![Portrait d'Herman d'après L'interrogatpore de Marie-Antoinette de Pierre Bouillon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Portrait_d%27Herman_d%27apr%C3%A8s_L%27interrogatpore_de_Marie-Antoinette_de_Pierre_Bouillon.jpg)
Martial Joseph Armand Herman (29 August 1759,
Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise
Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise (, literally ''Saint-Pol on Ternoise''; vls, Sint-Pols-aan-de-Ternas) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. It is the seat of the canton of Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise. The population of the town is 4, ...
– 7 May 1795,
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 ...
) (guillotined), was a lawyer and a
chief judge
A chief judge (also known as presiding judge, president judge or principal judge) is the highest-ranking or most senior member of a lower court or circuit court with more than one judge. According to the Federal judiciary of the United States, th ...
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, ...
. His most famous cases were against
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne (; ; née Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child a ...
and
Georges Danton
Georges Jacques Danton (; 26 October 1759 – 5 April 1794) was a French lawyer and a leading figure in the French Revolution. He became a deputy to the Paris Commune, presided in the Cordeliers district, and visited the Jacobin club. In Augus ...
. As the commissioner of police he dealt with the
Luxembourg prison conspiracies, shortly before the Jacobin regime fell.
Life
Martial was born in a family of lawyers. On 26 July 1783 he was admitted to the bar, and in 1786 he bought the post of substitute attorney general of the provincial Estates of Artois, which seated in
Arras
Arras ( , ; pcd, Aro; historical nl, Atrecht ) is the prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, department, which forms part of the regions of France, region of Hauts-de-France; before the regions of France#Reform and mergers of ...
. In 1790 he founded the local club of
Jacobins
, logo = JacobinVignette03.jpg
, logo_size = 180px
, logo_caption = Seal of the Jacobin Club (1792–1794)
, motto = "Live free or die"(french: Vivre libre ou mourir)
, successor = Pa ...
together with his younger brother. In 1791 he was elected criminal court judge in the
Pas-de-Calais
Pas-de-Calais (, " strait of Calais"; pcd, Pas-Calés; also nl, Nauw van Kales) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments ...
. In 1792 he married a lower class woman from
Willerval, who could not read; the couple had one child. On 28 August 1793, on instigation of Robespierre he replaced
Jacques-Bernard-Marie Montané
Jacques-Bernard-Marie Montané (5 January 1751, Toulouse–after 1805) was president of the Revolutionary Tribunal from March to August in 1793, during the French Revolution.
He was president at the trial of Charlotte Corday.
He was seen as i ...
as President of the
Revolutionary Tribunal
The Revolutionary Tribunal (french: Tribunal révolutionnaire; unofficially Popular Tribunal) was a court instituted by the National Convention during the French Revolution for the trial of political offenders. It eventually became one of the ...
. He presided at the trial of
Marie-Antoinette
Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne (; ; née Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child and ...
, and the
Girondins
The Girondins ( , ), or Girondists, were members of a loosely knit political faction during the French Revolution. From 1791 to 1793, the Girondins were active in the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention. Together with the Montagnard ...
in October,
Philippe Égalité Philippe is a masculine sometimes feminin given name, cognate to Philip. It may refer to:
* Philippe of Belgium (born 1960), King of the Belgians (2013–present)
* Philippe (footballer) (born 2000), Brazilian footballer
* Prince Philippe, Coun ...
,
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 ...
, and
Jean Sylvain Bailly
Jean Sylvain Bailly (; 15 September 1736 – 12 November 1793) was a French astronomer, mathematician, freemason, and political leader of the early part of the French Revolution. He presided over the Tennis Court Oath, served as the mayor of Par ...
in November, in March/April 1794
Jacques Hébert,
Georges Danton
Georges Jacques Danton (; 26 October 1759 – 5 April 1794) was a French lawyer and a leading figure in the French Revolution. He became a deputy to the Paris Commune, presided in the Cordeliers district, and visited the Jacobin club. In Augus ...
and
Camille Desmoulins
Lucie-Simplice-Camille-Benoît Desmoulins (; 2 March 17605 April 1794) was a French journalist and politician who played an important role in the French Revolution. Desmoulins was tried and executed alongside Georges Danton when the Committee o ...
. On proposal of
Lazare Carnot
Lazare Nicolas Marguerite, Count Carnot (; 13 May 1753 – 2 August 1823) was a French mathematician, physicist and politician. He was known as the "Organizer of Victory" in the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars.
Education and early ...
he set up twelve commissions created by the executive decree of 12 Germinal (1 April), to replace the six ministries and their offices, of which he chaired the first (general administration and courts). He was replaced by
René-François Dumas
René-François Dumas, born 14 December 1753 in Jussey, in the bailiwick of Amont (now in Haute-Saône), was a revolutionary French lawyer and politician, regarded as a "Robespierrist", who died on 28 July 1794 (10 Thermidor) at Paris.
Biograph ...
when he was appointed commissioner of civil administration, police and courts, in succession to
Jules-François Paré
Jules François Paré (11 August 1755 in Rieux, Marne – 29 July 1819 in Rieux) was a French politician.
Life
Paré attended the collège in Troyes. When he was to have his hands rapped as punishment, his classmate and friend Georges Jacques ...
. Meanwhile Herman lived at 19,
Place Vendôme
The Place Vendôme (), earlier known as Place Louis-le-Grand, and also as Place Internationale, is a square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France, located to the north of the Tuileries Gardens and east of the Église de la Madeleine. It is ...
.
Three days after
9 thermidor
The Coup d'état of 9 Thermidor or the Fall of Maximilien Robespierre refers to the series of events beginning with Maximilien Robespierre's address to the National Convention on 8 Thermidor Year II (26 July 1794), his arrest the next day, and ...
(30 July 1794), he was arrested and spend ten months in prison. In his first hours of captivity, Herman drafted a supporting memoir. He wrote he always helped the wives and children of the detainees, etc. On 6 May, receiving the verdict sentencing him to death - with a majority of one vote - he flung his hat out of the window in a moment of rage. It was Scellier who threw a pamphlet at the presiding judge Liger-Verdigny. He was guillotined on 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 ...
, at about eleven o'clock in the morning, together with
Fouquier-Tinville
Antoine Quentin Fouquier de Tinville (, 10 June 17467 May 1795) was a French lawyer and public prosecutor during the French Revolution and Reign of Terror.
Biography
Early career
Born in Herouël, a village in the ''département'' of the Aisne, ...
the public prosecutor;
Scellier (Vice-Chairman of the Revolutionary Court),
Lanne (judge) and Herman's assistant; Foucault (judge); Garnier-Launay (judge);
Renaudin (juror);
Leroy (juror),
Vilate (juror);
Prieur (juror),
Chatelet (juror),
Girard (juror); Boyaval; Trey; Verney, and Dupaumier. It was Danton's death they wanted to avenge.
The public prosecutor of the terror, Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville, p. 294
/ref>
References
Sources
* Mémoire Justificatif Pour Le Citoyen Herman - Thermidor An II (1794)
* Boutboul, Julien ''Un rouage du Gouvernement révolutionnaire : la Commission des administrations civiles, police et tribunaux (germinal an II-brumaire an IV), vol. II'' (Paris, 2004)
* Landeux, Philippe ''Le tribunal révolutionnaire de Paris (1793-1795)'' (2017)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Herman, Martial Joseph Armand
Jacobins
1759 births
1795 deaths
People from Pas-de-Calais
French Foreign Ministers
People of the Reign of Terror
French people executed by guillotine during the French Revolution
French interior ministers
Presidents of the French Revolutionary Tribunal