Roland de la Platière, Jean Marie

Roland de la Platière, Jean Marie

(zhäN märē` rôläN` də lä plätyĕr`), 1734–93, French revolutionary. An inspector general of commerce at Rouen and Amiens, he went to Paris in 1791 and published the Financier patriote. Largely through the influence of his wife, Jeanne Manon Roland de la Platière, Roland rose to power with the GirondistsGirondists
or Girondins
, political group of moderate republicans in the French Revolution, so called because the central members were deputies of the Gironde dept. Girondist leaders advocated continental war.
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 and became (1792) minister of the interior. King Louis XVI dismissed him in July, 1792, but he was restored to office after the overthrow of the monarchy (Aug. 10, 1792). Accused of royalism in 1793, he resigned and fled Paris. When he learned that his wife had been executed, he committed suicide.