 | This article has multiple issues. Please helpimprove it or discuss these issues on thetalk page.(Learn how and when to remove these messages) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
|
Isaac Le Chapelier | |
|---|---|
%2c_French_politician.jpg) Le Chapelier | |
| Member of the National Assembly forIlle-et-Vilaine | |
| In office 9 July 1789 – 30 September 1791 | |
| Constituency | Rennes |
| Deputy to the Estates General forThird Estate | |
| In office 5 May 1789 – 9 July 1789 | |
| Constituency | Rennes |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Isaac René Guy le Chapelier (1754-06-12)12 June 1754 |
| Died | 22 April 1794(1794-04-22) (aged 39) |
| Political party | Breton(1789) Jacobin(1789–1791) Feuillant(1791–1792) |
| Spouse | Marie-Esther de la Marre |
| Alma mater | University of Rennes |
| Profession | Lawyer |
Isaac René Guy Le Chapelier (12 June 1754 – 22 April 1794) was a French jurist and politician of theRevolutionary period.
Le Chapelier was born inRennes inBrittany, where his father wasbâtonnier of the corporation of lawyers, a title equivalent to President of theBar. He entered the law profession, and was a notedorator. In 1775, Le Chapelier was initiated as afreemason at theGrand Orient de France.[1]
In 1789 he was elected as a deputy to theEstates General by theThird Estate of thesénéchaussée of Rennes. He adopted radical opinions. His influence in theNational Constituent Assembly was considerable:[2] he served as president 3–17 August 1789, presiding over the famous all-night session of 4–5 August, during whichfeudalism was abolished in France, and in late September 1789 was added to theConstitutional Committee, where he drafted much of theConstitution of 1791.
Le Chapelier introduced a motion in theNational Assembly which prohibitedguilds,trade unions, andcompagnonnage, and which also abolished theright to strike. The law did not "abolish the right to strike", no right to not turn up for work and not be dismissed, had ever existed in French law, a "right" that did not exist, and had never existed, can not have been "abolished" by the law of 1791. Le Chapelier and other Jacobins interpreted demands byParis workers for higher wages as contrary to the new principles of the Revolution. The measure was enacted law on 14 June 1791 in what became subsequently known as theLe Chapelier Law. The law effectively barred guilds and trade unions in France until 1864. There had been an effort, by Turgot, to abolish the compulsory guilds (producer cartels) in 1776 - but it did not go into effect. The Estates General proclaimed against the guilds on August 4, 1789 - but the end of these compulsory producer cartels did not come till 1791.
In May, 1789, when theEstates General were still meeting, Le Chapelier was one of the founders of theBreton Club,[2] a collection of deputies initially all hailing from his home province ofBrittany, but which in the weeks to come drew all sorts of deputies sharing a more radical ideology. After theOctober Days (5–6 October) and theNational Assembly's move to Paris, the Breton Club rented aDominican monastery and became theJacobin Club, of which Le Chapelier was the first president.
Like many radical deputies, Le Chapelier wished for the central role played by such popular societies early in the French Revolution to come to an end with the settling of the state and the pending promulgation of a new constitution. This conviction was increased by theChamps de Mars Massacre of 17 July 1791. Within days, Le Chapelier joined the mass exodus of moderate deputies abandoning the Jacobin club in favour of a new organisation, thePatriotic Society of 1789 and later theFeuillant club.
Le Chapelier, in his capacity as chairman of the Constitutional Committee, presented to the National Assembly in its final sessions a law restricting the rights of popular societies to undertake concerted political action, including the right to correspond with one another. It passed 30 September 1791. By the virtue of obeying this law, the moderate Feuillants embraced obsolescence; the radical Jacobins, by ignoring it, emerged as the most vital political force of theFrench Revolution. The popular society movement, largely founded by Le Chapelier, was thus inadvertently radicalised contrary to his original intentions.
During theReign of Terror, as a suspect for having had links with theFeuillants, he temporarilyemigrated toGreat Britain, but returned to France in 1794, in an unsuccessful effort to prevent the confiscation of his assets. He was arrested, andguillotined in Paris on the same day asGuillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes.
He is a character inRafael Sabatini's historical novelsScaramouche (1921) andScaramouche the King-Maker (1931).
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Le Chapelier, Isaac René Guy".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 16 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 353–354.
