Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve (; 3 January 1756 – 18 June 1794) was a French writer and politician who served as the second
mayor of Paris
The mayor of Paris (, ) is the Chief executive officer, chief executive of Paris, the capital and largest city in France.
The officeholder is responsible for the administration and management of the city, submits proposals and recommendations to ...
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 ...
, and voted against the immediate
execution of Louis XVI
Louis XVI, former Bourbon King of France since the Proclamation of the abolition of the monarchy, abolition of the monarchy, was publicly executed on 21 January 1793 during the French Revolution at the ''Place de la Révolution'' in Paris. At Tr ...
at the king's trial in January 1793, though he supported a suspended sentence. This led to Pétion's proscription by the Convention alongside other Girondin deputies following the radical insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793, and ultimately his suicide together with fellow-Girondin François Buzot while evading arrest during the Terror.
Early life and work
Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve was the son of a
prosecutor
A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in Civil law (legal system), civil law. The prosecution is the ...
at
Chartres
Chartres () is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Eure-et-Loir Departments of France, department in the Centre-Val de Loire Regions of France, region in France. It is located about southwest of Paris. At the 2019 census, there were 1 ...
. Though it is known that he was trained as a lawyer, very few specifics are known about Petion's early life, as he was virtually unknown prior to the French Revolution. He became a lawyer in 1778, and at once began to try to make a name in literature. His first printed work was an essay, ', which failed to gain the prize for which it was composed, but pleased Brissot so much that he printed it in vol. vii. of his '.
Pétion's next works, ', and ', in which he advocated the marriage of priests, confirmed his position as a bold reformer. He also attacked long-held ''Ancien Régime'' traditions such as
primogeniture
Primogeniture () is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn Legitimacy (family law), legitimate child to inheritance, inherit all or most of their parent's estate (law), estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some childre ...
, accusing it of dividing the countryside into "proletarians and colossal properties." Later works penned by Pétion include his account of
Haiti
Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...
entitled "" (1790) and "" in which he chides France for its corruption.
When the elections to the Estates-General took place in 1789, he was elected a deputy to the Tiers Etat for Chartres. Both in the assembly of the Tiers Etat and in the
Constituent Assembly
A constituent assembly (also known as a constitutional convention, constitutional congress, or constitutional assembly) is a body assembled for the purpose of drafting or revising a constitution. Members of a constituent assembly may be elected b ...
Pétion showed himself a radical leader. Although Petion was overshadowed in the Assembly by such orators as Mirabeau and Barnave, his close relationship with Girondin leader Brissot provided him with helpful advice on political conduct. He supported Mirabeau on 23 June, attacked the queen on 5 October, and was elected president on 4 December 1790. On 15 June 1791, he was elected president of the criminal tribunal of Paris. On 21 June 1791, he was chosen one of three commissioners appointed to bring back the king from Varennes, and he has left an account of the journey. After the last meeting of the assembly on 30 September 1791,
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 fer ...
and Pétion were made the popular heroes and were crowned by the populace with civic crowns.
Mayor of Paris
From 24 October - 11 November Pétion visited London and had dinner with
Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In ...
. By late 1791, administrative control of Paris was dominated by the Jacobins and mayor
Jean-Sylvain Bailly
Jean Sylvain Bailly (; 15 September 1736 – 12 November 1793) was a French astronomer, mathematician, freemason, and political leader of the early part of the French Revolution. He presided over the Tennis Court Oath, served as the Mayor (Franc ...
had resigned due to constant political attacks from the left. Pétion received a still further proof of the affection of the Parisians for him on 16 November 1791, when he was elected second
mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...
of Paris in succession to Bailly in a contest against Lafayette. (Only 10% of eligible citizens cast a vote, and Pétion won 60% of votes cast). In his mayoralty he exhibited clearly his republican tendency and his hatred of the old monarchy, especially on 20 June 1792, when he allowed the mob to overrun the Tuileries and insult the royal family. For neglecting to protect the Tuileries he was suspended from his functions on 6 July by
Louis Alexandre de La Rochefoucauld, the president of the Directory of the
Seine
The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...
''
département
In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...
'', but the leaders of the Legislative Assembly felt that Pétion's cause was theirs, and rescinded the suspension on 13 July. The next day he was installed. On 4 August, at the head of the municipality of Paris, Pétion demanded the deposition of the king. Following news of the Duke of Brunswick's Prussian Army and the
Battle of Verdun (1792)
The first Battle of Verdun was fought between 29 August and 2 September 1792 between French Revolutionary forces and a Prussian army during the opening months of the War of the First Coalition. The Prussians were victorious, gaining a clear w ...
, fear encouraged frenzied Parisian mobs to target prisoners, royalist sympathizers, and Catholic priests in a series of acts of violence that would come to be known as the
September Massacres
The September Massacres were a series of killings and summary executions of prisoners in Paris that occurred in 1792 from 2 September to 6 September during the French Revolution. Between 1,176 and 1,614 people were killed by ''sans-culottes'' ...
.
Convention, flight and death
Pétion was elected to the for
Eure-et-Loir
Eure-et-Loir (, locally: ) is a French department, named after the Eure and Loir rivers. It is located in the region of Centre-Val de Loire. In 2019, Eure-et-Loir had a population of 431,575.Nicolas Chambon de Montaux was elected to replace him. L.P. Manuel proposed that the president of the Assembly should have the same authority as the president of the United States; his proposition was at once rejected, but Pétion got the nickname of "Roi Pétion," which contributed to his fall. With disagreements over such items as the necessity of the
September Massacres
The September Massacres were a series of killings and summary executions of prisoners in Paris that occurred in 1792 from 2 September to 6 September during the French Revolution. Between 1,176 and 1,614 people were killed by ''sans-culottes'' ...
, the Convention was a scene of large-scale political infighting between different factions. The Girondins represented the moderate Right in the while their more radical opponents, the Montagnards, represented the Left and were distinguished by their preference for occupying the higher rows of benches in the . As late as August 1792 he was still friends with Robespierre and, according to Marisa Linton, choosing a side was especially hard for him but in the end his friendship with Brissot proved stronger. Hence he chose the ''
Girondin
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 ...
'' party, with which he voted for a suspended sentence of execution at the trial of Louis XVI, and in favor of the appeal to the people. He participated to the Constitution Committee that drafted the
Girondin constitutional project
The Girondin constitutional project, presented to the French National Convention on 15 and 16 February 1793 by Nicolas de Caritat, formerly the Marquis de Condorcet, is composed of three parts:
* An ''Exposition of the Principles and Motives o ...
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 attacked Robespierre, who had accused him of having known and having kept secret Dumouriez's project of restoring the
French Constitution of 1791
The French Constitution of 1791 () was the first written constitution in France, created after the collapse of the absolute monarchy of the . One of the basic precepts of the French Revolution was adopting constitutionality and establishing po ...
.
Pétion's name was among those of the twenty-two Girondin deputies proscribed on 2 June 1793 (see Insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793). Pétion was one of those who escaped to
Caen
Caen (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune inland from the northwestern coast of France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Calvados (department), Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inha ...
and raised the standard of provincial insurrection against the ; and, when the Norman rising failed, he fled with
Marguerite-Élie Guadet
Marguerite-Élie Guadet (, 20 July 1758 – 19 June 1794) was a French political figure of the Revolutionary period.
Rise to prominence
Born in Saint-Émilion, Gironde, Aquitaine, he had already gained a reputation as a lawyer in Bordeaux by t ...
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.
, where they were sheltered by a wigmaker in Saint Emilion. At last, a month before Robespierre's fall on 27 July 1794, the escaped deputies felt themselves no longer safe, and deserted their asylum. Salle and Guadet were arrested on 18 June, taken to
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 guillotined the next day. Barbaroux was guillotined on 25 June after a botched suicide attempt on 18 June. The bodies of Pétion and Buzot, who had most likely succeeded in killing themselves on 18 June, were found in a field, half eaten by wolves, on 27 June. However, some historians disagree about how the two men actually died. H. Morse Stephens claims that they "blew out their brains" with a pistol, while Charles MacFarlane states that "whether they had committed suicide by poison or by other means, or whether they had perished of hunger" was impossible to say due to the decomposed state the bodies were found in.