Antoine Claire, Comte Thibaudeau (23 March 17658 March 1854) was a French politician.

Early life

He was the son of Antoine de Thibaudeau (1739–1813), who was a lawyer of Poitiers and a deputy to the

Estates-General of 1789 The Estates General of 1789 was a general assembly representing the French estates of the realm: the clergy (First Estate), the nobility (Second Estate), and the commoners (Third Estate). It was the last of the Estates General of the Kingdom o ...

. He was admitted to the bar in 1787, and in 1789 accompanied his father to the Estates-General at

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, ...

. When he returned to Poitiers in October he immediately set up a local revolutionary club, and in 1792 was returned as a deputy to the

National Convention The National Convention (french: link=no, Convention nationale) was the parliament of the Kingdom of France for one day and the French First Republic for the rest of its existence during the French Revolution, following the two-year Nationa ...

Career

Thibaudeau joined the party of the Mountain and voted for the death of

Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...

unconditionally. Nevertheless, he incurred a certain amount of suspicion because he declined to join the Jacobin Club. In May 1793 he was on a special mission in the west and prevented his ''

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. Ninety ...

'' from joining the Federalist movement. Thibaudeau occupied himself more particularly with educational business, notably in the organization of the museum of the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

. It was he who secured the inclusion of

Tom Paine Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...

's name in the amnesty of

Girondist The Girondins ( , ), or Girondists, were members of a loosely knit political faction during the French Revolution. From 1791 to 1793, the Girondins were active in the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention. Together with the Montagnard ...

deputies. Secretary and then president of the Convention for a short period, he served on the Committee of Public Safety and of General Security. After the royalist insurrection of 13 Vendémiaire (5 October 1795) he opposed those

Thermidor Thermidor () was the eleventh month in the French Republican Calendar. The month was named after the French word ''thermal'', derived from the Greek word "thermos" (''heat''). Thermidor was the second month of the summer quarter (''mois d'ét� ...

ians who wished to postpone the dissolution of the Convention. At the elections for the ''

Corps Législatif The was a part of the French legislature during the French Revolution and beyond. It is also the generic French term used to refer to any legislative body. History The Constitution of the Year I foresaw the need for a ''corps législatif''. ...

'' he was elected by no less than thirty-two ''départements''. It was only by the intervention of Boulay de la Meurthe that he escaped transportation after the '' coup d'etat'' of 18 Fructidor (4 September 1797), and he then returned to the practice of his profession. The establishment of the

Consulate A consulate is the office of a consul. A type of diplomatic mission, it is usually subordinate to the state's main representation in the capital of that foreign country (host state), usually an embassy (or, only between two Commonwealth c ...

brought him back to public life. He was made prefect of the Gironde, and then member of the council of state, in which capacity he worked on the civil code. He at this time had

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

's confidence, and gave him wholehearted support. He did not entirely conceal his disapproval of the foundation of the

Légion d'Honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

, of the

Concordat A concordat is a convention between the Holy See and a sovereign state that defines the relationship between the Catholic Church and the state in matters that concern both,René Metz, ''What is Canon Law?'' (New York: Hawthorn Books, 1960 st Edi ...

and of Napoleon's acceptance of the Consulate for life, and his appointment as prefect of the

Bouches-du-Rhône Bouches-du-Rhône ( , , ; oc, Bocas de Ròse ; "Mouths of the Rhône") is a department in Southern France. It borders Vaucluse to the north, Gard to the west and Var to the east. The Mediterranean Sea lies to the south. Its prefecture and ...

, with consequent banishment from

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, was a semi-disgrace.

Exile

A peer of the Hundred Days, he fled at the

second Restoration The Bourbon Restoration was the period of French history during which the House of Bourbon returned to power after the first fall of Napoleon on 3 May 1814. Briefly interrupted by the Hundred Days War in 1815, the Restoration lasted until the J ...

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR ...

. During his exile he lived in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

Augsburg Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ...

and

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, occupying himself with his ''Mémoires sur la Convention et le Directoire'' (Paris, 2 vols., 1824); ''Mémoires sur le Consulat: par un ancien conseiller d'état'' (Paris, 1827); ''Histoire générale de Napoléon Bonaparte'' (6 vols., Paris and Stuttgart, 1827–28, vol. iii. not printed); ''Le Consulat et l'Empire'', vol. i. of which is identical with vol. vi. of the ''Histoire de Napoléon'' (10 vols., 1834). The revolution of 1830 permitted his return to France, and he lived to become a member of the Imperial Senate under the

Second Empire Second Empire may refer to: * Second British Empire, used by some historians to describe the British Empire after 1783 * Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) * Second French Empire (1852–1870) ** Second Empire architecture, an architectural styl ...

Death

He died in Paris on 8 March 1854 in his eighty-ninth year, being the last living member of the National Convention during the French Revolution to vote in the trial of Louis XVI.

Works

The special value of Thibaudeau's works arises from the fact that he wrote only of those events of which he had personal knowledge, and that he quotes with great accuracy Napoleon's actual words. His ''Mémoires sur le Consulat'' has been translated into English, with introduction and necessary notes, by G. K. Fortescue with the title of ''Bonaparte and the Consulate'' (1908). Among the papers left by Thibaudeau were documents entitled ''Ma Biographie'' and ''Mémoires avant ma nomination à la Convention''. These were published in a small volume (Paris and Niort, 1875) which includes a list of his works and of the narrative of his life.

References

Attribution: * {{DEFAULTSORT:Thibaudeau, Clair Antoine, Comte 1765 births 1854 deaths Peace commissioners of the French Provisional Government of 1815 People from Poitiers People on the Committee of Public Safety Prefects of Bouches-du-Rhône Prefects of France Prefects of Gironde Presidents of the National Convention Regicides of Louis XVI