Historical Figures Codexery

Camille Desmoulins

The fiery journalist who sparked the Storming of the Bastille and later criticized the Reign of Terror.

The French Revolution had a prominent figure in Camille Desmoulins, who worked as both a journalist and a politician.[1] As editor of the journal Le Vieux Cordelier, Desmoulins became known for his severe critiques of the Reign of Terror.[1]

Quick Facts

Office
Deputy of the National Convention
Took office
20 September 1792
Left office
5 April 1794
Constituency
Paris
Born
2 March 1760
Birthplace
Guise, Picardy, France
Place of death
Place de la Révolution, Paris, France
Cause of death
Execution by guillotine

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

Through a scholarship, he entered the Collège Louis-le-Grand in Paris, where he excelled in Classical Literature and Politics.[2][3] He became an advocate in the Parlement of Paris in 1785 but struggled due to a stammer and lack of connections.[4] He participated in the Storming of the Bastille on 14 July.[4] In December 1793, he began publishing Le Vieux Cordelier, which condemned the brutality of the Terror and called for a Committee of Clemency.[5]

His calls for clemency led to his arrest and execution on 5 April 1794.[5][1] Guise, located in the Picardy region of northern France, was the birthplace of Desmoulins.[2] The lieutenant-general of the bailliage of Guise, Jean Benoît Nicolas Desmoulins, was his father.[2] On a Sunday, the 12th of July, after learning of Necker's politically unsettling dismissal, Desmoulins jumped onto a table outside the Café de Foy in the Palais Royal garden and gave a passionate speech urging the crowd to arm themselves.[6]

A radical pamphlet titled La France Libre, which explicitly called for a republic, was written by Desmoulins in June 1789, but it was not published until the 18th of July following the Bastille storming.[4][7]

What the cited sources add

He condemned the puissance maritale and argued for no-fault divorce.[8] He used arguments from Machiavelli's The Prince to support his call for clemency.[9] In his final unpublished number, he accused Robespierre of hypocrisy for reversing his views on the war.[10]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Camille Desmoulins" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Chisholm 1911, p. 99; Emas, "Seruan Camille Desmoulins: “Ambil Senjata, Kenakan Kokarde!”", Tinta Emas, 2025-08-29 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Camille Desmoulins" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Dictionnaire des parlementaires français", 1890, p. 360; Chisholm 1911, p. 99 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Camille Desmoulins" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Schama, 380. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Camille Desmoulins" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Dictionnaire des parlementaires français", 1890, p. 360 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Camille Desmoulins" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Scurr, 298 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Camille Desmoulins" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hartcup, 238. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Camille Desmoulins" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Dictionnaire des parlementaires français", 1890, p. 360; Hammersley, 124. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Camille Desmoulins" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Leuwers, "Camille et Lucile Desmoulins", Fayard, 2018, p. 280–281; Leuwers, "Camille et Lucile Desmoulins", Fayard, 2018, p. 280–281 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Camille Desmoulins" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Desmoulins, "Le Vieux Cordelier IV", 1794 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Camille Desmoulins" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Desmoulins, "Le Vieux Cordelier VII", 1794; Desmoulins, "Le Vieux Cordelier VII", 1794; Desmoulins, "Le Vieux Cordelier VII", 1794 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Camille Desmoulins (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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