Charles-Gilbert Romme (26 March 1750 – 17 June 1795) was a French
politician
A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...
and
mathematician
A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...
Puy-de-Dôme
Puy-de-Dôme (; or ''lo Puèi Domat'') is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in the centre of France. In 2021, it had a population of 662,285.Auvergne region of France, where he received an education in medicine and mathematics. After spending five years in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, he went to
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
to become the tutor of
Pavel Alexandrovich Stroganov
Count Pavel Alexandrovich Stroganov (; 18 June 1774 – 22 June 1817) was a Russian military commander and statesman, Lieutenant General, Adjutant General to Alexander I of Russia. He took part in the Privy Committee that outlined Government refor ...
. He returned to Paris in 1788 and entered political life.
He was a member of the Masonic lodge,
Les Neuf Sœurs
La Loge des Neuf Sœurs (; The Nine Sisters), established in Paris in 1734, was a prominent French Masonic Lodge of the Grand Orient de France that was influential in organising French support for the American Revolution. A "Société des Neuf S ...
.
Elected on 10 September 1791 to the Legislative Assembly, Romme aligned himself with the Girondists, but after his election 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 ...
on 6 September 1792, he sided with the Montagnards.
He voted in favour of the death sentence for
Louis XVI
Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir- ...
. Later, in the events leading up to the
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror (French: ''La Terreur'', literally "The Terror") was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the French First Republic, First Republic, a series of massacres and Capital punishment in France, nu ...
, he was arrested by Girondist supporters and was imprisoned in
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 ...
for two months.
During his tenure in National Convention, Romme served in the (''Comité de l’instruction Publique''), where he presented his report on the republican calendar on 17 September 1793 and then developed an agricultural almanac based on the new calendar. Aware of their military importance, he was also an early supporter of semaphore telegraphs. He served as president of the Convention from 21 November to 6 December 1793.
Because he was on an assignment to organise gun production for the navy, he had no hand in the coup of
9 Thermidor
Maximilien Robespierre addressed the National Convention on 26 July 1794, was arrested the next day, and executed on 28 July. In his speech on 26 July, Robespierre spoke of the existence of internal enemies, conspirators, and calumniators, with ...
''an II'' (27 July 1794), which resulted in the fall of the
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 fer ...
(and ultimately led to the return of the Girondists).
When rioting
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 ...
, demanding bread and the Jacobin constitution, violently occupied the Convention on 1 Prairial ''an III'' (20 May 1795), Romme supported their demands. This insurrection was quickly put down however, and he and other Montagnards were arrested. While waiting for their trial, the defendants agreed to commit suicide in case of a death sentence.
On 29 Prairial (17 June), Paris, France, Romme and five others were sentenced to the
guillotine
A guillotine ( ) is an apparatus designed for effectively carrying out executions by Decapitation, beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secur ...
. With a knife hidden by Jean-Marie Goujon, he stabbed himself repeatedly while on the staircase leading from the courtroom, and died — his last words are reported to have been "I die for the republic".
In ''Romme le Montagnard'' (1833), Marc de Vissac described Romme as a small, awkward and clumsy man with an ill complexion and a dull orator but also as possessing a pleasant and instructive style of conversation.