#jacques nicolas billaud varenne

[aedesluminis]

Marat, Danton and Robespierre in a fragment of "Panorama de l'Histoire du siècle 1788-1889" (1889) by Alfred Stevens and Henri Gervex, Town Hall of Saint-Gilles, Belgium.

The woman on the stairs is Charlotte Corday, this particular fragment is indeed titled "Fragment du Panorama du Siècle (années 1790-1793)". Charlotte Corday et Jean-Paul Marat.

The two people behind the trio are François Barthélémy (left) and Jacques-Nicolas Billaud-Varenne (right).

References for the characters' names from Stevens, Gervex, Reinach "L'Histoire du Siècle", p. 36-37.

[sieclesetcieux]

This site compiled their addresses here though Barère's page is missing (here are some of his addresses), Lindet's address is different than the one give here, and though some mail was sent to Couthon where Robespierre lived, I think he had another address too? (Hérault is also just not listed but the site is centered around Thermidor.)

Copy-pasted below for convenience. I added their birthdates and astrological signs (for those who care about that):

Jean-Baptiste Robert Lindet

Age : Né à Bernay (Eure), 48 ans en thermidor. [2 mai 1746 ♉]

Adresse : 68, rue de la Sourdière.

Métier : Avocat

Fonctions : Député de l’Eure, membre du Comité de salut public du 6 avril 1793 au 7 octobre 1794

Antoine Louis Léon de Saint-Just

Age: Né à Décize, 26 ans en Thermidor an II [25 août 1767 ♍]

Adresse: 3, rue Caumartin, 2ème étage (depuis mars 1794), à la même adresse que Thuillier. Il demeurait auparavant à l’hôtel des États-Unis, rue Gaillon.

Fonction(s): Député de l’Aisne à la Convention depuis le 5 septembre 1792, membre du Comité de Salut Public depuis le 10 juin 1793.

Georges-Auguste Couthon

Age : Né à Orcet, 38 ans en thermidor [22 décembre 1755 ♑]

Adresse : 366, rue Saint Honoré

Profession : Avocat

Fonction(s) : Elu député du Puy-de-Dôme à la Convention le 6 septembre 1792. Membre du Comité de salut public du 10 juin 1793 au 9 Thermidor an II.

André Jeanbon, dit JEAN BON SAINT-ANDRÉ

Age : Né à Montauban, 45 ans en thermidor [25 février 1749 ♓]

Adresse :  7 rue Gaillon

Profession : Marin, puis pasteur

Fonction(s) : Elu député du Lot à la Convention le 5 septembre 1792, membre du Comité de salut public depuis le 10 juin 1793. Fréquemment en mission pour superviser les opérations maritimes, il est absent de Paris le 9-Thermidor.

Pierre-Louis Prieur, dit PRIEUR de la MARNE

Age : Né à Sommesous (Marne), 37 ans en thermidor [1er août 1756 ♌]

Surnom : Appelé Prieur de la Marne (pour le différencier de Prieur de la Côte-d’Or)

Adresse : 11, rue Helvetius

Métier : Avocat

Fonction(s) : Député de la Marne à la Convention depuis le 3 septembre 1792, membre du Comité de salut public du 10 juillet 1793 au 13 thermidor an II (31 juillet 1794), puis à nouveau du 15 vendémiaire au 15 pluviôse an III (6 octobre 1794-3 février 1795).

Absent de Paris au moment du 9-Thermidor.

Maximilien Marie Isidore de Robespierre

Age : Né à Arras, 36 ans en thermidor. [6 mai 1758 ♉]

Adresse : 366 rue Saint-Honoré (numérotation actuelle : 398)

Métier : Avocat

Fonction(s) : Député de Paris à la Convention nationale depuis le 5 septembre 1792 ; membre du Comité de salut public depuis le 27 juillet 1793

Claude-Antoine Prieur-Duvernois, dit PRIEUR de la CÔTE-d'OR

Age : Né à Auxonne, 30 ans en thermidor [22 décembre 1763 ♑]

Surnom : Appelé Prieur de la Côte-d’Or (pour le différencier de Prieur de la Marne)

Adresse :  5, rue Caumartin

Profession : Ingénieur militaire

Fonction(s) : Elu député de la Côte-d’Or à la Convention le 5 septembre 1792. Membre du Comité de salut public du 14 août 1793 au 16 vendémiaire an III (7 octobre 1794).

Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot

Age : Né à Nolay, 41 ans en thermidor. [13 mai 1753 ♉]

Adresse : 2 rue Florentin

Métier : Mathématicien, physicien, militaire

Fonction(s) : Elu député du Pas-de-Calais à la Convention nationale le 5 septembre 1792 ; membre du Comité de salut public depuis le 14 août 1793, il le quitte le 7 octobre 1794 mais y siège à nouveau un mois plus tard, jusqu’au 6 mars 1795.

Jacques-Nicolas Billaud, dit BILLAUD-VARENNE

Age : Né à La Rochelle, 38 ans en Thermidor an II [23 avril 1756 ♉]

Adresse : 40 rue Saint-André-des-Arts

Métier : Avocat

Fonction(s) : Député de Paris à la Convention depuis le 7 septembre 1792, membre du Comité de Salut Public depuis le 5 septembre 1793

Jean-Marie Collot, dit COLLOT d'HERBOIS

Age : Né à Paris, 45 ans en Thermidor an II [19 juin 1749 ♊]

Adresse : 4 rue Favart (3ème étage)

Métier : Acteur, directeur de théâtre

Fonction(s) : Elu député de Paris à la Convention le 6 septembre 1792, membre du Comité de Salut Public depuis le 5 septembre 1793.

[sieclesetcieux]

Correction on this one on Billaud-Varenne: it's not the complete memoirs + most of it is a biography of BV by Alfred Bégis + there's one on Collot too. This one here seems to have a lot more (includes two volumes):

Mémoires de Billaud-Varennes, ex-conventionnel; écrits au Port-au-Prince en 1818, contenant la relation de ses voyages et aventures dans le Mexique, depuis 1805 jusqu'en 1817; avec des notes historiques et un précis de l'insurrection américaine, depuis son origine jusqu'en 1820, published in 1821

A Few More Free Books I Found*:

Mémoires historiques et militaires sur Carnot (1824)

Le Puy-de-Dôme en 1793 et le Proconsulat de Couthon (1877) by Francisque Mège

Le procès des Dantonistes, d'après les documents, précédé d'une introduction historique. Recherches pour servir à l'histoire de la révolution française (1879) edited by Dr. Jean François Eugène Robinet

Robert Lindet, député à l'Assemblée législative et à la Convention, membre du Comité de salut public, ministre des finances : notice biographique (1899) by Amand Montier

Prieur de la Côte-d'Or (1900) by Paul Gaffarel

Oeuvres littéraires de Hérault de Séchelles (1907) edited by Emile Dard

Un épicurien sous la Terreur; Hérault de Séchelles (1759-1794); d'après des documents inédits (1907) by Emile Dard

Twelve Who Ruled (1941) by R. R. Palmer (borrowable for an hour, renewable every hour)

Bertrand Barère: A Reluctant Terrorist (1963) by Leo Gershoy (borrowable for an hour, renewable every hour)

Saint-Just : sa politique et ses missions (1976) by Jean-Pierre Gross (borrowable for an hour, renewable every hour)

*there are SO MANY SOURCES available on Archive dot org, I'm presently going insane over all this knowledge. All the Thermidorian pamphlets and more that I dont think I ever saw/found while doing my M.A. thesis! Wow!

N.B. I sorted the books chronologically after giving up on trying to make my list into a division between primary and secondary because way too many overlap (memoirs-biographies) and some are not the greatest quality (Mège on Couthon). The only truly academic book that respects modern academic standards here is Jean-Pierre Gross' on Saint-Just. Leo Gershoy's method of quoting sources is appalling (and barely existent) and R. R. Palmer is... a complicated case - very entertaining and engaging book, but not the most academic/scientific and certainly not unbiased. Unless those are the academic/scientific standards for the Anglophone historians...

Some primary sources

I plan to add more whenever I find more.

Historie Parlamentaire de la Révolution Française ou Journal des Assemblées Nationales, depuis 1789 jusqu’en 1815

Volume 1 (May 1789) Volume 2 (June-September 1789) Volume 3 (September-December 1789) Volume 4 (December 1789-March 1790) Volume 5 (March-May 1790) Volume 6 (May-August 1790) Volume 7? Volume 8 (November 1790-February 1791) Volume 9 (February-May 1791) Volume 10 (May-July 1791) Volume 11 (July-September 1791) Volume 12 (September-December 1791) Volume 13 (January-March 1792) Volume 14 (April-June 1792) Volume 15 (June-July 1792) Volume 16 (July-August 1792) Volume 17 (August-September 1792) Volume 18 (September 1792) Volume 19 (September-October 1792) Volume 20 (October-November 1792) Volume 21 (November-December 1792) Volume 22 (December 1792-January 1793) Volume 23 (January 1793) Volume 24 (February-March 1793) Volume 25 (March-April 1793) Volume 26 (April-May 1793) Volume 27 (May 1793) Volume 28 (July-August 1793) Volume 29 (September-October 1793) Volume 30 (October-December 1793) Volume 31 (November 1793-March 1794) Volume 32 (March-May 1794) Volume 33 (May-July 1794) Volume 34 (July-August 1794)

Recueil des actes du comité de salut public Volume 1 (August 12 1792-January 21 1793) Volume 2 (January 22-March 31 1793) Volume 3 (April 1-May 5 1793) Volume 4 (6 May-18 June 1793) Volume 5 (19 June-15 August 1793) Volume 6 (15 August-21 September 1793) Volume 7 (22 September-24 October 1793) Volume 8 (25 October-26 November 1793) Volume 9 (27 November-31 December 1793) Volume 10 (1 January-8 February 1794) Volume 11 (9 February-15 March 1794) Volume 12 (16 March-22 April 1794) Volume 13 (23 April-28 May 1794) Volume 14 (29 May-7 July 1794) Volume 15 (8 July-9 August 1794)

Recueil de documents pour l’histoire du club des Jacobins de Paris Volume 1 (1789-1790) Volume 2 (January-July 1791) Volume 3 (July 1791-June 1792) Volume 4 (June 1792-January 1793) Volume 5 (January 1793-March 1794) Volume 6 (March-November 1794)

Histoire du tribunal révolutionnaire de Paris: avec le journal de ses actes. Volume 1  Volume 2  Volume 3  Volume 4  Volume 5 

Papiers inédits trouves chez Robespierre, Saint-Just, Payan etc Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3

Oeuvres complètes de Robespierre Volume 1 (Robespierre à Arras) Volume 2 (Les œuvres judiciaires) Volume 3 is the correspondence, listed below Volume 4 (Le defenseur de la Constitution) Volume 5 (lettres à ses comettras) Volume 6 (speeches 1789-1790) Volume 7 (speeches January-September 1791) Volume 8 (speeches October 1791-September 1792) Volume 9 (speeches September 1792-June 27 1793) Volume 10 (speeches June 27 1793-July 27 1794)

Oeuvres de Maximilien Robespierre (not the same as Oeuvres completés) Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3

Oeuvres de Jerome Pétion Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3 Volume 4

Oeuvres complètes de Saint-Just Volume 1 Volume 2

Works by Desmoulins

La France Libre (1789)

Discours de la Lanterne aux Parisiens (1789)

Révolutions de France et de Brabant (1789-1791) Volume 1 (number 1-13) Volume 2 (number 14-26) Volume 3 (number 27-39) Volume 4 (number 40-52) Volume 5 (number 53-65) Volume 6 (number 66-79) Volume 7 (number 80-86)

La Tribune des Patriots (1792) (all numbers)

Le Vieux Cordelier (1793-1794) (all numbers)

Jean Pierre Brissot démasqué (1792)

Histoire des Brissotins (1793)

Correspondences

Correspondance de Maximilien et Augustin Robespierre (1926)

Correspondance de George Couthon (1872)

Correspondance inédit de Camille Desmoulins (1836)

Some more Desmoulins letters can be found in Camille Desmoulins and his wife — passages from the history of the dantonists (1876) by Jules Claretie, particulary pages 463-469

Billuad-Varennes — mémoires et correspondance

Memoirs

Memoirs of Bertrand Barère Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3 Volume 4

Memoirs of Élisabeth Lebas In French In English

Mémoires de Charlotte Robespierre sur ses deux frères (1835) In French In English

Memoirs of Joseph Fouché Volume 1 (English) Volume 2 (French)

Mémoires de Brissot (1877)

Mémoires inédits de Pétion et mémoires de Buzot et Barbaroux (1866)

Memoirs of Barras — member of the Directorate (1899)

Free books

Danton (1978) by Norman Hampson (borrowable for an hour, renewable every hour)

Robespierre (2014) by Hervé Leuwers (borrowable for an hour, renewable every hour)

Collot d’Herbois — légendes noires et Révolution (1995) by Michel Biard 

Choosing Terror (2014) by Marisa Linton

The Coming of the Terror in the French Revolution (2015) by Timothy Tackett

Augustin: the younger Robespierre by (2011) by Mary-Young

Journaliste, sans-culotte et thermidorien: le fils de Fréron, 1754-1802, d’après des documents inédits (1909) by Raoul Arnaud

Resources shared by other tumblr users (thank you all very much!!!)

Resources shared by @iadorepigeons

Resources shared by @georgesdamnton 

Resources shared by @rbzpr:

Fabre d’Eglantine resources shared by @edgysaintjust

My own translations

Lucile Desmoulins’ diary (1788, 1789, 1790, 1792-1793)

Charlotte Robespierre et ses amis (1961)

Laponneraye on the life of Charlotte Robespierre (1835)

Abbé Proyart on the childhood of Robespierre (1795)

Philippeaux’s prison letters to his wife (1794)

Regulations for the internal exercises of the College of Louis-le-Grand (1769)

Regulations for law students at Louis-le-Grand (1782)

Instructions for the “quarter masters” of Louis-le-Grand

Belongings left by Danton, Fabre and Desmoulins after their arrest

Letters from Robespierre’s father

Robespierre family timeline

[citizen-card]

LIBERAL committee of public safety:

Bertrand BaRED (like communism) de Vieuzac

Jacques-Nicolas BIllaud-Varenne

Carnot isn't here because I couldn't think of anything the Second Law of Thermodynamics disproved the LIBERAL Big Bang Theory

Jean-Marie COMMUNISM d'Herbois

Georges CouthONBINARY

Jeanbon SLAYnt-André

Jean-Baptiste Robert LGBTndet

Pierre Louis Prieur (Prieur de la MARX)

Claude Antoine PRONOUN-Duvernois

Maximilien de WOKEspierre

Louis Antoine de SOCIALISM

Marie-Jean SHE/HERault de Séchelles

[transrevolutions]

[rbzpr]

Jacques-Nicolas Billaud-Varenne (F. Brunel)

La Rochelle, 23 April 1756 - Saint-Domingue (near Port-au-Prince), 13 June 1819

Of the famous actors of the Revolution, Billaud-Varenne is one of the most poorly understood. We will therefore simply attempt to shatter the mythical coating which still surrounds the life of Billaud, about whom A. Carpentier writes that he had « a kind of majesty which makes one shiver » (Le Siècle des Lumières, 1962). Let us start with the myth. The notes of the Restoration make him the person responsible for the September Massacres of 1792, the symbolical (and physical) figure of the « buveur de sang ». Later, being the archetype of the outcast, he fascinated the liberals of the 1830s due to his revolutionary inflexibility and the long journey to Cayenne. Finally, demanding the condemnation of Danton, responsible for the death of Robespierre, persecuted by the Thermidorian Reaction, he disturbs the revolutionary historiography which, not knowing how to classify him, marginalised him or transformed him into an « ultra ». And the myth is so resistant that it has clouded his biography.

Yet, it was up to Billaud-Varenne to embody, through the generation to which he belonged, through his social origins, through his intellectual education and through his professional activity, the sociologically « average » portrait of a Conventionnel. Being the son (and grandson) of a lawyer in the Présidial of La Rochelle, he stemmed from this provincial bourgeoisie which produced so many revolutionary leaders. His family was affluent, and the possession of lands consecrated a notabilité which came from the legal sphere, not from the Atlantic. Being the oldest of three boys, he received an education which destined him for the paternal inheritance. His academic career, however, has been obscured by a tradition of historiography that has been created by A. Aulard. In fact, it does not seem to us that he has frequented the Collège d'Harcourt, but he located a partially autobiographic novel there – the establishment is near his Parisian home – which remained unfinished (in 1786) and within which he integrated memories of his visit to Juilly. On the other hand, it seems probable that he has « faits ses humanités » in the college of the Oratorians of Niort and studied philosophy in La Rochelle. Afterwards, he studied law in Poitiers and was sworn in as a lawyer in 1778. Billaud returned to La Rochelle: there, he appeared more preoccupied with his theatrical success than with legal problems, and a « deviance » occurred in his trajectory, which was, all in all, unremarkable until then. Leaving his native town in 1782, he vegetated in Paris for some months before being admitted to the Institution de l'Oratoire in March 1783. Due to his age, which was rather advanced for a novice (27 years), and to his « coldly regular and decent » character, he was sent to the prestigious College of Juilly in September 1783, not as a professor or as a préfet des études (this is still a legend), but simply in order to exercise the modest functions of préfet de pension, i.e. of supervisor. He only stayed there for a year and, having performed badly, left Juilly and the Oratory in 1784. Having returned to Paris, he enrolled in the board of lawyers in the Parlement and married (an union which also arouses romantic accounts), but this move – breaking with the familial conformism – does not fall into the « marginality » or the destitute life of the « bohême littéraire ». And yet, the man claimed to be a « philosophical writer ».

In the highly charged atmosphere of the years 1787-1788, lampoons and pamphlets flourished which were not averse to pornography ; Billaud himself still showed himself to be eccentric, without contradicting the preoccupations of his milieu, the one of the lawyers and magistrates of the Parlement of Paris. Professing some disdain for ephemeral papers, he prepared two works which, through their scope, were meant to be demonstrative and reflective: Le dernier coup porté aux préjugés et à la superstition and the three volumes (nearly 1,000 pages) of Le Despotisme des ministres de France... appearing anonymously in 1789 (with London and Amsterdam certainly being fictional places of publication). The first book is not simply an anticlerical manifesto, but betrays the influence of the critical exegesis of biblical texts (which, incidentally, was still strong in the Oratorian milieu) and the refusal of any dogmatic theology: as he was a follower of natural religion, one does not see what could, in Year II, classify Billaud among the adversaries of the Cult of the Supreme Being. The second work, an onerous historico-legal treatise, ignores the « facetiae » of the time while bearing the mark of the event, the crisis of 1787-1788. Above all, it makes it possible to measure the erudition of a notorious Montagnard and to easily nuance the « Rousseauism » attributed to the Jacobins. The most frequently cited authors are, in fact, Necker and the referential corpus of parliamentary (and jansénisant) « constitutionalism », both the theorists of natural law and Montesquieu, for whom Billaud's admiration would never diminish.

A first turning point occurred in the autumn of 1789. Billaud-Varenne condemned the betrayed revolution: Le Peintre politique... castigates martial law and underlines the already worsening gap between the Declaration of Rights (constituent principles) and the decrees that had been adopted by the Assembly. In the following year, it was the danger of « Caesarism » which he evoked by an indictment on the Nancy affair, Plus de ministres, ou point de grâce... in 1791 marks the breaking point, the open adherence to the republican idea and the penetration of Rousseauist « politics », particularly of the theme of sovereignty of the general will. L'Acéphocratie... is at once a plea in favour of universal suffrage and a denunciation of the exorbitant powers that had been granted to the executive branch ; the imagined « federative government » has to allow everyone to exercise their citizenship (to dire le Droit), without falling into the trap of an illusory direct democracy: by binding the legislative through a system of « rings », thereby making it subject to the declared natural law, to the ensemble of citizens (the Nation), Billaud heralded the principle of centralité législative and the referendum process. Being a known « patriotic author », he often intervened at the Jacobins and spoke out against the war, as well as against the adventurism of the « enthusiasts ». From the winter of 1791-1792 onwards, the traits of Billaud-Varenne's political theory were therefore more or less fixed. The two last opuscules, « the profession of faith » of a « législateur philosophe », would come to clarify this thought. Les Eléments du Républicanisme (1793) particularly offered a radical social programme: in the name of the droit à l'existence, a successional system was proposed which tended towards an egalitarian redistribution of all riches. As to the last publication, Les Principes régénérateurs du système social (Pluviôse Year III) was at once the ultimate manifesto of a revolutionary who knew he would be condemned in the future. Billaud here professes his conception of democracy one last time, as well as the moral (practical) obligation to realise the rights of man in a public space of fraternal reciprocity. Nothing in the published theoretical work of Billaud therefore allows to give the epithet « ultra » to him. Was his conduct in the Convention, then, the cause for this classification to the far left of the Montagne?

Elected a deputy of Paris after having been the substitut du procureur of the revolutionary Commune of 10 August, Billaud of course spoke out in favour of the king's death, without appeal to the people or suspended sentence. In April 1793, he was absent during the indictment of Marat: being on mission with Sevestre in the Breton departments, he did not stand out due to « ferocious » repression of the rebellious zones, but reminded the « misled people of the countryside » of the gains of the Revolution. Having returned to the Convention, he voted against the Commission of Twelve and demanded, on 9 June 1793, to exempt the citizens who were reduced « to the absolute necessities »  of the payment of any direct contribution: one can no longer clearly justify citizenship as a right of man independent of the property of material goods. On 23 June 1793, at last, he proposed and obtained (still in the name of the declared natural law) the abrogation of martial law. It is to the events of September 1793 that Billaud-Varenne owes, in fact, his reputation as an « extremist » and, in particular, his admission to the Committee of Public Safety in the aftermath of the journées of 4 and 5 September. Facing the demands of the Commune of Paris formulated by Chaumette, Billaud only repeated his own principles: a revolution fails if one only takes « half-measures », it was necessary to « act », and it was from the Convention that the « national movements » had to come from. Nothing therefore distinguished him from Robespierre or Saint-Just. Incidentally, the two only Reports made by him to the Convention are politically essential: Billaud was the one who translated the political principles which had been pronounced by Saint-Just in the name of the Committee of Public Safety into terms of action. Thus, it was up to him, on 28 Brumaire Year II (18 November 1793) to present the project of a « mode of provisional and revolutionary government » and, on 1 Floréal Year II (20 April 1794), to expound on the « civil institutions », to articulate the idea of a stabilisation of the Revolution, opening the future to a new social bond based on a « daily exchange of mutual aid ». Billaud never differentiated himself from the « Robespierrists » in anything.

Here, the second obstacle to interpreting the political position of Billaud arises. On 9 Thermidor, it was his intervention, more than the gesticulations of Tallien, which stopped Saint-Just's speech. Why? The difficulties of answering are so enormous that we will confine ourselves to some hypotheses. Undoubtedly he was irritated by the non-collegial writing of the Law of 22 Prairial (he did not attack it in substance) ; undoubtedly the « denaturation » (his expression) of the Police Bureau of the Committee of Public Safety seemed to him to form an executive power which he loathed ; undoubtedly, at last, it seemed to him that Robespierre, in denouncing « new factions » at the Jacobins on 13 Messidor Year II (1 July 1794), threw the Revolution back into a vicious circle and contravened the project that had been defined in Floréal. These suggestions are only based on barely reliable sources, the defences of Year III. Let us admit that the historical reconstruction is not easy, because the post-Thermidorian persecution succeeded in clouding the political figure of Billaud-Varenne. Having been accused of being an « accomplice of Robespierre » by Le Cointre, he left the Committee of Public Safety to re-election and, contrary to other Montagnards, remained silent until 13 Brumaire Year III (3 November 1794), when he spoke the famous sentence at the Jacobins: « the lion is not dead when he sleeps, and when he awakens, he exterminates all his enemies ». The phrase hit the nail on the head and justified, in advance, the closing of the Club. After the reintegration of the Girondins and the process of Carrier, the path was clear for the elimination of « Robespierre's tail ». On 7 Nivôse Year III (27 December 1794), a commission of 21 members was created in order to examine the conduct of Barère, Billaud, Collot d'Herbois and Vadier ; they were erected as « great culprits » even before the Report of Saladin (12 Ventôse Year III / 2 March 1795) was delivered. The Convention took advantage of the events of 12 Germinal Year III and condemned them to deportation. Billaud-Varenne was exiled to Cayenne, and political silence signified his unfreedom.

Billaud survived all of his fellow convicts, those of Year III and of Year V, his enemies ; among the latter, he only got in touch with Brotier. The events of 18 Brumaire set him free, but he refused to return to the France of Bonaparte and remained in Cayenne even when the Portuguese occupied Guyana in 1809. When the colony became French again in 1816, he did not want to become a subject of Louis XVIII and embarked for New York, then settling in Saint-Domingue where he died at last. One attributes these last words to him: « My bones, at least, will rest in this land which wants liberty... »

Through his writings and his political action, Billaud nonetheless belonged to this current which attempted to combine social justice (happiness) and human dignity (rights of man). The undertaking was undoubtedly not easy during the revolution, but the project left a lasting mark on progressive thought. Thus, Jaurès, the author, let us not forget, of a thesis on the origins of German socialism, wrote about Billaud-Varenne: « it is the most curious synthesis that I know of egalitarian and socialist leanings and of an individualist and divided order ». One can criticise the Jaurèsian formulation. but one cannot deny that Billaud (like many others) has attempted to devise the wedding of the droits de créance and the droits-libertés.

Source: Dictionnaire historique de la Révolution française (Albert Soboul)

[citizen-card]

french revolution’s biggest loser poll semifinal: Jacques-Nicolas Billaud-Varenne VS Louis XVI

[citizen-card]

french revolution’s biggest loser poll round 2: Jacques-Nicolas Billaud-Varenne VS Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette

[citizen-card]

french revolution’s biggest loser poll round 1: Georges Danton VS Jacques-Nicolas Billaud-Varenne

[deathzgf]

wait wait wait this means billaud would need to be invited in to the national convention and if No One invites him thermidor wouldn ' t happen ggez

is sj still a vampire hunter in the previous anon’s universe? poor man can’t rest 😭

for context this is in response to the billaud vampire universe:

idk what is happening lol

[deathzgf]

list update ^___^ red = new addition ( still open to expansion )

note : i changed the format of the list to not just last names but not quite their full name if this makes sense ( e . g . " robespierre " is now listed as " maximilien robespierre " , but not " Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre " )

Louis XIV ( unrelated but idgaf )

Louis XVI

Marie Antoinette

Baron de Montesquieu

Jean - Jacques Rousseau

olympe de gouges

Jean-Marie Collot d ' Herbois

Jean - Nicolas Billaud - Varenne

Betrand Barère

Lazare Carnot 

Marie - jean hérault de séchelles

Robert lindet

Prieur de la côte - d ‘ or

Prieur de la marne

André jeanbon saint - andré

Georges Couthon

Maximilien Robespierre

Louis Saint - just

Philippe Le Bas

Jacques - Louis David

Jean - Paul Marat

Fabre d ' Églantine

Joseph Fouché

georges Danton

Camille Desmoulins

Napoleon Bonaparte

Marquis de La Fayette

John Laurens

Alexander Hamilton

George Washington

Aaron Burr

James Madison 

Thomas Jefferson

James Monroe

John Adams

John Quincy Adams

John Hancock

John Jay

oh by the way ! ! ! ! ! if anyone has any historical figures from the eighteenth century ( around amrev + frev time ) they are interested in please let me know :3

even if you ' re not interested in them but you know about them and they were relevant to the period i ' ll probably be interested in them fkjdslfFKLJDSLKFSLF

i ' ve got a big google doc of a ton of people i ' m researching and so far i ' ve got :

Louis XIV

Louis XVI

Antoinette

Montesquieu

Rousseau

Couthon

Robespierre

Saint just

Le Bas

David

Marat

Fabre

Danton

Desmoulins

Napoleon

La Fayette

Laurens

Hamilton

Washington

Burr

Madison 

Jefferson

Adams

Quincy Adams

Hancock

Jay

BUT i ' ve been trying to expand it :3