Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles
Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles (born September 20, 1759 in Paris , † April 5, 1794 ibid) was an important politician during the French Revolution .
Life
Hérault de Séchelles came from a noble family associated with the Contades and Polignacs . He made his debut as a lawyer in Châtelet . He made some very successful speeches and worked for the Paris Parliament . In addition, he devoted himself to literature, and after 1789 he published an account of a visit to the Comte de Buffon in Montbard . Hérault's subtle irony has been hailed as a masterpiece of interviews before the age of journalism.
An avid supporter of the revolution, Hérault took part in the storming of the Bastille and was appointed judge at the Court of Justice of the first arrondissement in the Paris department on December 8, 1789. From the end of January to April 1791, Hérault was sent on a mission to pacify Alsace . On his return he became commissaire du Roi at the Court of Cassation. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly for Paris . There he came closer and closer to the Montagnards . He was a member of several committees and presented a famous report to the diplomatic committee that the nation was in danger (June 11, 1793).
After the assault on the Tuileries on August 10, 1792, he worked with Georges Danton and was named President of the Legislative Assembly on September 2. He was a member of the Seine-et-Oise department and was entrusted with the task of building the new Mont-Blanc department . During the trial of Louis XVI. if absent he still announced that he endorsed the king's conviction and would likely have voted for the death penalty.
When the new draft constitution prepared by the Marquis de Condorcet was rejected, Hérault de Séchelles, Georges Couthon and Louis Antoine de Saint-Just were entrusted with the task of working out a new draft in April 1793, which was completed by June. This draft constitution was then adopted, but never entered into force.
As a member of the Welfare Committee , Hérault was mainly concerned with diplomacy, and from October to December 1793 he was on a diplomatic and military mission in Alsace. This mission made him suspicious of the other members of the committee. Robespierre in particular , who was a fanatical supporter of Rousseau's ideas , hated Hérault, the supporter of Diderot's naturalism . He was accused of treason and convicted at the same time as Danton after a trial before the Revolutionary Tribunal. He was executed on the 16th Germinal of the year II (April 5th, 1794) .
Texts
- MJ. H. de S .: Reading Aphorisms No. 1, 12, 13, 14 and 20 on the subject of “reading books”. In: Robert Darnton : George Washington's False Teeth, or Again: What Is Enlightenment? Beck, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-406-42367-1 , p. 33 f.
- Hérault de Séchelles: Theory of Ambition . Translated and with an afterword by Henning Ritter. Beck, Munich 1997.
literature
- Hérault de Séchelles, Marie Jean . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 13 : Harmony - Hurstmonceaux . London 1910, p. 333 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).
Web links
- Literature by and about Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles in the catalog of the German National Library
| predecessor | Office | successor |
|---|---|---|
| Jean-François Delacroix |
President of the Legislative Assembly of France September 2, 1792 - September 16, 1792 |
Pierre Joseph Cambon |
|
Élie Guadet Georges Danton |
President of the French National Convention November 1, 1792 - November 15, 1792 August 8, 1793 - August 22, 1793 |
Baptiste Grégoire Maximilien de Robespierre |
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hérault de Séchelles, Marie-Jean |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French politician during the French Revolution |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 20, 1759 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Paris |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 5, 1794 |
| Place of death | Paris |