Georges Danton

French revolutionary leader

• Born: October 26, 1759
• Birthplace: Arcis-sur-Aube, France
• Died: April 5, 1794
• Place of death: Paris, France

Danton was one of the principal leaders and shapers of the French Revolution. He became influential in molding modern conceptions of democracy, revolutionary politics, and the nation-state.

Early Life

Georges Danton (zhawrzh dahn-tohn), like most of his future revolutionary associates, was born into a comfortably middle-class, provincial family. His father, Jacques Danton, who died when Georges was two years old, worked as a clerk for a local court. His mother, née Jeanne-Madelaine Camut, was remarried to an Arcis merchant, Jean Recordain, when Danton was ten. As the oldest male child, Danton received the best education his family could afford. After attending a local school for the primary grades, he was sent in 1773 to the Oratorian seminary at Troyes to complete his education. There, he studied a curriculum emphasizing science, history, and modern languages. Later, his critics would brand him “uneducated,” probably because of his inability to read Latin and Greek and his unfamilarity with classical texts. Nevertheless, by modern standards Danton’s schooling was first rate. He mastered English and achieved a reading knowledge of Italian. As an adult, he showed an extraordinary command of the contemporary works of the Enlightenment, especially those of Voltaire, the comte de Buffon, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Danton chose civil law as his career. After being graduated from Troyes, he attended the University of Reims and received his law degree in 1784. He then resided in Paris, where he competed with hundreds of other provincials for scarce legal business that barely provided a living. In 1787, however, Danton recouped his fortunes in an enterprising manner which would come to characterize him. On June 9, he was married to Antoinette-Gabrielle Charpentier, the daughter of a prosperous Parisian café proprietor. Using her dowry and loans from his father-in-law and a former mistress, Danton earlier had purchased an office as attorney to the King’s Councils, a position that entitled him to present cases before the royal councils and commissions. When the French Revolution erupted in 1789, Danton owned a lucrative law practice and enjoyed the prestige proceeding from a close association with the Versailles court.

Life’s Work

As befitted a beneficiary of the established regime, Danton was slow to involve himself in the revolutionary fervor rising around him. Once immersed in the enthusiasm that followed the storming of the Bastille (July 14, 1789), however, Danton rivaled all others in his fanaticism and devotion to political reform. Soon he became renowned for his unique oratory. Utilizing natural attributes—commanding height, intimidating size, and a stentorian voice—he demonstrated a capacity for incisive speech that motivated Parisian artisans, shopkeepers, and laborers to participate actively in the revolution.

During this early period of revolutionary involvement, Danton’s attentions were principally focused on Parisian politics. Although a supporter of the newly established constitutional monarchy, he rapidly developed a reputation for rabble-rousing and corruption. It was at this time that he pioneered the techniques of mob incitement and control that have since come to characterize successful revolutions. As an advocate of freedom of speech and of association—and to sustain his personal ambitions—he harrangued the crowds and directed the resulting anger against more conservative constitutional monarchists, such as the marquess de Lafayette and Jean-Sylvain Bailly.

The flight of the royal family to Varennes in June, 1791—King Louis XVI considered himself a prisoner of the revolutionaries—was a major turning point in Danton’s career. Like many Frenchmen, he regarded the flight and other questionable royal deeds as evidence of Louis’s treason. The king’s actions radicalized Danton. He soon directed his demagogic activities toward deposing Louis and establishing a republic. The national assembly’s charade that the royal family had been kidnapped further aroused Danton and many like-minded radicals. Against the constitutional monarchists’ determination to preserve Louis’s powers, Danton helped organize a massive demonstration on July 17, at the Field of Mars, where thousands signed a petition demanding a new executive power. When the national guard arrived to break up the crowd, shots were fired that killed fifty demonstrators. Hunted as one of those responsible for the incident, Danton fled to England, where he remained for only a short time.

By September, he had returned to Paris. During the next eleven months, the king and the constitutional monarchists played into the hands of the radicals, the former by vetoing the assembly’s attempts to enforce clerical conformity to the nationalization of church property and activities, and the latter by declaring (April, 1792) and waging an unsuccessful war against Austria and Prussia. In July, the allied armies, assembled on the frontier preparing to invade France, issued the infamous Brunswick Manifesto, which threatened Paris with destruction if the people did not obey the will of the king. Danton and other republicans had little trouble transforming Parisian fear at the prospect of an allied invasion into a violent hysteria and hatred for Louis, whose communications with the Austrians and the French émigrés were well known. Danton was one of the principal organizers of the assault upon the Tuileries, the king’s residence, on August 10. With the mob in control of Paris, direction of the revolution fell largely into the hands of the radicals. The legislative assembly voted for the suspension of the king and for the calling of a national convention to draw up a new constitution. Danton was named minister of justice in the provisional executive council. A period of great personal achievement was to follow for him.

Danton served as minister of justice for only two months. During that time, he wielded greater power than Louis XVI had ever possessed. Relying on his abundant energy and determination, he dominated the provisional executive, requistioning vast supplies of arms and recruiting thousands of volunteers for the French armies. On September 20, the allied invasion was turned back at the Battle of Valmy, a victory reflective of Danton’s efforts. Shortly thereafter, he abandoned the ministry for a seat in the national convention, where he and his followers aligned themselves with Robespierre and the Jacobins—the most famous of the revolution’s radicals.

As a deputy, Danton continued to strive tirelessly for the revolutionary cause. Denying charges of corruption—which were probably true—he involved himself deeply in foreign affairs. Between December, 1792, and March, 1793, he traveled to conquered Belgium four times to direct the installation of a revolutionary government there. In March and April—responding to French defeats in both Holland and Belgium—he mobilized 300,000 men for the armies and was instrumental in the creation of the Revolutionary Tribunal and the Committee of Public Safety, judicial and executive bodies designed to use authoritarian means to expedite and maximize the mobilization of people and resources for the war effort. During this period as a member of the Committee of Public Safety he supervised two departments, national defense and foreign affairs, making him for the second time the most powerful man in France.

These hours of triumph were marred by tragedy. In February, while in Belgium, Danton learned that his wife, Gabrielle, had died in childbirth. He was overcome with grief upon receiving the news but soon buried himself in politics and state business. A few months later, he married Louise Gely, who was fifteen years old and a friend of his family. His interest in his new wife probably lay mainly in the need to provide a mother for his two young sons.

On June 2, the Montagnards (radicals who included the Jacobins and Dantonists) purged the convention of the more moderate Girondins, leaving the direction of France completely under the control of Parisian extremists whose views were anathema to the majority of Frenchmen. Danton was a principal instigator of this coup. This was the high point of his power, however, as the Jacobins in subsequent months came increasingly to distrust his growing moderation.

By the summer of 1793, France had become once again a nation under siege. Great Britain and Spain had joined the powers already aligned against it, while counterrevolutionary movements controlled much of western and southern France. In response to the crisis, the Montagnards ruled the nation dictatorially through the Committee of Public Safety and the use of the Reign of Terror—the rounding up and executing of those suspected of opposing the revolution or obstructing the war effort. Danton’s solution to France’s troubles was to negotiate with the enemies, whose armies were pressing upon the frontier. The Jacobins considered his views to be a sign of weakness. They preferred to impose economic controls and mobilize the nation for an all-out struggle with internal and external foes. In July, Danton failed to win reelection to the committee, signaling his deteriorating political position. In October, Danton committed a fatal, inexplicable error by retiring to Arcis with his family for two months. In his absence, Robespierre and Louis de Saint-Just consolidated Jacobin control over the revolution. When Danton returned in mid-November, they were powerful enough to move against him whenever they pleased.

By the early spring of 1794, the allied armies had been pushed back in several areas, while within France counterrevolutionary regions were undergoing slow pacification. As the crisis thus eased, Danton, seemingly unaware of the precariousness of his position, publicly called for relaxation of the Reign of Terror. His opponents moved swiftly against him. On March 30, he was arrested as an “enemy of the Republic.” His trial before the Revolutionary Tribunal was farcical, and several times Danton jeered at absurd attempts to portray him as a “counterrevolutionary.” Nevertheless, he was convicted and died, on April 5, 1794, on the guillotine.

Significance

Georges Danton’s ambition found expression in pure demagoguery. A skillful orator and an adroit politician, he consistently demonstrated an uncanny ability to ascertain the desires of the Parisian lower classes and to identify himself quickly with them. Although Danton gained and retained power through unscrupulous manipulation of the electorate—and occasionally utilized the sans culottes as the bludgeon for his policies—his political career was distinguished by remarkable achievements in a very short time. Destruction of the monarchy, establishment of the republic, universal manhood suffrage, and abolition of imprisonment for debt—all of these landmarks of French history were given impetus through Danton’s energy, both in his role as a popular mob leader and during his two brief tenures as unofficial chief minister of France. He was truly an architect of modern democracy and of the nation-state.

Bibliography

Christophe, Robert. Danton: A Biography. Translated by Peter Green. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1967. A highly readable, dramatic account of Danton’s life that captures the essence of his personality. Somewhat unreliable as to dates and facts.

Doyle, William. The Oxford History of the French Revolution. 2d ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Comprehensive history, from Louis XIV’s accession to the throne in 1774 to Napoleon’s assumption of power in 1802. Includes a chronology of events and an essay examining the historiography of the French Revolution.

Hampson, Norman. Danton. New York: Holmes & Meier, 1978. Scholarly and reliable, an excellent companion to the biography by Christophe. The bibliography cites nearly all the printed contemporary sources on Danton’s life and the most important works by later historians.

Lefebvre, Georges. The Coming of the French Revolution, 1789. Translated by R. R. Palmer. New York: Random House, 1947. Introductory material for novices of the French Revolution. Although many historians disagree with Lefebvre’s Marxist views, his interpretation continues to be popular in France. Covers only the early stages of the revolution, 1787-1789.

Palmer, R. R. Twelve Who Ruled: The Year of the Terror in the French Revolution. Bicentennial ed. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1989. Revised edition of the book originally published in 1941, containing a new preface by the author. Focuses on the twelve members of the Committee of Public Safety.

Sydenham, M. J. The French Revolution. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1965. An introduction to its topic that emphasizes the role of personalities and factions in shaping the revolution. Includes a large bibliography and other valuable references for the beginner such as a detailed chronology, a map of Paris at the time of the revolution, and an explanation of the revolutionary calendar.

Thompson, J. M. The French Revolution. 1943. Rev. ed. Oxford, England: Basil Blackwell, 1985. An older narrative introduction with an updated (1985) bibliography. The latter cites the major printed primary sources on the revolution while stressing more recent secondary works. Contains a host of valuable references.