Roland de la Platière, Jeanne Manon Philipon

Roland de la Platière, Jeanne Manon Philipon

(Mme Roland) (zhän mänôN` flēpôN` rôläN` də lä plätyĕr`), 1754–93, French revolutionary. Imbued with classical ideals and with the philosophy of Rousseau, she made her house the intellectual center of 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 her influence on Girondist policy was great. Her husband, Jean Marie Roland de la Platière, rose to prominence in the Revolution largely as a result of her ambition and political connections. When her party fell Mme Roland was arrested; as she walked to the guillotine she cried, "O Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy name!"

Bibliography

See her letters (ed. by C. Perroud, 1900–1902); biographies by M. C. Jacquemaire (1930) and G. May (1970).