Antoine Bernardin Fualdès (10 June 1761 – 19 March 1817) was a French magistrate whose mysterious murder in

Rodez Rodez ( or ; oc, Rodés, ) is a small city and commune in the South of France, about 150 km northeast of Toulouse. It is the prefecture of the department of Aveyron, region of Occitania (formerly Midi-Pyrénées). Rodez is the seat of the ...

created a national political debate, in what was known as the ''Affaire Fualdès''. The murder and the trial were a national and international ''cause célèbre''.

Biography

Fualdès was born in Mur-de-Barrez, the son of Jean-Baptiste Fualdès and Antoinette de Monteilh, Joseph-Bernardin (sometimes named Antoine-Bernardin). Belonging to a family belonging to the ''

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'' in the pre-revolutionary France, Fualdès had access to a legal education. Having completed his studies by the time the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

erupted, he gained credentials as a moderate

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, serving as defence lawyer for

General Custine Adam Philippe, Comte de Custine (4 February 174028 August 1793) was a French general. As a young officer in the French Royal Army, he served in the Seven Years' War. In the American Revolutionary War he joined Rochambeau's ''Expédition Particu ...

and even participating in the defense of

Charlotte Corday Marie-Anne Charlotte de Corday d'Armont (27 July 1768 – 17 July 1793), known as Charlotte Corday (), was a figure of the French Revolution. In 1793, she was executed by guillotine for the assassination of Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat, who w ...

. He obtained appointments in Rodez under subsequent administrations, including under Napoleon, but was forced to retire upon the restoration of the Monarchy. The events surrounding his murder created a luridly baroque story:One detailed recount of the events written in English can be found i
Papers Dramatic and Historical
by Henry Brodribb Irving; page 185-227; publisher Bickers and Sons, London, 1906. his corpse was found floating in the Aveyron river. The accused were said to have lured the former prosecutor to a hotel and shrouded his cries during the murder with the loud sounds of a organ grinder. Initially the motives appeared political: Fualdès was a former Bonapartist and revolutionary; his assassins were royalists. But the trial became a spectacle and had immense press coverage. A first trial locally was cancelled and moved to

Albi Albi (; oc, Albi ) is a commune in southern France. It is the prefecture of the Tarn department, on the river Tarn, 85 km northeast of Toulouse. Its inhabitants are called ''Albigensians'' (french: Albigeois, Albigeoise(s), oc, albig� ...

. Witnesses to the events continued to multiply and now incorporate members of a lower-class family that hosted a nearby gambling den. The young children of this family are brought to testify of bizarre events. One famous "witness", Marie-Francois Clarisse Enraljand (Clarisse Manson), daughter of a presiding judge of the provost court of

Aveyron Aveyron (; oc, Avairon; ) is a department in the region of Occitania, Southern France. It was named after the river Aveyron. Its inhabitants are known as ''Aveyronnais'' (masculine) or ''Aveyronnaises'' (feminine) in French. The inhabitants o ...

who supervised the case, took the stand to accuse her lover Lieutenant Clémendot, an officer of the Rodez garrison of witnessing the murder. Her testimony was often contradictory, and she had a habit of fainting at poignant moments. In the end some of the accused were convicted by 1818. Subsequently, the events and the trials have provided fodder for authors from Honoré de Balzac,

Gustave Flaubert Gustave Flaubert ( , , ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. Highly influential, he has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flauber ...

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...

(who mentions the trial in ''

Les Misérables ''Les Misérables'' ( , ) is a French historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. In the English-speaking world, the novel is usually referred to by its original ...

''), Anatole France, and many others. Some creating dramatic works, others writing about the events, and theories regarding the events. There is even a semi-autobiographical ''Memoirs of Madame Manson''.

Bibliography

*Michel Louis Rouquette, ''La Rumeur et le Meurtre. L'affaire Fualdès'', Paris, PUF, collection Sociologie Today, 1992, , 110 p. *Marie-Françoise-Clarisse Manson née Enjalran, '' Memoirs of Madame Manson, explanations of her conduct, in the trial of the assassination of Mr. Fualdès: written by herself and addressed to Madame Enjalran, her mother / d . by Henri de Latouche'', Paris, Chez Pillet, 1818, *Peter Shankland, ''Murder with a double tongue: the enigma of Clarissa Manson'', London, Kimber, 1978. *Armand Praviel, ''The murder of Monsieur Fualdès'', London, Glasgow W. Collins Sons, 1923.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fualdes, Antoine Bernardin 1761 births 1817 deaths People of the French Revolution People of the Bourbon Restoration 19th-century trials Unsolved murders in France 1817 in France French magistrates