Everything about Antoine Barnave totally explained
Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave (
October 22,
1761—
November 29,
1793), was a
French politician, and, together with
Honoré Mirabeau, the most influential
orators of the
French Revolution.
In Dauphiné
He was born at
Grenoble in
Dauphiné, of a
Protestant family. His father was an advocate at the
Parlement of Grenoble, and his mother was an
upper-class educated woman. It was she who educated her son because, being a Protestant, he couldn't attend school. Barnave was prepared for a career in law, and at the age of twenty-two made himself known by a speech pronounced before the local
Parlement on the
division of political powers.
Dauphiné was one of the first of the
provinces of France to be touched by the revolutionary ideals, and Barnave was one of the first to give voice to the general feeling, in a
pamphlet entitled
Esprit des édüs enregistrés militairement le 20 mai 1788. He was immediately elected deputy, with his father, to the
states of Dauphiné, and took a prominent part in their debates.
States-General and Assemblies
A few months later he became better known, when the
States-General were convoked at the
Palace of Versailles for
May 5,
1789, and Barnave was chosen deputy of the
Third Estate for his native province.
He soon rose to prominence in the
National Assembly, becoming the friend of most of the leaders of the party originating in the Third Estate, and formed with
Adrien Duport and
Alexandre Lameth the group known during the
Constituent Assembly as "
the triumvirate". He took part in the conference on the claims of the three orders, drew up the first address to
King Louis XVI, and supported the proposal of
Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès that the Assembly should declare itself "
National". Until
1791, he was one of the main members of the club known later as
the Jacobins, of which he drew up the
manifesto and first rulebook.
Views
Although a partisan of
political freedoms, he hoped to preserve revolutionary liberties together while maintaining the ruling
House of Bourbon. Subject to the more radical forces, Barnave took part in the attacks on the monarchy, on the
clergy, on
Roman Catholic Church property, and on the provincial
Parlements. On several occasions he stood in opposition to Mirabeau. After the
storming of the Bastille, he wished to save the throne. He advocated the suspensory
veto, and the establishment of trial by jury in civil causes, but voted with the
Left against the system of two chambers.
His conflict with Mirabeau on the question of assigning to the King the
right to make peace or war (from May 16 to 23,
1791) was one of the main episodes of the Assembly's mandate. In August
1790, after a vehement debate, he fought a
duel with
Jacques Antoine Marie de Cazalès, in which the latter was slightly wounded. About the close of October
1790, Barnave was called to the presidency of the Assembly. On the death of Mirabeau a few months later, Barnave paid a high tribute to his worth and public services, designating him the "
William Shakespeare of oratory".
Downfall and execution
On the arrest of the king and the royal family during the
Flight to Varennes, Barnave was one of the three appointed to conduct them back to
Paris. During the journey, he began to feel compassion for Queen
Marie-Antoinette, and subsequently attempted to do what he could to alleviate their sufferings. In one of his most powerful speeches, he maintained the
inviolability of the king’s person.
Barnave led the
Feuillants out of the
Jacobin Club in early
1791, and their faction entered a conflict with the
Girondists after they opposed war with
Habsburgs, and were driven out of the Assembly. His public career came to an end, and he returned to Grenoble at the beginning of
1792. His sympathy and relations with the royal family, to whom he'd submitted a plan for a
counter-revolution, and his desire to check the violence of the Revolution, brought on him suspicion of
treason.
He was denounced (
August 15,
1792) in the Legislative Assembly, arrested and imprisoned for ten months at Grenoble, then transferred to
Fort Barraux, and in November
1793 to Paris (during the
Reign of Terror). On
November 28 he appeared before the
Revolutionary Tribunal. He was condemned on the evidence of papers found in the
Tuileries Palace, and
guillotined the next day, alongside
Marguerite-Louis-François Duport-Dutertre.
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