Armand de Kersaint

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Armand de Kersaint

Armand-Guy-Simon de Coëtnempren , comte de Kersaint , short Armand de Kersaint (born July 20, 1742 in Le Havre , France , † under the guillotine on December 4, 1793 in Paris ) was a French naval officer and politician from the département Seine-et-Oise was sent to the National Convention .

Navy career

Kersaint first served voluntarily in the Macnemara squadron before joining the navy in Brest in November 1755. As early as 1757 he was promoted to mate for his bravery in battle. During this period he served on the ship commanded by his father, Guy François de Kersaint. The Intrépide took part in the naval campaigns and the battles off Angola and in the West Indies . He spent the next few years of the Seven Years' War on various ships in the Antilles before returning to France in 1765. As commander of the Lunette , he took part in the campaign against Morocco in 1767 and went back to the Antilles in 1768. There he was appointed lieutenant captain in February 1770 and commanded the Rossignol in Martinique in 1771 .

In the American War of Independence , France sided with the 13 states. Kersaint fought successful battles in the English Channel with his frigate Iphigenie before heading back to the Antilles. Here he took possession of two British frigates and was involved in the operations against the island of Haiti . In the following years he was involved in battles against the British in the Antilles. In 1782 Kersaint succeeded as the commander of a division of five other ships, the siege and capture of the British colonies of Demerara , Essequibo and Berbice in Guyana .

After the peace treaty, he traveled to England to analyze shipbuilding there and to work out suggestions for improvements to the French fleet.

Beginning of the revolution

Despite his aristocratic origins, Kersaint was on the side of the innovators and made proposals to the constitutional assembly to reorganize the navy, but these were not accepted. He also made suggestions for the redesign of Paris by erecting representative buildings for the new institutions of the young republic. This also included the completion of the former Madelaine Church for the Assemblée and a Cirque National on the Marsfeld . This revolutionary architecture was never realized.

In the Assemblée Legislative

In January 1791, Kersaint was appointed administrator of the Seine by the electoral assembly of Paris and at the same time sent as a deputy to the Legislative Assembly to take the seat of a deputy who had resigned. His main concern there was the reorganization of the Navy, which he had already presented to the Constitutional Assembly. He believed that this could only be achieved by reforming all state institutions. Therefore he supported the campaigns against King Louis XVI. and on August 10, 1792, after the assault on the Tuileries , pleaded for the king's deposition. After an inspection tour of the Armée du Center in Soissons , Reims , Sedan and the Ardennes , he took part in one of the last sessions of the Legislative Assembly, in which the establishment of the Bulletin officiel was decided.

In the National Assembly

In September 1792, the Seine-et-Oise department sent Kersaint to the convent . On January 1, 1793 he was appointed Vice-Admiral. He continued to devote himself to naval and national defense issues. He made a report on the English political system and the Royal Navy . On January 4, 1793, he passed a law on the establishment of a Committee for General Defense , of which he himself became a member.

In January 1793, as a Girondist , Kersaint spoke out against the execution of Louis XVI. and for a favor to the people. On January 20, 1793, he gave up his seat in the National Assembly .

Arrest and execution

After the king's death, Kersaint's opposition was reinforced, he turned against the massacres and terror . His justifications for his opposition were directed against the now extremely popular Jean-Paul Marat . Kersaint's political friends tried to protect him by appointing him as Minister of the Navy. However, this failed. On September 22, 1793 he was arrested in Ville-d'Avray near Paris and brought before a revolutionary tribunal. The charges were conspiracy to restore the Bourbon monarchy and insult the National Assembly by giving up a seat. The sentence was on the death penalty. On December 4, 1793, Kersaint was beheaded with the guillotine.

plant

  • German and French : Treatise on public monuments in Paris 1791/92 / Discours sur les monuments publics ; edited, commented and with an afterword by Christine Tauber; Manutius Verlag, Heidelberg 2010 ISBN 978-3-934877-79-5

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ FAZ from September 20, 2010, page 28: Citizens' Temple
personal data
SURNAME Kersaint, Armand de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Coëtnempren de Kersaint, Armand-Guy-Simon de (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French naval officer and politician
DATE OF BIRTH July 20, 1742
PLACE OF BIRTH Le Havre , France
DATE OF DEATH December 4, 1793
Place of death Paris