Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvray | |
|---|---|
 Engraving by François Bonneville. | |
| 69th President of the National Convention | |
| In office 19 June – 4 July 1795 (1795-06-19 –1795-07-04) | |
| Preceded by | Jean-Denis Lanjuinais |
| Succeeded by | Louis-Gustave Doulcet de Pontécoulant |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1760-06-12)12 June 1760 |
| Died | 25 August 1797(1797-08-25) (aged 37) |
| Party | Jacobins |
| Occupation | Politician, Novelist, playwright, journalist |
| Signature |  |
Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvray (French pronunciation:[ʒɑ̃batistluvɛdəkuvʁɛ]; 12 June 1760 – 25 August 1797) was a French novelist, playwright and journalist.[1]
Louvet was born inParis as the son of astationer and became a bookseller's clerk. He first attracted attention with the first part of his novelLes Amours du Chevalier de Faublas (Paris, 1787; English translation illustrated by etchings byLouis Monzies in 1898), followed in 1788 bySix semaines de la vie du chevalier de Faublas and in 1790 byLa Fin des amours du chevalier de Faublas. The heroine, Lodoiska, was based on the wife of a jeweller in thePalais Royal, with whom Louvet had an affair.[1] She divorced her husband in 1792 and married Louvet in 1793.[2] His second novel,Émilie de Varmont (1791), was intended to prove the utility and necessity ofdivorce and of themarriage of priests,[3] questions raised by theFrench Revolution; all his works tended to advocate revolutionary ideals.[4]
He attempted to have one of his unpublished plays,L'Anoblié conspirateur, performed at theComédie-Française, and records that one of its managers, d'Orfeuil, listened to the reading of the first three acts impatiently, exclaiming at last: "I should need cannon in order to put that piece on the stage". A sort offarce at the expense of the army of theRoyalistémigrés,La Grande Revue des armes noire et blanche, had, however, better success: it was on stage for twenty-five nights.[4]
Louvet was first brought into notice as a politician by hisParis justifié,[2] in reply to a truly incendiary pamphlet in whichJean Joseph Mounier, after the removal ofKingLouis XVI from thePalace of Versailles to Paris in October 1789, had attacked the capital (which was still relatively peaceful), and argued that the court should be established elsewhere. This led to Louvet's election to theJacobin Club, for which, as he wrote bitterly in hisMemoirs, the qualifications were then a genuinecivisme and some talent.[4]
A self-styledphilosophe and radical revolutionary, Louvet subsequently campaigned againstdespotism andreaction, which he identified with the moderateconstitutional monarchy advocated by theMarquis de la Fayette, theAbbé Maury, and other disciples ofNiccolò Machiavelli.[4]
On 25 December 1791 he presented at the tribune of theLegislative Assembly hisPetition contre les princes, which would have major influence during theFirst French Empire. Elected deputy to the Assembly for thedépartement ofLoiret, he gave his first speech in January 1792.[4]
He attached himself to theGirondists, whose vaguedeism, sentimentalhumanitarianism and ardentrepublicanism he fully shared, and from March to November 1792 he published, atJean Marie Roland's expense, a bi-weeklyjournal-affiche, of which the title,La Sentinelle,[1] proclaimed its mission to open all of Europe to theEnlightenment at a time when, after theHabsburg declaration of war on France and the outbreak of theFrench Revolutionary Wars, a schism between the king and his subjects had become obvious.
On 10 August (theeffective fall of the Monarchy), Louvet became editor of theJournal des Débats and, both as a journalist and deputy in theNational Convention, made himself conspicuous by his attacks onMaximilien Robespierre,Jean-Paul Marat and the otherMontagnards,[3] whom he later claimed he would have succeeded in bringing to justice after theSeptember Massacres were it not for the poor support he received from the Girondist leaders.[4] On 29 October he accused Robespierre of creating a personality cult, governing the Paris "Conseil General" and paying the "Septembriseurs".[5][6]R. Scurr considered that Robespierre was taken by surprise by the accusations[7][page needed] while the writer of the Brittanica article on Louvet considered Louvet's words along with his claims that Robespierre was a “royalist,” Marat “the principal agent of England,” the Montagnards Orleanists in masquerade to have beenn "ill-balanced invective contributed to their [the Girondist leaders] ruin and his own".[4] Robespierre had to be defended by Danton.[8][page needed] Commenting on the control that Robespierre ensured in Paris1792 French National Convention election in which many candidates were disqualified Louvet said "Almost always at the moment despotism is overthrown agitateurs appear formenting anarchy to oppress and tyranize in their turn".[9]
His courageous attitude at the king's trial, when he supported theappeal to the people over the outrightdeath penalty,[2] added to hostility towards his party. Nonetheless, he defended the Girondists to the last moment, displaying an incriminating courage. After the crisis of 31 May 1793, whenFrançois Hanriot and thesans-culottes stormed the Convention, he joined his defeated faction in their flight from Paris. His wife Lodoiska, who had actively cooperated in his campaigns, was also placed in danger by the developments.
After the onset of theThermidorian Reaction and the fall of Robespierre (27 July 1794), he was recalled to the Convention, when he was instrumental in bringingJean-Baptiste Carrier and the others responsible for thedrownings at Nantes to justice. His influence became considerable: he was elected a member of the Committee of the Constitution, president of the Assembly, and member of theCommittee of Public Safety, against the overgrown power with which he in earlier days protested against.[4]
His conflict with the Montagnards had not made him reactionary: he attacked theJeunesse dorée, and was regarded by many as a pillar ofJacobinism.La Sentinelle reappeared, under his auspices, preaching union among republicans. Under theDirectory (1795) he was elected a member of theCouncil of Five Hundred, of which he was secretary, and also a member of theInstitut de France.[4]
Meanwhile, he had returned to his trade and set up a bookseller's shop in the Palais Royal. But, in spite of the fact that he had once more denounced the Jacobins inLa Sentinelle, he had come to be seen as a major enemy by theJeunesse dorée.[3] His shop was attacked by the young men with cries ofÀ bas la Loupe, à bas la belle Ledoiska, à bas les gardes du corps de Louvet! ("Down with the She-Wolf, down with beautiful Ledoiska, down with Louvet's bodyguards!"); he and his wife were insulted in the streets and the theatres:À bas les Louvets et les Louvetants! ("Down with the Louvets and the Louvetants!" - a reference to his guards, based on the antiquated senses of the verblouveter), and he was forced to leave Paris. The Directory appointed him to theconsulship atPalermo, in theKingdom of Naples, but he died before taking up his post.[3]
In 1795 Louvet published a portion of hisMemoirs under the title ofQuelques notices pour l'histoire et le récit de mes perils depuis le 31 mai 1793. They were mainly written in the various hiding-places in which Louvet took refuge, and they give a vivid picture of the sufferings of the exiled Girondists. They form a major document for the study of the psychology of the Revolution, as they give insight into the Louvet's own states of mind and political choices. The first complete edition of theMémoires de Louvet de Couvray, edited with preface, notes and tables, byFrançois Victor Alphonse Aulard, were published in Paris in 1889.[4]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Louvet de Couvrai, Jean Baptiste".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 17 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 68.