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,
a supporter of the 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.
To fly over this area
in the XVIIIth century, from the map of Cassini :
click the aeroplane
La Ferme du Ronceray
Les Ligneries
Charlotte's birthplace
where she lived
until she was
13-years-old.
Further to the division of France into departements and communes
- 1789/1793 - the parish of Les Ligneries was split as follows :
Le Ronceray
joined to
Les Champeaux
and the Church of Saint-Saturnin-des-Ligneries to
Ecorches.
Church of
Saint Saturnin des Ligneries
Charlotte
Corday was baptized in the tiny
church of Saint-Saturnin-des-Ligneries
on
July 28, 1768.
Manoir de
Glatigny
The family would often stay in
Le
Manoir de
Glatigny,
near Saint Gervais des Sablons,
less than 1 km from the Farm,
and the eldest line of the Cordays's property ...
Château du
Renouard
... and le
Château du
Renouard,
near Le Mesnil-Imbert,
Charlotte's paternal grandfather's property.
L'abbaye aux
Dames
After her
mother's decease,
from 1782 to
1791 Charlotte is educated in the
Ladies' Abbey,
a convent in
Caen, founded in 1060 by Matilda of Flander, William
of Normandy/the Bastard/the Conqueror's spouse.
Rue Saint
Jean à Caen
But convents are closed ... the
Revolution, church properties placed "at the disposal of
the Nation", ... and Charlotte retires at an old aunt's, Madame Coutellier de Bretteville,
with whom she shares a secluded life.
... in Caen
...
Her imagination stirs and her readings
inspire her with republican ideologies. She meets the Girondins,
sheltered in the city and thenceforth conceives the idea of helping
them.
Inn in
Lisieux
In July 1793,
Charlotte is determined. In Lisieux, the inn where she stayed on the
9th, on her way to Paris where she will stab Marat.
Stabbing
Marat
by
Paul-Jacques-Aimé Baudry,
Museum of Fine
Arts in Nantes, France
Death of Marat
On July 13, 1793
"Death of Marat",
18 rue des Cordeliers in Paris.
Painted by
Jacques-Louis David
Museum of
Versailles
Arrest
of Charlotte
She is conveyed
to the Prison de l'Abbaye, close to Marat's house. In her clothes, a
"Letter to the French patriots, friends of laws and peace ... I
showed you the path ... "
Charlotte's
last adieu to her father
Letter written
in the Prison de l'Abbaye
La
Conciergerie
On July 16,
Charlotte is transferred to the prison of La Conciergerie in Paris,
In the yard, window of the
dungeon where Charlotte was jailed.
"Charlotte
Corday en prison"
by
Jacques-LouisMuller
"The Last
Toilet of Charlotte Corday"
Steel engraving
- EM.Ward RA PinX - L. Stocks RA Sculpt. D. Appleton & C° New York
"The last
hours of Charlotte"
Pastel by
Hauer,
Lambinet museum in
Versailles
Designed on
Charlotte's request, this portrait was started in the courtroom,
then completed in her jail within her last two hours.
On the 17th
of July, 1793
circa 7pm,
Charlotte is guillotined ...
she was less than 25
years of age
Enigmatic, fascinating indeed,
Charlotte Corday was and remains
"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.
Jean-Paul MARAT's destiny
