Marie-Anne-CHARLOTTE de CORDAY d'Armont

 

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Jean-Paul MARAT's destiny

 

Charlotte Corday (July 27th,1768/July 17th,1793), aristocrat with no wealth, French patriot, was born in Les Champeaux, a hamlet about five kilometers from Vimoutiers. Descended from the dramatist Pierre Corneille, on her mother line, adept of the philosophs Plutarch, Tacitus and Rousseau, sympathizer of the moderates, or Girondists, during the French Revolution, she determined to kill Jean-Paul Marat, Montagnard and radical Jacobins, whom she held responsible for the Reign of Terror. Charlotte went to Paris, she gained admittance to Marat's house on the pretext of disclosing to him the names of Girondins in the city of Caen. Marat suffering of skin problems, used to work in a bath. Charlotte is admitted in the room, and here stabbed him to death while he was in his bath. Charlotte was captured by Marat's friends before she could escape, and condemned by the revolutionary tribunal.

   

The childhood The exaltation The murder In jail, the trial The guillotine Videos/CLIP/film Historical background

 

 

 

 

Hotel de la Providence, Paris

 

 

July 11, 1793, Charlotte arrives in Paris and settles in the Hotel de la Providence 19, rue des Vieux Augustins aroud midday. (ie, 14 rue Herold, but nowadays, the hotel does not exist any longer).

On July 12, she is informed that Marat, suffering, no longer attends meetings at the Convention but works in his home.

 

Rue des Cordeliers, Paris

 

 

On july 13 in the morning, she goes to the Palais Royal and buys a large knife at Badin cutler's shop - 177 of the present Galerie de Valois - and at 11 o'clock, she appears at the door of Marat 30, rue des Cordeliers, - previously Hôtel de Cahors - claiming to have knowledge of a planned Girondist uprising in Caen ... She is turned away ... She tries a second time vainly ...

 

Gavure H. Gourdon de Genouillac

 

 

Assassination of Marat

 

 

Around 7 pm, Charlotte tries again and while he is working in his bathtub, Marat can hear her ... Marat admits her ... They exchange a few words about Girondists in Caen and Marat says they will be killed ... Then, Charlotte pulls out the knife and stabs Marat in his bathtub.

   

Painting Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry - Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes

 

 

 

Death of Marat

 

 

"A moi, ma chère amie (help me, my dear friend) ..." are the lasts words cried out by Marat to her companion Simone Evrard.

"At the time, Marat suffered from a skin disease that required him to take curative sulfur baths, and to wrap his head with a handkerchief soaked in vinegar to relieve his migraines."

July 13, 1793, 30 rue des Cordeliers Paris, Marat stabbed to death

The death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David

 

 

Arrest

 

 

Immediately arrested, Charlotte does not resist ... on Her, a letter "Address to the French people, friends of Law and Peace ... I showed you the path ..." that she has written to explain her motives for assassinating Marat : Adresse au Français, amis des lois et de la Paix ... je vous ai montré le chemin ..." The "flagrante delicto" report will indicate that convinced that Marat was the principal author of disasters committed in France, she had preferred to sacrifice her life for her country".

 

The manuscript - Musée des Lettres et Manuscrits - Paris.

 

 

Prison de l'Abbaye

 

 

Charlotte is taken a short distance to the prison de l'Abbaye where she is kept in custody day and night. (previously prison abbatiale du monastère de Saint-Germain des Prés and desmolished in 1854).

 

... >>> Charlotte Corday next : 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5

 

 

Enigmatic, fascinating indeed, Charlotte Corday was and remains one of the most emblematic figures of the French Revolution

The childhood The exaltation The murder In jail, the trial The guillotine Videos/CLIP/film Historical background

 

 

 

Charlotte's Baptism record :

"Ce vingt-huit de juillet mil sept cent soixante-huit, par nous soussigné curé, a été baptisée Marie-Anne-Charlotte née d'hier du légitime mariage de messire Jacques-François de Corday, écuyer, seigneur d'Armont et de noble dame Marie-Jacqueline de Gautier, son épouse, de cette paroisse; le parrain, messire Jean-Baptiste-Alexis de Gautier, écuyer, seigneur de Mesnival; la marraine, noble dame Françoise-Marie-Anne Levailant de Corday; le père présent.
Ont signé : Levaillant de Corday, de Gautier de Mesnival, Corday d'Armont, J.L. Pollard, curé des Ligneries"

 

The above transcription is the one which was given to Charlotte for her admittance in the Ladies's Abbey in Caen in 1782.

Her parents were Jacques-François de Corday and Marie-Jacqueline de Gautier,

Her godfather was Baptiste-Alexis de Gautier, her godmother was Françoise-Marie-Anne Levailant de Corday.

  

 

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