Pierre Henri Hélène Marie Lebrun-Tondu
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Pierre-Henri-Hélène-Marie Lebrun-Tondu (27 August 1754,
Noyon Noyon (; pcd, Noéyon; la, Noviomagus Veromanduorum, Noviomagus of the Veromandui, then ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Oise Departments of France, department, northern France. Geography Noyon lies on the river Oise (river), Oise, a ...
– 27 December 1793,
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 ...
) was a
journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...
and a French minister, 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 ...
.


Before the Revolution

He was the son of Christophe Pierre Tondu, a well-to-do merchant also churchwarden of his parish, and Elisabeth Rosalie Lebrun. He was sent as a youngster as a student at College Louis-le-Grand, Paris, under benefit of a scholarship grant from the Chapter of Canons of Noyon, a common situation in such schools run by priests. Louis-le-Grand was attended during those years by such famous-to-be people as La Fayette (a shade older than Tondu-Lebrun was),
Maximilien Robespierre Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (; 6 May 1758 â€“ 28 July 1794) was a French lawyer and statesman who became one of the best-known, influential and controversial figures of the French Revolution. As a member of the Esta ...
,
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 ...
(both younger), and a bunch of others that played some role in the French Revolution as well (such as Feron, Noel...). However his family ran into financial trouble (reasons are not known) and he had to become a teacher at Louis-le-Grand, the which position required at that time to become some level of tonsured cleric; thus he was known under the name "Abbot Tondu"; he moved to be employed at the Observatory of Paris about in 1777, where he devoted himself to mathematics and observations until early 1779. Then, for two years, he was a soldier, before obtaining his leave. Involved in some unclear contestation of French politics, he was banned by Minister Baron de Vergennes and had to move in the
Prince-Bishopric of Liège The Prince-Bishopric of Liège or Principality of Liège was an Hochstift, ecclesiastical principality of the Holy Roman Empire that was situated for the most part in present-day Belgium. It was an Imperial State, Imperial Estate, so the List of ...
in 1781 under the name "Pierre Lebrun", he became a foreman at the printing shop of Jean-Jacques Tutot, where he soon became editor.


Marriage and children

He married, in Liege on 28 July 1783, Marie-Jeanne Adrienne Cheret (as was written in French documents; some Belgian registers also write "Cherette"), who gave him seven children, out of which six grew to be adults: * Jean-Pierre-Louis (born 21 July 1784), * Josephine Barbe Marie (born 10 September 1786), * Théodore Charles-Joseph Gilbert (born 16 February 1788), * Marie-Francoise-Charlotte Henriette (born 11 August 1789), * Isabelle Civilis Victoire Jemmapes Dumouriez, (born 11 November 1792), * Sophie Minerve (born 13 February 1794) .


Career in printing

In June 1785, he left Tutot and, with Jacques-Joseph Smits, started the ''Journal général d'Europe'', based in Liege, a periodical favorable to new ideas that met with great success. Increasingly critical of the Prince-Bishop, he, in July 1786, installed the presses in the
Austrian Netherlands The Austrian Netherlands nl, Oostenrijkse Nederlanden; french: Pays-Bas Autrichiens; german: Österreichische Niederlande; la, Belgium Austriacum. was the territory of the Burgundian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire between 1714 and 1797. The p ...
, in
Herve Herve (; li, Herf; wa, Heve) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. On January 1, 2018 Herve had a total population of 17,598. The total area is which gives a population density of . It is famed for ...
(
Limburg Limburg or Limbourg may refer to: Regions * Limburg (Belgium), a province since 1839 in the Flanders region of Belgium * Limburg (Netherlands), a province since 1839 in the south of the Netherlands * Diocese of Limburg, Roman Catholic Diocese in ...
), near Liege. Having acquired Liege citizenship, he was closely involved in politics and participated in the
Liège Revolution The Liège Revolution, sometimes known as the Happy Revolution (french: Heureuse Révolution; wa, Binamêye revolucion), against the reigning prince-bishop of Liège, started on 18 August 1789 and lasted until the destruction of the Republic ...
in 1789, also writing the ''Journal of Patriotic Liège'' from 18 March to 4 July 1790. During that period he turned to radical views such were later on embodied by Girondins and early days Montagnards in Paris, and was linked to the more radical Liege activists.


During the Revolution

Forced into exile during the restoration of 1791, he moved to
Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...
in January, then to Paris, where he maintained some activity on account on the defunct
Republic of Liège The Republic of Liège (french: République liégeoise) was a short-lived state centred on the town of Liège in modern-day Belgium. The republic was created in August 1789 after the Liège Revolution led to the destruction of the earlier ecclesia ...
, such as develop with other exiles a draft constitution proclaiming the equality of all citizens, freedom of the press and the formation of an assembly where national bourgeois representation would count twice as large as those of the clergy and nobility, or on 18 December appearing before the Legislative Assembly at the head of a Liège delegation. However he rapidly got engrossed in French Revolution politics through his newspaper he had revived starting March 1791. This got him in acquaintance with forefront players of those days, such as
Jacques-Pierre Brissot Jacques Pierre Brissot (, 15 January 1754 – 31 October 1793), who assumed the name of de Warville (an English version of "d'Ouarville", a hamlet in the village of Lèves where his father owned property), was a leading member of the Girondins du ...
, Etienne Claviere,
Jean-Marie Roland Jean-Marie is both a given name and a surname. Notable people with the name include: * Jean-Marie Abgrall (born 1950), a French psychiatrist, criminologist, specialist in forensic medicine, cult expert, and graduate in criminal law * Jean-Marie C ...
and
Charles Fran̤ois Dumouriez Charles-Fran̤ois du P̩rier Dumouriez (, 26 January 1739 Р14 March 1823) was a French general during the French Revolutionary Wars. He shared the victory at Valmy with General Fran̤ois Christophe Kellermann, but later deserted the Revo ...
; Tondu-Lebrun's familiarity with politics and power play between Powers-that-be (England, German Empire, Prussia, France, Holland, Russia in Flanders and central Europe got him to be appointed as chief clerk of the 1st branch of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Dumouriez. After 10 August 1792 he became foreign minister in the Transitional Executive Council (11 August 1792) and submitted to the National Convention a political picture of Europe as of 25 September. An advocate of an immediate peace with Prussia after the
battle of Valmy The Battle of Valmy, also known as the Cannonade of Valmy, was the first major victory by the army of France during the Revolutionary Wars that followed the French Revolution. The battle took place on 20 September 1792 as Prussian troops comm ...
, he conducted secret negotiations, and after negotiations failed, he was a supporter of the war of conquest and defended the annexation of
Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
and the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
. On 12 November he baptized his daughter, Civilis-Victoire-Jemmapes Dumouriez, and the God father was Dumouriez. Temporarily in charge of the Ministry of War after the resignation of Servan in October, on 19 and 31 December he filed reports on projects of England against France in which he supported, however, for a peace policy, and showed the protests of Spain for Louis XVI. Chairman of the Executive Committee, after 20 January 1793, he signed the execution order 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 ...
. In the early months of 1793, he tried to reconnect with
Lord Grenville William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, (25 October 175912 January 1834) was a British Pittite Tory politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1806 to 1807, but was a supporter of the Whigs for the duration of ...
, to avoid a rupture with Great Britain. On 7 March he reported to the Assembly of the rupture of diplomatic relations with Spain and its imminent entry into the war. On 2 February he summoned Semonville to justify himself in Paris and suspended his office, after suspicision of links with Louis XVI from the publication of a letter from
Antoine Omer Talon Antoine Omer Talon (20 January 1760 in Paris–18 August 1811 in Gretz) was a French counter-revolutionary. He was born in Paris on 20 January 1760, he was the father of Jean-Baptiste, seigneur of Boullay Thierry. He married Jeanne-Agnès-Gabrie ...
, found in late November 1792.Fernand Beaucour, Un fidèle de l'empereur en son époque, Jean Mathieu Alexandre Sari (1792-1862), Société de Sauvegarde du Château impérial de Pont-de-Briques, 1972, vol. 1, pp. 97-98.


Arrest and execution

Denounced by the end of 1792 by
The Mountain The Mountain (french: La Montagne) was a political group during the French Revolution. Its members, called the Montagnards (), sat on the highest benches in the National Convention. They were the most radical group and opposed the Girondins. Th ...
for his close links with 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 ...
, suspected of complicity with General
Charles Fran̤ois Dumouriez Charles-Fran̤ois du P̩rier Dumouriez (, 26 January 1739 Р14 March 1823) was a French general during the French Revolutionary Wars. He shared the victory at Valmy with General Fran̤ois Christophe Kellermann, but later deserted the Revo ...
, he was arrested on 2 June 1793 with 29 members and fellow Girondin,
Étienne Clavière Étienne Clavière (29 January 17358 December 1793) was a Genevan-born French financier and politician of the French Revolution. He was French Minister of Finance between 24 March and 12 June 1792, and between 10 August 1792 and 2 June 1793. ...
. First held temporarily in office, he was brought with Claviere before the Revolutionary Court on 5 September but managed to escape on the 9th and went into clandestinity while remaining in Paris, where he hid under a variety of names during several months; while under the name of Pierre Brasseur, citizen of Liege, he was arrested on 2 Nivose year II (22 December 1793), by Francois Heron, Agent of the Committee of General Security. Brought before the revolutionary tribunal, he was sentenced to death on 7 Nivose (27 December) under a variety of contrived and undocumented treason against the unity of the Republic, conspiracy on account of foreign powers charges, the most obvious reason being of having been called to office by Roland, Brissot, Dumouriez, all guillotined or escaped from France. He was guillotined the following day. A barely sketched attempt at defense and justification, written by him (this document does not exceed mere introductory terms in the rather pompous style of those days), was published in the year IV under the title: ''Historical Memory and supporting my ministry.''


Opinion of Madame Roland

In her memoirs,
Madame Roland Marie-Jeanne 'Manon' Roland de la Plati̬re (Paris, March 17, 1754 РParis, November 8, 1793), born Marie-Jeanne Phlipon, and best known under the name Madame Roland, was a French revolutionary, salonni̬re and writer. Initially she led a ...
describes him thus:
He was considered a wise man, because he had no outbursts of any kind, and clever man, because he was a very good clerk, but he had neither action, nor mind, nor character.
This was hardly a fair view coming from a prejudiced woman whose husband had been a fellow Minister and very unpopular as Home Office Minister, with big responsibilities in the fall of the Girondins. Robespierre held some personal grudge against Lebrun. In a contrary perspective, Lebrun, had led a full ten years of political militancy in Liege at personal risk while others were happily plying ordinary trades throughout the 1780s, a background only a few others, such as Jean-Pierre Brissaud or Mirabeau could claim with comparable legitimacy.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lebrun-Tondu, Pierre Henri Helene 1754 births 1793 deaths People from Noyon Secretaries of State for War (France) French people executed by guillotine during the French Revolution French Foreign Ministers 18th-century French politicians