Volta
Person1749 – 1791

Comte de Mirabeau

Also called: Mirabeau, Honoré-Gabriel Riqueti

Nobleman elected for the Third Estate whose oratory led the early National Assembly towards a constitutional monarchy

Born at Le Bignon in 1749, the son of the economist the Marquis de Mirabeau, he was imprisoned several times in his youth at his father’s request over debts and scandals, writing attacks on despotism in the meantime. Though a noble, he was elected for the Third Estate of Aix-en-Provence in 1789, and on 23 June defied the king’s order to disperse, saying the deputies would leave only by the force of bayonets, becoming the most famous orator of the early Revolution. Wanting a constitutional monarchy with a strong crown, he secretly advised the court and took its money. He died of illness on 2 April 1791 and was the first to be buried in the Panthéon, but after his dealings with the court came to light in the Tuileries iron chest in 1792, his remains were removed in 1794.

Show on the map

Where they went

Open the full map

OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles © OpenStreetMap contributors

3 related events

  1. 1
    1789Estates-General of 1789participant

    At the first Estates-General in 175 years the orders split over how to vote, and the Third Estate proclaimed itself the National Assembly.

  2. 2
    1789Tennis Court Oathparticipant

    Locked out of their hall, the Third Estate deputies gathered in a nearby real-tennis court and swore not to disperse until they had given France a constitution.

  3. 3
    1789Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizenparticipant

    The National Assembly declared that men are born free and equal in rights, and proclaimed popular sovereignty and the separation of powers.

People who appear alongside

  • Louis XVI1754 – 1793

    King of France, executed during the Revolution

  • Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès1748 – 1836

    Cleric and political theorist whose pamphlet What Is the Third Estate? opened the Revolution and who plotted the coup of Brumaire with Napoleon in 1799

  • Jacques Necker1732 – 1804

    Genevan banker and finance minister to Louis XVI whose dismissal in July 1789 set off the storming of the Bastille

  • Maximilien Robespierre1758 – 1794

    Jacobin leader who dominated the Committee of Public Safety during the Reign of Terror and was guillotined after the Thermidorian Reaction of 1794

  • Marquis de Lafayette1757 – 1834

    Nobleman and veteran of the American War of Independence who commanded the Paris National Guard and drafted the Declaration of the Rights of Man, and fled abroad in 1792, only to be held captive by the Austrians

Themes this person appears in

  • The French Revolution1787 – 1799

    From the Assembly of Notables and the Estates-General to the coup of 18 Brumaire — twelve years that toppled the absolute monarchy, founded a republic, passed through Terror and reaction, and ended with Napoleon