Background

Louis de Saint-Just was born on August 25, 1767, in Decize, the son of an army officer.

He was the eldest child of Louis Jean de Saint-Just de Richebourg (1716–1777), a retired French cavalry officer, knight of the Order of Saint Louis, and of the 20-years younger Marie-Anne Robinot (1736–1811), the daughter of a notary.

He had two younger sisters, born in 1768 and 1769.

The family later moved north and in 1776 settled in the village of Blérancourt in the former Picardy province, establishing themselves as a countryside noble family living out of the rents from their land. A year after the move, Louis Antoine's father died leaving his mother with the three children.

Education

She saved diligently for her only son's education, and in 1779 he was sent to the Oratorian school at Soissons.

After a promising start, Saint-Just acquired a reputation as a troublemaker, augmented by infamous stories (almost certainly apocryphal) of how he led a students' rebellion and tried to burn down the school.

Nonetheless, he earned his graduation in 1786.

Career

When the Revolution broke out in 1789, the youthful Saint-Just gave it his enthusiastic support, and he published in 1791 The Spirit of the Revolution and of the Constitution of France.

He was twice sent on similar missions to the Army of the North.

Back in Paris, Saint-Just defended the Terror in speeches and proposed a redistribution of the property of the disloyal rich, a plan that was never implemented.

As spokesman for the Robespierrist faction, he denounced the extremist Hébertists; he also denounced Georges Jacques Danton and the Indulgents; and each time the objects of his scorn were sent to the guillotine.

He and Robespierre were determined to fashion a new France, a "Republic of Virtue, " and for that goal the continuation of the Terror was essential.

For this and other reasons, a fatal split took place.

Saint-Just prepared a report denouncing his and Robespierre's opponents, to be delivered to the Convention on July 27, 1794.

But he was interrupted by the opposition, and he, Robespierre, and their colleagues were arrested.

But shortly after midnight they were captured and executed.

Further Reading The most comprehensive and best biography, although sometimes unnecessarily detailed, is Eugene Newton Curtis, Saint-Just: Colleague of Robespierre (1935).

A short and perceptive study is Geoffrey Bruun, Saint-Just: Apostle of the Terror (1932).

Both studies are reasonably objective in their estimate of the man.

Saint-Just's role as a member of the Committee of Public Safety is described in the excellent history of that organization by R. R. Palmer, Twelve Who Ruled (1941).

Achievements

• The youngest of the deputies elected to the National Convention in 1792, Saint-Just rose quickly in their ranks and became a major leader of the government of the French First Republic. He spearheaded the movement to execute King Louis XVI and later drafted the radical French Constitution of 1793.
  
  Dispatched as a commissar to the army during its rocky start in the French Revolutionary Wars, Saint-Just imposed severe discipline, and he was credited by many for the army's subsequent revival at the front. Back in Paris, he supervised the consolidation of Robespierre's power through a ruthless and bloody program of intimidation. In his relatively brief time on the historical stage, he became the enduring public face of the Reign of Terror and was dubbed the "Angel of Death" by later writers. Saint-Just organized the arrests and prosecutions of many of the most famous figures of the Revolution.
  
  Saint-Just was arrested in the violent episode of 9 Thermidor and executed the next day with Robespierre and their allies. In many histories of the Revolution, their deaths at the guillotine mark the end of the Reign of Terror.

Works

More photos

• book

  • O espírito da revolução (Portuguese Edition)

    (O autor aborda o desenvolvimento, em particular nas duas ...)

  • L'Esprit de la Révolution et de la Constitution de France (French Edition)

    ("L’Esprit de la Révolution et de la Constitution de Franc...)

  • Oeuvres Complètes de Saint-Just, Vol. 1: Avec une Introduction Et des Notes (Classic Reprint) (French Edition)

    (Excerpt from Oeuvres Complètes de Saint-Just, Vol. 1: Ave...)

  • Organt. Partie 2 (Litterature) (French Edition)

    (Organt. Tome 2 /, poeme en vingt chants... Date de l'edit...)

  • Organt. Tome 1 (Ed.1789) (Litterature) (French Edition)

    (Organt. Tome 1 /, poème en vingt chants... Date de l'édit...)

Politics

His unpublished Fragments concerning Republican Institutions reveals his Rousseauistic and Spartan utopianism.

Interests

• Philosophers & Thinkers

  Influenced by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and by an idealized view of ancient Rome, he imagined a collectivist society in which the individual's freedom would be subordinate to his or her duties as a citizen.

Connections

Father:

Louis Jean de Saint-Just de Richebourg

Mother:

Marie-Anne Robinot

Friend:

Maximilien Robespierre