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Gilbert Romme | |
|---|---|
 Gilbert Romme | |
| 31st President of the National Convention | |
| In office 21 November 1793 – 6 December 1793 | |
| Preceded by | Pierre Antoine Laloy |
| Succeeded by | Jean-Henri Voulland |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 26 March 1750 |
| Died | 17 June 1795(1795-06-17) (aged 45) |
| Cause of death | Suicide |
| Political party | The Mountain |
| Occupation | Politician and Mathematician |
Charles-Gilbert Romme (26 March 1750 – 17 June 1795) was a Frenchpolitician andmathematician who developed theFrench Republican Calendar.[citation needed]
Charles Gilbert Romme was born inRiom,Puy-de-Dôme, in theAuvergne region of France, where he received an education in medicine and mathematics.[1][2] After spending five years inParis, he went toRussia to become the tutor ofPavel Alexandrovich Stroganov. He returned to Paris in 1788 and entered political life.[citation needed]
He was a member of the Masonic lodge,Les Neuf Sœurs.[3][4]
Elected on 10 September 1791 to theLegislative Assembly, Romme aligned himself with theGirondists, but after his election to theNational Convention on 6 September 1792, he sided with theMontagnards.[citation needed]
He voted in favour of the death sentence forLouis XVI.[5][6] Later, in the events leading up to theReign of Terror, he was arrested by Girondist supporters and was imprisoned inCaen for two months.[citation needed]
During his tenure in National Convention, Romme served in theCommittee of Public Education [fr] (Comité de l’instruction Publique), where he presented his report on the republican calendar on 17 September 1793 and then developed an agricultural almanac based on the new calendar.[7] Aware of their military importance, he was also an early supporter ofsemaphore telegraphs.[citation needed] He served as president of the Convention from 21 November to 6 December 1793.[citation needed]
Because he was on an assignment to organise gun production for the navy, he had no hand in the coup of9 Thermidoran II (27 July 1794), which resulted in the fall of theRobespierre (and ultimately led to the return of the Girondists).[citation needed]
When riotingsans-culottes, demanding bread and theJacobin constitution, violently occupied the Convention on 1Prairialan III (20 May 1795), Romme supported their demands. This insurrection was quickly put down however, and he and other Montagnards were arrested.[citation needed] While waiting for their trial, the defendants agreed to commit suicide in case of a death sentence.[citation needed]
On 29 Prairial (17 June), Paris, France, Romme and five others were sentenced to theguillotine. With a knife hidden byJean-Marie Goujon, he stabbed himself repeatedly while on the staircase leading from the courtroom, and died - his last words are reported to have been "I die for the republic".[citation needed]
InRomme le Montagnard (1833), Marc de Vissac described Romme as a small, awkward and clumsy man with an ill complexion and a dull orator but also as possessing a pleasant and instructive style of conversation.[citation needed]
