Background
Georges Couthon was born on December 22, 1755 in Orcet, Auvergne, France.
Georges Couthon was born on December 22, 1755 in Orcet, Auvergne, France.
Georges Couthon studied law, and was admitted advocate at Clermont in 1785.
Prior to the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, Georges Couthon practiced law and was active in the literary society of Clermont-Ferrand. At this period he was noted for his integrity, gentle-heartedness and charitable disposition.
Georges Couthon's views had meanwhile been embittered by the attempted flight of Louis XVI, and he distinguished himself now by his hostility to the king. A visit to Flanders for the sake of his health brought him into close intercourse and sympathy with Dumouriez.
Georges Couthon was the first to demand the arrest of the proscribed Girondists. On the 30th of May 1793 he became a member of the Committee of Public Safety, and in August was sent as one of the commissioners of the Convention attached to the army before Lyons. The Republican atrocities began only after Couthon was replaced, on the 3rd of November 1793, by Collot d'Herbois.
Couthon returned to Paris, and on the 21st of December was elected president of the Convention.
During the crisis preceding the 9th Thermidor, Couthon showed considerable courage, giving up a journey to Auvergne in order, as he wrote, that he might either die or triumph with Robespierre and liberty.
Arrested with Robespierre and Saint-Just, his colleagues in the triumvirate of the Terror, and subjected to indescribable sufferings and insults, he was taken to the scaffold on the same cart with Robespierre on the 28th of July 1794 (10th Thermidor).