Ancient history

Marat (Jean-Paul)


(Boudry, canton of Neuchâtel, 1743 - Paris, 1793.) Publicist, doctor and politician.
Son of a doctor of Sardinian origin established in Switzerland and a Genevan, Jean-Paul Marat studied medicine in Bordeaux, then in Paris, settled in London in 1765, then in Newcastle. While practicing medicine; he devoted himself to scientific and philosophical studies, publishing an essay on the human soul as well as another on eye diseases, or political writings.

In 1774, Marat joined Freemasonry. The following year, he obtained the title of doctor of medicine at the faculty of Saint-Andrews, Scotland. Fixed in Paris in 1777, the practitioner became doctor of the bodyguards of the Comte d'Artois. At the same time, he continued his scientific research and presented memoirs to the Academy of Sciences, which caused a scandal there, forcing him to resign in 1783. Thus, on the eve of the Revolution, Marat experienced a lackluster material situation.
Turning resolutely to journalism in 1789, Marat launched the first issue of the Parisian Publiciste on September 12, which became from the September 16 The People's Friend. There, using an increasingly violent tone, for he was a supporter of unlimited freedom of the press, the journalist relentlessly denounced the aristocratic conspiracy, the betrayals of ministers, the weaknesses and insufficiencies of the Constitution. Constant themes appear:the love he bears to the popular masses, driving forces of the Revolution, the denunciation on the other hand of the richest members of the third estate, who seek to confiscate for their own profit the benefits of the revolutionary movement.
Marat also denounces the false idols of the Parisian people Necker, then Mirabeau, and above all La Fayette. The violence of his attacks earned him, from 1789, a few weeks in prison, from October 8 to November 5. Barely released, he attacked Necker virulently, at the podium of the Club des Cordeliers* of which he was a member. Faced with the reactions aroused by his words, the tribune deemed it prudent to leave Paris in January 1790, and took refuge in London until May. On his return, he attacked La Fayette, whom he accused of dealing with the enemies of the Revolution, and continued to denounce the "traitors" in L'Ami du peuple, constantly appealing to revolutionary vigilance. After the king's flight to Varennes and the shooting of the Champ-de-Mars (June and July 1791), Marat attacked the monarchy itself, the king, and called for the establishment of a dictatorship.
Remarks which lead to the suspension of L'Ami du peuple, and a new stay of the publicist in England, from December 1791 to May 1792. The various lawsuits which were brought against him, his love of the people, his keen understanding of his suffering and his desire to put an end to it, earned him great popularity among the Parisian population. However, his ugliness, aggravated by a skin disease, his disheveled appearance, his verbal violence, frighten many. His unattractive physique does not prevent him from inspiring a strong passion in Simone Évrard, his companion, who watches over him jealously, but however will not be able to prevent Charlotte Corday's gesture.

On his return to Paris, the journalist resumed publication of L'Ami du peuple and played a certain role in the psychological preparation for the day of August 10. As a reward, the director of L'Ami du peuple receives one of the four presses taken from the outbuildings of the Louvre, which allows him to increase the circulation of his newspaper. Deputy Administrator to the Supervisory Committee of the Commune, on September 2, 1792, he called on the people to punish traitors with death, and thus bears a certain responsibility for the massacres of September*. After the proclamation of the Republic on September 21, L'Ami du peuple became the Journal de la République française.

Deputy of Paris to the Convention, and become an important politician, Marat is the target of the Girondins, while he worries even the Montagnards by the violence of his remarks. Relentlessly, he affirms that the laws should only be respected insofar as they are just and favorable to the interests of the Revolution and the people. Against those who are hostile to its own views, the Conventional demands a terrorist policy. On September 25, 1792, when he again called for the establishment of a dictatorship, Marat saw Danton and Robespierre rise up against him, as well as the Girondins. Their attack fails, but the Friend of the People, as he is nicknamed, remains isolated. However, he obtained the vote by roll call, responsible in January 1793 for the king's death sentence. To reinforce the terrorist policy, Marat then supported the formation of the Revolutionary Tribunal, in March 1793, as he had supported that of the Committee* of General Security, in October 1792.
In the spring of 1793, he vigorously denounces the Girondins, demanding their arrest, and calls on the Patriots to support Paris and its Commune against them. Arrested on April 12, he hides for a few days. Then, after a demonstration in his favor organized on April 23 by the Commune and the sections, the journalist appeared on the 24 before the Revolutionary Tribunal, which acquitted him triumphantly. Immediately, and with even more violence, he resumed the fight against the Girondins, obtaining on May 27 the suppression of the Girondine Commission of Twelve, and playing a decisive role in the elimination of his enemies, May 30 and June 2. . His reputation "as a man of blood", his nickname of "pope of the horrible", the justified hatreds he aroused, those of the Girondins and their friends above all, led to his downfall. On July 13, the Friend of the People was assassinated in the bathtub of sulphurous water where he treated his skin disease, by Charlotte Corday, influenced by the stories of the Girondins who had taken refuge in her town. Marat immediately becomes a martyr of the Revolution. His mortal remains, deposited in the Pantheon after a solemn funeral, are the object of true veneration. Its end inspires David with one of his most famous paintings, Marat Assassinated. Vérité, meanwhile, will engrave the head of the assassinated Marat from his death mask.

The Friend of the people will continue to arouse passions after his death, the remains of the "Caligula of the crossroads", according to the word of Chateaubriand, will be withdrawn from the Pantheon during the Thermidorian reaction, in February 1795. With his excesses and his love of the people , Marat remains one of the main figures of the French Revolution.


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