Claude Antoine, comte Prieur-Duvernois | |
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 Portrait by Emile Giroux | |
| 43rd President of the National Convention | |
| In office 20 May – 4 June 1794 (1794-05-20 –1794-06-04) | |
| Preceded by | Lazare Carnot |
| Succeeded by | Maximilien Robespierre |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1763-12-22)22 December 1763 |
| Died | 11 August 1832(1832-08-11) (aged 68) |
| Political party | The Mountain |
| Signature |  |
Claude Antoine,comte Prieur-Duvernois (1763–1832), commonly known asPrieur de laCôte-d'Or after his nativedépartement, was a French engineer and a politician during and after theFrench Revolution.
Born inAuxonne,Côte-d'Or. As an officer of engineers, he presented to theNational Constituent Assembly in 1790 aMémoire on thestandardization of weights and measures.[1]
In 1791, the Côte-d'Or re-elected him to theLegislative Assembly, and in 1792 to theNational Convention. In 1792, Prieur-Duvernois was sent on a mission to theArmy of the Rhine to announce the deposition ofKingLouis XVI, after having voted in favor of hisexecution.[1]
In 1793 he served as arepresentative on mission to survey the ports ofLorient andDunkirk. He was arrested inNormandy after the fall of theGirondists (June 1793) by the rebel authorities ofCaen. He was released in July 1793 after the defeat of their forces atVernon.[1]
On 14 August 1793, he became a member of theCommittee of Public Safety, where he allied himself withLazare Carnot in the organization of national defence.[1] His role included providing munitions for the troops engaged in theFrench Revolutionary Wars.[2] Prieur worked closely with prominent scientists in France. The Committee worked with several notable French scientists, includingLagrange,Lamarck, andVandermonde.[3] Prieur and Carnot advocated the use ofobservation balloons in war after some experiments inMeudon. This led to their deployment at theBattle of Fleurus.[4]
With Carnot, Prieur aligned with theReign of Terror, and voted in favor ofGeorges Danton's execution. As the Committee collapsed, Prieur aligned with Carnot andLindet, the two other specialists in the Committee.[5]
Prieur retained his seat after theThermidorian Reaction. He avoided capture in the riots ofPrairial Insurrection (20 May 1795), and was subsequently spared the attacks of moderates in the Thermidorian Convention.
Under theDirectory, Prieur sat in theCouncil of Five Hundred untilNapoleon Bonaparte's18 Brumaire coup (9 November 1799). In 1808 he was created acount of theEmpire, and in 1811 he retired from the army with the grade ofchef de brigade[1] (the equivalent ofcolonel).
Prieur-Duvernois was one of the founders of theÉcole Polytechnique. In this role, he helped to establish theInstitut de France, to adopt themetric system, and to found theBureau des Longitudes. Prieur died inDijon.[1]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Prieur-Duvernois, Claude Antoine, Comte".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 22 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 323. This, in turn, gives as references:| International | |
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