Louis Pierre Louvel
Louis Pierre Louvel (born October 7, 1783 in Versailles , † June 7, 1820 in Paris ) was the murderer of Charles Ferdinand de Bourbon .
Life
Louvel was the son of a shopkeeper, learned the saddlery and joined the artillery in 1806. From 1815 he worked as a saddlery journeyman in the royal stables . The political processes of the Restoration aroused in him hatred of the Bourbon dynasty . He wanted to destroy this family by murdering Charles Ferdinand de Bourbon, the son of the later King of France and Navarre Charles X. When the prince and his wife left the Paris Opera on February 13, 1820 at around 11 p.m. after a performance to see them To lead him to the car, Louvel pushed forward and stabbed him in the right side with a knife. Fatally injured, the prince collapsed and died the following day.
Adjutants and guardsmen had rushed after the murderer after the prince's first cry and were able to seize him. Louvel was then taken to the station guard of the Opera House and interrogated in the presence of Minister Élie Decazes . He immediately admitted that for six years he had made the decision, all by himself, to free France from the Bourbons, since he considered them to be the country's worst enemies. The trial was conducted in front of the chamber of peers and the investigation lasted three months. 1200 witnesses were questioned to find possible accomplices, but this did not succeed.
Before the Court of Justice of the Chamber of Peers, Louvel declared on June 5, 1820 that it was not a personal insult, but rather the bitterness over the presence of the foreign troops after the Restoration that had led him to the murder plan as early as 1814. In order to disperse, he had traveled and visited the island of Elba , but had no conversation there with Napoleon or his companions. After Napoleon's return from Elba in 1815, he took service as a saddler in the imperial stables and kept this position even after the re-establishment of the Bourbons. Nobody had led him to his murder plan nor encouraged it; he also never read magazines. He recognized his act as a grave crime, but claimed that through careful consideration he had decided to sacrifice his life to France.
Louvel's defense attorney pleaded the madness of an obsession and invoked the dying prince's request for a pardon for his murderer. Louvel himself also read a letter in defense of his act. The court still sentenced him to death . After a long refusal, Louvel accepted a visit from a clergyman. It was on June 7, 1820 the guillotine executed .
literature
- Paul B. Billecoq (Ed.): Procès de Louis-Pierre Louvel, assasin de Monseigneur le duc de Berry devant la cour des pairs . Édition Billecoq, Paris 2003, ISBN 2-9505663-7-5 (reprint of the Paris 1844 edition).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Louvel, Louis Pierre |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Assassin of Charles Ferdinand de Bourbon |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 7, 1783 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Versailles |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 7, 1820 |
| Place of death | Paris |