Eleonore-Louis Godefroi Cavaignac (1801-5 May 1845) was a French republican politician and revolutionary leader. He was arrested for his roles in insurrections in 1831, 1832, and 1834, and he was forced to flee to England from 1835 to 1841.
Biography[]
Eleonore-Louis Godefroi Cavaignac was born in 1801, the son of the National Convention member Jean-Baptiste Cavaignac and the older brother of Louis-Eugene Cavaignac. He was raised in Brussels, Belgium following the Bourbon Restoration, as his father was exiled due to his support for the execution of King Louis XVI of France in 1793. Cavaignac was a journalist and a republican activist before becoming a revolutionary, fighting in the July Revolution of 1830 and taking part in the storming of the Pantheon. He became an artillery officer in the National Guard under the Marquis de Lafayette, and, in 1831, he attempted to incite an uprising following Lafayette's resignation. Cavaignac was again arrested for his part in the 1832 June Rebellion. In April 1834, following a massive uprising by silk-workers in Lyon, Cavaignac launched a well-organized insurrection in Paris with 1,500 republicans, and thirty barricades appeared in the area between the Rues Saint-Martin, du Temple, de Beaubourg, and Saint-Denis. However, the National Guard quickly reacted to the uprising. On 13 April, the Tuileries Palace was surrounded by a protective screen of troops and artillery, and 60,000 soldiers were deployed to the streets and sent to storm the rebel-held barricades and houses, killing women and children in the process. 25 people were killed and 30 wounded, and, while the King was acclaimed with enthusiasm at the Tuileries by the national guards of Paris and the suburbs, Cavaignac was arrested a third time. Cavaignac escaped to England in 1835, and he returned to France in 1841 and worked on the staff of La Reforme, producing energetic republican propaganda. He died in 1845.