Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau
French writer, orator, and statesman; a prominent figure of the early French Revolution.
He was the first person interred at the Panthéon, but his remains were removed after his secret dealings with the king were discovered.[1] Mirabeau, a French revolutionary leader and orator, succumbed to pericarditis in 1791.[1]
Quick Facts
- Office
- Member of the Constituent Assembly; from Provence
- Took office
- 9 July 1789
- Left office
- 2 April 1791
- Constituency
- Aix-en-Provence
- Birth name
- Honoré Gabriel Riqueti
- Born
- 9 March 1749
- Birthplace
- Le Bignon, Orléanais, France
- Place of death
- Paris, Seine, France
Facts from the source article.
Life and work
A childhood smallpox attack left his face disfigured, contributing to his father's dislike of him.[2] He entered a cavalry regiment in 1767 and later proved his military genius during the Corsican expedition.[3][2] His scandalous love affairs led to imprisonment by lettre de cachet, first on the Île de Ré and later at the Château d'If and the castle of Joux.[3] In the Estates-General, Mirabeau was recognized as a leader and helped consolidate the National Assembly.[4]
He advocated for a strong ministry modeled on the British system but in harmony with the people's wishes.[4][3] Scholars continue to disagree about Mirabeau's legacy: some view him as a great leader who nearly averted the Terror, others as a corrupt demagogue without principles, and still others as a paid traitor working for the enemy.[1]
What the cited sources add
A 1785 pamphlet by Mirabeau, De La Caisse d'Escompte, correctly predicted the risky nature and ultimate demise of the French Discount Bank.[5][6]
References
- Wikipedia, "Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Epstein, "Mirabeau and The French Revolution: A Reappraisal", The Historian, 1970, p. 576–594 [pp. 576–77] (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Fling, "The Youth of Mirabeau", The American Historical Review, 1903, p. 658, 660–661, 664, 667–670, 672, 678 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Stephens 1911, p. 566 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Stephens 1911, p. 566; von Guttner, "The French Revolution", Nelson Cengage, 2015, p. 102–104; Arnoux, "Count Mirabeau, the revolutionary nobleman", Iter newsline 52, 6 October 2008 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- "De la caisse d'escompte", 1785. facts only, no text reused. archive.org
- Wikipedia, "Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "De la caisse d'escompte", 1785; :fr:Caisse d'escompte; Whatmore, "Étienne Clavière, Jacques-Pierre Brissot et les fondations intellectuelles de la politique des girondins 1", Annales Historiques de la Révolution Française, 2000, p. 1–26 (we also read that source) 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 Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau (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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