Charles Michel,

Marquis A marquess (; french: marquis ), es, marqués, pt, marquês. is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman wi ...

de Villette (4 December 1736 – 7 July 1793) was a French writer and politician. Charles_de_Villette

Life

Voltaire's ''protégé''

Charles was born in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

as the heir of a

financier An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some species of property. Type ...

who left him a large fortune and the nobility title of Marquis. After taking part in the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754� ...

, Villette returned in 1763 to his native city, where he owned an estate in Clermont. The Marquis made many enemies by his perceived lack of

manners Etiquette () is the set of norms of personal behaviour in polite society, usually occurring in the form of an ethical code of the expected and accepted social behaviours that accord with the conventions and norms observed and practised by a ...

. Nonetheless, he succeeded in gaining the intimacy of

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 ...

, who had known his mother and who wished to turn him into a poet; the aging ''

philosophe The ''philosophes'' () were the intellectuals of the 18th-century Enlightenment.Kishlansky, Mark, ''et al.'' ''A Brief History of Western Civilization: The Unfinished Legacy, volume II: Since 1555.'' (5th ed. 2007). Few were primarily philosophe ...

'' is even recorded to have viewed his ''

protégé Mentorship is the influence, guidance, or direction given by a mentor. A mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person. In an organizational setting, a mentor influences the personal and p ...

'' Villette as "''the French

Tibullus Albius Tibullus ( BC19 BC) was a Latin poet and writer of elegies. His first and second books of poetry are extant; many other texts attributed to him are of questionable origins. Little is known about the life of Tibullus. There are only a fe ...

''". In 1765, Voltaire invited the Marquis to his estate at

Ferney Ferney-Voltaire () is a commune in the Ain department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France. It lies between the Jura Mountains and the Swiss border; it forms part of the metropolitan area of Geneva. History Ferney was first ...

. Although Voltaire joked quite freely about the Marquis' illegal attractions to men, he convinced the Marquis to marry

Reine Philiberte de Varicourt Reine Philiberte Rouph de Varicourt (1757–1822) was a French lady of letters. The sister of Pierre-Marin Rouph de Varicourt, she was spotted by Voltaire during his stay at Ferney – he made her his adoptive daughter, married her off to the ...

in 1777. The marriage was unhappy, and his wife was subsequently adopted by Voltaire's niece,

Marie Louise Mignot Marie Louise Mignot (February 12, 1712 – August 10, 1790) was a French literary figure. She was the daughter of Voltaire's sister, Catherine Arouet (1686–1726) and her husband Pierre-François Mignot (d. 1737). After the death of her widowed ...

. Both Charles and Philiberte remained devoted to Voltaire, however, and it was at their home in Paris that Voltaire died in 1778. Villette kept Voltaire's heart in an

urn An urn is a vase, often with a cover, with a typically narrowed neck above a rounded body and a footed pedestal. Describing a vessel as an "urn", as opposed to a vase or other terms, generally reflects its use rather than any particular shape or ...

.Crompton, Louis. ''Homosexuality and Civilization.'' Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2003.

Revolution

During 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 ...

, Villette publicly burned his , wrote revolutionary articles in the ''Chronique de Paris'', and put forth the proposal that

Louis XVI of France 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 be stripped of most power but maintained as

head of state A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and l ...

. In the rain of pamphlets which followed this advice, much was made of Villette's attraction to men. One pamphleteer vulgarized him as a man "unnatural" in all things. Another claimed that his own pamphlet, '' Les Enfants de Sodome à l'Assemblée Nationale, ou Députation de l'Ordre de la Manchette aux représentants de tous les ordres'', actually came from the house of Villette, who was named as Grand Commander of an order of

male Male (symbol: ♂) is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete (sex cell) known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or ovum, in the process of fertilization. A male organism cannot reproduce sexually without access to ...

lovers in this mocking call for

gay rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, , 3 ...

. The attacks were answered on Villette's behalf by his illustrious friend,

Anacharsis Cloots Jean-Baptiste du Val-de-Grâce, baron de Cloots (24 June 1755 – 24 March 1794), better known as Anacharsis Cloots (also spelled Clootz), was a Prussian nobleman who was a significant figure in the French Revolution. Perhaps the first to advoca ...

, a Dutchman hailed as "the Spokesman for the Human Race". Villette was elected deputy to the

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 ...

by the ''

départment A department (, ) is an administrative or political division in several countries. Departments are the first-level divisions of 11 countries, nine in the Americas and two in Africa. An additional 10 countries use departments as second-level divi ...

'' of

Seine-et-Oise Seine-et-Oise () was the former department of France encompassing the western, northern and southern parts of the metropolitan area of Paris.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'', gua ...

and to vote for the imprisonment only, and not for the

death penalty Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

, of

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 ...

(December 1792). He died in

the next year, and his seat in the Convention was taken by Antoine-Augustin Auger.

Works

In 1784 he published his ''Œuvres'', and in 1792 his articles in the ''Chronique de Paris'' appeared in book form under the title ''Lettres choisies sur les principaux événements de la Révolution''.

References

External links

''Philosophe'' letters: ''Le marquis de Villette'', August 1765
{{DEFAULTSORT:Villette, Charles, Marquis de 1736 births 1793 deaths 18th-century LGBT people Deputies to the French National Convention Gay politicians French journalists French poets French gay writers LGBT legislators in France Marquesses of Vilette LGBT nobility Writers from Paris Voltaire French LGBT poets French male essayists