Jean-Paul Marat=

Jean-Paul Marat was born in Boudry in the Prussian Principality of Neuchâtel, now part of Switzerland, on 24 May 1743.   He was the second of nine children born to Jean Mara a native of Cagliari, Sardinia, and Louise Cabrol, a French Huguenot. His father was a religious refugee who converted to Calvinism in Geneva.

At the age of sixteen Marat left home.  He would eventually study medicine in Paris although he received no formal qualifications.  He spent some time in London where he wrote a series of philosophical treatises on the rights of man such as Chains of Slavery.  He also studied at the University of St Andrews where he was awarded a doctorate on the basis of a paper he wrote on gonorrhoea.  There are numerous tall tales of Marat in Britain such as being a librarian in Bristol before getting in debt and being thrown in prison. Or there is a story of him being undermaster at Warrington Academy alongside the chemist and political theorist Joseph Priestley.  Some even suggest he spent time in Oxford and was arrested there for stealing from the Ashmolean museum.  These stories have little evidence to support them.

Upon returning to Paris his medical reputation increased to the point where he was hired as the physician to the bodyguard of the comte d’Artois Louis XVI’s young brother. It was during this time that he: met Benjamin Franklin, published works on electricity and light and had his scientific researches not approved for official publication by the Academie des Sciences.  He also wrote on his plans to reform the judicial system by creating a twelve man jury system and having a common death penalty regardless of social class.  

After 1788 he would move away from science and medicine and focus instead on politics.  He published the Offering to the Nation where he suggested a possible constitution for the country.  He was also at pains to point out that the English system of government was far from ideal.  On the 12th September 1789 he created his own newspaper L’Ami du people (“Friend of the People”)  He was forced to flee the country and return to London after a series of attacks on La Fayette made it likely that he was about to be arrested.  In London he persisted in his attacks on the government with a paper called the Denunciation of Jacques Necker (the finance minister at the time).  In May 1790 he was to return to Paris to continue his attacks on the government and later to accuse the Girondins of plunging France into a reckless and unnecessary war.

He lived a perilous existence at one time taking to the Parisian sewers to escape the attentions of his detractors.  It is possibly here that he aggravated the unknown skin disease that was to blight him for the rest of his life.  It was during this time that he married the 26 year old Simonne Evrard.

In the wake of the assault on the 10th of August Marat issued his Address to the Brave Parisians where he suggested they might like to appoint Danton, Robespierre and himself to rule as a Triumvirate, this was not taken up by the people of Paris. He had called for the elimination of the enemies of the Revolution but it appears he did not have a direct hand in the September Massacres although he did co sign a document justifying the violence.  He was elected to the National Convention  in September 1792 as one of the deputies of Paris.  When France was formally declared a Republic he changed the name of his paper to Le Journal De La République Française (Journal of the French Republic).  He spoke in favour of the execution of the King.

From January 1793 till May Marat launched a series of scathing attacks on the Girondins demanding the use of more and more violent acts against them.  The Girondins called for his arrest and on the 24th April he was brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal on charges of calling for murder and the suspension of the Convention.  Much to the delight of a huge crowd Marat was found not guilty of all accusations.

Due to increasing poor health he became an increasingly peripheral figure having to spend most of his time in a medicinal bath for his worsening skin condition.  It was in his copper bath tub that Charlotte Corday was to find him on the 13th July.  Corday came from Caen and claimed to have vital information as to escapee Girondins.  Marat quizzed her for fifteen minutes writing down the names she supplied him.  He apparently stated “their heads will fall within a fortnight,” at this point Corday plunged a 5 inch kitchen knife into his chest.  Marat died supposedly uttering his last words to his wife Simmone “Aidez-moi, ma chere amie,” (“help me, my dear friend”).   Corday had sympathises with the Girondins and had been disgusted by what she saw as the murderous excesses of Marat and the Montagnards.  She claimed during her four day trial, “I killed one man to save 100,000.”

This turned out not be the case as Marat’s assassination led to increase paranoia and a slew of accusations flying between the political factions.  Her murder of Marat led to the acceleration of the terror as more Girondins, Royalists and non believers in the revolution were guillotined.  Marat was turned into a martyr and his death was immortalised in Jacque-Louis David’s painting the Death of Marat.  Marat’s remains were laid to rest in a garden of the former Cordeliers Club with the Marquis De Sade giving the eulogy.  A man whom Marat was trying to have arrested just before he was murdered.

Jean Paul Marat explains his role in the storming of the Bastille in his publication Friend of the People.  Taken from Jean Paul Marat: The People’s Friend by Ernest Belfort Bax, Grant Richards, London (1901) p91-92

At nightfall on the 14th of July, I circumvented the project of surprising Paris by introducing into the city by a ruse several regiments of dragoons and of German cavalry, of which a large detachment had been already received with acclamation. It had just reconnoitred the quartier St. Honore and was about to reconnoitre the quartier St. Germain, when I encountered it on the Pont Neuf, where it was halting to allow the officer in charge to harangue the multitude. The orator's tone appeared to me suspicious. He announced as a piece of good news the speedy arrival of all the dragoons, all the hussars, and the royal German cavalry, who were about to unite themselves with the citizens in order to fight by their side. Such an obvious trap was not calculated to succeed. Although the speaker obtained for himself the applause of a large crowd in all the quarters where he had announced his information, I did not hesitate for an instant to regard him as a traitor. I sprang from the pavement and dashed through the crowd up to the horses' heads. I stopped his triumphal progress by summoning him to dismount his troop and to surrender their arms, to be received again later on at the country's hands. His silence left no doubt in my mind. I pressed the commandant of the city guard, who was conducting these horsemen, to assure himself of them. He called me a visionary; I called him a fool, and seeing no other means of circumventing their project, I denounced them to the public as traitors who had come to strangle us in the night. The alarm I caused by my lusty cries had its effect on the commandant, and my threatening him with denunciation decided him. He made the horsemen turn back and took them to the municipality, where they were requested to lay down their arms. On their refusing, they were sent back to their camp with a strong escort.

Jean Paul Marat reports on the royal family being moved to Paris in the wake of the events of the 5th to the 6th October 1789 in his publication Friend of the People.  Taken from Jean Paul Marat: The People’s Friend by Ernest Belfort Bax, Grant Richards, London (1901) p107

The King, Queen, and Dauphin arrived in the capital about seven o'clock last night. It is indeed a festival for the good Parisians to possess their King. His presence will promptly change the face of things: the poor people will no longer die of hunger; but this benefit will soon vanish like a dream if we do not fix the Royal family in our midst until the complete consecration of the Constitution. The ' People's Friend ' shares in the joy of his dear fellow- citizens, but he will not give himself over to sleep.

Eyewitness Galart de Montjoie reports on seeing one of the early arrests of Marat.  Taken from Jean Paul Marat: The People’s Friend by Ernest Belfort Bax, Grant Richards, London (1901) p128

Lafayette marched against Marat an army of six thousand men, and posted them at the opening of every street ; abutting on the house were two pieces of artillery. This was so extraordinary that, had I not been a witness of it myself, I should never have believed it. Conceive indeed this ' hero of two worlds ' deploying forces so formidable against a crank whose only arm was his pen.

Jean Paul Marat reports on  hearing of the death of Mirabeau in his publication Friend of the People.  Taken from Jean Paul Marat: The People’s Friend by Ernest Belfort Bax, Grant Richards, London (1901) p155-156

People, give thanks to the gods! Your most redoubtable enemy has fallen beneath the scythe of Fate. Riquetti (Mirabeau) is no more; he dies victim of his numerous treasons, victim of his too tardy scruples, victim of the barbarous foresight of his atrocious accomplices. . . . Adroit rogue?, to be found in all circles, have sought to play upon your pity, and already duped with their "false discourse, you regret this traitor as the most zealous of your defenders; they have represented his death as a public calamity, and you bevail him as a hero, who has sacrificed himself for you, and as the saviour of your country. Will you always be deaf to the voice of prudence; will you always sacrifice public affairs to your blindness? The life of Riquetti was stained by a thousand crimes ; let a black veil henceforward cover the shameful fabric, since it cm no longer injure you, and let the recital scandalise the living no more ! But beware of prostituting your incense; keep your tears for your honest champions; remember that he was one of the born lacqueys of the despot ; that he only found fault with the Court in order to gain you- suffrages ; that he was scarcely elected to the States-General to defend your interests before he sold your most sacred rights ; that after th6 fall of the Bastille he showed himself the most ardent supporter of despotism ; that he abused a hundred times his talents to put again into the monarch's hands all the forces of authority ; that it is to him you owe all the fatal decrees that have placed you again under the yoke and that have riveted your irons : the decrees concerning martial law, the suspensive veto, the independence of the delegates of the nation, the silver mark, the supreme executive power, the congratulations of the assassins of Metz, the monopoly of the currency by small assignats^ the permission to emigrate accorded to the conspirators, etc!

Marat on the King being brought back after his failed flight from Paris in 1791.  Taken from Jean Paul Marat: The People’s Friend by Ernest Belfort Bax, Grant Richards (1901) p157-158

Behold him brought once again within our walls, this crowned brigand, perjurer, traitor, and conspirator, without honour and without soul! In the very midst of the procession which led him prisoner, he seemed insensible to the infamy of being dragged in a chariot filled with the criminal accomplices of his misdeeds, to the infamy of being exposed to the eyes of a countless number of his fellow-citizens, formerly his slaves. Any other would have died of sorrow and shame, but he only understands animal sufferings. The whole time that he was in the hands of the soldiers of the country, he did not cease to entreat them to do him no harm, and he thought of nothing but of begging them for food, and above all for drink.

Marat on debate concerning the declaration of war.  Taken from Jean Paul Marat: The People’s Friend by Ernest Belfort Bax, Grant Richards, London (1901) p173-174

"The war, will it take place? Everybody is for it. We are assured that it is the opinion that has prevailed in the Cabinet, after the representations of Sieur Mottier (Gilbert Mottier, Marquis de Lafayette), who without doubt has given it as the only way of distracting the nation from internal matters by occupying it with foreign affairs ; making it drown home troubles in the news of the gazettes, wasting the national wealth in military preparations, crushing the State under the burden of taxes, killing the patriots of the army of the line and of the citizen army, leading them to slaughter under the pretext of defending the frontiers of the empire.  If the war takes place, whatever may be the bravery of the defenders of liberty, one need not be an eagle to foresee that our armies will be overwhelmed in the first campaign. I imagine that the second will be less disastrous, and that the third may even be glorious, for it is impossible that we should not gain some instruction at our own cost.

Marat on the September massacres in his Friend of the People publication.  Taken from Jean Paul Marat: The People’s Friend by Ernest Belfort Bax, Grant Richards (1901) p205-206

What is the duty of the people? The last thing it has to do, and the safest and wisest, is to present itself in arms before the Abbaye, snatch out the traitors, especially the Swiss officers and their accomplices, and put them to the sword. What folly to wish to give them a trial! It is all done: you have taken them in arms against the country, you have massacred the soldiers, why would you spare their officers, incomparably more culpable? The folly is to have listened to the smooth-talkers, who counselled to make of them only prisoners of war. They are traitors whom it is necessary to sacrifice immediately, since they can never be considered in any other light.

Letters from Helen Maria Williams detailing her thoughts on the September Massacres.  Taken from Letters Written in France, Broadview Literary Texts, Ormskirk (2002) p160

At the head of this band of conspirators is Robespierre- gloomy and saturnine in his disposition, with a countenance of such dark aspect as seems the index of no ordinary guilt-fanatical and exaggerated in his avowed principles of liberty, possessing that species of eloquence which gives him power over the passions, and that cool determined temper which regulates the most ferocious designs with the most calm and temperate prudence.  His crimes do not appear to be the result of passion, but of some deep and extraordinary malignity, and he seems formed to subvert and to destroy.  “One next to him in power, and next in crime,” is Danton, who, though not inferior to his associate in vice, and superior in ability, having less self command, is consequently less dangerous.-This man, at the period of the massacres, was Minister of Justice, and, being conjured to exert his authority in putting a stop to these horrors, coolly answered, “Quand le people ont exerce leurs droits, je reprendrai les miennes” (When the people have exerted their rights, I will resume mine).

Marat, though sometimes spoken of as one of the leaders of this faction, is in reality only one of its instruments…….

This triumvirate, resembling the celebrated triumvirate of Rome in everything that bears the marks of baseness and of crimes, had associated in their guilt a number of lesser chiefs, who in their turn had enlisted others as instruments of the same horrid purpose….

Barère on Marat.  Taken from Memoirs of Bertrand Barère Volume 2, H. S. Nichols, London (1896) p69

Marat was a former horse doctor of M. d'Artois. Everyone distrusted his patriotic zeal, which was attributed to other causes, and thought that his revolu- tionary follies were paid for by the enemy. There are men whose natures can only be explained by venality, and acts whose prime cause can only be discerned in the factions, either at home or abroad, which set in motion things and persons apparently the most contrary and opposed.

Marat on the need to execute the King.  Taken from Jean Paul Marat: The People’s Friend by Ernest Belfort Bax, Grant Richards, London (1901) p246

In the firm conviction that Louis is the principal author of the crimes which caused the blood of the loth of August to flow, and of all the massacres which have stained France since the Revolution, I vote for the death of the tyrant within the twenty-four hours.

Marat condemns high prices and condones people taking actions into their own hands.  Taken from Jean Paul Marat: The People’s Friend by Ernest Belfort Bax, Grant Richards, London (1901) p250

It is incontestable that the capitalists, agents, and monopolisers are nearly all supporters of the Ancien Regime, as I see no chance of changing their hearts, I see nothing that can give tranquillity to the State but the total destruction of this accursed conspiracy. Today it redoubles its energies to distress the people by the exorbitant price of bread, the first necessary of life. Since there is no law to punish monopolisers, the people has a right to take justice into its own hands.

Marat on his actions which led to the arrest of the Girondins.  Taken from Jean Paul Marat: The People’s Friend by Ernest Belfort Bax, Grant Richards, London (1901) p279-280

I left the Assembly to deliberate on several important matters with the Committee of General Security, believing that no measures would be carried in the Convention. From there I went to the house of a citizen, to obtain information respecting some aristocratic leaders of the Section Buttes des Moulins. On my return, I discover a great crowd in the Rue Saint Nicaire; I am recognised and followed by the crowd. From all sides resound cries against the Mountain's want of energy. From all sides I hear demanded the arrest of traitor-deputies and intriguers. From all sides shouts of 'Marat, save us!' Arrived at the Carrousel, I observe multitudes of citizens in arms. The crowd increases, always repeating the same cry. I entreat the people not to follow me: I enter the Tuileries and then the pavilion of the Committee of General Security to be quit of them.

Letters from Helen Maria Williams on murder of Marat by Charlotte Corday.  Taken from Letters Written in France, Broadview Literary Texts, Ormskirk (2002) p170-172

After this first preacher of blood had performed the part allotted to him in the plan of evil, he was confirmed to his chamber by a lingering disease to which he was subject, and of which he would probably soon have died.  But he was assassinated in his bath by a young woman who had travelled with this intention from Caen in Normandy.  Charlotte Anne Marie Corday was a native of St. Saturnin……

She was immediately apprehended, and conducted to the Abbaye prison, from which she was transferred to the Conciergerie, and brought before the revolutionary tribunal.

She acknowledged the deed, and justified it by asserting that it was a duty she owed her country and mankind to rid the world of a monster whose sanguinary doctrines were framed to involve the country in anarchy and civil war, and asserted her right to put Marat to death as a convict already condemned by the public opinion.  She trusted that her example would inspire the people with that energy which had been at all times the distinguished characteristic of republicans; and which she defined to be that devotedness to our country which renders life of little comparative estimation….

Her deportment during the trial was modest and dignified.  There was so engaging a softness in her countenance, that it was difficult to conceive how she could have armed herself with sufficient intrepidity to execute the deed.  Her answer to the interrogatories of the court were full of point and energy.  She sometimes surprised the audience by her wit, and excited their admiration by her eloquence………..

It is difficult to conceive the kind of heroism which she displayed in the way to execution.  The woman were called furies of the guillotine, and who had assembled to insult her on leaving the prison, were awed into silence by her demeanour, while some of the spectators uncovered their heads before her, and others gave loud tokens of applause.  There was such an air of chastened exultation thrown over her countenance, that she inspired sentiments of love rather than sensations of pity.  She ascended the scaffold with undaunted firmness, and, knowing that she only had to die, was resolved to die with dignity.