French lawyer and diplomat (1747?1807)
Jean-Francois Reubell
(
French pronunciation:
[???
f???swa
?øb?l]
) or
Rewbell
(6 October 1747 ? 24 November 1807) was a French lawyer, diplomat, and politician of the
Revolution
.
The revolutionary
[
edit
]
Born at
Colmar
(now in the
departement
of
Haut-Rhin
), he became president of the local order of
lawyers
, and in 1789 was elected as a deputy to the
Estates-General
by the
Third Estate
of the
bailliage
of Colmar-Schlestadt.
[1]
In the
National Constituent Assembly
his
oratory
, legal knowledge and austerity of life gave him much influence.
[1]
A partisan of revolutionary reforms, Rewbell voted in favor of reforms such as the
Civil Constitution of the Clergy
, but opposed the recognition of
citizenship rights
for
Alsatian Jews
.
In July 1791, after the flight of
Louis XVI
, the
constitutional king
, Rewbell left the
Jacobin Club
and joined the
Feuillants
. During the session of the
Legislative Assembly
, after the Constituent Assembly was dissolved in September of that year, he exercised the functions of
procureur syndic
, and was subsequently secretary-general of the
departement
of Haut-Rhin.
[1]
He was elected to the
Republic
's
National Convention
in 1792, and was its envoy to the
Rhineland
, advocating the union of the
Electorate of the Palatinate
and other territories with France.
[
citation needed
]
A zealous promoter of the
Trial of Louis XVI
, he was absent on mission at the time of the king's condemnation.
[1]
Directorate and retirement
[
edit
]
He took part in the
Thermidorian Reaction
movement which led to the fall of
Maximilien Robespierre
, and became a member of the reorganised
Committee of Public Safety
and of the
Committee of General Security
.
[1]
In early 1795, he assisted
Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes
in negotiating the surrender of the
Batavian Republic
to the
French Republic
. His
moderation
caused his election by seventeen
departements
to the
Council of Five Hundred
.
Appointed a member of the
Directory
in November 1795, he became its president in 1796; he then entered the
Council of Ancients
.
[1]
In office, Rewbell dealt with the
Royalist
attempted
coup d'etat
(
The 18 Fructidor
), as well as the
Conspiracy of the Equals
; he engineered the
annexation
of the Rhineland and the southern
Low Countries
to the Republic, as well as the invasion of the
Old Swiss Confederacy
and the creation of the
Helvetic Republic
. He was retired by
ballot
in 1799, after being held responsible for the French
defeats of that year
in front of the
Second Coalition
.
After
Napoleon Bonaparte
's coup of
18 Brumaire
he retired from public life, and died at Colmar.
[1]
References
[
edit
]
- L. Sciout,
Le Directoire
(Paris, 1895?97).
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