Charles Philippe Ronsin

Charles Philippe Ronsin

Charles Philippe Henri Ronsin (* 1. December 1751 in Soissons , Aisne , † 24. March 1794 in Paris ) was a politician during the French Revolution , which in the autumn of 1793 until his arrest in March 1794 of the leading " Hébertists " counted .

Life

Charles Philippe Ronsin served in the Aunis Regiment from 1768 to 1772. He left the army with the rank of corporal and went to Paris to work as an actor. The son of a wealthy cooper became a well-known artist in Paris, who also wrote plays, some of which were only played in Parisian theaters during the Revolution, and who was one of the close friends of the famous painter Jacques-Louis David .

Ronsin advocated the outbreak of the revolution and from July 1789 served with the rank of captain in the national guard of the Paris district of Saint-Roch. He became politically active, was one of the first members of the Cordeliers Club in 1790 and joined the supporters of Jacques-René Héberts . Soon he was considered one of the most militant sans-culottes , who made a name for himself as a particularly radical critic of the church and who, after the failed flight of the king in June 1791, was deposed of Louis XVI. as well as the proclamation of the republic demanded.

Ronsin worked since November 1792 as commissioner of the Provisional Executive Council for the troops in the northern region. The Minister of War Jean-Nicolas Pache also sent him to Belgium to supervise the commander-in-chief of the French revolutionary troops, General Charles-François Dumouriez .

The dutiful and reliable revolutionary headed a department of the War Ministry from the end of April 1793, whose tasks included the supervision of the officers and the military coordination of the war of extermination in the Vendée . In the summer of 1793, Ronsin personally commanded some revolutionary units against the rebellious peasants and, through the protection of the new War Minister Bouchotte, achieved the rank of brigadier general. However, the clout of the revolutionary troops was severely impaired by internal disputes between the sans-culottes generals Jean Antoine Rossignol and Ronsin and the veteran officers. In early 1794, Ronsin recommended the systematic depopulation of the Vendée. The rebels were to be deported and replaced by newly settled supporters of the republic.

Charles Philippe Ronsin was given the command of the newly formed Parisian Revolutionary Army in September 1793 on the proposal of his friend Jacques-Louis David, who had risen to become an influential member of the Security Committee . The Paris Revolutionary Army was only created to enforce the reign of terror in the provinces and Ronsin was ordered to lead the hastily raised troops immediately to Lyon . The ultra-revolutionary politician was then jointly responsible for the draconian punitive measures that were carried out on the citizens after the rebellious city was captured in October 1793. He was then sharply attacked by Pierre Philippeaux in the National Convention for his brutality and corruption . Meanwhile, Ronsin fought as a partisan of Hébert in Lyon against the faction of the " indulgent " around Danton and Desmoulins . He was therefore ordered to Paris and arrested on December 17, 1793 at Fabre d'Églantine's insistence .

On February 2, 1794, Ronsin was released due to increasing pressure from the Cordeliers-controlled popular movement. Thereupon he called on March 2, 1794 in the Cordeliers Club for a popular uprising against the revolutionary government and immediately began to organize its preparation. Maximilian de Robespierre recognized the danger of a popular uprising and therefore had all leading Hébertists , including Charles Philippe Ronsin, arrested on the night of March 13-14 , 1794 and sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Tribunal a few days later.

Charles Philippe Henri Ronsin died on March 24, 1794 (4th Germinal II) under the guillotine in Paris. On that day, Hébert, his partisans Antoine-François Momoro , François-Nicolas Vincent , Anacharsis Cloots , François Desfieux , Jacob Pereira and Paul Ulric Dubuisson as well as the Belgian speculator Balthazar Proli and the Dutch banker Jean Conrad de Kock were guillotined on that day. Ronsin showed great courage on the way to the scaffold and remained calm. His head was shown to the people.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Simon Schama: The hesitating citizen. Step backwards and progress in the French Revolution. Munich, 1989 p. 177
2. ↑ Schama, p. 763
3. ↑ Schama, p. 742
4. ↑ Schama, p. 777

literature

• Raymonde Monnier: Ronsin, Charles Philippe. In: Albert Soboul (ed.): Dictionnaire historique de la Révolution française. Quadrige / PUF, 1989.
• Simon Schama: The hesitant citizen - regression and progress in the French Revolution. Munich 1989.
• Bernd Jeschonnek: Revolution in France 1789 to 1799 - A lexicon. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-05-000801-6 .
• Walter Markov , Albert Soboul : 1789. The great French revolution. Urania-Verlag, Leipzig / Jena / Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-332-00261-9 .