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Jean-Jacques Duval d'Eprémesnil (5 December 1745 – 22 April 1794), French magistrate and politician, was born in India atPondicherry, his father being a colleague ofJoseph François Dupleix.[1]
Returning to France in 1750 he was educated inParis for thelaw, and became in 1775conseiller in theparlement of Paris, where he soon distinguished himself by his zealous defence of its rights against the royal prerogative. He showed bitter enmity toMarie Antoinette in thematter of the diamond necklace, and on 19 November 1787 he was the spokesman of the parlement in demanding the convocation of the states-general.[1]
When the court retaliated by an edict depriving the parlement of its functions, Eprémesnil bribed the printers to supply him with a copy before its promulgation, and this he read to the assembledparlement. A royal officer was sent to the palais de justice to arrest Eprémesnil and his chief supporterGoislard de Montsabert, but theparlement (5 May 1788) declared that they were all Eprémesnils, and the arrest was only effected on the next day on the voluntary surrender of the two members.[1]
After four months imprisonment on the island of Ste Marguerite, Eprémesnil found himself a popular hero, and was returned to the states-general as deputy of the nobility of the outlying districts of Paris. But with the rapid advance towards revolution his views changed; in hisRéflexions impartiales ... (January 1789) he defended the monarchy, and he led the party among the nobility that refused to meet with thethird estate until summoned to do so by royal command.[1]
In theConstituent Assembly he opposed every step towards the destruction of the monarchy. He narrowly escaped the fury of the Parisian populace on 17 July 1792 when he was attacked by a mob near thePalais Royale. After being rescued by his business partner, ScotsmanWilliam Playfair, he was taken into custody byJérôme Pétion de Villeneuve, mayor of Paris, and imprisoned in theAbbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, but was set at liberty before theSeptember Massacres.[2] In September 1793, however, he was again arrested, this time atLe Havre, taken to Paris, and denounced to theConvention as an agent ofPitt. He was brought to trial before therevolutionary tribunal on 21 April 1794, and wasguillotined the next day.[1]
D'Eprémesnil's speeches were collected in a small volume in 1823. See also Henri Carré,Un Précurseur inconscient de la Révolution (Paris, 1897).[1]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Éprémesnil, Jean Jacques Duval d'".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 9 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 708.
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