Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois

Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois
20thPresident of the National Convention
In office 19 July 1794 – 3 August 1794
Preceded by	Jean-Antoine Louis
Succeeded by	Philippe-Antoine Merlin
In office 13 June 1793 – 27 June 1793
Preceded by	François René Mallarmé
Succeeded by	Jacques-Alexis Thuriot
Personal details
Born	(1749-06-19)19 June 1749 Paris,France
Died	8 June 1796(1796-06-08)(aged 46) Cayenne,French Guiana
Cause of death	Yellow fever
Citizenship	French
Political party	the Mountain
Parent(s)	Gabriel-Jacques Collot, Jeanne-Agnès Collot née Hannen
Occupation	Actor dramatist essayist revolutionary
Known for	member of theCommittee of Public Safety,execution of more than 2,000 people inLyon
Signature

Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois(French pronunciation:[ʒɑ̃maʁikɔlodɛʁbwa];19 June 1749 – 8 June 1796) was a French actor, dramatist, essayist, andrevolutionary.He was a member of theCommittee of Public Safetyduring theReign of Terrorand, while he savedMadame Tussaudfrom theGuillotine,he administered the execution of more than 2,000 people in the city ofLyon.

Early life

Born inParis,Collot left his home in the rue St. Jacques in his teens to join the travelling theatres of provincial France. His moderately successful career as an actor, supplemented by a vigorous outpouring of works for the stage, took him fromBordeauxin the south ofFrancetoNantesin the west andLillein the north and even into theDutch Republic,where he met his wife.

In 1784 he became director of the theatre inGeneva,Switzerland,and then at the prestigious playhouse atLyonin 1787. At the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789 he dropped everything and returned to Paris, where his lead actor's voice, his writing skills, and his ability to organise and direct large-scalefêtes(civic feasts) were to make him famous.

Activism

Collot contributed to revolutionary agitation from the very beginning, but it was not until 1791 that he became a figure of importance. With the publication ofL'Almanach du Père Gérard,an almanac advocating aconstitutional monarchyin popular terms, he suddenly acquired great popularity.

His fame was soon increased by his involvement on behalf of the Swiss of theChâteau-Vieux Regiment,condemned to thegalleysfor mutiny atNancy.Collot d'Herbois' efforts resulted in their freedom, he went toBrestin search of them, and a civic feast was held on his behalf and theirs, which occasioned a poem byAndré de Chénier.

His opinions became more and moreradicalas the revolution progressed. Collot d'Herbois was a member of theParis Communeduring theinsurrection of 10 August 1792and was subsequently elected deputy for Paris to theNational Convention.On the first day of the Convention, 21 September 1792, he was the first to demand theabolitionof theFrench monarchy.Collot d'Herbois later voted for the death ofLouis XVI"sans sursis"( "without delay" ).

Terror, Thermidor, Deportation and Death

Collot d'Herbois byAuguste Raffet

After the insurrection of August 10 and the establishment of the National Convention, Collot d'Herbois became engaged in the struggle between the two main political parties,the Mountainand theGirondists.AfterFrançois Hanriot'scoup d'étatof31 May 1793and the ousting of the Girondins, he was conspicuous in his attack on the defeated party. Along with his close friendJacques-Nicolas Billaud-Varenne,he sat at theextreme leftof the Convention, attackingspeculatorsand proposingegalitarianprogrammes. In June, he was madePresident of the Convention,and in September he was appointed with Billaud-Varenne to theCommittee of Public Safety,where he was active as a sort ofgeneral secretary.

After having entrusted him with severalmissionstoNice,Nevers,andCompiègne,the Convention sent him, along withJoseph Fouché,on 30 October 1793, to punish therevolt of Lyon.There, he introduced theReign of Terrorin its most violent form, withmass executions,including more than a hundredpriestsandnuns,and began the dismantling of the city itself.His excessive behavior led theCommittee of Public Safetyto have Collot return to Paris as asuspect.

The month of May 1794 sawassassinationattempts on Collot on the 23rd and fellow Committee memberMaximilien Robespierreon the 25th. As Collot was accused of excessive slaughter and destruction, and suspected his own arrest and execution, he opposed Robespierre during theThermidorian Reactionin July 1794 while presiding over the Convention during the initial session. Despite this change of heart, Collot d'Herbois was accused ofcomplicitywith Robespierre, the two having previously been colleagues on the Committee of Public Safety, but wasacquitted.Denounced a second time, he defended himself bypleadingthat he had acted for the Revolution, but, in March 1795, he was condemned withBertrand BarèreandBillaud-VarennetotransportationtoCayenne,French Guiana,where he exerted a brief revolutionary influence before dying ofyellow feverin 1796.

Works

Beginning his literary career in 1772 with the critically acclaimedLucie, ou les Parents imprudentsand finishing in 1792 withL'Aîné et le cadet,Collot was an accomplished, if minor, dramatist in a turbulent period of the French stage.

Before the Revolution, he wrote at least fifteen plays, of which ten survive, includingLucie,an adaptation ofWilliam Shakespeare'sThe Merry Wives of Windsor(titled,M. Rodomont, ou l'Amant loup-garou), and an adaptation ofPedro Calderón de la Barca'sEl Alcalde de Zalamea(titled,Il y a bonne justice, ou le Paysan magistrat), all three of which kept the stage throughout France for over a decade. During the first three years of the Revolution he wrote at least seven more plays, of which six survive, juggling the tearful love themes ofle drame bourgeois(lit. 'the bourgeois drama') with political themes and messages in such plays asL'Inconnu, ou le Préjugé vaincu(lit. 'The Unknown, or Unconquered Prejudice') andSocrate(onSocrates).

In 1791, he wrote the prize-winningL'Almanach du père Gérard(lit. 'The Almanac of Father Gérard'), a fictional account of revolutionarymoralitywhich went on to become the best-seller of the period, establishing his political credentials in the process.

He was also one of the authors of thefirst French republican Constitution,which was written in 1793 but never applied.

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "Collot d'Herbois, Jean Marie".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 694.The 1911Encyclopædia Britannica,in turn, cites as a reference:
• F.A. Aulard,Les Orateurs de la Legislative et de la Convention(Paris, 1885–1886), t. ii. pp. 501–512. The principal documents relative to the trial of Collot d'Herbois, Barère and Billaud-Varenne are indicated in Aulard,Recueil des actes du comité de salut public,t. i. pp. 5 and 6.

Bibliography

• Much recent study has been done on Collot d'Herbois, inAustralia(articles by Paul Mansfield - 'Collot d'Herbois and the Dechristianizers',Journal of Religious History,volume 14, number 4 (December, 1987), pp. 406–18; 'The Repression of Lyon, 1793-4: Origins, Responsibility and Significance',French History,volume 2, number 1 (March, 1988), pp. 74–101; 'Collot d'Herbois at the Committee of Public Safety: a revaluation',English Historical Review,volume 103, number 2 (March, 1988), pp. 565–87; 'The Management of Terror in Montagnard Lyon, Year II',European History Quarterly,volume 20, number 4 (October, 1990), pp. 467–98; 'Collot d'Herbois in the Theatre of the Old Regime: homme de lettres or "poor hack"?',Australian Journal of French Studies,volume 27, number 2 (1990), pp. 107–120; Peter Bruce's "Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois dans son théâtre pré-révolutionnaire"; and in France (Michel BiardCollot d'Herbois. Légendes noires et révolution).
• A more easily obtainable work isR. R. Palmer'sTwelve Who Ruled,which contains a biographical account of the members of the Committee of Public Safety.
• A. KuscinskiDictionnaire des conventionnels(1916)