23 Prairial
An CCXXXIV
Laurent Lecointre
Before the Revolution, Lecointre was a cloth merchant in Versailles. He therefore knew the excesses of the court at close range. The luxury of the Ancien Régime made him a bitter enemy of the aristocracy. In the National Convention, he demanded the unconditional death of the deposed king; at the trial of the former queen, he appeared as a witness against her. Down with the tyrants! But Lecointre did not hate only the tyranny of the old order. When he realized that the revolutionary committees were reaching for unlimited power, he turned against the leadership of the Republic. At the Festival of the Supreme Being, he openly showed Robespierre his contempt. After Robespierre’s fall, he demanded justice – in vain. The Thermidorians took revenge on him as well: on a revolutionary who had always cared about freedom, never about power.
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1742 - 1805
- February 1, 1742 · Born in Versailles as the son of a cloth merchant. Laurent later takes over his father’s business.
- July 17, 1791 · After the massacre on the Champ de Mars, Lecointre finds the endangered Robespierre lodgings with the carpenter Duplay.
- September 1791 · Elected as deputy for the département of Seine-et-Oise to the Legislative Assembly.
- September 1792 · Lecointre becomes a deputy to the National Convention for the département of Seine-et-Oise.
- January 1793 · He votes for the death of the king without an appeal to the people and without delay.
- October 14, 1793 · Lecointre appears as the first witness at the trial of Marie Antoinette. He reports on nights of excess at the Grand Trianon and denounces the extravagance of the court.
- April 1794 · After the execution of the Hébertists and Dantonists, he turns against Robespierre, whom he had previously supported as a Montagnard.
- June 8, 1794 · At the Festival of the Supreme Being in Paris, he repeatedly calls Robespierre a dictator and a tyrant.
- June 10, 1794 · In the Convention, Lecointre unsuccessfully calls for the adoption of the Prairial Law, which further intensifies the Terror, to be postponed.
- July 27, 1794 · He actively takes part in the conspiracy against Robespierre.
- August 1, 1794 · Lecointre secures in the Convention the suspension of the Law of 22 Prairial.
- August 29, 1794 · Before the Convention, Lecointre accuses seven former members of the committees of having committed numerous crimes during the Reign of Terror. But his request for an investigation into the accusations is rejected by the Convention.
- September 3, 1794 · Lecointre is expelled from the Jacobin Club.
- April 5, 1795 · He is arrested for supporting the Germinal uprising – together with the deputies whom he had still attacked in August 1794.
- October 26, 1795 · The outgoing National Convention declares a general amnesty for all crimes connected with the Revolution. Lecointre also benefits from it. He is released.
- May 15, 1799 · Lecointre submits a petition to the Council of Five Hundred. In it, he calls for a reduction in the deputies’ allowances.
- December 1799 · Lecointre is the only inhabitant of Versailles to vote against Napoleon’s Constitution of the Consulate.
- August 4, 1805 · Death in Guignes.
Quotes
Robespierre, I like your festival, but I detest you!
Lecointre at the Festival of the Supreme Being, 8 June 1794
Our fellow-citizen colleagues are blameworthy […] for having covered France with prisons, with a thousand Bastilles; […]
From Lecointre’s indictment of 29 August 1794
I am a citizen, I am a father, I am courageous.
Lecointre in a petition to the Council of Five Hundred, 15 May 1799
Le Moniteur
Lecointre accuses the members of the committees, 29 August 1794
External links
