Charlotte Corday

Charlotte Corday, full name Marie Anne Charlotte Corday d'Armont (1768-1793), French patriot and assassin of the French revolutionary Jean Paul Marat. She was born in St-Saturnin, Normandy, and spent her early years in a convent. A sympathizer of the moderates, or Girondins, in the French Revolution, she determined to kill Marat, a supporter of the radical Jacobins, whom she held responsible for the Reign of Terror. Corday went to Paris, where, on July 13, 1793, she gained admittance to Marat's house on the pretext of disclosing to him the names of Girondins in the city of Caen and stabbed him to death while he was in his bath. She was captured by Marat's friends without attempting to escape, condemned by the revolutionary tribunal, and guillotined on July 17. Her deed was portrayed by the French artist Jacques Louis David in his The Death of Marat.