Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau
Mirabeau was born on the 9 March 1749. His father Victor was an economist who sent him to boarding school and then later he entered military school in Paris. Mirabeau was a larger than life character both in terms of personality and physique despite being disfigured by smallpox as a child he led an intriguing lovelife. Overreaching himself somewhat he conducted a love affair with the lady friend of the Colonel of his regiment. This led to a lettre de cachet being issued against the young lothario and imprisoned in the Île de Ré. On his release he would marry a rich heiress but his debts would continue to mount leading to a divorce and a stay in the country which was punctuated by another stay in prison after he got into a fight with a local gentleman. On his release he would fall in love again and abscond with a young lady. When she and he moved to the United Provinces he was charged with sedition and abduction. He was arrested sent back to France and imprisoned. On his released he would spend some time in England and wrote pamphlets on a wide range of topics. Vergennes French foreign minister believed he could play a role and sent him on mission to the royal court of Prussia. On his return he wrote a controversial expose of the Prussian court which the French authorities sought to censor.
When he heard that the King was to call the Estates General he went to Province. He wanted to stand for the Second Estate however they would not have such a controversial figure. The Third Estate were more than happy to have him as their representative. On arriving at Versailles he became a central figure in the revolution. When the Third Estate sought to amalgamate with the other orders the King sent orders that they should disperse. Mirabeau was heard to say, “ Tell those who sent you here that we stand here by the will of the people and we will leave only by the force of the bayonets.” He played a key role in helping to draft the Declaration of the Rights of Man in August 1789.
Mirabeau sought to form alliances with a wide range of personalities including Necker and Lafayette. He was a key member of the Jacobin Club and gave a series of speeches there on the subject of the abolition of slavery and stated his approval of the nationalisation of church lands. When the royal family was removed from Versailles in October 1789 they turned to Mirabeau. With the aid of financial assistance they won his confidence. He offered advice to the King in the hope that he would be able to further his own career. He urged the King at various points to flee Paris and establish a new Convention away from Paris. The King however would ignore his advice.
In 1791 his health began to deteriorate he pushed on as president of the National Assembly. On the 2nd April 1791 he died. His death was greeted with much mourning and his ashes were interned in the Pantheon in Paris. Alas for his revolutionary reputation a iron chest was found in the Tuileries when the royal family had been arrested. In it was found a series of letters between the royal family and the Comte. His ashes were promptly removed from the Pantheon
Barère on meeting up with the Estates General and seeing Mirabeau and Bailly. Taken from Memoirs of Bertrand Barère Volume 1, H. S. Nichols, London (1896) p208-209
I was very young to form part of the finest assembly ever held in France, so I set myself to listen and observe. Two men attracted my attention more than the others: these were, on the one hand, the Count de Mirabeau, whose reputation as an orator, journalist, and politician was well known to this meeting; the other, M. Bailly, of the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles- Lettres, was eminent for his social virtues, and much more so for his scientific attainments and his works on astronomy and his historic researches on the
Atlantic races. I made every effort to make the acquaintance of these illustrious deputies; my youth and admiration for talent were my claim to their notice. I conversed with Mirabeau whenever I could get near him; his conversation, at once striking, witty, amiable and profound, and always in good taste and good style, attracted to his side all who heard him. M. Bailly was reserved, although full of mildness and good humour; he had, amidst his urbanity and good fellowship, great austerity of principle, perfect rectitude of conduct and great intellectual energy. These opposite characteristics, these diverse qualifications were most valuable points for a young deputy to study. Here I was, so to speak, the satellite of these two planets, in the political perturbations found in the irregular system of the States-General, assembled for a ministerial motive, but lacking any direction towards a national purpose.
Letter VI from the summer of 1790 Helen Maria Williams recounts her visit to the National Assembly and seeing Mirabeau and the slave trade. Taken from Letters Written in France, Broadview Literary Texts, Ormskirk (2002) p83-84
We also saw Mons. Mirabeau, whose genius is of the first class, but who possesses a very small share of popularity. I am, however, one of the partisans, though not merely from that enthusiasm which always comes across my heart in favour of great intellectual abilities. Mons. Mirabeau has another very powerful claim on my partiality; he is the professed friend (and I must and will love him for being so) of the African race. He has proposed the abolition of the slave trade to the National Assembly, and, though the Assembly have delayed the consideration of this subject, on account of those deliberations which immediately affect the country, yet, perhaps, if our senators continue to doze over this affair as they have hitherto done, the French will have the glory of setting us an example, which it will then be our employment to follow.
Madam Campan (one of the Queen’s lady in waiting) on Mirabeau. Taken from Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, Complete Madame Jeanne-Louise-Henriette Campan, Echo Library, Teddington (2007) p156
It was evident, during the first sittings, that Mirabeau would be very dangerous to the Government. It affirmed that at this period he communicated to the King, and still more fully to the Queen, part of his schemes for abandoning them. He brandished the weapons afforded him by his eloquence and audacity, in order to make terms with the party he meant to attack. This man played the game of revolution to make his own fortune. The Queen told me that he had asked for an embassy, and, if my memory does not deceive me, it was that of Constantinople. He was refused with well-deserved contempt, though policy would doubtless have concealed it, could the fortune have been foreseen.
The Marquis de Bouille’s recounts seeing a letter in early 1791 from the King on the subject of Mirabeau. Taken from Memoirs Relating to the French Revolution by the Marquis de Bouille, Cadell and Davies, London (1797) p275-279
In the king's letter was the following passage: "Though these men" (speaking of Mirabeau and some others of the same description,) "are by no means estimable characters, and though I have bought the services of the former at an enormous price, yet I am of the opinion that they can be of some utility to me. Certain parts of their project appear to me worth adopting.”
He (Bouille was speaking to a Comte he does not mention by name) took care to inform me, that Mirabeau had within a short time received from the king - six hundred thousand livres, besides a monthly allowance of fifty thousand livres and that promises to a great extent had been made him, in cafe he should render his majesty any signal services.
Upon this, the count de * * * told me, that the intention of Mirabeau was to procure the dissolution of the assembly, and the liberty of the king, by the force and will of the nation itself establishing this principle, that the representatives of the people, at this assembly, were not possessed of the powers necessary to make a change in the ancient constitution ; such a measure being contrary to the instructions given by all the provinces to the deputies sent by them to the States General, which instructions had neither been altered nor revoked; and that the king, being deprived of his personal liberty, could not invest with his authority the new laws they had enacted. The validity of this objection being admitted, he then intended to procure addresses from the different departments, praying that the present assembly might be dissolved, a new one convoked, with the powers requisite for making such alterations in the constitution as should appear necessary; and that the king should be restored to his liberty, and the enjoyment of a reasonable authority. These addresses were to be supported by the people of Paris, whom Mirabeau seemed to think at his disposal, when he should have removed some of the leading men of the Jacobin faction, whom he had already denounced to the assembly.
Madame Roland on Mirabeau after his death. Taken from The Memoirs of Madame Roland a Heroine of the French Revolution, Barrie & Jenkins, London (1989) p79
I heard- but far too seldom- the astonishing Mirabeau, the only man in the Revolution who had the genius to sway men and to magnetise an Assembly; a great man in his abilities (though he had his faults), he stood head and shoulders above the rest and was the unquestioned master whenever he took the trouble to command. He died soon after. I thought at the time that this was timely for his reputation and for the cause of freedom, but subsequent events have taught me to regret him more. We needed the counterweight of such a man to oppose the depredations of a pack of curs and to save us from the domination of swindlers.
Germaine De Staël on Mirabeau . Taken from Considerations on the Principle events of the French Revolution, Germaine De Staël, Liberty Fund, Indianapolis (2008) p130
Some of the nobles had got themselves elected deputies of the Third Estate, and of those the most conspicuous was the Comte de Mirabeau. The opinion entertained of his talents was remarkably increased by the dread excited by his immortality; yet it was that very immorality that lessened the influence which his surprising abilities ought to have obtained for him. The eye that was once fixed on his countenance was not likely to be soon withdrawn: his immense head of hair distinguished him from amongst the rest, and suggested the idea that, like Samson, his strength depended on it; his countenance derived expression even from its ugliness: and his whole person conveyed the idea of irregular power, but still much power as we should expect to find in a tribune of the people.
Lord Gower British Ambassador on Mirabeau from February 1791. Taken from Witnesses to the Revolution American: American and British Commentators in France 1788-1794, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London (1989) p123
During Mirabeau’s presidency more essential business will have been dispatched by the Assembly than has been done by that body in the space of months before…..
Mirabeau, whose conduct since his presidency and his election as one of the administrators of the department of Paris has been much and deservedly applauded.
Lord Gower British Ambassador on Mirabeau from April 1791. Taken from Witnesses to the Revolution American and British Commentators in France 1788-1794, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London (1989) p123
A man possessing the greatest talents, which, if accompanied by good principles, might have rendered him not only an ornament of the age but the saver of the country.
The Jacobins will no longer be curbed by Mirabeau and the friends of the government will feel the loss of his abilities.
Germaine De Staël on Mirabeau. Taken from Considerations on the Principle events of the French Revolution, Germaine De Staël, Liberty Fund, Indianapolis (2008) p173
One would almost say that in every era of history there are personages who should be considered as the representatives of the good and of the wicked principle. Such, in Rome were Cicero and Catiline; such, in France, were M. Necker and Mirabeau. Mirabeau gifted with the most comprehensive and energetic mind, though himself sufficiently strong to overthrow the government, and to erect on its ruins a system, of some kind or other, that would have been the work of his own hands. This gigantic project was the ruin of France, and the ruin of himself; for he acted at first in the spirit of faction, although his real manner of judging was that of the most reflecting statesman. He was then of the age of forty, and had passed his whole life in lawsuits, abduction of women, and in prisons; he was excluded from good society, and his first wish was to regain his station in it. But he thought it necessary to set on fire the whole social edifice, that the doors of the Paris saloons might be opened to him. Like other immoral men, Mirabeau looked first to his personal interest in public affairs, and his foresight was limited by his egoism.
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!