Jean-Pierre-André Amar

Amar was born in 1755 into a rich family of cloth merchants in Grenoble. He was also a magistrate in the Dauphine and managed to purchase an office which enabled him to be classified as a noble.

He voted in favour of the execution of King Louis XVI.  He proved to be a strident supporter of the revolution first as a Representative on a Mission where he routed out any perceived counter revolutionaries.  He would also become a member of the Committee of General Security where he used his position off power to demand the arrest of forty one Girondins.

In the wake of Marie Antoinette’s execution the Mountain passed a series of laws against women generally. This included the execution of Olympe de Gouges and attacking the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women.  Amar presented a report to the Convention where he stated that women should stay at home looking after children and stay out of politics.

He fully supported the removal of Danton and the Hébertists (particularly as they had attacked him as a rich banker) in 1794.  He was however increasingly concerned with the creeping power of Robespierre particularly as the Committee of Public Safety set up a police force as he viewed this as part of his Committee's jurisdiction.  He was part of the Thermidorian Coup that removed Robespierre.

He was later accused in 1795 of being involved in the excesses of the Terror but was released.  He was also arrested after the Germinal Coup and was imprisoned but was eventually given amnesty.  He was finally arrested alongside Babeuf but the charges were dropped.  He was exiled as an amnestied terrorist from Paris. He retired from public life and immersed himself in the mysticism of the works of Emanuel Swedenborg.