Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne

Billaud-Varenne was born in April 1756 in La Rochelle.  He was given a good education and proceeded to become a lawyer just as his father and grandfather had done although he did spend some time as a teacher and toyed with being a dramatist.  He also published a series of mainly philosophical books including Despotisme des ministres de la France.

From the outset Billaud-Varenne was a firm believer in a Federal Republic.  He joined the Jacobin Club and launched a series of stinging rebukes to the monarchy.  After the events of the Flight to Varenne he rose to even greater prominence in Parisian political society.  He was elected one of the deputy commissioners of a section of Paris and was member of the Insurrectionary Committee which was responsible for planning the attack on the Tuileries Palace of the 10th of August 1792.  It was possible that he was also involved in organising the September Massacres in the Abbaye prison.

He was elected to the National Convention where he demanded the end of the monarchy.  He preempted the creation of the Revolutionary Calendar by calling for all acts to be dated from Year I of the French Revolution. At the trial of the King he called for the execution of the king within twenty four hours.  He also called for the expulsion of all foreigners (due to the ongoing war), more taxation on the wealthy and the creation of a French Revolutionary army.

As part of the Committee of Public Safety he was also part of the movement that saw the expulsion of the Girondins on 2nd of June 1793.  He also demanded the execution of Marie Antoinette and was part of the attacks on Jacques Hébert and Georges Danton in 1794.  

Billaud-Varenne however sensed that change was in the air.  He spoke out against Robespierre on the 8th of Thermidor accusing of him being too moderate.  His connections to the Committee of Public Safety and Robespierre and he was arrested alongside Barère.  He was sentenced to exile in French Guiana.  He stayed there until 1816 despite being offered a pardon when Napoleon was consul.  He spent some time in New York before buying a farm in Haiti, where he died of dysentery in 1819.