Billaud-Varenne, Jean Nicolas
Billaud-Varenne, Jean Nicolas
(zhäk nēkōlä` bēyō`-värĕn`), 1756–1819, French revolutionary. A violent antimonarchist in the Convention, the revolutionary national assembly, he and Jean Marie Collot d'HerboisCollot d'Herbois, Jean Marie, 1750–96, French revolutionary, originally an actor and playwright. Although a member of his Jacobin club, he favored a constitutional monarch.
..... Click the link for more information. were the two members of the ultrarevolutionary Hebértists (see Hébert, Jacques RenéHébert, Jacques René
, 1757–94, French journalist and revolutionary. An ardent supporter of the French Revolution, he gained the support of the working classes through his virulent paper Le Père Duchesne and was prominent in the Cordeliers.
..... Click the link for more information. ) faction to sit on the Committee of Public Safety. A consumate politician, he survived the execution of Hébert, sucessfully intruiged against Georges DantonDanton, Georges Jacques
, 1759–94, French statesman, one of the leading figures of the French Revolution. A Parisian lawyer, he became a leader of the Cordeliers early in the Revolution and gained popular favor through his powerful oratory.
..... Click the link for more information. , and helped bring about the downfall of RobespierreRobespierre, Maximilien Marie Isidore
, 1758–94, one of the leading figures of the French Revolution. Early Life
A poor youth, he was enabled to study law in Paris through a scholarship.
..... Click the link for more information. on 9 ThermidorThermidor
, 11th month of the French Revolutionary calendar. The coup of 9 Thermidor (July 27, 1794) marked the downfall of Robespierre and the end of the Reign of Terror.
..... Click the link for more information. . He was deported to French Guiana for his role in the Reign of TerrorReign of Terror,
1793–94, period of the French Revolution characterized by a wave of executions of presumed enemies of the state. Directed by the Committee of Public Safety, the Revolutionary government's Terror was essentially a war dictatorship, instituted to rule the
..... Click the link for more information. . He refused an amnesty offered by Napoleon Bonaparte (later Emperor Napoleon INapoleon I
, 1769–1821, emperor of the French, b. Ajaccio, Corsica, known as "the Little Corporal." Early Life
The son of Carlo and Letizia Bonaparte (or Buonaparte; see under Bonaparte, family), young Napoleon was sent (1779) to French military schools at
..... Click the link for more information. ). Ultimately he went to Haiti, where he died.
Billaud-Varenne, Jean Nicolas
Born Apr. 23, 1756, in La Rochelle; died June 13, 1819, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Figure in the Great French Revolution; Jacobin.
Billaud-Varenne was a lawyer. He was a member of the Commune of Paris created during the uprising of Aug. 10, 1792. Beginning in September 1792 he was a deputy to the Convention. He came out in favor of the limitation of social inequality. A supporter of revolutionary terror, Billaud-Varenne became a member of the Committee of Public Safety in September 1793. During the period of the split in the Jacobin bloc, he fought against the supporters of G. J. Danton and Hébert. During the counterrevolution of 9 Thermidor (July 27–28, 1794) he was an opponent of M. Robespierre. Billaud-Varenne was arrested during the Thermidorean reaction and in 1795 was exiled to Cayenne (French Guiana). Billaud-Varenne refused to accept the amnesty offered by Napoleon Bonaparte and remained in exile.