Ramifications of the French Revolution (College Park, Maryland: Department of Art History, 1989), 70-79.
12. ^ Palmer, 1949, 12
13. ^ Anchel 1911, p. 933.
14. Palmer, 1949, 48
15. Palmer, 1949, 54
16. Schama, 1989, 766
17. Palmer, 1949, 124-127
18. Schama, 1989, 809
19. Palmer, 1949, 368-369
20. Palmer,1949,366-369
21. Palmer, 1949, 369
22. Schama, 1989, 837
23. Palmer, 1949, 379
24. Schama, 1989, 841
25. ^ Schama, 1989, 842
26. Palmer, 1949, 374
27. Palmer, 1949. 374
28. Palmer, 1949, 377
29. Schama, 1989, 846
30. ^ Anchel 1911, p. 934.
31. ^ "Une lettre inédite de Billaud-Varenne, déporté en Guyane, à son père, en (...) - L'ARBR- Les Amis de Robespierre". www.amis-robespierre.org. Archived from the original on 3 October 2023. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
32. Billaud-Varenne (1893). Mémoires inédits et correspondance: accompagnés de notices biographiques sur Billaud Varenne et Collot-D'Herbois (in French). Libr. de la Nouvelle Revue. pp. 232–235. Archived from the original on 5 January 2024. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
33. Palmer, 1949, Epilogue
34. LENOIR, PHILIPPE (2021). PATRIOTE RECTILIGNE : billaud-varenne. BOOKS ON DEMAND. ISBN 978-2-322-40504-6. OCLC 1289918904. Archived from the original on 5 January 2024. Retrieved 16 December 2022.

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Anchel, Robert (1911). "Billaud-Varenne, Jacques Nicolas". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 933–934. In turn, it gives the following references:
  • Billaud-Varenne's autobiographical sketch of his youth, Tableau du prémier age, composed in 1786 – published in 1888 in the review La Révolution française.
  • François Victor Alphonse Aulard, Les Orateurs de la législative et de la convention (2nd ed., 1906).

Sources

• Arthur Conte, Billaud Varenne : Géant de la Révolution, Paris, Editions Orban, 1989
• Jacques Guilaine, Billaud-Varenne : l'ascète de la Révolution (1756–1819), Paris, Fayard, 1969
• Auguste Kuscinski: Dictionnaire des conventionnels, Paris, Société de l'Histoire de la Révolution française, F. Rieder, 1916 <New edition: Brueil-en-Vexin, Editions du Vexin français, 1973>
• Robert R. Palmer, Twelve Who Ruled : The Year of the Terror in the French Revolution, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1941 <New edition: Princeton Classic Editions, 2005. – ISBN 0-691-12187-7>
• Schama, Simon. Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution (New York: Vintage Books, 1989), 809, 840.
• Levitine, George. Culture and Revolution: Cultural Ramifications of the French Revolution (College Park, Maryland: Department of Art History, 1989), 70–79.
• Tom Malone: "Billaud-Varenne – Anwalt des Terrors". BOD, Hamburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-7347-3899-9.

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Significant civil and political events by year 1788 Day of the Tiles (7 Jun 1788) Assembly of Vizille (21 Jul 1788) 1789 What Is the Third Estate? (Jan 1789) Réveillon riots (28 Apr 1789) Convocation of the Estates General (5 May 1789) Death of the Dauphin (4 June 1789) National Assembly (17 Jun – 9 Jul 1790) Tennis Court Oath (20 Jun 1789) National Constituent Assembly (9 Jul – 30 Sep 1791) Storming of the Bastille (14 Jul 1789) Great Fear (20 Jul – 5 Aug 1789) Abolition of Feudalism (4–11 Aug 1789) Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (26 Aug 1789) Women's March on Versailles (5 Oct 1789) Nationalization of the Church properties (2 Nov 1789) 1790 Abolition of the Parlements (Feb–Jul 1790) Abolition of the Nobility (23 Jun 1790) Civil Constitution of the Clergy (12 Jul 1790) Fête de la Fédération (14 Jul 1790) 1791 Flight to Varennes (20–21 Jun 1791) Champ de Mars massacre (17 Jul 1791) Declaration of Pillnitz (27 Aug 1791) The Constitution of 1791 (3 Sep 1791) National Legislative Assembly (1 Oct 1791 – Sep 1792) 1792 France declares war (20 Apr 1792) Brunswick Manifesto (25 Jul 1792) Paris Commune becomes insurrectionary (Jun 1792) 10th of August (10 Aug 1792) September Massacres (Sep 1792) National Convention (20 Sep 1792 – 26 Oct 1795) First republic declared (22 Sep 1792) 1793 Execution of Louis XVI (21 Jan 1793) Revolutionary Tribunal (9 Mar 1793 – 31 May 1795) Reign of Terror (27 Jun 1793 – 27 Jul 1794) Committee of Public Safety Committee of General Security Fall of the Girondists (2 Jun 1793) Assassination of Marat (13 Jul 1793) Levée en masse (23 Aug 1793) The Death of Marat (painting) Law of Suspects (17 Sep 1793) Marie Antoinette is guillotined (16 Oct 1793) Anti-clerical laws (throughout the year) 1794 Danton and Desmoulins guillotined (5 Apr 1794) Law of 22 Prairial (10 Jun 1794) Thermidorian Reaction (27 Jul 1794) Robespierre guillotined (28 Jul 1794) White Terror (Fall 1794) Closing of the Jacobin Club (11 Nov 1794) 1795–6 Insurrection of 12 Germinal Year III (1 Apr 1795) Constitution of the Year III (22 Aug 1795) Directoire (1795–99) Council of Five Hundred Council of Ancients 13 Vendémiaire 5 Oct 1795 Conspiracy of the Equals (May 1796) 1797 Coup of 18 Fructidor (4 Sep 1797) Second Congress of Rastatt (Dec 1797) 1798 Law of 22 Floréal Year VI (11 May 1798) 1799 Coup of 30 Prairial VII (18 Jun 1799) Coup of 18 Brumaire (9 Nov 1799) Constitution of the Year VIII (24 Dec 1799) Consulate
Revolutionary campaigns 1792 Verdun Thionville Valmy Royalist Revolts Chouannerie Vendée Dauphiné Lille Siege of Mainz Jemappes Namur 1793 First Coalition War in the Vendée Battle of Neerwinden Battle of Famars (23 May 1793) Expedition to Sardinia (21 Dec 1792 - 25 May 1793) Battle of Kaiserslautern Siege of Mainz Battle of Wattignies Battle of Hondschoote Siege of Bellegarde Battle of Peyrestortes (Pyrenees) Siege of Toulon (18 Sep – 18 Dec 1793) First Battle of Wissembourg (13 Oct 1793) Battle of Truillas (Pyrenees) Second Battle of Wissembourg (26–27 Dec 1793) 1794 Battle of Villers-en-Cauchies (24 Apr 1794) Second Battle of Boulou (Pyrenees) (30 Apr – 1 May 1794) Battle of Tourcoing (18 May 1794) Battle of Tournay (22 May 1794) Glorious First of June (1 Jun 1794) Battle of Fleurus (26 Jun 1794) Chouannerie Battle of Aldenhoven (2 Oct 1794) Siege of Luxembourg (22 Nov 1794 - 7 Jun 1795) 1795 Siege of Luxembourg (22 Nov 1794 - 7 Jun 1795) Peace of Basel 1796 Italian campaign (1796) Battle of Lonato (3–4 Aug 1796) Battle of Castiglione (5 Aug 1796) Battle of Theiningen Battle of Neresheim (11 Aug 1796) Battle of Amberg (24 Aug 1796) Battle of Würzburg (3 Sep 1796) Battle of Rovereto (4 Sep 1796) First Battle of Bassano (8 Sep 1796) Battle of Emmendingen (19 Oct 1796) Battle of Schliengen (26 Oct 1796) Second Battle of Bassano (6 Nov 1796) Battle of Calliano (6–7 Nov 1796) Battle of Arcole (15–17 Nov 1796) Ireland expedition (Dec 1796) 1797 Italian campaign (1797) Naval Engagement off Brittany (13 Jan 1797) Battle of Rivoli (14–15 Jan 1797) Battle of the Bay of Cádiz (25 Jan 1797) Treaty of Leoben (17 Apr 1797) Battle of Neuwied (18 Apr 1797) Treaty of Campo Formio (17 Oct 1797) 1798 French invasion of Switzerland (28 January – 17 May 1798) French Invasion of Egypt (1798–1801) Irish Rebellion of 1798 (23 May – 23 Sep 1798) Quasi-War (1798–1800) Peasants' War (12 Oct – 5 Dec 1798) 1799 Second Coalition (1798–1802) Siege of Acre (20 Mar – 21 May 1799) Battle of Ostrach (20–21 Mar 1799) Battle of Stockach (25 Mar 1799) Battle of Magnano (5 Apr 1799) Battle of Cassano (27–28 Apr 1799) First Battle of Zurich (4–7 Jun 1799) Battle of Trebbia (17–20 Jun 1799) Battle of Novi (15 Aug 1799) Second Battle of Zurich (25–26 Sep 1799) 1800 Battle of Marengo (14 Jun 1800) Convention of Alessandria (15 Jun 1800) Battle of Hohenlinden (3 Dec 1800) League of Armed Neutrality (1800–02) 1801 Treaty of Lunéville (9 Feb 1801) Treaty of Florence (18 Mar 1801) Algeciras campaign (8 Jul 1801) 1802 Treaty of Amiens (25 Mar 1802) Treaty of Paris (25 Jun 1802)
Military leaders France French Army Eustache Charles d'Aoust Pierre Augereau Alexandre de Beauharnais Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte Louis-Alexandre Berthier Jean-Baptiste Bessières Napoléon Bonaparte Guillaume Brune Jean François Carteaux Jean-Étienne Championnet Chapuis de Tourville Adam Philippe, Comte de Custine Louis-Nicolas Davout Louis Desaix Jacques François Dugommier Thomas-Alexandre Dumas Charles François Dumouriez Pierre Marie Barthélemy Ferino Louis-Charles de Flers Paul Grenier Emmanuel de Grouchy Jacques Maurice Hatry Lazare Hoche Jean-Baptiste Jourdan François Christophe de Kellermann Jean-Baptiste Kléber Pierre Choderlos de Laclos Jean Lannes Charles Leclerc Claude Lecourbe François Joseph Lefebvre Étienne Macdonald Jean-Antoine Marbot Marcellin Marbot François Séverin Marceau Auguste de Marmont André Masséna Bon-Adrien Jeannot de Moncey Jean Victor Marie Moreau Édouard Mortier, Duke of Trévise Joachim Murat Michel Ney Pierre-Jacques Osten [fr] Nicolas Oudinot Catherine-Dominique de Pérignon Jean-Charles Pichegru Józef Poniatowski Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr Barthélemy Louis Joseph Schérer Jean-Mathieu-Philibert Sérurier Joseph Souham Jean-de-Dieu Soult Louis-Gabriel Suchet Belgrand de Vaubois Claude Victor-Perrin, Duc de Belluno French Navy Charles-Alexandre Linois Opposition Austria József Alvinczi Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen Count of Clerfayt (Walloon) Karl Aloys zu Fürstenberg Friedrich Freiherr von Hotze (Swiss) Friedrich Adolf, Count von Kalckreuth Pál Kray (Hungarian) Charles Eugene, Prince of Lambesc (French) Maximilian Baillet de Latour (Walloon) Karl Mack von Leiberich Rudolf Ritter von Otto (Saxon) Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld Peter Vitus von Quosdanovich Prince Heinrich XV of Reuss-Plauen Johann Mészáros von Szoboszló (Hungarian) Karl Philipp Sebottendorf Dagobert von Wurmser Britain Sir Ralph Abercromby James Saumarez, 1st Baron de Saumarez Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany Netherlands William V, Prince of Orange Prussia Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick Frederick Louis, Prince of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen Russia Alexander Korsakov Alexander Suvorov Andrei Rosenberg Spain Luis Firmin de Carvajal Antonio Ricardos
Other significant figures and factions Patriotic Society of 1789 Jean Sylvain Bailly Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette François Alexandre Frédéric, duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt Isaac René Guy le Chapelier Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord Nicolas de Condorcet Feuillants and monarchiens Grace Elliott Arnaud de La Porte Jean-Sifrein Maury François-Marie, marquis de Barthélemy Guillaume-Mathieu Dumas Antoine Barnave Lafayette Alexandre-Théodore-Victor, comte de Lameth Charles Malo François Lameth André Chénier Jean-François Rewbell Camille Jordan Madame de Staël Boissy d'Anglas Jean-Charles Pichegru Pierre Paul Royer-Collard Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac Girondins Jacques Pierre Brissot Jean-Marie Roland de la Platière Madame Roland Father Henri Grégoire Étienne Clavière Marquis de Condorcet Charlotte Corday Marie Jean Hérault Jean Baptiste Treilhard Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve Jean Debry Olympe de Gouges Jean-Baptiste Robert Lindet Louis Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux The Plain Abbé Sieyès de Cambacérès Charles-François Lebrun Pierre-Joseph Cambon Bertrand Barère Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot Philippe Égalité Louis Philippe I Mirabeau Antoine Christophe Merlin de Thionville Jean Joseph Mounier Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours François de Neufchâteau Montagnards Maximilien Robespierre Georges Danton Jean-Paul Marat Camille Desmoulins Louis Antoine de Saint-Just Paul Barras Louis Philippe I Louis Michel le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau Jacques-Louis David Marquis de Sade Georges Couthon Roger Ducos Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois Jean-Henri Voulland Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville Philippe-François-Joseph Le Bas Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier Jean-Pierre-André Amar Prieur de la Côte-d'Or Prieur de la Marne Gilbert Romme Jean Bon Saint-André Jean-Lambert Tallien Pierre Louis Prieur Antoine Christophe Saliceti Hébertists and Enragés Jacques Hébert Jacques-Nicolas Billaud-Varenne Pierre Gaspard Chaumette Charles-Philippe Ronsin Antoine-François Momoro François-Nicolas Vincent François Chabot Jean Baptiste Noël Bouchotte Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Gobel François Hanriot Jacques Roux Stanislas-Marie Maillard Charles-Philippe Ronsin Jean-François Varlet Theophile Leclerc Claire Lacombe Pauline Léon Gracchus Babeuf Sylvain Maréchal Others Figures Charles X Louis XVI Louis XVII Louis XVIII Louis Antoine, Duke of Enghien Louis Henri, Prince of Condé Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé Marie Antoinette Napoléon Bonaparte Lucien Bonaparte Joseph Bonaparte Joseph Fesch Joséphine de Beauharnais Joachim Murat Jean Sylvain Bailly Jacques-Donatien Le Ray Guillaume-Chrétien de Malesherbes Talleyrand Thérésa Tallien Gui-Jean-Baptiste Target Catherine Théot Madame de Lamballe Madame du Barry Louis de Breteuil de Chateaubriand Jean Chouan Loménie de Brienne Charles Alexandre de Calonne Jacques Necker Jean-Jacques Duval d'Eprémesnil List of people associated with the French Revolution Factions Jacobins Cordeliers Panthéon Club Social Club
Influential thinkers Les Lumières Beaumarchais Edmund Burke Anacharsis Cloots Charles-Augustin de Coulomb Pierre Claude François Daunou Diderot Benjamin Franklin Thomas Jefferson Antoine Lavoisier Montesquieu Thomas Paine Jean-Jacques Rousseau Abbé Sieyès Voltaire Mary Wollstonecraft
Cultural impact La Marseillaise Cockade of France Flag of France Liberté, égalité, fraternité Marianne Muscadin Bastille Day Panthéon French Republican calendar Metric system Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen Cult of the Supreme Being Cult of Reason Temple of Reason Sans-culottes Phrygian cap Women in the French Revolution Incroyables and merveilleuses Symbolism in the French Revolution Historiography of the French Revolution Influence of the French Revolution Films

• 1756 births
• 1819 deaths
• People from La Rochelle
• Jacobins
• Thermidorians
• Presidents of the National Convention
• Deputies to the French National Convention
• People on the Committee of Public Safety
• People of the French Revolution
• Regicides of Louis XVI
• French male essayists
• 18th-century French lawyers
• French political writers
• People of the Reign of Terror
• Infectious disease deaths in Haiti
• Deaths from dysentery
• 18th-century French memoirists
• 19th-century French memoirists