JEAN-PAUL MARAT, A FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY

 

Portrait (Joseph Boze, French painter) of the French revolutionary, demagogue, and journalist Jean-Paul Marat, who was murdered by Charlotte Corday, a moderate French politician, on 13th July 1793

Jean-Paul Marat (1743–1793) was a radical journalist and a key figure in the French Revolution. Born in Switzerland, he became a physician and scientist before turning to political writing in France. His newspaper, "The Friend of the People", was a fiery platform for his revolutionary ideas, advocating for the rights of the lower classes and fiercely criticizing the monarchy, aristocracy, and moderate revolutionaries like the Girondins. His book 'The Chains of Slavery' criticized the British Government. Marat aligned himself with the radical Jacobins and became a prominent voice in the National Convention, pushing for policies like the execution of Louis XVI and the Reign of Terror to purge "enemies of the revolution." His inflammatory rhetoric made him a hero to the Parisian sans-culottes (Working Class political group) but a target for moderates. His chronic skin condition, likely dermatitis herpetiformis, forced him to spend hours in medicinal baths, where he often worked. On July 13, 1793, Marat was assassinated in his bathtub by Charlotte Corday, a Girondin sympathizer who believed Marat was inciting violence. His death, immortalized in Jacques-Louis David’s painting The Death of Marat, turned him into a martyr for the Jacobin cause, intensifying the revolution’s radical phase.