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Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois
Collot was an actor. When the Revolution broke out, the streets and the Convention became his new stage. With unmatched effect: during the storming of the Tuileries and the September Massacres, he played leading roles that earned him fame and a seat in the National Convention. His greatest success was the staging of the mass executions that took place during his mission in Lyon as a representative of the Committee of Public Safety. On 9 Thermidor, he joined the uprising against Robespierre. Not to end the Terror, but because he believed himself to be on the list of the supposed dictator’s future victims. But it was all in vain: his past as one of the chief organizers of the Terror caught up with him. The Thermidorians deported him to Guiana, where he died of tropical fever.
1749 - 1796
- June 19, 1749 · Jean-Marie Collot is born in Paris, the son of a goldsmith.
- 1767 · Collot becomes an actor and writes plays. He takes the stage name d’Herbois.
- 1784 · Together with René Desplace, he directs the Théâtre de Neuve in Geneva.
- 1787 · Theatre director in Lyon.
- 1789 · Returns to Paris. He continues to work as a playwright, with his plays frequently performed at the Théâtre de Monsieur.
- October 23, 1791 · His patriotic play Almanach du père Gérard is honored by the Jacobin Club.
- September 21, 1792 · Collot is elected as a deputy of Paris to the National Convention. On the first day, he calls for the abolition of the monarchy.
- September 1793 · Elected to the Committee of Public Safety.
- October 30, 1793 · Collot is sent together with Fouché by the National Convention to the rebellious city of Lyon.
- December 4, 1793 · Execution of 268 insurgents in Lyon, bound and shot with cannons.
- May 23, 1794 · Assassination attempt on Collot. A man named Admirat shoots at him, but Collot is only slightly wounded.
- July 1794 · Tensions increase within the Committee of Public Safety. Collot and Billaud-Varenne, unofficial representatives of the Parisian sans-culottes, lose Robespierre’s trust.
- July 26, 1794 · At the Jacobin Club, Collot d’Herbois is attacked when he tries to defend himself against Robespierre’s accusations.
- July 27, 1794 · Collot d’Herbois presides over the session of 9 Thermidor. He denies Robespierre the floor. The next day, Robespierre and his followers are executed.
- September 1, 1794 · Collot leaves the Committee of Public Safety.
- April 1, 1795 · The Convention decrees the deportation of Collot d’Herbois.
- June 8, 1796 · Collot d’Herbois dies in Cayenne (French Guiana) of tropical fever.
Quotes
What kind of people have tears to shed over the corpses of the enemies of freedom, while the hearts of patriots bleed?
Collot on the criticism of his actions in Lyon
To expose [Collot's subordinates] to the blows in order to free oneself from slander and persecutions is an unworthy expedient. Better to die a hundred times than to resort to such subterfuges.
Collot d’Herbois on the responsibility for the measures taken in Lyon
Citizens, this is the moment when we must die at our post.
President of the Assembly Collot d’Herbois on 9 Thermidor, when armed troops of the insurgent Commune entered the premises of the Committee of General Security
Le Moniteur
Duodi, 12 Thermidor, l'an 2 de la République française
The Lyon massacre
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Jan Knupper 2025 | CCXXXIV
