Pierre Louis Prieur (Prieur de la Marne) (1 August 1756 – 31 May 1827) was a French lawyer elected to theEstates-General of 1789. During theFrench Revolution he served as a deputy to theNational Convention and held membership in theCommittee of Public Safety.
Born inSommesous (Marne), Prieur practised as a lawyer atChâlons-sur-Marne until 1789, when he was elected to theStates-General. He became secretary to theNational Constituent Assembly, and the violence of his attacks on theancien régime won him the pun nickname ofCrieur de la Marne ("Shouter of the Marne").
In 1791, he became vice-president of the criminal tribunal ofParis. Re-elected to theConvention, he was sent toNormandy, where he directed bitter reprisals against the supporters ofFederalism.
He voted for the death ofKingLouis XVI, and as a member of the Committees of National Defence and ofPublic Safety he was despatched in October 1793 toBrittany, where he established the local version of theReign of Terror. In May 1794 he became president of the Convention. TheThermidorian Reaction drove him into hiding from May 1795 until theamnesty proclaimed in the autumn of that year.
He took no part in public affairs under theDirectory, theConsulate or theEmpire, and in 1816, after theBourbon Restoration, he was banished as aregicide.
Prieur died inBrussels in 1827.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Prieur de la Marne".Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. This, in turn, gives the following reference:
