François Hanriot (; 2 December 1759 – 28 July 1794) was a French

Sans-culotte The (; ) were the common people of the lower classes in late 18th-century France, a great many of whom became radical and militant partisans of the French Revolution in response to their poor quality of life under the . The word , which is o ...

leader, street orator, and commander of the

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. ...

during the French Revolution. He played a vital role in the Insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793 and subsequently the fall of the

Girondins The Girondins (, ), also called Girondists, were a political group during the French Revolution. From 1791 to 1793, the Girondins were active in the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention. Together with the Montagnards, they initiall ...

. On 27 July 1794 he tried to release

Maximilien Robespierre Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (; ; 6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) was a French lawyer and statesman, widely recognised as one of the most influential and controversial figures of the French Revolution. Robespierre ferv ...

, who was arrested by the Convention. He was executed on the next daytogether with Robespierre, Saint-Just and Couthonby the rules of the

law of 22 Prairial The Law of 22 Prairial, also known as the ''loi de la Grande Terreur'', the law of the Great Terror, was enacted on 10 June 1794 (22 Prairial of the Year II under the French Revolutionary Calendar). It was proposed by Georges Auguste Couthon bu ...

, only verifying his identity at the trial.

Life

Early years

François Hanriot was born in

Nanterre Nanterre (; ) is the prefecture of the Hauts-de-Seine department in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located some northwest of the centre of Paris. In 2018, the commune had a population of 96,807. The eastern part of Nanterre, b ...

, now a western suburb of Paris. His parents were servants (gardeners) to a former Treasurer of France, and came from Sormery in the Bourgogne. Between 1779 and 1783 he supposedly was a soldier in America serving under Lafayette, but there are no documents to prove that.Moreau, J. (2010) "François Hanriot, general-citizen", pp. 32–34. Nanterre: Société d'Histoire de Nanterre. Not a man of any specific profession, Hanriot held a variety of different jobs. He took his first employment with a ''procureur'' doing mostly secretarial work but lost his position due to dishonesty. Next, he obtained a clerkship in the Paris ''

octroi Octroi (; , to grant, authorize; Lat. ''auctor'') is a local tax collected on various articles brought into a district for consumption. Antiquity The word itself is of French origin. Octroi taxes have a respectable antiquity, being known in R ...

'' in 1789, doing tax work. His position there was also ill-fated; he was dismissed after leaving his station on the night of 12 July 1789, when the popular

Jacques Necker Jacques Necker (; 30 September 1732 – 9 April 1804) was a Republic of Geneva, Genevan banker and statesman who served as List of Finance Ministers of France, finance minister for Louis XVI of France, Louis XVI. He was a reformer, but his innov ...

was fired, and angry Parisians attempted to burn down the building belonging to the Wall of the Ferme générale. Hanriot was arrested and imprisoned in Bicêtre and released the next year with the help of

Jean-Paul Marat Jean-Paul Marat (, , ; born Jean-Paul Mara; 24 May 1743 – 13 July 1793) was a French political theorist, physician, and scientist. A journalist and politician during the French Revolution, he was a vigorous defender of the ''sans-culottes ...

. After his string of unfortunate professions, Hanriot remained unemployed and subsequently very poor. His next string of occupations is rather hazy in history; many people of the time connect him to a variety of professions including shopkeeper, liquor-seller, and

peddler A peddler (American English) or pedlar (British English) is a door-to-door and/or travelling vendor of good (economics), goods. In 19th-century United States the word "drummer" was often used to refer to a peddler or traveling salesman; as exem ...

. He lived near the

Jardin des Plantes The Jardin des Plantes (, ), also known as the Jardin des Plantes de Paris () when distinguished from other ''jardins des plantes'' in other cities, is the main botanical garden in France. Jardin des Plantes is the official name in the present da ...

at 21, Rue de la Clef.

Role in the first years of the Revolution

After generating a more substantial fortune he moved around the corner to Rue du Battoir, now Rue de Quatrefages. In January 1792, Hanriot became well known for his anti-aristocratic outlook and for attacking Lafayette. He became an

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 ...

for the local section ''

sans-culottes The (; ) were the working class, common people of the social class in France, lower classes in late 18th-century history of France, France, a great many of whom became radical and militant partisans of the French Revolution in response to their ...

'', one of the most populous and poorest districts of the capital. On 9 August 1792, when the Assembly refused to impeach Lafayette, the

tocsin A Tocsin is an alarm or other signal sounded by a bell or bells. It may refer to: Cold War *TOCSIN, the codeword attached by the Royal Observer Corps to any reading on the Bomb Power Indicator after a nuclear strike on the United Kingdom during t ...

called the sections into arms. In the evening the "commissionaires" of several sections ( Billaud-Varenne, Chaumette, Hébert, Hanriot, Fleuriot-Lescot, Pache, Bourdon) gathered in the town hall. The next day the Tuileries was stormed by the

, the Fédérés and the people from the revolutionary sections of Paris. As a member of the Cordeliers club he was strongly in favor of imposing taxes on the aristocracy, presenting them "with a bill in one hand and a pistol in the other." With this attitude he gained a loyal following of local ''sans-culottes'' and they would appoint him on 2 September as captain of the National Guard battalion of his section. It is unlikely he participated in the September Massacre as the Sainte-Pélagie Prison in his section was not visited at all. The next evening he was present at Bicêtre with his battalion. According to Cassignac his men were involved in the massacre.

The Fall of the Girondists

The Spring of 1793 was a period of great political tension in Paris as the radical voices in the Commune and the Montagnards in the Convention became more overtly hostile to the ruling Girondist faction. The authorities' decision to arrest

in April brought matters to a head and precipitated the fall of the Girondins in which Hanriot played a major part. In the evening of 30 May 1793 the Commune appointed Hanriot provisionally to the position of "Commandant-General" of the Parisian National Guard, because Santerre was fighting in the

Vendée Vendée () is a department in the Pays de la Loire region in Western France, on the Atlantic coast. In 2019, it had a population of 685,442.Palais National. The purpose of this move was to force the Convention to dissolve the Commission of Twelve and the arrest of 22 selected Girondists. Some people on the galleries called "A la Vendée". During the night of 30–31 May, the city gates were closed and at 3 the tocsin (in the Notre-Dame) was rung. Hanriot ordered the firing of a cannon on the Pont-Neuf as a sign of alarm, without the permission of the Convention. Vergniaud suggested the arrest of Hanriot. (Robespierre attacked Vergniaud and denounced the commission of Twelve.) In the evening of 1 June the Comité Insurrectionnel ordered the arrest of 27 Girondins, including Jean-Marie Roland, Lebrun-Tondu and Clavière, the banning of the Girondist newspapers and the arrest of their editors. It also ordered François Hanriot, to surround the Convention ‘with a respectable armed force’.Le Temps (Paris) 1904-03-29
/ref> The Convention (about 100 deputies) decided to allow men to carry arms on days of crisis and pay them for each day. It also promised to indemnify the workers for the interruptions over the past four days. It postponed any other decisions regarding the accused deputies for three days. On Saturday 1 June the Commune gathered almost all day and was devoted to the preparation of a "great movement". In the evening 40,000 men surrounded the building to force the arrests. Hanriot's first care was to seize the key positions— the Arsenal, the '' Place Royale'', and the '' Pont Neuf''. Next, the barriers were closed and prominent suspects arrested. At midnight the commune decided the men should take a rest and go home. The next morning the Convention invited Hanriot, who told them all his men were prepared and posts occupied. Hanriot ordered the National Guard to march from the town hall to the National Palace. In the early evening of 2 June, a large force of armed citizens; estimated by some sources as 80,000, but spoken of by Danton as 30,000 souls, surrounded the Convention with 63 pieces of artillery. "The armed force", Hanriot said, "will retire only when the Convention has delivered to the people the deputies denounced by the Commune." Attempting to exit, the accused Girondins walked around the palace in a theatrical procession. Confronted on all sides by bayonets and pikes, they returned to the meeting hall and submitted to the inevitable. Twenty-two Girondins were seized one by one after some juggling with names. They finally decided that 31 deputies were not to be imprisoned, but only subject to house arrest. On 2 June 1793 at 11 in the morning, women gathered in front of the Convention. Then Hanriot's troops surrounded the Convention with thousands of armed volunteers, cannons, and pikes while it was in session, and throngs of ''sans-culotte'' soldiers entered the building and disrupted the sessions. The President of the Convention, Herault de Sechelles, came out to appeal to Hanriot to remove his troops, but he refused. Under that pressure, the Convention voted the arrest of 22 Girondist deputies, removing that faction from power. Marat and Couthon regarded Hanriot as the "Savior of the Fatherland". (Gérard Walter insists on the contrary on the perfect discipline of the men commanded by Hanriot. The historian thus attributes to the sans-culotte commander the merit of having avoided bloodshed during the exclusion and the arrest of the Girondins deputies.) On 11 June Hanriot resigned his command, declaring that order had been restored. On 29 June he was reelected in his section. On 1 July he was elected by the Commune and two days later appointed by Jean Bouchotte as permanent commander of the armed forces of Paris. On 4 September, the ''sans-culottes'' again invaded the Convention. Supported by Hanriot they demanded tougher measures against rising prices and the setting up of a system of terror to root out the counter-revolution. On 11 September the power of the

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 ...

was extended for one month; Robespierre supported Hanriot in the

Jacobin club 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 List of polit ...

as having led the insurrection on 2 June. On 19 September the Convention supported his appointment as General commanding the Parisian National Guard (at that time numbering 130,000 men). Hanriot moved into an apartment on the third floor of the

Hôtel de Ville, Paris The (, ''City hall (administration), City Hall'') is the city hall of Paris, France, standing on the in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, 4th arrondissement. The south wing was originally constructed by Francis I of France, Francis I beginning ...

, with busts of Brutus, Marat and Rousseau displayed. He hired seats in Théâtre de la République and Opera-Comique. On 8 December he declared that he would not use arms against the people; instead he would use reason.

End of the Reign of Terror

During the spring of 1794, there were increasing tensions between Robespierre and the Committees on the one hand, and the Paris Commune and the ''sans-culottes'' on the other. On 6 March Hanriot appeared in front of the Convention with 1,200 men. This culminated in the arrest of Hebert, Momoro,

Vincent Vincent (Latin: ''Vincentius'') is a masculine given name originating from the Roman name ''Vincentius'', which itself comes from the Latin verb ''vincere'', meaning "to conquer." People with the given name Artists *Vincent Apap (1909–2003) ...

Ronsin Ronsin (or: Ronsen) is a village in the Kogho Department of Ganzourgou Province in central Burkina Faso Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, To ...

and their associates on 13 March. Hanriot, a Hébertist, was protected by Robespierre. On 27 March the sans-culotte Revolutionary Army was disbanded and its artillery units brought under Hanriot's control. Although he was broadly supportive of the radical ideas of Hébert and his associates, Hanriot remained loyal to Robespierre. On 2 April 1794 – the first day of the interrogation of Danton – he was informed not to arrest the president and the public prosecutor of

Revolutionary Tribunal The Revolutionary Tribunal (; unofficially Popular Tribunal) was a court instituted by the National Convention during the French Revolution for the trial of political offenders. In October 1793, it became one of the most powerful engines of ...

. Hanriot opposed

Lazare Carnot Lazare Nicolas Marguerite, Comte Carnot (; 13 May 1753 – 2 August 1823) was a French mathematician, physicist, military officer, politician and a leading member of the Committee of Public Safety during the French Revolution. His military refor ...

who stripped Paris of its gunners. Hanriot managed to prevent the queues in front of the butchers and bakeries from turning into a riot. On 5 June François Hanriot ordered the detaining of every baker in Paris who either sold his bread to people without (distribution) cards or who came from other sections. On 27 July 1794 a group of Convention members organised the overthrow of Robespierre and his allies in what became known as the Thermidorean Reaction. Laurent Lecointre was the instigator of the coup, assisted by Barère, Fréron, Barras, Tallien, Thuriot, Courtois, Rovère, Garnier de l’Aube and Guffroy. Each one of these prepared his individual role in the coup. They decided that Hanriot, his aides-de-camp, Lavalette and Boulanger, the public prosecutor Dumas, the family Duplay and the printer Charles-Léopold Nicolas had to be arrested first, so Robespierre would be without military or other effective support. At around 3 p.m. Hanriot was ordered to appear in the Convention. Hanriot, or someone else, suggested that he would only show up if accompanied by a crowd. Dumas had already been arrested at noon and at 4p.m. taken to Sainte-Pélagie Prison; as well as members of the family Duplay. On horseback, Hanriot warned the sections that there would be an attempt to murder Robespierre and mobilized 2,400 National Guards in front of the town hall.Hazan, E. (2014) A People's History of the French Revolution. What had happened was not very clear to their officers; either the Convention was closed down or the Paris Commune. Nobody explained anything. When the Paris Commune heard of the arrests it began mobilising forces to free Robespierre and his allies and to take control of the Convention. The mayor Fleuriot-Lescot instructed the prisons of Paris to refuse admission to any prisoners sent to them by the Convention and Hanriot took charge of military preparations for closing the Convention. When Hanriot appeared at the

Place du Carrousel The Place du Carrousel () is a public square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, located at the open end of the courtyard of the Louvre Palace, a space occupied, prior to 1883, by the Tuileries Palace. Sitting directly between the museum and the T ...

in front of the Convention, he was taken prisoner by the oldest deputy present Philippe Rühl. (He seems to have been taken prisoner earlier that day by :fr:Louis Antoine Joseph Robin near the

Palais-Royal The Palais-Royal () is a former French royal palace located on Rue Saint-Honoré in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. The screened entrance court faces the Place du Palais-Royal, opposite the Louvre Palace, Louvre. Originally called the Palais-Ca ...

.) To avoid communication with Hanriot the five deputies were given a meal and it was decided they had to leave the Tuileries. According to Eric Hazan: "Now came the turning-point of this journée: instead of taking advantage of its superiority, in both guns and men, to invade the nearby hall where the Convention was sitting, the column, lacking orders or leaders, returned to the Maison-Commune." According to Bertrand Barère Hanriot fled to the town hall after being threatened by some deputies that he could be regarded as an outlaw. The Convention did not gather before nine. The Convention declared the five deputies (plus the supporting members) to be

outlaw An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them. ...

s. On hearing this, the insurgents and their commander were seized with fright and fled helter-skelter to the Commune. When the Paris' militants heard this news, order began to break down, they became divided. In the evening Robespierre, Hanriot, and the other liberated prisoners had gathered at the Hotel de Ville which was now their headquarters. The Convention responded by declaring them outlaws to be taken dead or alive, and ordering troops of its own under Barras to suppress them. Henriot ordered his men to light the entire square with torches. Within an hour, the forces of the Commune quietly deserted the square. Around two in the morning, troops of the Convention under the command of Barras arrived. Robespierre and a number of others were arrested. Hanriot fell from a side window, and was found later in the day, unconscious, in a neighbouring courtyard. Hanriot was taken to the

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 ...

in the same cart as Robespierre and his brother and was executed just before Robespierre on 28 July 1794, only semi-conscious when led to the platform. According to Merda Hanriot tried to escape by a concealed staircase to the third floor. He lodged in an apartment there. Most sources say that Hanriot was thrown out of a window by Coffinhal after being accused of the disaster. (According to Ernest Hamel it is one of the many legends spread by Barère.E. Hamel, p. 342) At any rate, Hanriot landed in a small courtyard on a heap of glass. He had strength enough to crawl into a drain where he was found twelve hours later and taken to the

Conciergerie The Conciergerie () () is a former courthouse and prison in Paris, France, located on the west of the Île de la Cité, below the Palais de Justice. It was originally part of the former royal palace, the Palais de la Cité, which also included ...

. In the afternoon of 10 Thermidor (28 July, a décadi, a day of rest and festivity) the Revolutionary Tribunal condemned Robespierre and 21 "Robespierrists" (c.q. 13 members of the insurrectionary Commune) to death by the rules of the

, only verifying their identity at the trial. In the late afternoon, the convicts were taken in three carts to the

Place de la Révolution The Place de la Concorde (; ) is a public square in Paris, France. Measuring in area, it is the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées. It was the s ...

to be executed. Hanriot owned 47 prints of different events during the revolution, a "magnifique" wooden secretary desk, and the complete works by

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Republic of Geneva, Genevan philosopher (''philosophes, philosophe''), writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment through ...

, published by Pierre-Alexandre DuPeyrou and René Louis de Girardin (1780–1782).

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hanriot, Francois 1759 births 1794 deaths People from Nanterre 18th-century French politicians French generals French people executed by guillotine during the French Revolution Hébertists