Francois Hanriot (3 September 1761 – 28 July 1794) was a leader of the Jacobin Club in Paris during the French Revolution. The leader of the Insurrection of 31 May-2 June 1793, he was later executed during the Thermidorian Reaction for his role in the Reign of Terror.
Biography[]
Francois Hanriot was born in the Nanterre suburb of Paris, France on 3 September 1761 to a family of servants, and he had a string of unfortunate professions before serving under the Marquis de Lafayette during the American Revolutionary War and becoming a street orator for the sans-culottes during the French Revolution. In January 1792, he moved to the Rue de la Clef quarter of Paris, and he took part in the 10 August uprising and the September Massacres, the latter of which led to him rising in the ranks of the National Guard. During the Insurrection of 31 May-2 June 1793, Hanriot's troops helped in the coup against the Girondins, and he was appointed commander of all French troops in Paris by the Committee of Public Safety. In July 1794, he attempted to lead a counter-coup against the National Convention during the Thermidorian Reaction, ordering for prisons not to admit any of the Convention's prisoners and preparing to storm the convention. He liberated Robespierre and other key Jacobin prisoners, and they proceeded to flee to the Hotel de Ville, from which Hanriot attempted to escape by jumping out of a window. However, Hanriot was only wounded, and the semi-conscious Hanriot was guillotined the next day.