#marie anne robinot

[aedesluminis]

On Anne-Marie Robinot, Saint-Just's mother

What follows is a personal translation I did of an excerpt taken from the historian Stefania Di Pasquale's book Storie di Madri (A History of mothers) which includes a chapter on Louis-Antoine's mother. The notes at the end are included in the original work.

Marie-Anne Robinot was born in Décize on the 16th of January 1734, the daughter of Jeanne Philiberte Houdry (1712-1745) and Léonard Robinot (1701-1776), king’s counsel, royal notary and procurator in the bourg of Décize.

There are no contemporary pictures of this woman, but that doesn’t mean she was less important than others; the lack of any representation is probably due to the centuries that have passed since her death and to the destruction of personal belongings which occurred right after Robespierre’s fall and also, in particular, during the Restoration of the old European monarchies starting with the Congress of Vienna of 1815.

We don’t know much about her early years, except that she grew up among the Décize haute bourgeoisie of the 18th century and that she received a good education.

The French historian Ernest Hamel, who had met Saint-Just’s nephews for his grandfather was an intimate of the latter, wrote the following in his biography Histoire de Saint-Just:  «Madame de Saint-Just was a charming and charitable woman, who outlived her son by a few years, she was sad by nature; she had loved with excessive love this predestined son, who until the last day returned her motherly tenderness with filial adoration. » (1)

Marie-Anne was a very religious woman, attached to her family, but compared to her contemporaries, who submitted to paternal will on certain matters such as those concerning arranged marriages, and, although she loved and respected her father, she believed it was unfair that parents could decide the future of their children, especially when they were already sentimentally attached to another person. This is what eventually happened to Marie-Anne.

Mademoiselle Robinot fell in love with Monsieur Louis-Jean Saint-Just de Richebourg, knight of the royal and military order of Saint-Louis, marshal of the gendarme company under the title of Berry, son of Marie-Françoise Adam and Charles de Saint-Just.

The age gap between the two was of twenty years: he, a mature man, and she, a young thirty years old woman still unmarried.

Marie-Anne had already the occasion to show her obstinacy just a couple of months after meeting captain Saint-Just.

Unfortunately their union would have been opposed by her father, who didn’t approve their relationship since he considered Louis-Jean as a simple peasant son of humble origins. Monsieur Robinot didn’t consider his future brother-in-law equal to his rank. But perhaps was it just an excuse? At the time the Robinot family was composed of men only and a female figure, who knew how to handle domestic servants, was much needed. The young woman wasn’t evidently of the same opinion and, on the suggestion of some notary friends of her, she resorted to the only means available at the time to counter paternal authority: les sommations respectueuses.

During the Ancien Régime the law required the father’s consent to celebrate a marriage, but in case it was denied, people over 25 could counter the refusal through a process called sommations respectueuses. To accomplish that, one had to rely on a notary and ask the family members three times for the written consent. After that, if the request kept being denied, the person could still proceed with the marriage.

Determined to fulfill her dream, Marie-Anne took courage against her paternal authority and on 21 March 1766 she appeared before her father together with notary Grenot and two other witnesses both belonging to the nobility.

Outraged by such audacity, Léonard Robinot pretended to be absent. The same occurred on 22 March. The following day, the 23, the day of the last visit, Robinot left the house defeated, without uttering a single word. Happy and contented, the next day Marie-Anne signed the marriage contract and the ceremony was set for 30 May 1766.

The two married in Verneuil with a quick ritual, celebrated by the uncle of the spouse, Antoine Robinot, and among the wedding witnesses there were a carpenter, a merchant and a cabaret comedian (two of them couldn’t either read or write).

In a rage, the rest of the Robinot Family didn’t even want to go out of their house to see the spouses, especially the disobedient daughter. Surely the intimacy of the ceremony was thought necessary to avoid their reprimand.

Marie-Anne got pregnant a few months after the marriage and on the 25th of August 1767 a child was born, who one day would have made history, who would have fought and died for the freedom of his country.

The chosen name was that of Louis-Antoine, Louis like his father and Antoine like his uncle and godfather, the abbot Antoine Robinot.

The little Saint-Just was baptized the same day he was born in the church of Saint-Aré (Décize) and, according to the customs of the time, he was placed in the care of a wet nurse in Verneuil who lived in a house next to his uncle's. A few years later his sisters were born as well: Loise-Marie-Antoine in 1768 and Marie-Françoise-Victoire in 1769.

In 1771, however, Antoine Robinot died, the Saint-Just family was forced to take their son back and move to Nampcel, to the house which once belonged to Charles de Saint-Just (1676-1766), Anoine’s paternal grandfather. Marie Madeleine, sister of Louis-Jean, was there to welcome them.

They lived together peacefully for some time, then the family moved again to Marie-Anne’s paternal household in Décize.

According to the French historian Bernard Vinot, Léonard Robinot was a good grandfather, who doted on little Louis-Antoine. However the joy of that peaceful life was short-lived.

In 1776 Robinot died and the Saint-Just family moved one last time to the rural village of Blérancourt. It was a graceful and tranquil place. There, thanks to his military merits, Louis-Jean obtained consideration and privileges, usually reserved to the lower nobility.

Léonhard’s inheritance was split among his children and on 18 July 1776 the heirs sold the house in Décize to Claude Leblanc: that was the last time one could find the Saint-Just spouses’ signature in the town of Décize.

And so Louis-Antoine left in July 1776 the place where he had spent the first four years of his life forever, but he would have never forgotten the mountains and the river Loire, from where the fairies and myths of his work Organt would have come out. (2)

[...] Unfortunately a large part of the familial correspondence [between Saint-Just and his family] was destroyed both during the persecutions the family endured after the death by decapitation of Louis-Antoine and after the dreadful Restauration which started with the Congress of Vienna of 1815.

[...] Other than the pain caused by the death of her beloved son, Madame Saint-Just had to endure the humiliations of the Directory political police.

A mother who until the very end kept like relics those few belongings of her son, saving them from the thermidorian fury; today one can see those mementos in a display case placed in Saint-Just’s house, now a museum, in Blérancourt. In these cases it’s possible to admire a book of the young revolutionary man still with the violet he had put inside as a bookmark; a bronze plaque with an angel on it (once it used to be in Louis-Antoine’s bedroom) and a quill. That was all the poor mother could save, since even the young man’s clothes had been sold to the authorities.

Marie-Anne didn’t even have a grave to mourn her son, buried without clothes to prevent someone from reclaiming those tortured bodies. For Louis-Antoine’s remains were thrown into a mass grave in the Parisian Errancis cemetery, close to Parc Monceau.

Today this cemetery doesn’t exist anymore and the 119 human remains were moved to the catacombs in Paris.

From a missive by Madame Saint-Just sent to the prefecture of the Aisne Department, we know that the authorities still refused to give her back some of the belongings, despite the fact that fifteen years had passed since her son’s death:

To the Prefect of the Department of Aisne, member of the Legion of Honour. Marie-Anne Robinot, widow of the defunct Monsieur Louis de Saint-Just, former cavalry captain in Blérancourt and currently residing there, has the honour to notify you that, following the event of 9 Thermidor Year II, a commission named through a decree of the District of Chauny came to my house to seize all property titles belonging to me and my children, because of the sentence pronounced against Louis de Saint-Just, my son, representative in the National Convention; and that, as a consequence of that event another decree was released that allowed the return of the belongings to the parents of the convicts; I am in need of the titles of which I am concerned and which are currently deposited in the Archives of the prefecture of Aisne, I want to have the honour to ask the Prefect to be so kind to order the collection and delivery of my belongings through you; by doing so you shall have my most sincere gratitude and respect, Monsieur le Préfet, your humble and obedient servant. Widow Saint-Just. Presented on 18 February 1809.

[...] After the death of her son and with age advancing, on 5 June 1807, Marie-Anne decided to make a will, leaving everything to her two daughters:

To Louise, I leave a house, with a kitchen with a small cellar, an attic, a tool shed, gardens for 21 hectares with fruit trees, everything located in Blérancourt in Rue de la Chouette. To Victoire, a house with two rooms, a cellar, a hallway, an attic and office rooms, everything in Blérancourt in Rue de la Chouette. (3)

Madame Saint-Just died of a cholera epidemic four years after writing this small testament on 11 February 1811 in her house in Blérancourt, leaving the void and mourning of her daughters and nephews.

(1) Ernest Hamel, Histoire de Saint-Just, Paris, Poulet-Mallasis et de Braise, 1859, p. 26.

(2) In May 1789 in Paris L’Organt was published, it’s a poem divided into twenty chants in which Saint-Just criticized the absolute monarchy and clerical hierarchies.

(3) Claire Cioti, Saint-Just, cit.

[frevandrest]

How did SJ's mother fight to get married 😮

With stubborness and persistance that her son will be infamous for.

Seriously, it's a cool anecdote. The story of SJ mother Marie Anne Robinot getting married is awesome. Prob the best thing we know about her. It also tells us a lot about shit that women had to go through in that age.

So, the year is 1766 and Marie Anne receives a marriage offer from a distinguished soldier Louis-Jean de Saint-Just de Richebourg. She is 32 years old, so it is even more significant, because it might be her last shot at married life, which she obviously desired. Now, Louis-Jean is around 50, so much older, but he is not only respectable but also has a status and a bit of, if not wealth, then money to live comfortably. By all parameters, he's a good opportunity for Marie Anne.

But! Her father doesn't want to let her get married. It is not 100% confirmed why, but it is likely because he was a widower and she was the only daughter and he wanted her to continue to run his household and help him.

Marie Anne asks him politely, and Louis-Jean asks for her hand in marriage, but the answer is no.

So Marie Anne decides to fight for it.

She is over 30, so of age, and there is a law that says a daughter of age can get married even against her father's wishes, IF she asks the father 3 times in front of witnesses, and 3 times is refused. Marie Anne wants to seek legal help, but her father is a big shot in the town so no local notary wants to help her. She then writes to a local noble, explains her situation, and the noble orders notaries to help her, whether they like it or not.

So, they try 3 times. The first time, her father leaves the room without a word. The second time, he leaves the house before they arrived. Idk what happened the third time (he was there but ignored the request?) but he very much did not give his consent.

It is important to note what kind of arguments Marie Anne used. She talked about a good opportunity in terms of status and a secured financial future, both of which would also benefit her father. She did NOT talk of love at all (even though she could have been in love) - she built her arguments in very rational, objective and socially acceptable terms; no emotions whatsoever. She correctly concluded that such an approach would be more effective, if not to her father, then to witnesses.

During all of this, some men in the family supported the father (notably, one of the unmarried brothers who lived in the same household and benefitted from her services), but some relatives supported Marie Anne. Her uncle Jean-Antoine, a parish priest in Verneuil, was one of them, but also at least one other uncle. I assume they tried to talk to her father and make him change his mind, but to no avail. (Like seriously, everyone is so stubborn in this family, almost to the Robespierre family levels stubborn).

But it doesn't matter in the end, because after being refused three times, Marie Anne was allowed to get married. She does this, on 30 May 1766, in the village of Verneuil, with local working class people as witnesses (at least one who was illiterate). Her uncle, the parish priest, was the one who married them. She would give her first born name "Antoine" after him.

[osobypostacieludzie]

Louis de Saint-Just ( Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, Antoine Louis Léon de Richebourg de Saint-Just, Saint-Just ) - jeden z czołowych przywódców rewolucji francuskiej, bliski współpracownik Maksymiliana Robespierre. Słynął z bezwzględnego terroru, stosowanego zarówno wobec przeciwników rewolucji, jak i innych rewolucjonistów (m.in. sporządził raport, który doprowadził do aresztowania, skazania i stracenia Dantona). Zwany z powodu tej bezwzględności i olśniewającej ponoć urody "Aniołem śmierci" lub "Archaniołem Terroru". Przez niektórych ludzi ze swej epoki był również nazywany "Świętym Janem - Mesjaszem Ludu", "Gwiazdą Rewolucji". Urodzony w zamożnej rodzinie. Po śmierci ojca, Louisa Jeana de Saint-Just de Richebourga (oficera kawalerii francuskiej odznaczonego Orderem św. Ludwika) w 1777 r., był wychowywany przez matkę - Marie-Anne Robinot. W wieku 19 lat, po nieudanym związku z Theresą Gelle, córką miejscowego bogacza, uciekł z domu do Paryża, gdzie został aresztowany. Podczas pobytu w ośrodku poprawczym napisał poemat pt.: L'Organt, w którym dosadnie krytykował zarówno monarchię jak i papiestwo. Poemat ów wydano następnie drukiem. Po wyjściu na wolność z zakładu w 1787 r. odbył studia prawnicze w Reims, a następnie został asystentem u prokuratora. Po wybuchu rewolucji aktywnie działał w swoim regionie, był oficerem Gwardii Narodowej, korespondował z Maksymilianem Robespierre i Kamilem Desmoulins. Jako przedstawiciel swojego regionu brał udział w eskorcie króla Ludwika XVI po jego nieudanej ucieczce.Należał do stronnictwa politycznego jakobinów. Najmłodszy deputowany do Konwentu Narodowego, zdobył sławę swoim przemówieniem w czasie procesu króla. Saint-Just wygłosił wówczas wielką mowę za egzekucją, uzasadniając, iż Ludwik XVI musi zginąć, gdyż jest tyranem z racji samego faktu bycia dynastycznym władcą państwa. Angażował się następnie w rewolucyjne projekty stworzenia nowego człowieka, pisząc m.in. książkę o modelu edukacji w państwie republikańskim i rozprawę L'esprit de la Revolution et de la Constitution de France (pol. Duch rewolucji i konstytucji francuskiej). Jego druga książka, zatytułowana Instytucje Republikańskie, nie została ukończona. Był członkiem Komitetu Ocalenia Publicznego i komisarzem Konwentu na prowincji. Działalność propagandową prowadził głównie w świeżo tworzonej rewolucyjnej armii francuskiej walczącej z Prusami. Wielokrotnie dawał żołnierzom przykład nie tylko osobistej odwagi, lecz także bezwzględności wobec dezerterów i chwiejnych politycznie.Poniekąd słusznie oskarżany o zainspirowanie wielkiego terroru (czerwiec – lipiec 1794 roku), został aresztowany 27 lipca ("przewrót 9 thermidora") i zgilotynowany wraz z Robespierre'em następnego dnia, w 114 dni po śmierci Dantona. Saint-Just jest jednym z bohaterów dramatów Stanisławy Przybyszewskiej: Sprawa Dantona oraz Thermidor. Pojawia się w mandze Riyoko Ikedy Lady Oscar, a także w nakręconym na jego podstawie anime. Louis znalazł się w komiksie Neila Gaimana Refleksje i Przypowieści z cyklu Sandman. W filmie Danton Andrzeja Wajdy w rolę Saint-Justa wcielił się Bogusław Linda.