François Nicolas Léonard Buzot (; 1 March 176024 June 1794) was a French politician and leader of the French Revolution.

Biography

Early life

Born at Évreux,

Eure Eure ( ; ; or ) is a department in the administrative region of Normandy, northwestern France, named after the river Eure. Its prefecture is Évreux. In 2021, Eure had a population of 598,934.Law, and, at the outbreak of the Revolution was a

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

in his home town. In 1789, he was elected a deputy of the Third Estate to the Estates-General, and became known there for his radical opinions. He demanded the

nationalization Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with p ...

of the possessions of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, and the right of all citizens to bear arms. After the dissolution of the National Constituent Assembly, Buzot returned to Évreux, where he was named president of the criminal tribunal. This cites as reference: * ''Mémoires de Pétion, Barbaroux, Buzot'', published by C. A. Daubon (Paris, 1866).

Convention

In 1792, Buzot was elected deputy 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 ...

, and joined the Girondists under the influence of his friend Madame Roland. Buzot entered a polemic with the main rival of the Girondists, Jean-Paul Marat, and demanded the formation of a

National Guard National guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. ...

from the '' départements'' to defend the Convention against the Paris crowds of '' sans-culottes''. His proposal was carried, but never put into force - the Parisians subsequently singled him out as a target of their hatred. In the trial of

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- ...

, Buzot voted in favour of the

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence (law), sentence ordering that an offender b ...

death, but with appeal to the people and postponement of sentence (''sursis''). He had a sentence of death passed against the

Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of gove ...

émigré An ''émigré'' () is a person who has emigrated, often with a connotation of political or social exile or self-exile. The word is the past participle of the French verb ''émigrer'' meaning "to emigrate". French Huguenots Many French Hugueno ...

s'' who did not return to France, and against anyone who should demand the re-establishment of the monarchy. At the same time, he opposed Georges Danton and The Mountain, and rejected the creation of a

Committee of Public Safety The Committee of Public Safety () was a committee of the National Convention which formed the provisional government and war cabinet during the Reign of Terror, a violent phase of the French Revolution. Supplementing the Committee of General D ...

and Revolutionary Tribunal (but abstained when the question of Marat's trial before the Tribunal was brought up by the Girondists). On 5 May 1793, his servant was arrested in the Jardin du Luxembourg.

Flight and resistance

Proscribed with the Girondists on 2 June 1793, Buzot escaped, and took refuge to Calvados in

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

, where he contributed to organize a Girondist insurrection against the convention, which was suppressed soon after. The Convention prosecuted him, and decreed "that the house occupied by Buzot be demolished, and never to be rebuilt on this plot. nstead,a column shall be raised, on which there shall be written: "Here was the sanctuary of the villain Buzot who, while a representative of the people, conspired for the overthrow of the

French Republic France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

"". He fled, together with Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve, to

Saint-Émilion Saint-Émilion (; Gascon dialect, Gascon: ''Sent Milion'') is a Communes of France, commune in the Gironde department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in Southwestern France. In the heart of the country of Libournais (the area around Libourne), in a regio ...

, near

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 ...

and remained in hiding. Both of them most likely committed

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...

; their bodies were found in a field a week later, half-eaten by dogs. It is unclear whether the men used poison or shot themselves with a pistol, which is likely due to the decomposed state in which their bodies were found. Buzot's house in Evreux was purposefully burnt to the ground, plus an effigy of Buzot, by a crowd on 27 July 1793.Chronicle of the French Revolution ISBN 0-582-05194-0 Buzot left behind his ''Memoirs'', first published in 1823.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buzot, Francois 1760 births 1794 deaths People from Évreux Jacobins Girondins Members of the National Constituent Assembly (France) Deputies to the French National Convention Politicians from Normandy 18th-century French lawyers French politicians who died by suicide Suicides by firearm in France French male non-fiction writers 18th-century suicides 18th-century French memoirists