Marie-Anne Charlotte de Corday d'Armont (27 July 1768 – 17 July 1793), known as Charlotte Corday (), was a figure of 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 ...
. In 1793, she was executed by
guillotine
A guillotine is an apparatus designed for efficiently carrying out executions by beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secured with stocks at th ...
for the assassination of
Jacobin leader
Jean-Paul Marat
Jean-Paul Marat (; born Mara; 24 May 1743 – 13 July 1793) was a French political theorist, physician, and scientist. A journalist and politician during the French Revolution, he was a vigorous defender of the ''sans-culottes'', a radical ...
, who was in part responsible for the more radical course the Revolution had taken through his role as a politician and journalist.
Marat had played a substantial role in the political purge of the
Girondins, with whom Corday sympathized. His murder was depicted in the painting ''
The Death of Marat
''The Death of Marat'' (french: La Mort de Marat or ''Marat Assassiné'') is a 1793 painting by Jacques-Louis David depicting the artist's friend and murdered French revolutionary leader, Jean-Paul Marat. One of the most famous images from the e ...
'' by
Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David (; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in ...
, which shows Marat's dead body after Corday had stabbed him in his medicinal bath. In 1847, writer
Alphonse de Lamartine
Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine (; 21 October 179028 February 1869), was a French author, poet, and statesman who was instrumental in the foundation of the Second Republic and the continuation of the Tricolore as the flag of France. ...
gave Corday the posthumous nickname ''l'ange de l'assassinat'' (the Angel of Assassination).
Biography
![Corday maison](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Corday_maison.JPG)
Born in Saint-Saturnin-des-Ligneries, a hamlet in the
commune
A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to:
Administrative-territorial entities
* Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township
** Communes of ...
of
Écorches (
Orne
Orne (; nrf, Ôrne or ) is a département in the northwest of France, named after the river Orne. It had a population of 279,942 in 2019.[Normandy
Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...]
, Charlotte Corday was a member of a minor aristocratic family. She was a fifth-generation descendant of the
dramatist
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays.
Etymology
The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
Pierre Corneille
Pierre Corneille (; 6 June 1606 – 1 October 1684) was a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine.
As a young man, he earned the valuable patronag ...
. Her parents were cousins.
While Corday was a young girl, her older sister and their mother, Charlotte Marie Jacqueline Gaultier de Mesnival, died. Her father, Jacques François de Corday, Seigneur d'Armont (1737–1798), unable to cope with his grief over their deaths, sent Corday and her younger sister to the
Abbaye aux Dames
An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns.
The conc ...
convent in
Caen
Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,[Plutarch
Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''P ...]
,
Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...
and
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his ...
.
After 1791, she lived in Caen with her cousin, Madame Le Coustellier de Bretteville-Gouville. The two developed a close relationship, and Corday was the sole heir to her cousin's estate.
Corday's physical appearance is described on her passport as "five feet and one inch... hair and eyebrows auburn, eyes gray, forehead high, mouth medium size, chin dimpled, and an oval face".
Political influence
![Tony Robert-Fleury - Charlotte Corday à Caen en 1793](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Tony_Robert-Fleury_-_Charlotte_Corday_%C3%A0_Caen_en_1793.jpg)
After the revolution radicalized further and headed towards terror, Charlotte Corday began to sympathize with the
Girondins. She admired their speeches and grew fond of many of the Girondist groups whom she met while living in Caen. She respected the political principles of the Girondins and came to align herself with their thinking. She regarded them as a movement that would ultimately save France. The Girondins represented a more moderate approach to the revolution and they, like Corday, were skeptical about the direction the revolution was taking. They opposed the
Montagnards
Montagnard (''of the mountain'' or ''mountain dweller'') may refer to:
* Montagnard (French Revolution), members of The Mountain (''La Montagne''), a political group during the French Revolution (1790s)
** Montagnard (1848 revolution), members of t ...
, who advocated a more radical approach to the revolution, which included the extreme idea that the only way the revolution would survive invasion and civil war was through terrorizing and executing those opposed to it. The opposition to this radical thinking, coupled with the influence of the Girondins, ultimately led Corday to carry out her plan to murder one of the most outspoken and popular
Montagnard radicals,
Jean-Paul Marat
Jean-Paul Marat (; born Mara; 24 May 1743 – 13 July 1793) was a French political theorist, physician, and scientist. A journalist and politician during the French Revolution, he was a vigorous defender of the ''sans-culottes'', a radical ...
.
Corday's action aided in restructuring the private versus public role of the woman in society at the time. The idea of women as second class or "less than" was challenged, and Corday was considered a hero to those who were against the teachings of Marat. There have been suggestions that her act incited the banning of women's political clubs, and the executions of female activists such as the Girondin
Madame Roland
Marie-Jeanne 'Manon' Roland de la Platière (Paris, March 17, 1754 – Paris, November 8, 1793), born Marie-Jeanne Phlipon, and best known under the name Madame Roland, was a French revolutionary, salonnière and writer.
Initially she led a ...
.
The influence of Girondin ideas on Corday is evident in her words at her trial: "I have killed one man to save a hundred thousand." As the revolution progressed, the Girondins had become progressively more opposed to the radical, violent propositions of the Montagnards such as Marat and
Robespierre. Corday's notion that she was saving a hundred thousand lives echoes this Girondin sentiment as they attempted to slow the revolution and reverse the violence that had escalated since the
September Massacres
The September Massacres were a series of killings of prisoners in Paris that occurred in 1792, from Sunday, 2 September until Thursday, 6 September, during the French Revolution. Between 1,176 and 1,614 people were killed by '' fédérés'', gu ...
of 1792.
Marat's assassination
Jean-Paul Marat
Jean-Paul Marat (; born Mara; 24 May 1743 – 13 July 1793) was a French political theorist, physician, and scientist. A journalist and politician during the French Revolution, he was a vigorous defender of the ''sans-culottes'', a radical ...
was a member of the radical
Jacobin faction that had a leading role during the
Reign of Terror
The Reign of Terror (french: link=no, la Terreur) was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, ...
. As a journalist, he exerted power and influence through his newspaper, ''
L'Ami du peuple
''L'Ami du peuple'' (, ''The Friend of the People'') was a newspaper written by Jean-Paul Marat during the French Revolution. "The most celebrated radical paper of the Revolution", according to historian Jeremy D. Popkin, ''L’Ami du peuple'' ...
'' ("The Friend of the People"). Corday's decision to kill Marat was stimulated not only by her revulsion at the
September Massacres
The September Massacres were a series of killings of prisoners in Paris that occurred in 1792, from Sunday, 2 September until Thursday, 6 September, during the French Revolution. Between 1,176 and 1,614 people were killed by '' fédérés'', gu ...
, for which she held Marat responsible, but by her fear of an all-out civil war.
She believed that Marat was threatening the Republic, and that his death would end violence throughout the country. She also believed that
King Louis XVI
Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was e ...
should not have been executed.
![Death of Marat by David](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Death_of_Marat_by_David.jpg)
On 9 July 1793, Corday left her cousin, carrying a copy of
Plutarch
Plutarch (; grc-gre, Πλούταρχος, ''Ploútarchos''; ; – after AD 119) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''P ...
's ''
Parallel Lives
Plutarch's ''Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans'', commonly called ''Parallel Lives'' or ''Plutarch's Lives'', is a series of 48 biographies of famous men, arranged in pairs to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings, probably writt ...
'', and went to Paris, where she took a room at the Hôtel de Providence. She bought a kitchen knife with a blade. During the next few days, she wrote her ''Adresse aux Français amis des lois et de la paix'' ("Address to the French, friends of Law and Peace") to explain her motives for assassinating Marat.
![Paul Baudry - Charlotte Corday - c 1860 - Nantes Museum of Art](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Paul_Baudry_-_Charlotte_Corday_-_c_1860_-_Nantes_Museum_of_Art.jpg)
Corday initially planned to assassinate Marat in front of the entire
National Convention
The National Convention (french: link=no, Convention nationale) was the parliament of the Kingdom of France for one day and the French First Republic for the rest of its existence during the French Revolution, following the two-year National ...
. She intended to make an example of him, but upon arriving in Paris she discovered that Marat no longer attended meetings because his health was deteriorating due to a skin disorder (perhaps
dermatitis herpetiformis
Dermatitis herpetiformis (DH) is a chronic autoimmune blistering skin condition, characterised by intensely itchy blisters filled with a watery fluid. DH is a cutaneous manifestation of coeliac disease, although the exact causal mechanism is not k ...
). She was then forced to change her plan. She went to Marat's home before noon on 13 July, claiming to have knowledge of a planned Girondist uprising in
Caen
Caen (, ; nrf, Kaem) is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the department of Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inhabitants (), while its functional urban area has 470,000,[bathtub
A bathtub, also known simply as a bath or tub, is a container for holding water in which a person or animal may bathe. Most modern bathtubs are made of thermoformed acrylic, porcelain-enameled steel or cast iron, or fiberglass-reinforced ...]
because of his skin condition. Marat wrote down the names of the Girondins that she gave to him; she then pulled out the knife and plunged it into his chest. He called out: ''Aidez-moi, ma chère amie!'' ("Help me, my dear friend!"), and then died.
This is the moment memorialized by
Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David (; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in ...
's painting ''
The Death of Marat
''The Death of Marat'' (french: La Mort de Marat or ''Marat Assassiné'') is a 1793 painting by Jacques-Louis David depicting the artist's friend and murdered French revolutionary leader, Jean-Paul Marat. One of the most famous images from the e ...
''. A different angle of the iconic pose of Marat dead in his bath is in
Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry
Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry (7 November 1828 17 January 1886) was a French painter.
Life
Baudry was born in 1828 in La Roche-sur-Yon in the Vendée. He studied art under Michel Martin Drolling and enrolled in the École des Beaux-Arts in 1845. ...
's 1860 painting ''Charlotte Corday''.
In response to Marat's dying shout, Simonne Evrard rushed into the room. She was joined by a distributor of Marat's newspaper, who seized Corday. Two neighbours, a military surgeon and a dentist, attempted to revive Marat. Republican officials arrived to interrogate Corday, and to calm a hysterical crowd who appeared ready to lynch her.
Trial
Charlotte Corday sent the following farewell letter to her father which was intercepted and read during the trial, the letter helping to establish that Marat's murder was premeditated:
Corday underwent three separate cross-examinations by senior revolutionary judicial officials, including the President of the Revolutionary Tribunal and the chief prosecutor. She stressed that she was a republican and had been so even before the Revolution, citing the values of ancient Rome as an ideal model.
The focus of the questioning was to establish whether she had been part of a wider Girondist conspiracy. Corday remained constant in insisting that "I alone conceived the plan and executed it." She referred to Marat as a "hoarder" and a "monster" who was respected only in Paris. She credited her fatal knifing of Marat with one blow not to practicing in advance but to luck.
Charlotte Corday asked for
Gustave le Doulcet, an old acquaintance, to defend her, but he did not receive the letter she wrote to him in time, so
Claude François Chauveau-Lagarde
Claude François Chauveau-Lagarde (1756–1841) was a French lawyer who came into the public spotlight in the early stages of the French Revolution. He defended many notable cases during the Reign of Terror, including that of Marie Antoinette.
...
was appointed instead to assist her during the trial. It is believed that
Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville voluntarily delayed the letter,
however, it is said that Corday thought that Le Doulcet refused to defend her and sent to him a last letter of reproach just before going to the scaffold.
Execution
![Carlota Corday 1889 by Arturo Michelena](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Carlota_Corday_1889_by_Arturo_Michelena.jpg)
Following her sentencing Corday asked the court if her portrait could be painted, purportedly to record her true self. She made her request pleading, "Since I still have a few moments to live, might I hope, citizens, that you will allow me to have myself painted."
Given permission, she selected as the artist a National Guard officer,
Jean-Jacques Hauer
Jean-Jacques Hauer or Johann Jakob Hauer (10 March 1751 – 3 June 1829) was a German painter active in France. Hauer is known to have painted the portrait of Charlotte Corday before her execution.
Selected works
* Oil painting, ex-vo ...
, who had already begun sketching her from the gallery of the courtroom. Hauer's likeness (see above) was completed shortly before Corday was summoned to the tumbril, after she had viewed it and suggested a few changes.
Since her execution, many authors have written describing Corday as a natural blonde, primarily due to this portrait by Hauer. Although Hauer admired her and took a keen interest in her fate, he had to depict Corday as a vain aristocrat and counterrevolutionary for his own protection. To give the idea that she had taken the time to make herself presentable and powder her hair before murdering Marat, Hauer painted Corday's hair a very light shade. Despite the fame of this one portrait, many other paintings (done both in life and posthumously) show Corday in her true brunette form, and her passport describes her hair as "
chestnut
The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere.
The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce.
The unrelat ...
" (''châtains''), refuting the idea that Corday had fair hair.
On 17 July 1793, four days after Marat was killed, Corday was executed by the
guillotine
A guillotine is an apparatus designed for efficiently carrying out executions by beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secured with stocks at th ...
in the
Place de Grève
Place may refer to:
Geography
* Place (United States Census Bureau), defined as any concentration of population
** Census-designated place, a populated area lacking its own municipal government
* "Place", a type of street or road name
** Often ...
wearing the red overblouse denoting a condemned traitor who had assassinated a representative of the people. Standing alone in the
tumbril
A tumbrel (alternatively tumbril) is a two-wheeled cart or wagon typically designed to be hauled by a single horse or ox. Their original use was for agricultural work; in particular they were associated with carrying manure. Their most infamous ...
amid a large and curious crowd she remained calm, although drenched by a sudden summer rainfall. Her body was buried in the
Madeleine Cemetery
*''Cimetière de la Madeleine is also the name of a cemetery in Amiens''
Madeleine Cemetery (in French known as ''Cimetière de la Madeleine'') is a former cemetery in the 8th arrondissement of Paris and was one of the four cemeteries (the others ...
. Her skull was said to have been removed from her grave and passed from person to person in later years.
Aftermath
After Corday's decapitation, a man named Legros lifted her head from the basket and slapped it on the cheek.
Charles-Henri Sanson
Charles-Henri Sanson, full title ''Chevalier Charles-Henri Sanson de Longval'' (15 February 1739 – 4 July 1806), was the royal executioner of France during the reign of King Louis XVI, as well as High Executioner of the First French Republic. He ...
, the executioner, indignantly rejected published reports that Legros was one of his assistants. Sanson stated in his diary that Legros was in fact a carpenter who had been hired to make repairs to the guillotine. Witnesses report an expression of "unequivocal indignation" on her face when her cheek was slapped. The oft-repeated anecdote has served to suggest that victims of the guillotine may in fact retain consciousness for a short while, including by
Albert Camus
Albert Camus ( , ; ; 7 November 1913 – 4 January 1960) was a French philosopher, author, dramatist, and journalist. He was awarded the 1957 Nobel Prize in Literature at the age of 44, the second-youngest recipient in history. His work ...
in his ''
Reflections on the Guillotine "Reflections on the Guillotine" is an extended essay written in 1957 by Albert Camus. In the essay Camus takes an uncompromising position for the abolition of the death penalty. Camus's view is similar to that of Cesare Beccaria and the Marquis de S ...
.'' ("Charlotte Corday's severed head blushed, it is said, under the executioner's slap.").
This offense against a woman executed moments before was considered unacceptable and Legros was imprisoned for three months because of his outburst.
Jacobin leaders had her body autopsied immediately after her death to see if she was a
virgin
Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...
. They believed there was a man sharing her bed and the assassination plans. To their dismay, she was found to be a virgin.
The direct consequences of her crime were opposite to what she expected: the assassination did not stop the Jacobins or the Terror, which intensified after the murder.
Also Marat became a martyr, a bust of him replaced a religious statue on the ''rue aux Ours'' and a number of place-names were changed to honor Marat.
Corday's act transformed the idea of what a woman was capable of, and to those who did not shun her for her act, she was a heroine.
André Chénier
André Marie Chénier (; 30 October 176225 July 1794) was a French poet of Greek and Franco-Levantine origin, associated with the events of the French Revolution of which he was a victim. His sensual, emotive poetry marks him as one of the precur ...
, for example, wrote a poem in honor of Corday. This highlighted the "masculinity" possessed by Corday during the revolution.
The Revolution and women
Corday's killing of Marat was considered vile, an "arch-typically masculine statement", which reaction showed that whether or not one approved of what she did, it is clear that the murder of Marat changed the political role and position of women during the French Revolution. Corday was surprised by the reaction of revolutionary women, stating, "As I was truly calm I suffered from the shouts of a few women. But to save your country means not noticing what it costs."
After Corday murdered Marat, the majority of women distanced themselves from her because they believed that what she had done would spark a reaction against the now developing
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
movement, which was already facing criticism. Also, many of these women were attached to Marat in that they were supporters of his revolutionary efforts and sympathized with him as citizens of France.
Cultural references
*American dramatist
Sarah Pogson Smith memorialised Corday in her 1807 verse drama ''The Female Enthusiast: A Tragedy in Five Acts''.
*
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achie ...
wrote about her in his ''
Posthumous Fragments of Margaret Nicholson'' (1810).
*
Alphonse de Lamartine
Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine (; 21 October 179028 February 1869), was a French author, poet, and statesman who was instrumental in the foundation of the Second Republic and the continuation of the Tricolore as the flag of France. ...
devoted to her a book of his ''Histoire des Girondins'' series (1847), in which he gave her this now-famous nickname: "''l'ange de l'assassinat''" (the angel of assassination).
*French dramatist
François Ponsard
François Ponsard (1 June 1814 – 7 July 1867) was a French dramatist, poet and author and was a member of the Académie française.
Biography
Ponsard was born at Vienne, Isère in 1814 and trained as a lawyer. His first literary work w ...
wrote a play, ''Charlotte Corday'', that was premièred at the
Théâtre-Français in March 1850.
*In the 1862 novel ''
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 origin ...
'', Combeferre likens Enjolras's execution of Le Cabuc to Corday's assassination of Marat, calling it a "liberating murder".
*''
Harper's Weekly
''Harper's Weekly, A Journal of Civilization'' was an American political magazine based in New York City. Published by Harper & Brothers from 1857 until 1916, it featured foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays on many subjects, and humor, ...
'' mentioned Corday in their 29 April 1865 edition, in a series of articles analyzing the assassination of
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
, as the "one assassin whom history mentions with toleration and even applause", but goes on to conclude that her assassination of Marat was a mistake in that she became Marat's victim rather than saving or helping his victims.
*At the end of Act III, before departing to kill the Czar, the eponymous heroine of
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...
's play ''
Vera; or, The Nihilists
''Vera; or, The Nihilists'' is a play by Oscar Wilde. It is a tragedy set in Russia and is loosely based on the life of Vera Zasulich. It was Wilde's first play, and the first to be performed. A draft of the script was completed in 1880 and t ...
'' (1880) exclaims "the spirit of Charlotte Corday has entered my soul now".
*In 1894,
Kyrle Bellew
Harold Kyrle Money Bellew (28 March 1850 – 2 November 1911) was an English stage and silent film actor. He notably toured with Cora Brown-Potter in the 1880s and 1890s, and was cast as the leading man in many stage productions alongside ...
penned a play in four acts detailing the assassination entitled ''Charlotte Corday'', taking the role of Marat, while his acting partner
Cora Urquhart Brown-Potter
Mary Cora Urquhart or Cora Brown–Potter (May 15, 1857 – February 12, 1936) was an American actress who found success in London. Formerly a member of '' The Four Hundred'' in New York'','' she was one of the first American society women to bec ...
played as Charlotte Corday.
*In the 1903 novel ''
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
''Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm'' is a classic American 1903 children's novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin that tells the story of Rebecca Rowena Randall and her aunts, one stern and one kind, in the fictional village of Riverboro, Maine. Rebecca's joy ...
'', young Rebecca re-enacts a scene of Charlotte Corday in prison, with her friends playing the role of the mob.
*The 1919 German silent film ''
Charlotte Corday'' starred
Lya Mara
Lya Mara (born Aleksandra Gudowicz; 1 August 1897 – 1 March 1960) was a Polish actress. She was one of the biggest stars of the German silent cinema.
Biography
Lya Mara was born Aleksandra Gudowicz in a Polish family in Riga, Governorate of ...
in the title role.
*
Drieu La Rochelle wrote a play in three acts called ''Charlotte Corday'' in 1939. It was performed in southern France during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Corday is depicted as a fervent republican who hopes eliminating Marat will save the revolution and prevent it from degenerating into tyranny.
*In
Peter Weiss
Peter Ulrich Weiss (8 November 1916 – 10 May 1982) was a German writer, painter, graphic artist, and experimental filmmaker of adopted Swedish nationality. He is particularly known for his plays ''Marat/Sade'' and ''The Investigation'' and hi ...
's 1963 ''
Marat/Sade
''The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade'' (german: Die Verfolgung und Ermordung Jean Paul Marats dargestellt durch die Schauspielgrupp ...
'', the assassination of Marat is presented as a play, written by the
Marquis de Sade, to be performed for the public by inmates of the asylum at
Charenton.
*Italian composer
Lorenzo Ferrero composed an opera in three acts, ''
Charlotte Corday'', for the 200th anniversary of 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 ...
which was commemorated in 1989.
*Corday is a character in
Katherine Neville's 1988 novel ''
The Eight''. In the novel, Marat is killed, not by Corday, but by a former nun named Mireille. Corday accepts the blame and is executed for the crime so that Mireille may continue her quest for the mysterious and powerful Montglane Chess Service.
*Actor
Herbert Lom
Herbert Charles Angelo Kuchačevič ze Schluderpacheru (11 September 1917 – 27 September 2012), known professionally as Herbert Lom (), was a Czech-British actor who moved to the United Kingdom in 1939. In a career lasting more than 60 ye ...
's 1993 novel ''Dr Guillotine'' features Corday as a principal protagonist in a story set around the Reign of Terror.
*British singer-songwriter
Al Stewart included a song co-written by
Tori Amos
Tori Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos; August 22, 1963) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. She is a classically trained musician with a mezzo-soprano vocal range. Having already begun composing instrumental pieces on piano, Amos won a full ...
about Corday on his album ''
Famous Last Words
Famous Last Words may refer to:
* List of last words, collection of last words attributed to historical figures before their death
Music
* Famous Last Words (band), an American metal band
Albums
* ''Famous Last Words'' (Al Stewart album), ...
'' (1993).
*Charlotte appears briefly but significantly, in Caen, in ''A Far Better Rest'' (2010), by Susanne Alleyn, a reimagining of ''
A Tale of Two Cities
''A Tale of Two Cities'' is a historical novel published in 1859 by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in ...
''.
*The graphic novel series ''L'Ordre Du Chaos'' includes a whole book dedicated to Charlotte Corday and Marat (2014).
*Corday is a central character in
Lauren Gunderson
Lauren Gunderson (born February 5, 1982) is an American playwright, screenwriter, and short story author, born in Atlanta. She lives in San Francisco, where she teaches playwriting. Gunderson was recognized by ''American Theatre'' magazine as A ...
's 2017 play ''The Revolutionists'', a comedic quartet about four French women during the Reign of Terror.
*Corday appears in the mobile videogame ''
Fate/Grand Order
is a free-to-play Japanese mobile game, developed by Lasengle (formerly Delightworks) using Unity, and published by Aniplex, a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment Japan. The game is based on Type-Moon's ''Fate/stay night'' franchise, and w ...
'' as a playable servant of the "Assassin" class to be summoned by the player.
*Solving Marat's murder is a mission in the videogame ''
Assassin's Creed Unity
''Assassin's Creed Unity'' is an Action-adventure game, action-adventure video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It was released in November 2014 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, and in December 2020 ...
''. Corday is one of the suspects and confesses to the murder.
Gallery
File:Story Corday 1882.jpg, Painting of Charlotte Corday by Julian Story
Julian Russell Story (September 8, 1857 – February 24, 1919) was an American painter.
Early life
Story was born on September 8, 1857 in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey to American parents. He was the youngest child of sculptor William Wetmore Story ...
(1889)
File:L'Assassinat de Marat.jpg, ''The Assassination of Marat'' by Jean-Joseph Weerts
Jean-Joseph Weerts (1 May 1846, Roubaix - 28 September 1927, Paris) was a French painter of Belgian origin who worked in the Academic style.
Biography
His father was a mechanical engineer who gave him his first introduction to drawing. Later, i ...
(1880)
File:Joseph Roques - La mort de Marat - 1793.jpg, ''The Death of Marat'' by Guillaume-Joseph Roques
Guillaume-Joseph Roques (1757–1847) was a French neoclassical and romantic painter.
He taught at the Royal Academy of Arts in Toulouse where Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres was among his pupils. He was a prolific artist and one of the mos ...
(1793); a knife lies on the floor at lower left in the paintings by Roques and David
File:Jacques-louis david, la morte di marat, 1793, 05 lettera.jpg, Detail from ''The Death of Marat
''The Death of Marat'' (french: La Mort de Marat or ''Marat Assassiné'') is a 1793 painting by Jacques-Louis David depicting the artist's friend and murdered French revolutionary leader, Jean-Paul Marat. One of the most famous images from the e ...
'' by Jacques-Louis David
Jacques-Louis David (; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in ...
. Marat's dead hand grips a piece of bloody paper which reads, "July 13, 1793. Marie Anne Charlotte Corday to Citizen Marat. Suffice it to say that I am very unhappy to be entitled to your benevolence."
File:Charlotte corday.jpg, Charlotte Corday by François-Séraphin Delpech
References
Attribution
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Further reading
• Montfort, Catherine R."For the Defence: Charlotte Corday's letters from prison." Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 329 (1995): 235-47
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Corday, Charlotte
18th-century French criminals
1768 births
1793 deaths
1793 murders in Europe
People from Orne
French assassins
French people executed by guillotine during the French Revolution
French nobility
Girondins
French Roman Catholics
Executed assassins
French female murderers
Executed French women
People convicted of murder by France
French people convicted of murder
Women in the French Revolution
Female revolutionaries