Everything about Jacques H Bert totally explained
Jacques René Hébert (
November 15,
1757—
March 24,
1794) was editor of the extreme radical newspaper
Le Père Duchesne during the
French Revolution. His followers are usually referred to as
the Hébertists or
the Hébertistes; he himself is sometimes called
Père Duchesne, after his newspaper.
Life
Early life
Born 1757 at
Alençon, Orne, to jeweller Jacques Hébert (died 1766) and Marguerite Beunaiche of Houdrie (1727-1787). His family was ruined by a lawsuit while he was still young, and Hébert came to
Paris. There he found work in a theatre, where he wrote plays in his spare time, but these were never produced.
In 1790, he attracted attention through a pamphlet he published, and became a prominent member of the club of the
Cordeliers in 1791.
Père Duchesne
Hébert's influence was mainly due to his articles in his journal,
Le Père Duchesne, which appeared from
1790 to
1794. These polemic articles were written with wit, but were also violent and abusive, and purposely couched in foul language in order to appeal to the
sans culottes. Initially,
Le Père Duchesne supported (1790-1791) a
constitutional monarchy around King
Louis XVI, as well as the opinions of the
Marquis de La Fayette; its most violent attacks of the period were aimed at
Jean-Sifrein Maury (the main opponent of the
Civil Constitution of the Clergy). Hébert changed his beliefs after the
king's flight to Varennes in
June 1791, and started referring to
Marie Antoinette as 'the Austrian bitch' and addressing
Louis XVI as 'Monsieur Veto, the drunken drip.'
Prominence and clash with Robespierre
During the
insurrection of August 10,
1792, he was a member of the revolutionary
Commune of Paris, and became second substitute of the
procureur of the Commune on
December 2, 1792.
His violent attacks on the
Girondist presence in the
National Convention led to his arrest on
May 24,
1793, but he was released owing to the threatening attitude of the mob. His tone was further radicalised by the killing of
Jean-Paul Marat in July 1793; his attacks on
Marie Antoinette contributed to the mood of hostility towards her, and indirectly to her execution. Henceforth very popular, Hébert organized with
Pierre Gaspard Chaumette the
worship of Reason, in opposition to the theistic
cult of the Supreme Being inaugurated by
Maximilien Robespierre, against whom he tried to instigate a popular movement. The failure of this brought about the arrest of the Hébertists.
Hébert and his immediate followers —although certainly not all his sympathizers— were
guillotined
March 24, 1794, and were among the few to have become adversaries of Robespierre and the
Committee of Public Safety for an excess of zeal rather than for any accusations of counter-revolutionary activity. It is said that Hebert was hysterical on his way to his execution and fainted at the sight of the guillotine. His wife, Marie Marguerite Françoise Hébert (née Goupil) (born 1756), who had been a
nun, was executed twenty days later. They had a daughter, Scipion-Virginia Hébert (February 7, 1793 - July 13, 1830).
Further Information
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