Jeanne marie roland biography of martin luther

Coming to the attention of the leading elected officials who then held sway in the government, he was named minister of the interior by France's newly elected Legislative Assembly at the end of March His experience with internal commerce and trade issues seemed to make him an ideal choice. The only problem was that the members of the Assembly were then separating into opposing factions who imagined different futures for the new France.

Madame Roland's husband, like their family friend Brissot, soon identified with the Girondins, who favored limited, decentralized government. Their chief opponents were the Jacobins, headed by Maximilien Robespierre—a group which favored centralization and active government intervention on behalf of the poor. The new ministers, like Jean-Marie Roland, demonstrated marked Girondin tendencies.

They spent hours with a king who was intent on deflecting them from consequential issues, and this willingness to compromise with Louis XVI eventually stigmatized the Girondins. Ever the working observer, Madame Roland quickly became one of the many spectators in the gallery of the Assembly. There she made note of the events and personalities of the revolution in great detail, and her idealistic vision of a revolution free of selfish ends was quickly shattered.

She wrote of her increasing awareness that many of the people's representatives were far more interested in promoting their own careers than in promoting the common welfare. She did note that the Jacobin leader Robespierre seemed incorruptible and dedicated to Rousseauian goals above all else. At the time, she did not know that Robespierre and she would become bitter enemies, and that she would later write that he was the puppet of the Parisian mobs and their demagogues.

Sincethe Rolands' Parisian abode had served as a gathering place for those with Girondin sympathies. Brissot and his colleagues gathered in what would be known as the Salon of Madame Roland, where political theories and policies were discussed at the end of legislative sessions. Such salons, hosted by famous women of the day, were typical of the Enlightenment, and they aided immensely in the exchange of information and ideas.

Unlike other women who hosted such salons, however, Madame Roland sat quietly throughout the meetings, serving the men and doing her needlework. In her writings, she admits to having bitten her tongue at times, but, with the instincts of a reporter, she quietly observed, eventually recording what she witnessed in her Memoirs. The rifts between Girondins and Jacobins grew all the while, and when King Louis XVI tried to flee the country in order to join a counter-revolution abroad, the Jacobins saw.

After the king's execution in Januarythey used gutter language to stir crowds in their speeches and newspaper essays. However, with no immediate solutions to the economic difficulties faced by the urban multitudes, the Girondins, who had compromised with the "traitor king," quickly became the scapegoats of Jacobin rhetoric. As early as December 7,Madame Roland had been called before the legislature which was now known as the National Convention.

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She was actually charged with having been a moving force behind the royalist conspiracy, but she so eloquently defended herself that the Convention rose in a standing ovation after her presentation. Among other things, he saw the execution of the king as excessive, and, in a surviving document, he wrote that he resigned since there was no longer any man in the Convention who would oppose the Jacobins.

However, the public turmoil merely added to domestic troubles then being experienced by the Rolands. However, she also told her husband that she admired him for his intellect and could not leave him at a time when he needed her support, even though the revolutionary government had introduced legal divorce into France. By stating that she had to be honest and tell him the painful truth, Roland perhaps was emulating the call to veracity found in the novels of Rousseau and others.

A man approaching 60, Jean-Marie chose this time of disappointment to announce his official retirement from public life. Completely in control of the government by the end of May, the Jacobins decided to arrest Jean-Marie and other Girondin partisans. Learning of these plans, Madame Roland determined to appear before the National Convention yet again.

She immediately preceded to the Convention, but was kept waiting at the door. Manon hurried back to her husband at that point, and he then decided to make his escape from Paris.

Jeanne marie roland biography of martin luther: Jean-Marie Roland was a

While Madame Roland approved of this decision, she decided to remain behind and persevere in trying to gain access to the Convention. The two parted, never to see each other again. Around midnight, soldiers arrived at the Rolands' apartment, and Madame Roland was arrested as part of the "Girondin conspiracy against the republic. Composed in prison, her Memoirs have, in fact, become her major contribution to French letters.

They contain numerous sketches of some of the leading figures of the French Revolution, including Robespierre and Brissot. While she was incarcerated, Madame Roland was permitted reading material and visits from the maid Fleury, who was allowed to purchase articles of comfort for her mistress. Still, conditions were crowded, and, though physical torture was not employed, verbal abuse was practiced consistently.

Beyond prison walls, Jacobin newspapers published innumerable articles, inventing nonexistent orgies at which Madame Roland had officiated. This highly visible woman was now being attacked falsely in such a way as to maximize sentiment against her. On October 24, the trial of the Girondins began in earnest. Madame Roland admitted in writing that she contemplated suicide, but she would not do it in order to speak on behalf of her friends.

In fact, to the bitter end, testimony to her dedication as a friend persisted. Sister Saint-Agatha, despite the religious differences which existed between them, came to visit her former charge on a number of occasions. Roland kept in touch with the Cannet sisters, and Henriette, now a widow, actually came to prison and offered to take Manon's place so that she could escape in disguise.

Of course, Madame Roland refused to allow this sacrifice, which would have cost Henriette her own life. On November 8, Madame Roland went to trial. When she took the stand, she started a prepared speech in defense of the Girondins and of Jean-Marie's service as minister of the interior. He is a well-informed political writer who from early youth has studied jeanne marie roland biography of martin luther conditions and thought about how to improve the human lot.

He is an expert on Man but knows very little about men. He is aware that evil exists but cannot believe that anyone who looks him straight in the eye can be a villain. When he jeannes marie roland biography of martin luther recognise a bad man he treats him as if he were mad and to be pitied. He cannot hate: one might say that any feeling so vigorous as that is too strong for his sensitive nature.

He knows a lot and he writes easily: he will dash off an article as another might copy out a song. People looking for something of which to accuse him say that he is an intriguer, but that is hardly the word for a man who never thinks of himself, is incapable of looking after his own interests and is not ashamed of poverty or afraid of death. He devoted all his time to the Revolution with no other aim than the public good.

He made nothing out of the journal which he edited with so much care and was content to let his partner make a small fortune from it. He spoke little, sneered a great deal and threw out sarcastic asides, but never gave a straight opinion. If there was any coherent discussion he would take pains to appear in the Assembly the following day and make use of what he had heard his friends say.

They sometimes reproached him about this. He would excuse himself with a joke and they would overlook it as the product of an insatiable amour proper. But it did undermine confidence. If they wanted to follow some agreed course of action, and to allot tasks to one another in pursuit of it, they could never be sure that Robespierre would not give the game away and upset the whole thing by trying to take the credit for himself.

I thought then that Robespierre was a genuine libertarian and I attributed his faults to excessive zeal. There is no doubt he was secretly encouraging much of the popular agitation. They thought that so long as they themselves took no part in his intrigues they could safely make use of them in the public interest. Dumouriez is energetic, vigilant, amusing and brave, just made for war and for intrigue.

He is a capable officer and even his jealous colleagues thought him the only one of them fit to command a great army. But in character and in morality he was more suited to the old Court than to the new Regime. He had imagination and courage but lacks stability and self-control. The couple were close to Brissot and the Girondins, and both died during the Terror.

Mme Roland became famous for her posthumous prison memoirs and is the subject of many biographies, but her husband, despite being a key figure in administration of France, seldom out of the limelight during his time in office, is often marginalized in histories of the Revolution. Madame Roland soon became convinced that a counter-revolution was being plotted.

She tried to mobilize her friends through her letters, not hesitating to spread unfounded rumours about events and about people she did not agree with. They were hated by representatives of the old elite because of this. She was happy when, on February 7,an uprising broke out in Lyon that led to the ousting of the city council and an increase of the number of men eligible to vote.

Madame Roland did not publicly take part in political discussions, but still managed to gain political influence during this period. She corresponded with a network of publicists and politicians, including the Parisian journalist Jacques Pierre Brissotthe future leader of the Girondinsand the lawyer Jean-Henri Bancal d'Issarts. In her letters she described and analyzed the developments in Lyon.

At least on five occasions Brissot published excerpts from her letters as articles in his newspaper Le Patriote Francaiseso that her opinions were discussed outside Lyon. Luc-Antoine de Champagneux did the same in his newspaper Le courier de Lyon. She was one of the few female correspondents in the revolutionary press. Because her contributions were not published under her own name, but anonymously or as "a woman from the south", it is impossible to determine with certainty how many articles written by Madame Roland appeared in the press.

In Jean-Marie Roland was elected in the city council of Lyon where he advocated a moderate revolutionary administration. The Rolands now settled in Lyon but in order to get money for revolutionary reforms they left for Paris infor what should have been a short stay. Madame Roland soon became a well-known figure in political circles in Paris, especially thanks to Brissot, who introduced her everywhere.

As always, she worked alongside her husband, although the routine copying and editing work was now done by an assistant, Sophie Grandchamp. Madame Roland wrote most of her husband's official letters and regretted that she could not go to the new National Assembly herself to argue the case of Lyon: women were admitted only to the public gallery.

When she observed the debates from the gallery, it annoyed her that the conservatives were so much better and more eloquent in the debates than the revolutionaries, whom she considered ideologically superior. Outside the assembly she was active as a lobbyist. With Roland, she was a regular visitor at the Jacobin club here too women were only allowed access to the public gallery.

From April she hosted a salon in her home several times a week, attended by republicans from bourgeois circles. During these events, Madame Roland always sat at a table by the window, reading, writing letters or doing needlework. She never involved herself in the conversations going on around her but listened carefully. Her considerable political influence was not exerted by participating in public debate which she found unseemly for a womanbut through letters and personal conversations.

She was known for her sharp political analyses and her ideological tenacity, and was widely recognized as one of the most important people in the group around Brissot. She was always asked for advice on political strategy and she contributed to the content of letters, parliamentary bills and speeches. She was described by contemporaries as a charming woman and a brilliant conversationalist.

Madame Roland's salon is one of the main reasons why she is remembered but it may not have been a salon in the usual sense of the term. The gatherings she hosted were strictly political and not social in character; hardly any food or drink was served. They took place in the few hours between the end of the debates in the assembly and the beginning of the meetings in the Jacobin Club.

There were also — apart from Madame Roland herself — no women present. The name of Madame Roland is inextricably linked to the Girondins. Both she and her husband were considered to be part of the leadership of this political faction, also called the Brissotins after their leader Jacques Pierre Brissot. Originally, the Girondins — and also the Rolands — were part of the wider Jacobin movement.

As the revolution progressed, they began to distance themselves from the Jacobins, who became dominated by radical Parisian leaders like Georges Danton and Jean-Paul Marat. The Girondins opposed the influence Paris had on national politics in preference to federalism; many of the Girondin politicians came from outside the capital. In this aspect too they differed fundamentally from the Jacobins, who saw themselves as the representatives of the sans-culottesthe workers, and shopkeepers.

Thus she felt that it was supremely important that women not only define the domestic but through it form a critical intellectual and moral influence upon men. In the months immediately after her arrival in Paris, Madame Roland was not satisfied with the progress of social and political change in France, which she felt to be not fast and far-reaching enough.

Jeanne marie roland biography of martin luther: Jeanne-Marie Roland was the wife

Madame Roland herself took to the streets to lobby for the introduction of a republic; she also became a member of a political club under her own name for the first time, despite her conviction that women should not have a role in public life. In July of that year, a demonstration on the Champs de Mars led to a massacre : the National Guard opened fire on demonstrators, killing possibly as many as 50 people.

Soon divisions began to occur within the revolutionaries in the legislative assembly, particularly as to whether France should start a war against Prussia and Austria. Brissot and most of the Girondins were in favour they feared military support for the monarchy from Prussia and Austriawhile Robespierre first wanted to put internal affairs in order.

The political situation was so divided that it was next to impossible to form a stable government: there were no ministerial candidates that were acceptable to all parties including the king and the court. The Girodins were given the opportunity to put their ideas into practice: King Louis XVI asked them to appoint three ministers. In March Roland was appointed Minister of the Interior.

This appointment came so unexpectedly that the Rolands at first thought Brissot was joking. There is no indication that they were actively seeking a government post for Roland. The office of Minister of the Interior was difficult and the work load was extremely heavy. The ministry was responsible for elections, education, agriculture, industry, commerce, roads, public order, poor relief and the working of government.

Madame Roland remained the driving force behind her husband's work. She commented on all documents, wrote letters and memorandums, and had a major say in appointments, for example that of Joseph Servan de Gerbey as minister of war. She was, as always, very firm in her views and convinced of her own infallibility. In Aprilthe war so fervently desired by the Girondins broke out.

Madame Roland wrote a reproachful letter to Robespierre because he still opposed the idea. This led to the end of the friendly relations between Robespierre and the Rolands; eventually he would become a sworn enemy of the Girondins and of Madame Roland. It was her idea to establish an army camp near Paris with 20, soldiers from all over France; these should intervene in the event of a possible counter-revolution in the capital.

When Louis XVI hesitated to sign this into law, Roland sent him a disrespectful protest letter and published it before the king could respond. Madame Roland is rather vague in her memoirs as to whether she was merely involved in editing the letter, or whether she wrote the jeanne marie roland biography of martin luther text. The latter is considered most likely by her biographers.

In any case, it was her idea to publish the letter to get more support in the assembly and in the population. After this, radical Jacobins and Montagnards took the political initiative, which eventually led to the end of the monarchy on 10 August. Roland was then reappointed as minister. The king's fall heralded the start of the Terrora period in which radical groups with great bloodshed got rid of their opponents.

In radical circles the position of the Rolands was controversial. His dismissal by the king had only led to a temporary restoration of their reputation. For her part, Madame Roland had no sympathy for "hooligans" like the Jacobins and the Montagnards. Although in letters written during the early days of the revolution she had found the use of violence acceptable, she had a great aversion to brutal and uncivilized behavior.

She also resented the uncouth Jacobin foreman Georges Danton, and did not respond to his overtures to cooperate with her. Some historians argue that her refusal to enter into an alliance with Danton ultimately contributed to the fall of the Girondins. When on 6 and 7 September, hundreds of prisoners were massacred in Parisian prisons because they were suspected of anti-revolutionary sympathies, Madame Roland wrote to a friend that she was beginning to feel ashamed of the revolution.

Determining who was responsible for this slaughter became another point of contention between the various factions. Madame Roland — and most of the other Girondins — pointed to Marat, Danton and Robespierre as the instigators of the violence. Political opponents of the Rolands pointed out that "their" Ministry of the Interior was responsible for the prisons and had taken very little action to prevent or stop the violence.

During Roland's second term of office, Madame Roland again occupied an important position. It was common knowledge that she wrote most of her husband's political texts and that he fully relied on her judgment and ideas; both Danton and Marat publicly mocked him for it. She had her own office in the ministry and directed the work of the Bureau d'esprit public the "public opinion office"which aimed to spread the revolutionary ideals among the population.

Opponents of the Rolands accused them of using the Office to issue state propaganda in support of the Girondin cause. Although there is no evidence that the Rolands were appropriating public money, it is certain that they were involved in attempts to blacken their political opponents. At least one of the secret agents run by the ministry reported directly to Madame Roland.

The private life of Madame Roland was turbulent during this period. This affected her relationship with her husband, who found the idea that his wife was in love with another man hard to bear. Radical newspapers and pamphlets began to spread more and more rumors about anti-revolutionary conspiracies that supposedly were forged at the Rolands' home.

The rather sober dinners that Madame Roland gave twice a week successors of the salon she hosted before Jean-Marie Roland became minister were depicted as decadent events where politicians were seduced to join the "Roland clique". Although Danton and Robespierre also attacked her in their writings, they presented her as a dangerous political opponent and not as a wicked female.

In DecemberMadame Roland had to appear before the National Convention the new Legislative Assembly on charges of corresponding with aristocrats who had fled to England. She defended herself so well that the deputies applauded — the public gallery remained silent.