Portrait d'Herman d'après L'interrogatpore de Marie-Antoinette de Pierre Bouillon

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 ...

– 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. Si ...

) (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 French Republic, First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public Capital punishment, executions took pl ...

. 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 Augu ...

. 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 department, which forms part of the region of Hauts-de-France; before the reorganization of 2014 it was in Nord-Pas-de-Calais. The historic centre of ...

. In 1790 he founded the local club of Jacobins 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 of ...

. 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 as President of the Revolutionary Tribunal. 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 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, Cou ...

, Madame Roland, 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 Jacques René Hébert (; 15 November 1757 – 24 March 1794) was a French journalist and the founder and editor of the extreme radical newspaper '' Le Père Duchesne'' during the French Revolution. Hébert was a leader of the French Revolution ...

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 ...

. 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 D ...

. 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 i ...

. 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, at about eleven o'clock in the morning, together with Fouquier-Tinville 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
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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