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PETION DE VILLENEUVE, JEROME (1756–1794)

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Originally appearing in Volume V21, Page 305 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PETION DE See also:

VILLENEUVE, See also:JEROME (1756–1794) , See also:French writer and politician, was the son of a procureur at See also:Chartres. He became an avocat in 1778, and at once began to try to make a name in literature. His first printed See also:work was an See also:essay, Sur See also:les moyens de prevenir l'See also:infanticide, which failed to gain the See also:prize for which it was composed, but pleased See also:Brissot so much that he printed it in vol. vii. of his Bibliotheque philosophiquedes legislateurs. Petion's next See also:works, Les Lois civiles, and Essay sur le mariage, in which he advocated the See also:marriage of priests, confirmed his position as a bold reformer, and when the elections to the States-See also:General took See also:place in 1789 he was elected a See also:deputy to the Tiers Etat for Chartres. Both in the See also:assembly of the Tiers Etat and in the Constituent Assembly Petion showed himself a See also:radical See also:leader. He supported See also:Mirabeau on the 23rd of See also:June, attacked the See also:queen on the 5th of See also:October, and was elected See also:president on the 4th of See also:December 1790. On the 15th of June 1791 he was elected president of the criminal tribunal of See also:Paris. On the 21st of June 1791 he was chosen one of three commissioners appointed to bring back the See also:king from Varennes, and he has See also:left a fatuous See also:account of the See also:journey. After the last See also:meeting of the assembly on the 3oth of See also:September 1791 See also:Robespierre and Petion were made the popular heroes and were crowned by the populace with civic crowns. Petion received a still further See also:proof of the See also:affection of the Parisians for himself on the 16th of See also:November 1791, when he was elected second See also:mayor of Paris in See also:succession to See also:Bailly. In his' mayoralty he exhibited clearly his republican tendency and his hatred of the old See also:monarchy, especially on the loth of June 1792, when he allowed the See also:mob to overrun the Tuileries and insult the royal See also:family. For neglecting to protect the Tuileries he was suspended from his functions by the See also:Directory of the See also:department of the See also:Seine, but the leaders of the Legislative Assembly See also:felt that Petion's cause was theirs, and rescinded the suspension on the 13th of See also:July.

On the 3rd of See also:

August, at the See also:head of the See also:municipality of Paris, Petion demanded the dethronement of the king. He was elected to the See also:Convention for See also:Eure-et-Loir and became its first president. L. P. See also:Manuel had the folly to propose that the president of the Assembly should have the same authority as the president of the See also:United States; his proposition was at once rejected, but Petion got the See also:nickname of " Roi Petion," which contributed to his fall. His See also:jealousy of Robespierre allied him to the Girondin party, with which he voted for the king's See also:death and for the See also:appeal to the See also:people. He was elected in See also:March 1793 to the first See also:Committee of Public Safety; and he attacked Robespierre, who had accused him of having known and having kept See also:secret See also:Dumouriez's project of See also:treason. His popularity however had waned, and his name was among those of the twenty-two Girondin deputies proscribed on the 2nd of June. Petion was one of those who escaped to See also:Caen and raised the See also:standard of provincial insurrection against the Convention; and, when the See also:Norman rising failed, he fled with M. E.. See also:Guadet, F. A.

See also:

Buzot, C. J. M. See also:Barbaroux, J. B. Salle and Louvet de Couvrai to the See also:Gironde, where they were sheltered by a See also:wig-maker of See also:Saint Emilion. At last, a See also:month before Robespierre's fall in June 1794, the escaped deputies felt themselves no longer safe, and deserted their See also:asylum; Louvet found his way to Paris, Salle and Guadet to See also:Bordeaux, where they were soon taken; Barbaroux committed See also:suicide; and the bodies of Petion and Buzot, who also killed themselves, were found in a See also:field, See also:half-eaten by wolves. See Memoires inedits de Petion et memoires de Buzot et de Barbaroux, accompannes de notes inedites de Buzot et de nombreux documents inedits sur Barbaroux, Buzot, Brissot, b'e., precedes d'une introduction See also:par C. A. Dauban (Paris, 1866) ; Euvres de Petion (3 vols., 1792); F. A. See also:Aulard, Les Orateurs de la Constituante (Paris, 1882).

End of Article: PETION DE VILLENEUVE, JEROME (1756–1794)

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