French priest and revolutionary (1752?1794)
Jacques Roux
|
---|
|
Born
| (
1752-08-21
)
21 August 1752
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Died
| 10 February 1794
(1794-02-10)
(aged 41)
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Cause of death
| Suicide
|
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Occupation(s)
| Priest
,
revolutionary
|
---|
Known for
| Radical revolutionary leader
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Movement
| Enrages
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Opponents
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Jacques Roux
(
French pronunciation:
[?ak
?u]
, 21 August 1752 ? 10 February 1794) was a
radical
Roman Catholic
Red priest
who took an active role in politics during the
French Revolution
.
[1]
He skillfully expounded the ideals of
popular democracy
and
classless society
to crowds of
Parisian
sans-culottes
,
working class
wage earners and shopkeepers,
radicalizing
them into a revolutionary force.
[1]
He became a leader of a
popular
far-left
.
[2]
Radical revolutionary
[
edit
]
In 1791 Roux was elected to the
Paris Commune
. When the
French First Republic
started in 1792, Roux became aligned with the
political faction
dubbed by their enemies as the
Enrages
(
French pronunciation:
[??.?a.?e]
) (French for
The Enraged Ones
but also a "madman"
[3]
). He was considered the most extreme spokesman on the left for the interests of the Parisian
sans-culottes
.
Roux consistently fought for an
economically equal
society, turning the crowds of
sans-culottes
against the
bourgeois
torpor of the
Jacobins
.
[4]
He demanded that food be made available to every member of society, and called for the wealthy to be executed should they hoard it.
[1]
Roux tirelessly voiced the demands of the poor Parisian population to confiscate aristocratic wealth and provide affordable bread.
[1]
He became popular enough that, as the split between the
Girondins
and the
Montagnards
grew wider, his voice helped
remove the Girondins
from the
National Convention
in 1793.
[5]
Manifesto of the Enrages
[
edit
]
In a controversial 1793 address to the
National Convention
that's been dubbed the
Manifesto of the Enrages
, Roux demanded the abolition of
private property
and
class society
in the name of the people he represented.
[6]
In many ways Roux and the Enrages were prescient in anticipating many of the themes
Karl Marx
would develop in his
analytical theory
decades later.
Soon, Roux's incendiary rhetoric was igniting
food riots
and upsetting the balance of power within the
Paris Commune
.
Maximilien Robespierre
, fearing Roux threatened the dominance of the Jacobin government, presented accusations of him being a foreign spy intentionally trying to disrupt the revolutionary government and the
Committee of Public Safety
.
[1]
During this time, Roux's former friend,
Jean-Paul Marat
, also turned against him, writing in his newspaper,
L'Ami du peuple
, that Roux was a false priest that was only interested in religion as long as it provided income.
[7]
On 7 July 1793 Roux's enemies brought Elizabeth Marguerite Hebert in for questioning in an attempt to charge Roux with extortion and "misappropriation of charitable funds". Hebert was a recent widow with no means to support herself and, two years earlier, Roux had agreed to raise funds for her and her family. When asked if Roux had an ulterior motive, she replied that she did not believe he did.
[5]
He wasn't arrested then, but in August 1793, Roux was arrested under the charges that he had withheld funds from both the widow Hebert and another widow,
Mlle.
Beaurepaire. Roux assured the revolutionary committee of section Gravilliers that he did nothing of the sort and that his enemies were working against him.
[5]
Roux was released into the custody of two of his friends, where he continued fighting for his ideals. On 5 September 1793 Roux was thrown into prison again.
Death
[
edit
]
On 14 January 1794 Roux was informed that his case was going to be tried by the
Revolutionary Tribunal
. Upon hearing this news, Roux pulled out a knife and stabbed himself several times, but failed to land a fatal blow. Less than a month later, on 10 February 1794, while recovering in prison, Roux stabbed himself again, this time succeeding in killing himself. He was 41.
[5]
As the Enrages movement began falling apart,
Jacques Hebert
's more moderate left-wing faction known as the
Hebertists
tried to win over his former supporters and continue where he had left off.
[1]
In popular culture
[
edit
]
In
Peter Weiss
's
Marat/Sade
, Roux is portrayed by an asylum patient in the
Marquis de Sade
's dramatization of Jean-Paul Marat's assassination. The actor's lines come under fire by the asylum directors, who have cut his dialogue. In most productions, the actor portraying Roux is costumed in a straight jacket, which symbolizes the asylum's desire to restrain political radicals such as himself.
Roux was portrayed by
Alan Rickman
in a monologue written by
Peter Barnes
for the television short
Revolutionary Witness
. In the monologue, Roux performs a sermon in a ruined church the day before he is brought before the
Revolutionary Tribunal
, where he laments the current direction of the
revolution
. He argues that the poor, despite
aiding in the revolution
, are still being oppressed and dying while the rich are still powerful. He also narrates his life, regaling anecdotes from his youth all the way to the revolution. He believes that, due to his
populist
and
progressive
beliefs, he is "too revolutionary for the revolution." As his sermon comes to an end, he promises that he will not defend himself before the Tribunal, but attack his opponents, promising that, should he be found guilty, he will "die like [his] friend
Marat
, though
struck down by a better hand, [his] own
." In the last seconds of the monologue, Roux pleads to his listeners to continue fighting, arguing that "
the revolution isn't complete
."
[8]
[9]
Roux (played by
Elias Toufexis
) is featured in a mission in French Revolution-set
Assassin's Creed Unity
, in which the player is tasked with assassinating him.
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
"Jacques Roux"
.
Encyclopædia Britannica Online
. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2011.
Archived
from the original on 7 April 2011
. Retrieved
4 March
2011
.
- ^
Levy, Darline (August 1, 1981).
Women in Revolutionary Paris 1789-1795
.
University of Illinois Press
. p. 145.
ISBN
9780252008559
.
Archived
from the original on May 25, 2024
. Retrieved
July 1,
2015
– via
Google Books
.
- ^
"
Enrage
"
. Encyclopædia Britannica. 2011.
Archived
from the original on 2011-06-29
. Retrieved
2011-03-04
.
- ^
Higonnet, Patrice (October 25, 1998).
Goodness beyond Virtue: Jacobins during the French Revolution
.
Harvard University Press
. p. 118.
ISBN
9780674470613
.
Archived
from the original on December 28, 2023
. Retrieved
July 1,
2015
– via
Google Books
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Slavin, Morris (Autumn 1964). "Jacques Roux: A Victim of Vilification".
French Historical Studies
.
3
(4): 525?537.
doi
:
10.2307/286155
.
JSTOR
286155
.
- ^
Roux, Jacques (1793).
Manifesto of the Enrages
. Translated by Abidor, Mitchell. Paris.
Archived
from the original on 2011-06-28
. Retrieved
2011-03-04
.
- ^
Rose, R.B. (1965).
The Enrages: Socialists of the French Revolution
. London:
Cambridge University Press
. pp. 36?48.
- ^
Barnes, Peter.
"Revolutionary Witness: The Preacher"
.
libcom.org
.
Archived
from the original on April 30, 2024
. Retrieved
April 16,
2024
.
- ^
Michael Soundman (2011-10-30).
Alan Rickman - Revolutionary Witness: The Preacher (1989)
.
Archived
from the original on 2024-04-17
. Retrieved
2024-05-25
– via YouTube.
External links
[
edit
]
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Other
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