François Nicolas Léonard Buzot

Buzot was born in 1760 in Évreux where he became a lawyer.  In 1789 he became an elected deputy of the Estates General and then the  National Constituent Assembly where he supported the nationalisation of church land.  When this was dissolved he returned to  Évreux where he was named president of the criminal tribunal.  During his time as president he dealt with numerous food riots he was considered a reasonably understanding and at times lenient.

He campaigned vigorously for election to the National Convention where he became a member of the Girondins.  He became a close associate of Madame Roland.  He became increasingly concerned with the instability of Paris and its wider impact on the country.  He wanted to place a National Guard battalion drawn from across France to defend the Convention from the attention of the sans culottes. It was during this time period that he also railed against Marat.

Buzot did vote in favour of the execution of King Louis XVI but wished to have a nation wide referendum for the people to decide.  He thought that it would be wise to send all the Royals of France into exile.  He was not so tolerant of the Royalist émigrés who he wished to have a death sentence issued on them in absentia.  He also believed that capital punishment should be issued against anyone who wished for a restoration of the monarchy.  

Buzot was a firm opponent of the growth of executive power when he voted against the Committee of Public Safety and the Revolutionary Tribunal. He was still concerned with the state of Paris creating nation wide instability and sought for it to be split into four autonomous municipalities to lessen its impact.

On the 2nd of Jun 1793 when the Girondins were excluded from the Convention he fled to  Évreux and then onto Caen where he organised an unsuccessful rising in the Calvados.  When the revolt was defeated he was declared an outlaw and fled to the Gironde.  The Jacobins out of revenge burnt down his house at Évreux.  In hiding he was able to write his memoirs.  When he realised that he was being hunted down he committed suicide.

Madame Roland praises the Girondin Buzot.  Taken from The Memoirs of Madame Roland a Heroine of the French Revolution, Barrie & Jenkins, London (1989) p76

Although he is still young, the maturity of his judgement and the probity of his conduct earned him the admiration and confidence of fellow citizens.  He justified both by his devotion to the truth and by the firmness and perseverance with which he spoke it.  Second-rate men, who depreciate anything that they cannot obtain themselves, called his foresight dreaming, his warmth passion, his powerful thoughts diatribes, his opposition to all forms of excess disrespect for majority opposition.  He was accused of royalism because he believed that morality is necessary in a republic and should be upheld; of slandering Paris because he abhorred the September massacres; of aristocracy because he wanted the people to be allowed to exercise their sovereignty in the trial of Louis XVI, and of federalism because he called for equality between all the departments of France and spoke against the municipal tyranny of the usurping Paris Commune.