Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade (2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814) was a French nobleman, revolutionary politician, philosopher, and writer, famous for his libertine sexuality. He spent 32 years of his 74-year life in prisons or insane asylums, often related to his status as a sex offender and a homosexual.
Biography[]
Donatien Alphonse François de Sade was born in Paris, France on 2 June 1740, his parents' only surviving child. He entered the French Royal Army in 1755, and he served as colonel of a dragoon regiment during the Seven Years' War. In 1767, he inherited his father's title of "Marquis de Sade", and he lived in the castle of Lacoste, where he repeatedly procured young prostitutes as well as employees of both sexes, becoming known as a libertine. Beginning in 1763, Sade lived mainly in or near Paris, and he was imprisoned several times, with prostitues getting him in trouble with the police. In 1777, he was imprisoned at the Chateau de Vincennes, and he avoided the death penalty. In 1784, he was transferred to the Bastille, and he remained in prison until July 1789. On 2 July 1789, he stirred up popular dissent by shouting, "They are killing the prisoners here!" from the window, and the Storming of the Bastille occurred 12 days later. In 1790, he was released from the Charenton Asylum, and he was elected to the National Convention that same year, representing the far left. However, he was hated by other revolutionaries for his aristocratic background, for his son's desertion from the French Revolutionary Army, for his son's desertion from the army during the French Revolutionary Wars, for his opposition to the Reign of Terror, and for his moderatism. He was imprisoned during the Reign of Terror, and he was impoverished by 1796, selling his ruined castle at Lacoste. In 1801, he was arrested for his works Justine and Juliette, and he was declared insane in 1803 and sent to the Charenton Asylum. He died there in 1814.