CORDELIERS: Radical Revolutionary club—officially “The Society of Friends of the Rights of Man and the Citizen”—that met in a former monastery. Founded by DANTON in 1791, its most famous members included MARAT and HÉBERT.
DANTON, GEORGES-JACQUES (1759–94): Powerful orator and republican politician, Danton became Minister of Justice for the Republic in 1792, and helped form the Revolutionary Tribunal and the COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY. His rhetoric inspired both the SEPTEMBER MASSACRES and the AUGUST 10 storming of the Tuileries. DANTON split with the increasingly powerful ROBESPIERRE over the policies of the TERROR, and was arrested and convicted on charges of corruption, which later proved to be true. He was guillotined with a number of his followers in April 1794.
DAUPHIN: The formal title given to the eldest son and heir of the King of France. The Dauphin in this novel—Louis-Charles de Bourbon (1785–95), known as “Charles Capet” to the Revolutionaries—is traditionally known as Louis XVII. The boy died while still imprisoned in the Temple.
DUMOURIEZ, CHARLES (1739–1823): born Charles-François du Périer du Mouriez, became a successful Revolutionary general after having served as a diplomat under Louis XV and as the last Minister of War under Louis XVI (1791–92). Dumouriez won such significant victories as Valmy over the Prussians and Jemappes against the Austrians, and successfully conquered and occupied modern Belgium for the Republic. When Dumouriez was relieved of command and summoned back to Paris after losing the battle of Neerwinden in March 1793, he understood the order to be a death sentence and defected to the Austrians. Dumouriez’s treason precipitated the MONTAGNARD reaction and the arrest and execution of many GIRONDIN leaders.
FABRE, PHILIPPE (1750–94): known as Fabre d’Eglantine, he was DANTON’S secretary and ally.
FOUQUIER-TINVILLE, ANTOINE (1746–95): the relentless chief prosecutor of aristocrats during the TERROR. He was executed after the fall of ROBESPIERRE and the CONVENTION.
GIRONDINS: Moderate republicans, enemies of the more radical JACOBINS and MONTAGNARDS, led by ROLAND and BRISSOT. The Girondins steadily lost power to the Montagnards; many eventually were condemned to death by the COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY.
HANRIOT, FRANÇOIS (1759–94): General of the Parisian National Guard, successor to SANTERRE, Hanriot took part in the SEPTEMBER MASSACRES. A close ally of ROBESPIERRE, Hanriot attempted to defend him during the coup of 9 Thermidor, but ultimately was arrested and executed.
HÉBERT, JACQUES-RENÉ (1757–94): Journalist and politician, his newspaper, Le Père Duchesne—named for a popular figure in French theater—was the organ for the most radical elements in Revolutionary politics. Hébert was arrested after accusing ROBESPIERRE of excessive moderation, and sentenced to death.
JACOBINS: Taking their name from the former monastery that was their headquarters, the Jacobins were, with the CORDELIERS, the most radical of the political clubs that proliferated in Revolutionary Paris. The most famous Jacobins were ROBESPIERRE and SAINT-JUST. The word jacobin, in French and English, became a political epithet for radicals throughout the early nineteenth century.
LAMBALLE, PRINCESSE DE: Marie Thérèse de Savoie-Carignan (1749–92), by birth a member of the Royal House of Savoy and by marriage a Princess of the Blood Royal of France, the Princesse de Lamballe was one of Marie Antoinette’s closest friends. Having fled to Italy at the outbreak of the Revolution, she returned to Paris out of loyalty and friendship to her Queen. Brutally murdered in the La Force prison during the SEPTEMBER MASSACRES, her head was stuck on a pike and carried to the Temple prison to be shown to Marie Antoinette through the windows.
LANJUINAIS, JEAN-DENIS (1755–1827): a founding member of the JACOBIN Club, with whom he split as they became more radical. His moderate positions earned him a death sentence, but he went into hiding and managed to outlast the TERROR. He survived to serve both Napoleon and the Bourbon Restoration.
LEBRUN, CHARLES-FRANÇOIS (1739–1824): More famous as one of three Consuls of Napoleon Bonaparte’s first government, and then archtreasurer under the Empire, Lebrun briefly served as the GIRONDIN Minister of Foreign Affairs.
MADAME ELISABETH (1764–94): the younger sister of Louis XVI, she remained in France to share prison and ultimately death with her brother and his family.
MADAME ROYALE: Marie Thérèse de Bourbon (1778–1851), daughter of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. After the execution of her parents, she was sent to Austria in exchange for French prisoners of war in 1794. She returned to France with her uncle, Louis XVIII, in 1814. She became one of the chief supporters of the reactionary ultraroyalists, and was forced to flee France again when the Bourbon branch fell in July 1830.
MARAT, JEAN-PAUL (1743–93): physician, writer, and politician, he founded the newspaper L’Ami du peuple (Friend of the Common Man), an organ of extremist positions. A MONTAGNARD in the CONVENTION, he helped to instigate the SEPTEMBER MASSACRES and to bring down the GIRONDINS. He was assassinated in his bath by Charlotte Corday, as famously depicted by Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825) in his painting Marat assassiné.
MONGE, GASPARD (1746–1818): better remembered as a mathematician, Monge was also a politician and member of the JACOBIN Club. He was Minister of the Marine in the first year of the CONVENTION.
MONTAGNARDS: taking their name from the “Mountain,” the high seats they occupied in the legislative assemblies of the Revolutionary governments, the Montagnards were the most radical members of the CONVENTION.
NATIONAL GUARD: the Paris civil militia, founded in 1789 under the command of Lafayette, became a major factor in the factional battles of the Revolution, frequently used against Royalist forces. On AUGUST 10, 1792, the Garde Nationale aided in the taking of the Tuileries that brought down the monarchy.
OCTOBER 5 AND 6, 1789: In the evening of October 5, a violent Parisian mob, led by the market-women of Les Halles, marched to Versailles to demand the return of the Royal family to Paris. The mob led the King and his family back to the Tuileries the next day; the Bourbons never saw their palace again.
OSSELIN, CHARLES-NICOLAS (1752–94): an ally of DANTON who became an influential member of the CONVENTION. He wrote some of the harsh anti-emigré legislation before he fell in love, ironically, with a beautiful young aristocrat, the Marquise de Charny. Probably at her instigation, he began aiding many political prisoners. When this was discovered, he was expelled from the JACOBIN Club and subsequently arrested and condemned to deportation; when he was found to be plotting in prison, he was sent to the guillotine.
PATRIOT: during the Revolution, the term was appropriated by republicans.
PÉTION (DE VILLENEUVE), JÉRÔME (1756–94): Mayor of Paris from 1791 to 1793, and president of the CONVENTION in 1792, Pétion was a leader of the GIRONDINS. When the MONTAGNARDS took power, he fled Paris and eventually killed himself in order to escape arrest.
PHRYGIAN BONNET: the red cap, popular among the sans culottes, modeled after the hat worn by freed slaves in ancient Rome.
RICHARD: Richard and his wife were the concierges—chief attendants—at the CONCIERGERIE when Marie Antoinette first arrived at that prison. They were judged to be overly solicitous of the CI-DEVANT queen, and were replaced by more “patriotic” staff after the failure of the Carnation Plot.
ROBESPIERRE, MAXIMILIEN DE (1758–94): legendary leader of the JACOBINS and the MONTAGNARDS, and chief architect of the TERROR. His harsh laws led to the deaths of thousands deemed traitors throughout Paris. Robespierre solidified his grasp on power by outmaneuvering political enemies to the left (HÉBERT) and right (the GIRONDINS, DANTON) to become virtual dictator of France. He remained in power for just over a year before his own allies turned on him and brought him down in the coup known as 9 Thermidor, the date of his downfall according to the Revolutionary calendar. He was executed, along with his closest followers, in July 1794.
ROLAND, JEAN-MARIE (1734–93): Leader of the GIRONDINS, Roland opposed the execution of Louis XVI and was eventually forced to flee Paris. His highly cultivated a
nd influential wife, Jeanne-Marie (1754–93)—known as Manon—hosted an important salon where Girondins and their political allies gathered. She was arrested and executed with the other leaders of the Rolandiste party. Hearing of her death, her husband killed himself in Rouen.
SAINT-JUST, LOUIS-ANTOINE-LÉON DE (1767–94): a gifted orator and radical revolutionary who became ROBESPIERRE’S closest ally. He was guillotined with Robespierre in July 1794.
SANSON: The Sanson family were the chief executioners of France from 1688 to 1848. Charles-Henri presided over the execution of Louis XVI in January 1793; his son Charles-Henri guillotined Marie Antoinette and Madame Elisabeth the following October.
SANTERRE, ANTOINE-JOSEPH (1752–1809): a wealthy brewer of the faubourg Saint-Antoine. Popular for his charity, Santerre became active in Revolutionary politics and the NATIONAL GUARD. On AUGUST 10, he led his batallion in the assault on the Tuileries. Appointed commander-in-chief of the National Guard by the CONVENTION, he was also commander of the Temple when it became the prison of the Royal family.
SEPTEMBER MASSACRES: from September 2 to 6, 1792, mobs enraged by news of the Prussian invasion of France, and spurred on by the rhetoric of DANTON and MARAT, murdered thousands of prisoners in the Revolutionary prisons of Paris.
SERVAN, JEAN-MARIE-ANTOINE (1752–1808): onetime minister of war who returned to power, briefly, after AUGUST 10. He managed to survive the TERROR.
SIMON, ANTOINE (1736–94): The illiterate Antoine Simon was a failed shoemaker who made a name for himself in Revolutionary politics, first in the Paris Commune and then in the CONVENTION. He was appointed, with his wife, guardian of the former DAUPHIN as part of an effort to give the boy a popular upbringing, that is, to undo the influence of his tyrannical parents and the courtiers that surrounded them.
TERROR: beginning with laws enacted in September 1793 until the fall of ROBESPIERRE in July 1794, the increasingly ruthless dictatorship of the COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC SAFETY sought to purify France of those deemed Royalists and traitors. Best remembered for mass executions by guillotine, the TERROR was also a time of draconian, and disastrous, economic policies.
TISON: the Tisons were appointed to look after the Royal family in the Temple prison; the participation of the Tison daughter in the Carnation Plot—or any other Royalist activity—is an invention of Dumas.
VALAZÉ, CHARLES-ELÉONORE DUFRICHE (1751–94): a pamphleteer who became associated with the GIRONDINS; he opposed the execution of the King. Arrested and condemned to death in the JACOBIN reaction, he killed himself in prison. The leader of the CONVENTION ordered that his body be brought to the scaffold with the other Girondin prisoners.
VARENNES: town in northeast France where the Royal family was arrested on June 22, 1791, after they tried to flee the control of the Revolutionaries in Paris.
VERGNIAUD, PIERRE VICTURNIEN (1753–93): an eloquent orator of the GIRONDIN party, guillotined as part of ROBESPIERRE’S purge.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR
JULIE ROSE is the highly regarded translator of more than a dozen works, including an acclaimed version of Racine’s Phèdre as well as works by Paul Virilio, Jacques Rancière, Chantal Thomas, and many others.
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