Joseph Chalier (1747–1793) was a French lawyer and revolutionary politician who was active in

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

. Chalier was born in

Beaulard Beaulard is a frazione of the comune of Oulx, Metropolitan City of Turin, Piedmont, Italy. It had been a separate commune before 1928. It has a railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using whe ...

Susa Valley The Susa Valley (; ; ; ; ) is a valley in the Metropolitan City of Turin, Piedmont region of northern Italy, located between the Graian Alps in the north and the Cottian Alps in the south. It is one of the longest valleys of the Italian Alps. ...

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

. As a young man, Chalier's family hoped he would take a career in the church. But instead he became a partner in a law firm in

. Because of his job with the firm, he traveled to

Levant The Levant ( ) is the subregion that borders the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west, and forms the core of West Asia and the political term, Middle East, ''Middle East''. In its narrowest sense, which is in use toda ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

and

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

. While living 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 ...

in 1789, he became acquainted with Marat,

Camille Desmoulins Lucie-Simplice-Camille-Benoît Desmoulins (; 2 March 17605 April 1794) was a French journalist, politician and a prominent figure of the French Revolution. He is best known for playing an instrumental role in the events that led to the Stormin ...

and

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 ...

. After returning to Lyon, Chalier was the first person to be named as a member of the municipal bureau. While in this position he organized the national guard, applied the

Civil Constitution of the Clergy The Civil Constitution of the Clergy () was a law passed on 12 July 1790 during the French Revolution, that sought the Caesaropapism, complete control over the Catholic Church in France by the National Constituent Assembly (France), French gove ...

, and engineered the finances of the city so that the rich were heavily

tax A tax is a mandatory financial charge or levy imposed on an individual or legal entity by a governmental organization to support government spending and public expenditures collectively or to regulate and reduce negative externalities. Tax co ...

ed and the poor relatively spared. For making a nocturnal domiciliary perquisition, Chalier was denounced in front of the Legislative Assembly by 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 ...

Rhône-et-Loire Rhône-et-Loire was the short-lived department of France whose prefecture (capital) was Lyon. Its name takes into the two rivers which flow through the department: Rhône and Loire. Created on 4 March 1790, like the other French departments, Rh ...

. However, the Assembly's bar did not disapprove of his conduct. Chalier later ran for mayor of Lyon in November 1792, but lost to the

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 ...

opposition. Soon after, Chalier became the leader of the

Jacobins 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 ...

of Lyon, a move which ultimately led to his demise. Working with other revolutionary clubs and communes in the city, he led the Jacobins to arrest a great number of Royalists during the nights of the 5th and 6 February 1793. This brought him into direct conflict with the mayor of Lyons, who had the support of the National Guard. Undeterred, Chalier demanded of the Convention an establishment of a revolutionary tribunal and a revolutionary army stationed in Lyon. The Convention refused and the anti-revolutionary party took action. On the 29th and 30 May 1793, the different sections rose against him. The Jacobins were dispossessed of the municipality and Chalier was arrested. On the 15th of July, he was brought before the criminal tribunal of the Rhône-et-Loire, which condemned him to death. He was

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 ...

d the next day in Lyon. Soon after, the revolutionary forces during the "reign of terror" held his memory in high esteem, as a martyr for Liberty.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chalier, Joseph 1747 births 1793 deaths People from Oulx French people executed by guillotine during the French Revolution Jacobins People from the Lyonnais