Armand Gensonné (, 10 August 175831 October 1793) was a French politician. The son of a military

surgeon In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Even though there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is a licensed physician and received the same medical training as physicians before spec ...

, he was born in

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...

, Gascony, and studied Law before the outbreak of the French Revolution, becoming lawyer of the ''

parlement Under the French Ancien Régime, a ''parlement'' () was a provincial appellate court of the Kingdom of France. In 1789, France had 13 ''parlements'', the original and most important of which was the ''Parlement'' of Paris. Though both th ...

'' of Bordeaux. In 1790 he became ''procureur'' of the Bordeaux Commune, and in July 1791 was elected by the newly created '' département'' of the

Gironde Gironde ( , US usually , ; , ) is the largest department in the southwestern French region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Named after the Gironde estuary, a major waterway, its prefecture is Bordeaux. In 2019, it had a population of 1,623,749.

a member of the

court of appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...

. In the same year he was elected deputy for the ''département'' to the Legislative Assembly. As ''rapporteur'' of the diplomatic committee, in which he supported the policy of

Jacques Pierre Brissot Jacques Pierre Brissot (, 15 January 1754 – 31 October 1793), also known as Brissot de Warville, was a French journalist, abolitionist, and revolutionary leading the political faction, faction of Girondins (initially called Brissotins) at the ...

, he proposed two of the most revolutionary measures passed by the Assembly: the decree of accusation against the

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

Louis XVI Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir- ...

's brothers (the Comte de Provence and the Comte d'Artois) on 1 January 1792, and the declaration of war against the

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...

ruler Francis II (20 April 1792). He denounced of the intrigues of the court and of the '' Comité autrichien'' ("Austrian committee", the purported royalist group supporting the Austrians with whom the country was at war), but the violence of the extreme republicans, culminating in the riots of 10 August, alarmed him. Elected to the

National Convention The National Convention () was the constituent assembly of the Kingdom of France for one day and the French First Republic for its first three years during the French Revolution, following the two-year National Constituent Assembly and the ...

, where he was regarded as one of the most brilliant of the group of

orator An orator, or oratist, is a public speaker, especially one who is eloquent or skilled. Etymology Recorded in English c. 1374, with a meaning of "one who pleads or argues for a cause", from Anglo-French ''oratour'', Old French ''orateur'' (14 ...

s from the Gironde (although he always read his speeches), Gensonné denounced, on 24 October, the actions of the

Paris Commune The Paris Commune (, ) was a French revolutionary government that seized power in Paris on 18 March 1871 and controlled parts of the city until 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard (France), Nation ...

following the September Massacres. At the king's trial in late December, he supported an appeal to the people, but voted for the death sentence. He participated to the Constitution Committee that drafted the Girondin constitutional project. As a member of the Committee of General Defence, and as president of the convention (7 March–21 March 1793), he shared in the harsh attacks of the Girondists on

The Mountain The Mountain () was a political group during the French Revolution. Its members, called the Montagnards (), sat on the highest benches in the National Convention. The term, first used during a session of the Legislative Assembly, came into ge ...

. On 2 June, after François Hanriot's anti-Girondist intervention, he was among the first of those inscribed on the prosecution list. Gensonné was tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal on 24 October 1793, sentenced to death and subsequently

guillotine A guillotine ( ) is an apparatus designed for effectively carrying out executions by Decapitation, beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secur ...

d 31 October 1793.

Bibliography

* 1790 �
''Lettre a M. Gensonné, procureur de la commune, ou Réfutation de son réquisitoire, concernent le serment des prêtres fonctionnaires publics''
* 1792 �
''Opinion sur les colonies''
* 1793 �
''Lettre écrite a Gensonné''
. Par un administrateur du département de la Gironde

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gensonne, Armand 1758 births 1793 deaths Politicians from Bordeaux Girondins Members of the Legislative Assembly (France) Deputies to the French National Convention French people executed by guillotine during the French Revolution Presidents of the National Convention