I.

Introduction

Mirabeau, Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, Comte de (1749-1791), French politician, a member of the National Constituent Assembly during the French Revolution, a charismatic orator who attempted to reconcile the principles of the Revolution with a constitutional monarchy.

II.

A Scandalous Youth

Born at the château of Bignon (in Loiret, central France), Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, the future Comte de Mirabeau, was the eldest son of a noble family from Provence. His father was an economist who became associated with the school of economic reformers known as the Physiocrats. As a young man his scandalous misadventures attracted attention—he ran up debts, fought duels, and had numerous love affairs (despite his unprepossessing physical appearance, caused by the effects of smallpox). He was imprisoned twice under lettres de cachet (written orders allowing him to be held without trial), and was compelled by his father to join the army in 1767. In 1771 he married a Provençal heiress, Émilie de Marignane.

Following an affair with the wife of the Marquis de Monnier, and their flight to the Low Countries, Mirabeau was condemned to death for seduction and abduction, and imprisoned in the Château de Vincennes between 1777 and 1780. During his detention he wrote several works, most famously an essay, Des Lettres de Cachet et des Prisons d'État (1780; On Lettres de Cachet and State Prisons). At the end of 1786 he was appointed to a diplomatic mission to the court of the king of Prussia, Frederick the Great, in Berlin. His account of the mission, Histoire Secrète de la Cour de Berlin (1789; Secret History of the Court of Berlin) created another scandal.

III.

At the Estates-General

Mirabeau was elected to the Estates-General, representing Aix-en-Provence, in 1789. Even though this was the very year in which he inherited his title, he chose to sit with the Third Estate (representing the commoners) rather than with the nobility. He soon emerged as a leading spokesman for the Third Estate, publishing Appel à la Nation Provençale (Appeal to the Provençal Nation) and Lettres du Comte de Mirabeau à ses Commettants (Letters from the Comte de Mirabeau to his Constituents). On June 17, 1789, he cooperated with Emmanuel Sieyès in transforming the Third Estate into a national assembly. Mirabeau boosted his popularity when he helped rally the new assembly in its refusal to disperse on June 23, famously challenging a royal messenger with the words “if you have orders to remove us from this hall, you must also get authority to use force, for we shall yield to nothing but to bayonets”. A skilled speaker, Mirabeau also defended the freedom of the press with his newspaper Courrier de Provence, assisting with drawing up the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (on August 26), supported the abolition of the privileges of the clergy, and joined the Jacobin Club at the end of 1789.

IV.

Between the King and the People

However, alarmed by the growing power of the people as the Revolution gathered pace, Mirabeau began to take a more moderate position. While an opponent of absolutism he remained a supporter of Louis XVI, and argued for a constitutional monarchy. He tried to square these ideas with revolutionary principles, defending the king’s right of veto on legislation against the tide of opinion in the National Constituent Assembly. He envisioned himself taking charge of a ministry and easing relations between the king and the Assembly, though this plan was stymied when the Assembly decreed that one of its members could not simultaneously serve as a minister.

In July 1790, Mirabeau held the first of a series of secret meetings with Louis, from whom he received payment as a secret advisor. However, his advice to the king on how he could hold onto the throne and limit the Revolution was not heeded. In spite of this hidden role, and some opposition from other members, Mirabeau was elected president of the Constituent Assembly on January 30, 1791. He died in April of the same year, and he was laid to rest in the Panthéon in Paris as a hero of the Revolution. However, on the discovery of his secret correspondence with the king his remains were removed.