Philippe-François-Joseph Le Bas (4 November 1764,

Frévent Frévent () is a Communes of France, commune in the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, department in the Hauts-de-France region of France in the valley of the Canche river, west of Arras. Population The inhabitants are called ''Fréventins''. ...

Pas-de-Calais The Pas-de-Calais (, ' strait of Calais'; ; ) is a department in northern France named after the French designation of the Strait of Dover, which it borders. It has the most communes of all the departments of France, with 890, and is the ...

– 28 July 1794, Paris) was a French politician and revolutionary.

Biography

The son of a notary, intendant to the prince de Rache, avocat to the parliament of 1789, companion and collaborator of Saint-Just, Le Bas was elected député 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 ...

for the Pas-de-Calais in 1792, sitting among the Montagnards. A discreet, cold, and loyal representative, he voted for King

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 death and against the sentence at his trial (i.e., against the people's appeal). Le Bas and Duquesnoy were delegated to the armée du Nord in August 1793, and Le Bas proceeded with the arrest of generals Richardot and O'Moran for inability. A member of the

Committee of General Security The Committee of General Security () was a parliamentary committee of the French National Convention which acted as police agency during the French Revolution. Established as a committee of the Convention in October 1792, it was designed to protec ...

, he was among those close to

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 ...

, Couthon, and Saint-Just. He and Saint-Just were made the Convention's commissioners to the armies and set out on this mission to eastern France, where he reorganized the army after its reverses at Wissembourg. Saint-Just and Le Bas were also later sent to reorganize the armée du Nord by 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 ...

in the face of an attempted return by Austrian forces after Wattignies - it was this reorganisation that made possible the victory at Fleurus. Since 1 June he was appointed as the director of the "École de Mars", formerly known as the

École Militaire École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...

Death

Faithful to Robespierre,

Augustin Robespierre Augustin Bon Joseph de Robespierre (21 January 1763 – 28 July 1794), known as Robespierre the Younger, was a French lawyer, politician and the younger brother of French Revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre. His political views were sim ...

and Le Bas demanded to share his fate. The five deputies were taken to the

, questioned and then escorted to different prisons; LeBas 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 ...

. The mayor of the Commune ordered the janitors to refuse any member of the Convention. LeBas, as well as the others gathered in the Hôtel de Ville on

9 Thermidor Maximilien Robespierre addressed the National Convention on 26 July 1794, was arrested the next day, and executed on 28 July. In his speech on 26 July, Robespierre spoke of the existence of internal enemies, conspirators, and calumniators, with ...

. When the anti-Robespierristes under Barras and Léonard Bourdon broke into the main room of the townhall (where Le Bas had taken refuge with Maximilien Robespierre, Augustin Robespierre, St-Just and Couthon) LeBas died from suicide by pistol in the early morning of 10 Thermidor.

Marriage and issue

He married Elisabeth Duplay, daughter of Maurice Duplay, Robespierre's landlord in Paris, and their son was Philippe Le Bas (1794–1860), who would be Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte's preceptor until 1827 then director of the library of the Sorbonne (from 1844 to 1860), a member of the

Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres The () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the . The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions (epigraphy) and historical literature (see Belles-lettres). History ...

(1838–60) and president of the

Institut de France The ; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the . It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute manages approximately ...

(from 1858).

Bibliography

* Stéfane-Pol, Elisabeth Duplay Le Bas, ''Autour de Robespierre: Le conventionnel Le Bas, d'après des documents inédits et les mémoires de sa veuve'', E. Flammarion, 1901, 340 pages {{DEFAULTSORT:Lebas, Philippe-Francois-Joseph 1764 births 1794 deaths People from Pas-de-Calais Suicides by firearm in France French politicians who died by suicide Deputies to the French National Convention Regicides of Louis XVI 18th-century French lawyers Jacobins People on the Committee of Public Safety Représentants en mission 18th-century suicides