During the French Revolution, there were thousands of people who made their way to their execution.
The King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette would both lose their heads on the revolutionary
execution device known as the guillotine, which would be used in many other countries
for centuries after the revolution. Anyone who dared to speak out against the revolution
was dragged to the scaffold and was beheaded on the guillotine often without trial, and
the wives of some men who shed a tear as they watched their love ones being executed, were
even brought to the device next to lose their heads. It was a tough time, but one woman
who was executed for assassinating the Jacobin leader Jean Paul Marat was Charlotte Corday,
who was just 24 when she was executed in Paris. But what is her story? Join us today as we
look at the horrific execution of the Angel of Assassination, and remember to support
our channel please make sure to subscribe.
Charlotte Corday was born in a small hamlet in Normandy, and she was part of a low key
aristocratic family. As a young girl, her mother and older sister passed away and their
father could not deal with the loss of his wife and daughter. Because of this he sent
Charlotte and her younger sister to a convent in Caen, and whilst here they delved into
the extensive library inside of the abbey. Charlotte learned a great deal, and she also
lived with her cousin and the two became very close. Charlotte was described as, ‘five
feet and one inch, hair and eyebrows auburn, eyes grey, forehead high, mouth medium size,
chin dimpled and oval face.’ However as the French Revolution broke out across the
land, Charlotte began to take the side of the Girondins, and she admired their speeches
and also favoured many of the groups that were living in Caen. She respected their ideas
for France and liked their way of thinking, and she thought it would be the Girondins
that would save the country from the evils of the monarchy.
They were more moderate with regards to the revolution, and they were not keen on the
radical elements of The Terror, but Charlotte Corday would begin to plan to murder one of
the most outspoken and popular Montagnard radicals, Jean Paul Marat. He was a fierce
writer and speaker, who took a strong stance towards the new leaders and institutions of
the revolution. Charlotte would begin to plot to assassinate Marat, and to many across France
she would later become a hero and a champion to those who were against his ideas. Jean
Paul Marat was a part of the radical Jacobins, and he was a key player in the Reign of Terror
and the mass executions being carried out across the country. But as a writer he had
a lot of power in his newspaper, and Charlotte’s decision to take Marat’s life was motivated
by her hatred of the September massacres that she believed Marat was responsible for.
She also was worried that there would be a full blow civil war, and that the King should
not have been executed. Violence was gripping France, and Charlotte would indulge in this.
On the 9th July 1793, she left her cousin, and went to Paris and she held a room at the
Hotel de Providence. She took with her a kitchen knife that had a 6 inch blade, and over the
next few days she wrote a series of letters explaining what her motives were for the assassination
she was going to carry out. She planned to kill Murat in front of the whole of the National
Convention and to make an example of him, however she learned he did not attend meetings
as he was ill from a skin disorder. She changed her plans, and then went to Murat’s home
on the 13th July saying she had information of a planned Girondist uprising in Caen, but
she was refused entry.
That evening, Murat himself let Charlotte in and he had a lot of his meetings whilst
he was in his bath. Marat wrote the names down of the Girondins that Charlotte gave
him, and as he was doing this Charlotte pulled out her knife and she stabbed it deep into
his chest. He screamed ‘Help me my dear friend,’ and then whilst in the bath-tub,
died. As Marat screamed, an attendant rushed into the room and Charlotte was seized as
attempts to revive him took place, but officials managed to take Charlotte away as crowds were
there ready to Lynch her. However Charlotte was then to be tried. She sent a letter to
her father which read, Forgive me, my dear papa, for having disposed of my existence
without your permission. I have avenged many innocent victims, I have prevented many other
disasters. The people, one day disillusioned, will rejoice in being delivered from a tyrant.
If I tried to persuade you that I was passing through England, it was because I hoped to
keep it incognito, but I recognized the impossibility. I hope you will not be tormented. In any case,
I believe that you would have defenders in Caen. I took Gustave Doulcet as a defender:
such an attack allows no defense, it's for the form. Goodbye, my dear papa, please forget
me, or rather rejoice in my fate, the cause is good. I kiss my sister whom I love with
all my heart, as well as all my parents. Do not forget this verse by Corneille: Crime
is shame, not the scaffold! It is tomorrow at eight o'clock that I am judged.
This 16 July.’
Charlotte was interrogated a number of times, by high up revolutionary officials. She said
she was a republican and had been even before the Revolution, but they wanted to know if
she was part of a bigger conspiracy. She said ‘I along conceived the plan and executed
it,’ and she claimed she killed the Monster that was Marat. She said she was lucky killing
him in one blow, and she did ask for an old friend to defend her but this was not possible.
However it was all in vain, as she would be sentenced to death for her crime of murder.
After the sentencing, she asked if she could have a portrait painted and she said, ‘Since
I still have a few moments to live, might I hope that you will allow me to have myself
painted.’ This was granted, and a portrait was made. However four days after the murder
of Marat, she was to be executed.
At the Place de Greve, Charlotte was brought in front of the crowd on the 17th July 1793,
and she was wearing a red overblouse. She was condemned as a traitor and the executioner
said she had assassinated a representative of the people. She was stood alone on a card
amongst the huge and angry crowd, and she remained calm despite the summer rainfall
battering down. She was then placed under the guillotine, and the executioner pulled
the lever releasing the blade which then swiftly took Charlotte Corday’s head off. She was
just 24 when she was executed. After her head had come off, a man lifted her head from the
basket and slapped it on the cheek. This was considered incredibly shocking and terrible,
the man who did this was then imprisoned for three months. Jacobin leaders ordered an autopsy
of her body for no medical reason.
But Charlotte Corday’s action was considered a shocking one, as to many men it showed what
women could be capable of. Many believed she was a villainous murderer, and others said
she was a hero and a heroine. She was later referred to as The Angel of Assassination
following her murderous actions, and she was just one of thousands of people who went to
their deaths on the guillotine during the French Revolution.
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