Jean-Paul Marat

I

Introduction

Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793), radical French revolutionary journalist and politician. Marat was born near Neuchâtel, in Switzerland, and educated by his father (a doctor by profession and a Calvinist by faith, who had left Sardinia to settle in Switzerland). At the age of 16, Marat left Neuchâtel to follow his medical studies in Toulouse, Bordeaux, and Paris. On completing his training, Marat travelled in Europe before settling in St Andrews, in Scotland. He practised there until 1776 and wrote his first book, Les Chaines de l’Esclavage (1774; The Chains of Slavery).

II

Frustrated Ambition

Returning to France as a doctor in the service of the Comte d’Artois (later Charles X) in 1776, Marat published scientific papers influenced by the popular materialist philosophy of the day. Above all, however, Marat was preoccupied with politics. His Traité sur les Principes de l’Homme (1776; Treatise on the Principles of Man), mocked by Voltaire, defended the people against elites.

A man with radical plans, Marat had few friends and supporters. After he was rejected by the Academy of Sciences he became even more extreme in his opinions. Between 1779 and 1789 he wrote a dozen books, such as Plan de Législation Criminelle (1789; Plan for Criminal Legislation) in which he argued for freedom of conscience. Marat remained a controversial figure and, at the age of 45 on the eve of the French Revolution, “consumed by the love of glory”, was frustrated by his lack of public recognition.

III

Marat the Revolutionary

The outbreak of the French Revolution allowed Marat to exercise his talent as a populist agitator in public. He gave free rein to his radical ambitions in calling for the absolute equality of men. In the summer of 1789 he took a populist line in his newspaper, L’Ami du Peuple (The People’s Friend), which soon built up a readership, particularly in Paris. The newspaper labelled moderates and the rich as traitors and presented violence—exercised by the people or the state—as the principal tool of the Revolution. Through violence the Revolution could demolish the ancien régime and guarantee loyalty to the new order.

After the fall of the Bastille (July 14, 1789), Marat adopted a clearer position: according to him, taking 500 heads would allow a complete break with the past. For Marat, disposing of elites was the key to preserving the achievements of July 14. Among his many tirades, in 1791 he called for priests, financiers, and officers of the king to be forbidden to vote. At the same time he criticized the National Constituent Assembly and, in 1792, expressed the hope that “a supreme dictatorship” would allow the institution of an authentic revolution. Dotted with calls for bloodshed, Marat’s rhetoric allowed his enemies to portray him as an authoritarian fanatic. His declamatory style strengthened vigilance against counter-revolutionaries and nourished the climate of violence that produced the September Massacres in 1792.

IV

Triumph and Assassination

Although criticized for his obsession with conspiracies and his philosophy of popular terrorism, by 1792 Marat had obtained a certain prestige. He was elected to represent Paris in the National Convention, joining the radical deputies known as the Montagnards. He advocated dictatorial measures, arguing that the Revolution would not be safe while “heads that oppress the people are not taken”.

As a leader of the Jacobins, Marat was attacked by the more moderate Girondins, who brought him to trial before the revolutionary tribunal on charges of causing disturbances. However, the trial ended in triumph for Marat when he was acquitted in April 1793. His struggle against the Girondins climaxed on June 2, when, in the face of an insurrection encouraged by Marat, the Girondins lost power. The new regime was made up of Jacobins.

However, Marat had little time to celebrate. On July 13 he was assassinated by a young woman from Normandy, Charlotte Corday, a supporter of the Girondins. The new republic organized an elaborate public funeral for Marat. His remains were taken to the Panthéon, and an elegy was written to honour his memory; “Like Jesus, Marat ardently loved the people, and not himself. Like Jesus, Marat hated kings, nobles, priests, the rich, criminals; and, like Jesus, he never ceased to fight the plagues of society.” He was immortalized in the famous painting by Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Marat, painted in 1793 and now in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels.