Antoine Bernardin Fualdès (10 June 1761 – 19 March 1817) was a French magistrate whose mysterious murder in

Rodez Rodez (, , ; , ) is a small city and commune in the South of France, about 150 km northeast of Toulouse. It is the prefecture of the department of Aveyron, region of Occitania (formerly Midi-Pyrénées). Rodez is the seat of the communau ...

created a national political debate, in what was known as the ''Affaire Fualdès''. The murder and the trial were a national and international ''cause célèbre''.

Biography

Fualdès was born in Mur-de-Barrez, the son of Jean-Baptiste Fualdès and Antoinette de Monteilh, Joseph-Bernardin (sometimes named Antoine-Bernardin). Belonging to a family belonging to the ''

noblesse de robe Under the Ancien Régime of France, the Nobles of the Robe or Nobles of the Gown () were French aristocrats whose rank came from holding certain judicial or administrative posts. As a rule, the positions did not of themselves give the holder a t ...

'' in the pre-revolutionary France, Fualdès had access to a legal education. Having completed his studies by the time the French Revolution erupted, he gained credentials as a moderate

Jacobin The Society of the Friends of the Constitution (), renamed the Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality () after 1792 and commonly known as the Jacobin Club () or simply the Jacobins (; ), was the most influential political cl ...

, serving as defence lawyer for General Custine and even participating in the defense of

Charlotte Corday Marie-Anne Charlotte de Corday d'Armont (27 July 1768 – 17 July 1793), known simply as Charlotte Corday (), was a figure of the French Revolution who assassinated revolutionary and Jacobins, Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat on 13 July 1793. Cor ...

. He obtained appointments in Rodez under subsequent administrations, including under Napoleon, but was forced to retire upon the restoration of the Monarchy. The events surrounding his murder created a luridly baroque story:One detailed recount of the events written in English can be found i
Papers Dramatic and Historical
by Henry Brodribb Irving; page 185-227; publisher Bickers and Sons, London, 1906. his corpse was found floating in the Aveyron river. The accused were said to have lured the former prosecutor to a hotel and shrouded his cries during the murder with the loud sounds of an organ grinder. Initially the motives appeared political: Fualdès was a former Bonapartist and revolutionary; his assassins were royalists. But the trial became a spectacle and had immense press coverage. A first trial locally was cancelled and moved to

Albi Albi (; ) is a commune in France, commune in southern France. It is the prefecture of the Tarn (department), Tarn Departments of France, department, on the river Tarn (river), Tarn, 85 km northeast of Toulouse. Its inhabitants are called ...

. Witnesses to the events continued to multiply and now incorporate members of a lower-class family that hosted a nearby gambling den. The young children of this family are brought to testify of bizarre events. One famous "witness", Marie-Francois Clarisse Enraljand (Clarisse Manson), daughter of a presiding judge of the provost court of

Aveyron Aveyron (; ) is a Departments of France, department in the Regions of France, region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Southern France. It was named after the river Aveyron (river), Aveyron. Its inhabitants are known as ''Aveyro ...

who supervised the case, took the stand to accuse her lover Lieutenant Clémendot, an officer of the Rodez garrison of witnessing the murder. Her testimony was often contradictory, and she had a habit of fainting at poignant moments. In the end some of the accused were convicted by 1818. Subsequently, the events and the trials have provided fodder for authors from

Honoré de Balzac Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly ; ; born Honoré Balzac; 20 May 1799 – 18 August 1850) was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence ''La Comédie humaine'', which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is ...

Gustave Flaubert Gustave Flaubert ( , ; ; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "in Flaubert, realis ...

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo, vicomte Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romanticism, Romantic author, poet, essayist, playwright, journalist, human rights activist and politician. His most famous works are the novels ''The Hunchbac ...

(who mentions the trial in ''

Les Misérables ''Les Misérables'' (, ) is a 19th-century French literature, French Epic (genre), epic historical fiction, historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published on 31 March 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. '' ...

''),

Anatole France (; born ; 16 April 1844 – 12 October 1924) was a French poet, journalist, and novelist with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters.d . by Henri de Latouche'', Paris, Chez Pillet, 1818, *Peter Shankland, ''Murder with a double tongue: the enigma of Clarissa Manson'', London, Kimber, 1978. *Armand Praviel, ''The murder of Monsieur Fualdès'', London, Glasgow W. Collins Sons, 1923.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fualdes, Antoine Bernardin 1761 births 1817 deaths People of the French Revolution People of the Bourbon Restoration 19th-century trials Unsolved murders in France 1817 in France French magistrates People murdered in France