Charles Jean Marie Barbaroux (; 6 March 1767 – 25 June 1794) was a

Girondin The Girondins (, ), also called Girondists, were a political group during the French Revolution. From 1791 to 1793, the Girondins were active in the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention. Together with the Montagnards, they initiall ...

politician of the Revolutionary period and

Freemason Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

. He was the leader of the Fédérés and popular in the South of France.

Biography

Early career

Born in

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

, Barbaroux was educated at first by the local Oratorians, then studied

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence, or simply Aix, is a List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, city and Communes of France, commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. A former capital of Provence, it is the Subprefectures in France, s ...

, and became a successful

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

. In 1789 he was appointed ''

greffier In some countries using (or formerly using) French as the language of the legal system, a greffier is the clerk to a legislature or to a court. The word greffe refers to the records kept by the greffier or to the department of government under th ...

'' to the commune of Marseille, and in 1792 was commissioned to go to the Legislative Assembly and demand the accusation of the directorate of the ''

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...

'' of

Bouches-du-Rhône Bouches-du-Rhône ( ; , ; ; "the Mouths of the Rhône") is a Departments of France, department in southern France. It borders Vaucluse to the north, Gard to the west and Var (department), Var to the east. The Mediterranean Sea lies to the sout ...

, as accomplices in a

Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of gove ...

movement in

Arles Arles ( , , ; ; Classical ) is a coastal city and Communes of France, commune in the South of France, a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture in the Bouches-du-Rhône Departments of France, department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Reg ...

. In Paris, he was received in the

Jacobin club The Society of the Friends of the Constitution (), renamed the Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality () after 1792 and commonly known as the Jacobin Club () or simply the Jacobins (; ), was the most influential List of polit ...

, and contacted

Jacques Pierre Brissot Jacques Pierre Brissot (, 15 January 1754 – 31 October 1793), also known as Brissot de Warville, was a French journalist, abolitionist, and revolutionary leading the political faction, faction of Girondins (initially called Brissotins) at the ...

and Jean Marie Roland de la Platiere and his wife

Madame Roland Marie-Jeanne "Manon" Roland de la Platière (Paris, March 17, 1754 – Paris, November 8, 1793), born Marie-Jeanne Phlipon, and best known under the name Madame RolandOccasionally, she is referred to as Dame Roland. This however is the except ...

. It was at his instigation that Marseille sent to Paris the battalion of volunteers that arrived in the city singing the '' Marseillaise''. A significant maneuver took place during the night of 4 August 1792 when volunteers from Marseille led by Barbaroux moved into the

Cordeliers Convent There were several Cordeliers Convents (French: ''Couvent des Cordeliers'') in France. ''Cordeliers'' was the name given in France to the Conventual Franciscans. Cordeliers Convent in Paris The Cordeliers Convent in Paris is located 15 rue de l ...

, and contributed to the ''

insurrection of 10 August 1792 The insurrection of 10 August 1792 was a defining event of the French Revolution, when armed revolutionaries in Paris, increasingly in conflict with the French monarchy, stormed the Tuileries Palace. The conflict led France to abolish the mona ...

''. According to Barbaroux, who visited Robespierre early August 1792, his pretty

boudoir A (; ) is a woman's private sitting room or salon in a furnished residence, usually between the dining room and the bedroom, but can also refer to a woman's private bedroom. The term derives from the French verb ''bouder'' (to sulk or pout ...

was full of images of himself in every form and art; a painting, a drawing, a bust, a

relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...

and six physionotraces on the tables.

Convention

Returning to Marseille, he was elected deputy to the

National Convention The National Convention () was the constituent assembly of the Kingdom of France for one day and the French First Republic for its first three years during the French Revolution, following the two-year National Constituent Assembly and the ...

with 775 votes out of 776 cast. He viewed himself as an opponent of

the Montagnards The Mountain () was a political group during the French Revolution. Its members, called the Montagnards (), sat on the highest benches in the National Convention. The term, first used during a session of the Legislative Assembly, came into gen ...

from the first day of sessions. On 25 and 26 September, Barbaroux and the Girondist

Lasource La Source () is a communal section in the Corail Arrondissement, in the Grand'Anse (department), Grand'Anse Departments of Haiti, department of Haiti. It was mentioned in a recent documentary film called The Philosopher Kings (film), ''The Philos ...

accused

Maximilien Robespierre Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (; ; 6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) was a French lawyer and statesman, widely recognised as one of the most influential and controversial figures of the French Revolution. Robespierre ferv ...

of wanting to form a dictatorship. He attacked

Jean-Paul Marat Jean-Paul Marat (, , ; born Jean-Paul Mara; 24 May 1743 – 13 July 1793) was a French political theorist, physician, and scientist. A journalist and politician during the French Revolution, he was a vigorous defender of the ''sans-culottes ...

and the

September Massacres The September Massacres were a series of killings and summary executions of prisoners in Paris that occurred in 1792 from 2 September to 6 September during the French Revolution. Between 1,176 and 1,614 people were killed by ''sans-culottes'' ...

, and proposed to break up the

Commune of Paris The Paris Commune (, ) was a French revolutionary government that seized power in Paris on 18 March 1871 and controlled parts of the city until 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard had defended Par ...

. At the end of the year, he got the ''Act of Accusation'' against the king adopted, and in the trial voted for his

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...

"''without

appeal In law, an appeal is the process in which Legal case, cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of cla ...

and without delay''". He then participated in the Constitution Committee that drafted the

Girondin constitutional project The Girondin constitutional project, presented to the French National Convention on 15 and 16 February 1793 by Nicolas de Caritat, formerly the Marquis de Condorcet, is composed of three parts: * An ''Exposition of the Principles and Motives o ...

. Barbaroux called for fixed salaries and fixed prices for

grain A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached husk, hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and ...

and meat in April 1793. On 29 May 1793, Robespierre attacked Barbaroux. During the final struggle between the

Girondist The Girondins (, ), also called Girondists, were a political group during the French Revolution. From 1791 to 1793, the Girondins were active in the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention. Together with the Montagnards, they initiall ...

s and the Montagnards ( Insurrection of 31 May - 2 June 1793), Barbaroux refused to resign as deputy, and rejected the offer made by the

sans-culottes The (; ) were the working class, common people of the social class in France, lower classes in late 18th-century history of France, France, a great many of whom became radical and militant partisans of the French Revolution in response to their ...

in Paris to give hostages for the arrested representatives. On 2 June Barbaroux was declared as an enemy of the republic by Saint-Juste. He succeeded in escaping, first to

Caen Caen (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune inland from the northwestern coast of France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Calvados (department), Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inha ...

, where he organized the Girondist rebellion, then to

Saint-Émilion Saint-Émilion (; Gascon dialect, Gascon: ''Sent Milion'') is a Communes of France, commune in the Gironde department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in Southwestern France. In the heart of the country of Libournais (the area around Libourne), in a regio ...

, where he wrote his ''Mémoires'' (first published in 1822 by his son, and re-edited in 1866). On 18 June Élie Guadet and Jean-Baptiste Salle were arrested; Pétion de Villeneuve and Francois Buzot succeeded in killing themselves. Barbaroux attempted to shoot himself, but was only wounded. He was taken to Bordeaux, where he was guillotined once his identity was established.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barbaroux, Charles Jean Marie 1767 births 1794 deaths Politicians from Marseille Girondins Deputies to the French National Convention 18th-century French lawyers French Freemasons 18th-century French memoirists Executed regicides of Louis XVI French people executed by guillotine during the French Revolution