François-Nicolas Vincent

François-Nicolas Vincent (Album du Centenaire)

François-Nicolas Vincent (* 1767 in Paris ; † March 24, 1794 ) was Secretary General of the French Ministry of War during the First French Republic and a prominent member of the Cordeliers .

Life

Vincent was born the son of a Paris prison guard. After working for a lawyer for several years, he was one of the first Cordeliers during the French Revolution and early on took the position of secretary. He joined the radical faction of the Hébertists . After the Tuileries storm on August 10, 1792, he replaced Fabre d'Églantine in the Paris city administration; this changed to the national convention.

In 1793 he became general secretary in the Ministry of War under the "sans-culottes minister" Jean Baptiste Noël Bouchotte . When the struggle between radical Hébertists and moderate Dantonists came to a head in December 1793, Vincent and Ronsin von Fabre were indicted before the convention and arrested without the welfare committee or the security committee having been consulted. Shortly afterwards, the Dantonists made incriminating material public and the Welfare Committee again tipped the scales towards the Ultras, so Vincent was released on February 2nd. Incited by him, the Cordeliers demanded the "destruction of the unclean remains of the swamp", which meant in particular surviving Girondins and moderate convent members. The mouthpiece was " Le père Duchesne " published by Hébert .

The unyielding attitude of the Hébertists caused the beleaguered revolutionary government to arrest them; Vincent was arrested along with the other leading Cordeliers and sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Tribunal. His head fell under the guillotine on March 24th .

Web links

• CV (French)