The "Courrier de Lyon" case is a famous French criminal case. It occurred during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

. During the night of 27 and 28 April 1796, a mail coach was ambushed outside

Paris Paris () is the capital and 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), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

(commune of

Vert-Saint-Denis Vert-Saint-Denis () is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. Demographics Inhabitants of Vert-Saint-Denis are called ''Verdyonisiens'' in French. See also *Communes of the Seine-et-Marn ...

) by several men who stole a large sum of money (7 million

livres The (; ; abbreviation: ₶.) was one of numerous currencies used in medieval France, and a unit of account (i.e., a monetary unit used in accounting) used in Early Modern France. The 1262 monetary reform established the as 20 , or 80.88 ...

). The stage coach was supposed to go to

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...

from Paris, carrying money for the Army of Italy. Both the driver and the armed guard were brutally killed. A third man on board, travelling under an assumed name, participated in the killing and later vanished. Following investigations, six men (Etienne Couriol, Charles Guénot, Joseph Richard, Antoine Bruer, David Bernard and Joseph Lesurques) were arrested. After a trial, Couriol, Bernard and Lesurques were executed. Before his execution, however, Couriol claimed that Lesurques was innocent and was only arrested because he resembled André Dubosq, one of the actual attackers of the coach. Couriol's last denunciations also helped arrest other accomplices: Joseph Durochat, who travelled aboard the coach as "Laborde"; Pierre Vidal, who came up with the plan to rob the coach; and Louis Roussy, one of the killers. All of them were convicted and executed. Dubosq was also arrested and executed; however, his trial was not enough to overturn the judgement sentencing Lesurques, for all the witnesses who had recognised Lesurques persisted in saying that they had indeed seen Lesurques and not Dubosq. Lesurques' family spent most of the 19th century trying to rehabilitate him; but none of the various committees assembled to re-examine the case found sufficient grounds to clear Lesurques' name.

Gaston Delayen Gaston is a masculine given name of French origin and a surname. The name "Gaston" may refer to: People First name * Gaston I, Count of Foix (1287–1315) *Gaston II, Count of Foix (1308–1343) * Gaston III, Count of Foix (1331–1391) *Gaston ...

, ''L'Affaire du Courrier de Lyon'', 1905, p. 420 Nevertheless, Lesurques is widely believed to be innocent and this case is remembered in France for being a famous example of

miscarriage of justice A miscarriage of justice occurs when a grossly unfair outcome occurs in a criminal or civil proceeding, such as the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime they did not commit. Miscarriages are also known as wrongful convictions. Inno ...

In popular culture

The story was turned into two notable plays, a French version by

Paul Siraudin Pierre-Paul-Désiré Siraudin (18 December 1812 – 8 September 1883) was a French playwright and librettist. He also used the pen names Paul de Siraudin de Sancy, Paul Siraudin de Sancy and M. Malperché. Biography He wrote many plays, mai ...

and Louis-Mathurin Moreau and the 1854 play ''

The Courier of Lyons ''The Courier of Lyons'' is a play by the English writer Charles Reade, which was first performed in 1854. He based it on the 1796 Courrier de Lyon case in Revolutionary France, drawing inspiration from a previous play based on the case by the Fre ...

'' by

Charles Reade Charles Reade (8 June 1814 – 11 April 1884) was a British novelist and dramatist, best known for ''The Cloister and the Hearth''. Life Charles Reade was born at Ipsden, Oxfordshire, to John Reade and Anne Marie Scott-Waring, and had at leas ...

. In 1877 he rewrote the play as ''

The Lyons Mail ''The Lyons Mail'' is a 1931 British historical mystery adventure film directed by Arthur Maude and starring John Martin Harvey, Norah Baring, and Ben Webster. It was based on the 1877 play '' The Lyons Mail'' by Charles Reade which in turn was ...

'' for performance by

Henry Irving Sir Henry Irving (6 February 1838 – 13 October 1905), christened John Henry Brodribb, sometimes known as J. H. Irving, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility ...

at the Lyceum Theatre in London. Numerous film adaptations of these two works have been made. In a 1937 French film ''L'Affaire du courrier de Lyon'' the case is featured. Reade's play was turned into a 1916 silent film ''

'' and a sound version ''

'' in 1931. In an episode in the popular 1960's French comic "Le Tour de Gaule d'Asterix", set in 50 B.C. France, Asterix and Obelix steal a postal service chariot to continue on their journey to Lugdunum, which was the Roman name for Lyon. The Roman driver, tied up in the back, swears his revenge in a thought-bubble, declaring, "I promise you haven't heard the last of the affair of the courrier of Lugdunum!"

References

External links

Histoire de France et d'ailleurs
(in French) * *
Memoirs of the Sansons, from private notes and documents, 1688-1847 / edited by Henry Sanson
Bibliography François Aron - L'affaire du courrier de Lyon, in Bruno Fuligni (ed.), ''Dans les secrets de la police : quatre siècles d'histoire, de crimes et de faits divers dans les archives de la Préfecture de police'' (Paris: L'Iconoclaste, coll. « Mémoires », 2008) ISBN 978-2-91336-620-6 Éric Dagnicourt: ''L'affaire du courrier de Lyon aujourd'hui'' (Quimper: Volum, 2011) Gaston Delayen: ''L'Affaire du courrier de Lyon. D'après les dossiers criminels et des documents inédits'' (Paris: Librairie d'éducation nationale, 1905) Louis Garros - ''Le Dossier de l'affaire du courrier de Lyon'' (Paris: Tallandier, 1987) Gabriel Olivier - ''L'Affaire du courrier de Lyon'' (Paris: Arthaud, 1966) Sir Charles Oman - ''The Lyons Mail'' (London: Methuen & Co., 1945) {{DEFAULTSORT:Courrier De Lyon Case French Revolution Legal history of France