Execution of Charlotte Corday. Charlotte Corday

Daughter of Jacques Francois Alexis de Corday d'Armon and Marie Jacqueline, nee de Gauthier de Menival, great-granddaughter of the famous playwright Pierre Corneille. Korday were an ancient noble family. The father of Marie Anna Charlotte, as the third son, could not count on the inheritance: in accordance with the primacy, it passed to the elder brother. For some time, Jacques Francois Alexis served in the army, then retired, got married and took up agriculture. Marie Anne Charlotte spent her childhood on her parents' farm, Roncere. For some time she lived and studied with her father's brother, the curate of the parish of Vic, Charles Amedea. Her uncle gave her a primary education and introduced her to the plays of their famous ancestor, Corneille.

When the girl was fourteen years old, her mother died during childbirth. The father tried to arrange Marie Anna Charlotte and her younger sister Eleanor in the Saint-Cyr boarding house, but he was refused, since Corday was not among the noble families who distinguished themselves in the royal service. The girls were accepted as boarders for government maintenance in the Benedictine abbey of the Holy Trinity in Cana, where their distant relative, Madame Panteculan, was coadjutriss.

Revolution

In accordance with the anti-clerical decrees of 1790, the monastery was closed, and in early 1791 Charlotte returned to her father. Korday first lived in Mesnil-Imbert, then, due to a quarrel between the head of the family and a local poacher, they moved to Argentan. In June 1791, Charlotte settled in Caen with her second cousin Madame de Betville. According to the memoirs of her friend in Caen, Amanda Loyer (Madame Maromme): “not a single man has ever made the slightest impression on her; her thoughts hovered in completely different areas ... she least of all thought about marriage. "From monastic times, Charlotte read a lot (with the exception of novels), later - numerous newspapers and brochures of various political directions. According to Madame Maromme, at one of the dinner parties in the house Aunt Charlotte defiantly refused to drink to the king, saying that she had no doubts about his virtue, but "he is weak, and a weak king cannot be kind, because he does not have the strength to prevent the misfortunes of his people. "Soon Amanda Loyer moved with her family to more calm Rouen, the girls corresponded and in Charlotte's letters “sadness, regrets about the futility of life and disappointment with the course of the revolution sounded.” Almost all Corday's letters addressed to her friend were destroyed by Amanda's mother when the name of Marat's killer became known.

The execution of Louis XVI shocked Charlotte, the girl who became "a republican long before the revolution" mourned not only the king:

... You know the terrible news, and your heart, like mine, trembles with indignation; here it is, our good France, given over to the people who have done us so much harm! I shudder with horror and indignation. The future, prepared by present events, threatens with horrors that can only be imagined. It is clear that the greatest misfortune has already happened. The people who promised us freedom killed her, they are just executioners.

In June 1793, rebellious Girondin deputies arrived in Caen. The Quartermaster's Mansion on Karm Street, where they were housed, became the center of the opposition in exile. Corday met with one of the Girondin deputies, Barbara, interceding for her friend from the monastery, Canoness Alexandrine de Forbin, who had emigrated to Switzerland, who had lost her pension. This was the pretext for her trip to Paris, for which she received her passport back in April. Charlotte asked for a recommendation and offered to deliver the letters of the Girondins to friends in the capital. On the evening of July 8, Corday received from Barbarou a letter of recommendation to Deperret, a member of the Convention, and several pamphlets that Deperret was to pass on to the supporters of the Girondins. In a reply note, she promised to write to Barbara from Paris. Taking a letter from Barbara, Charlotte risked being arrested on her way to Paris: on July 8, the Convention adopted a decree declaring the Girondins in exile "traitors to the fatherland." Cana will not know about it until three days later. Before leaving, Charlotte burned all her papers and wrote a farewell letter to her father, in which, in order to divert all suspicions from him, she announced that she was leaving for England.

Paris

Corday arrived in Paris on July 11 and stayed at the Hotel Providence on Rue Vieze-Augustin. She met Deperre in the evening of the same day. Having stated her request in the Forben case and having arranged to see him the next morning, Charlotte unexpectedly said: “Citizen Deputy, your place is in Caen! Run, leave no later than tomorrow evening! The next day, Deperre accompanied Corday to the Minister of the Interior Gard, but he was busy and did not receive visitors. On the same day, Deperre met with Charlotte again: his papers, like those of other deputies-supporters of the Girondins, were sealed - he could not help her in any way, and acquaintance with him became dangerous. Corday once again advised him to run, but the deputy was not going to "leave the Convention, where he was elected by the people."

Best of the day

Murder of Marat

On the morning of July 13, 1793, Corday went to the Palais Royal, then called the garden of the Palais Egalite, and bought a kitchen knife in one of the shops. She drove to Marat's house at 30 Cordeliers Street in a fiacre. Korday tried to go to Marat, saying that she had come from Caen to tell about the conspiracy that was being prepared there. However, the common-law wife of Marat Simone Evrard did not let the visitor in. Back at the hotel, Korday wrote a letter to Marat asking for an appointment for the afternoon, but forgot to include her return address.

Without waiting for an answer, she wrote a third note and in the evening drove again to the Rue Cordeliers. This time she achieved her goal. Marat took it while sitting in the bath, where he found relief from a skin disease (eczema). Corday informed him of the Girondin deputies who had fled to Normandy and stabbed him after he said he would soon send them all to the guillotine.

Korday was captured at the scene of the crime. From prison, Charlotte will write to Barbara: “I thought I would die right away; courageous people and truly worthy of all praise protected me from the understandable fury of those unfortunates whom I deprived of their idol.

Investigation and trial

The first time Charlotte was interrogated at Marat's apartment, the second - in the prison of the Abbey. She was placed in the cell where Madame Roland had previously been kept, and later Brissot. There were two gendarmes in the cell around the clock. When Corday learned that Lause Deperre and Bishop Fauchet had been arrested as her accomplices, she wrote a letter refuting these accusations. On July 16, Charlotte was transferred to the Conciergerie. On the same day, she was interrogated in a revolutionary criminal tribunal chaired by Montana in the presence of the public prosecutor Fouquier-Tenville. She chose as her official defender the deputy of the Convention from Caen, Gustave Dulce, who was notified by letter, but received it after Corday's death. At the trial, which took place on the morning of July 17, she was defended by Chauveau-Lagarde, the future defender of Marie Antoinette, the Girondins, Madame Roland. Korday carried herself with a calmness that amazed everyone present. Once again, she confirmed that she had no accomplices. After the testimony was heard and Corday interrogated, Fouquier-Tinville read letters to Barbara and her father, written by her in prison. The public prosecutor demanded the death penalty for Korday.

During Fouquier-Tinville's speech, the defense was given orders from the jury to remain silent, and from the president of the court to declare Corday insane:

…They all wanted me to humiliate her. The defendant's face has not changed at all during all this time. It was only when she looked at me that she seemed to tell me that she didn't want to be justified.

The jury unanimously found Korday guilty and sentenced her to death. Leaving the courtroom, Corday thanked Chauveau-Lagarde for his courage, saying that he defended her the way she wanted.

While awaiting execution, Charlotte posed for the artist Goyer, who had begun her portrait during the trial, and spoke to him in different topics. Saying goodbye, she gave Goyer a lock of her hair.

Charlotte Corday refused to confess.

Putting on a red shirt, in which, according to the court order (as a parricide), she was to be executed, Corday said: “The clothes of death, in which they go to immortality.”

execution

The executioner Sanson spoke in detail about the last hours of Charlotte Corday's life in his memoirs. According to him, he had not seen such courage in those sentenced to death since the execution of de La Barra in 1766. All the way from the Conciergerie to the place of execution, she stood in the cart, refusing to sit down. When Sanson, having risen, blocked the guillotine from Corday, she asked him to move away, since she had never seen this structure before. Charlotte Corday was executed at half past seven in the evening of July 17 in the Place de la République. Some witnesses to the execution claimed that the carpenter, who helped install the guillotine that day, grabbed Charlotte's severed head and stabbed her in the face. In the newspaper "Revolution de Paris" (fr. Revolutions de Paris) there was a note condemning this act. The executioner Sanson found it necessary to publish a message in the newspaper that "it was not he who did it, and not even his assistant, but a certain carpenter, seized with unprecedented enthusiasm, the carpenter admitted his guilt."

To make sure that Corday was a virgin, her body was subjected to a medical examination.

Charlotte Corday was buried in the Madeleine cemetery in ditch No. 5. During the Restoration, the cemetery was liquidated.

The fate of Korday's relatives

In July 1793, representatives of the municipality of Argentan searched the house of Charlotte's father Jacques Corday and interrogated him. In October 1793 he was arrested along with his elderly parents. Charlotte's grandmother and grandfather were released in August 1794, and her father in February 1795. He was forced to emigrate: the name of Jacques Corday was included in the list of persons who, according to the law of the Directory, had to leave the country within two weeks. Corday settled in Spain, where his eldest son (Jacques Francois Alexis) lived, died in Barcelona on June 27, 1798. Charlotte's uncle Pierre Jacques de Corday and her younger brother Charles Jacques François, who also emigrated, took part in the royalist landing on the Quiberon Peninsula on June 27, 1795. They were taken prisoner by the Republicans and shot.

Reaction to the murder of Marat

Marat was declared a victim of the Girondins, who colluded with the royalists. Vergniaud, when news reached him from Paris, exclaimed: “She [Corday] is destroying us, but she is teaching us to die!” Augustin Robespierre hoped that the death of Marat "thanks to the circumstances that accompanied her" would be useful to the republic. According to some opinions, Korday gave a reason to turn Marat from a prophet into a martyr, and the supporters of terror to exterminate their political opponents. Madame Roland in Sainte-Pelagie prison regretted that Marat was killed, and not "the one who is much more guilty" (Robespierre). According to Louis Blanc, Charlotte Corday, who declared in court that she "killed one to save a hundred thousand," was Marat's most consistent student: she brought to its logical conclusion his principle - to sacrifice a few for the well-being of the whole nation.

A cult of veneration of Marat arose spontaneously: throughout the country, in churches on altars draped with tricolor panels, his busts were exhibited, he was compared with Jesus, streets, squares, and cities were renamed in his honor. After a magnificent and long ceremony, he was buried in the garden of the Cordeliers, and two days later his heart was solemnly transferred to the Cordeliers club.

The publisher of the Bulletin of the Revolutionary Tribunal, who wished to publish the suicide letters and the "Appeal" of Charlotte Corday, was refused by the Committee of Public Safety, considering it unnecessary to draw attention to a woman "who is already of great interest to ill-wishers." Admirers of Marat in their propaganda writings depicted Charlotte Corday as an immoral special, old maid with a head “stuffed with all sorts of books”, a proud woman who had no principles, who wished to become famous in the manner of Herostratus.

The MP from Mainz, PhD, Adam Luks, who was so upset by the defeat of the Girondins that he decided to die, protesting against the impending dictatorship, was inspired by the death of Charlotte Corday.

One of the jurors of the Revolutionary Tribunal, Leroy, lamented that the convicts, imitating Charlotte Corda, were demonstrating their courage on the scaffold. “I would order each convict to be bled before execution in order to deprive them of the strength to behave with dignity,” he wrote.

In culture

The personality of Corday was extolled both by opponents of the French Revolution and by revolutionaries - enemies of the Jacobins (for example, by the Girondins who continued to resist). André Chénier wrote an ode in honor of Charlotte Corday. In the 19th century, the propaganda of regimes hostile to the revolution (Restoration, Second Empire) also presented Corday as a national heroine.

Pushkin, like part of the Decembrists, who had a negative attitude towards the Jacobin terror, in the poem "Dagger" called Charlotte "the maiden Eumenis" (goddess of vengeance), who overtook the "apostle of death."

Henri Elman in 2007 directed the film "Charlotte Corday" with Emily Decken in the title role.

Marie Anna Charlotte Corday d'Armont(fr. Marie-Anne-Charlotte de Corday d'Armont), better known as Charlotte Corday(fr. Charlotte Corday; July 27, the parish of Saint-Saturnin-de-Ligneri near Vimoutiers, Normandy - July 17, Paris) - French noblewoman, murderer of Jean Paul Marat, executed by the Jacobins.

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Biography

A family. Childhood

Daughter of Jacques Francois Alexis de Corday d'Armon and Marie Jacqueline, nee de Gauthier de Menival, great-granddaughter of the famous playwright Pierre Corneille. Korday were an ancient noble family. The father of Marie Anna Charlotte, as the third son, could not count on the inheritance: in accordance with the primacy, it passed to the elder brother. For some time, Jacques Francois Alexis served in the army, then retired, got married and took up agriculture. Marie Anne Charlotte spent her childhood on her parents' farm, Roncere. For some time she lived and studied with her father's brother, the curate of the parish of Vic, Charles Amedea.

When the girl was fourteen years old, her mother died during childbirth. The father tried to arrange a boarding school for Marie Anna Charlotte and her younger sister Eleanor, but he was refused, since Corday was not among the noble families who distinguished themselves in the royal service. The girls were accepted as boarders for government maintenance at the Benedictine abbey of the Holy Trinity in Cana, where their distant relative, Madame Panteculan, was the coadjutriss.

In the monastery, it was allowed to read not only spiritual books, and young Corday got acquainted with the writings of Montesquieu, Rousseau, Abbe Reynal.

Revolution

In accordance with the anti-clerical decrees of 1790, the monastery was closed, and at the beginning of 1791 Charlotte returned to her father. Korday first lived in Mesnil-Imbert, then, due to a quarrel between the head of the family and a local poacher, they moved to Argentan. In June 1791, Charlotte settled in Caen with her second cousin Madame de Betville. According to the memoirs of her friend in Caen, Amanda Loyer (Madame Maromme), “no man has ever made the slightest impression on her; her thoughts soared in completely different areas<…>... she least of all thought about marriage. From monastic times, Charlotte read a lot (with the exception of novels), later - numerous newspapers and brochures of various political directions. According to Madame Maromme, at one of the dinner parties in the house of her aunt Charlotte defiantly refused to drink for the king, stating that she had no doubts about his virtue, but “he is weak, and a weak king cannot be kind, because he does not have enough strength to prevent misfortunes of his people." Soon, Amanda Loyer moved with her family to a calmer Rouen, the girls corresponded and in Charlotte's letters "sadness, regrets about the futility of life and disappointment with the course of the revolution" sounded. Almost all of Korda's letters addressed to her friend were destroyed by Amanda's mother when the name of Marat's killer became known.

The execution of Louis XVI shocked Charlotte; the girl, who became "a republican long before the revolution," mourned not only the king:

... You know the terrible news, and your heart, like mine, trembles with indignation; here it is, our good France, given over to the people who have done us so much harm!<…>I shudder with horror and indignation. The future, prepared by present events, threatens with horrors that can only be imagined. It is clear that the greatest misfortune has already happened.<…>The people who promised us freedom killed her, they are just executioners.

In June 1793, rebellious Girondin deputies arrived in Caen. The Quartermaster's Mansion on Karm Street, where they were housed, became the center of the opposition in exile. Corday met with one of the Girondin deputies Barbara, interceding for her friend in the monastery who had lost her pension, Canoness Alexandrine de Forbin, who had emigrated to Switzerland. This was the pretext for her trip to Paris, for which she received her passport back in April. Charlotte asked for a recommendation and offered to deliver the letters of the Girondins to friends in the capital. On the evening of July 8, Corday received from Barbarou a letter of recommendation to Duperret, a member of the Convention, and several pamphlets that Duperret was to pass on to the supporters of the Girondins. In a reply note, she promised to write to Barbara from Paris. Taking a letter from Barbara, Charlotte risked being arrested on her way to Paris: on July 8, the Convention adopted a decree declaring the Girondins in exile "traitors to the fatherland." Cana will not know about it until three days later. Before leaving, Charlotte burned all her papers and wrote a farewell letter to her father, in which, in order to divert all suspicions from him, she announced that she was leaving for England.

Paris

Corday arrived in Paris on July 11 and stayed at the Providence on Rue Vieze-Augustin. She met Duperret in the evening of the same day. Having stated her request in the Forben case and having arranged to see him the next morning, Charlotte unexpectedly said: “Citizen Deputy, your place is in Caen! Run, leave no later than tomorrow evening! The next day, Duperret accompanied Corday to Gard, the minister of the interior, but he was busy and did not receive visitors. On the same day, Duperret met with Charlotte again: his papers, like those of other deputies supporting the Girondins, were sealed - he could not help her in any way, and acquaintance with him became dangerous. Corday once again advised him to run, but the deputy was not going to "leave the Convention, where he was elected by the people."

Before the assassination attempt, Korday wrote "Appeal to the French, Friends of Law and Peace":

…French people! You know your enemies, get up! Forward! And let only brothers and friends remain on the ruins of the Mountain! I don’t know if the sky promises us republican government, but it can give us a Montagnard as ruler only in a fit of terrible revenge ...

Oh France! Your rest depends on keeping the laws; killing Marat, I do not break the law; condemned by the universe, he stands outside the law.<…>Oh my homeland! Your misfortunes break my heart; I can only give you my life! And I am grateful to heaven that I can freely dispose of it; no one will lose anything with my death; but I will not follow the example of Pari and kill myself. I want my last breath to benefit my fellow citizens, so that my head, folded in Paris, would serve as a banner for the unification of all friends of the law! ...

In the "Appeal ..." Charlotte emphasized that she was acting without assistants and no one was privy to her plans. On the day of the murder, Charlotte pinned the text of the "Appeal ..." and the certificate of her baptism under her bodice with pins.

Corday knew that Marat was not at the Convention because of his illness and that he could be found at home.

Murder of Marat

Korday was captured on the spot. From prison, Charlotte sent a letter to Barbara: “I thought I would die right away; courageous people and truly worthy of all praise protected me from the understandable fury of those unfortunates whom I deprived of their idol.

Investigation and trial

The first time Charlotte was interrogated at Marat's apartment, the second - in the prison of the Abbey. She was placed in a cell where Madame Roland had previously been kept, and later Brissot. There were two gendarmes in the cell around the clock. When Corday learned that Duperret and Bishop Fauchet had been arrested as her accomplices, she wrote a letter refuting these accusations. On July 16, Charlotte was transferred to the Conciergerie. On the same day, she was interrogated at the Revolutionary Criminal Tribunal, presided over by Montana, in the presence of the public prosecutor Fouquier-Tinville. She chose as her official defender the deputy of the Convention from Calvados Gustav Dulce, he was notified by letter, but received it after Corday's death. At the trial, which took place on the morning of July 17, she was defended by Chauveau-Lagarde, the future defender of Marie Antoinette, the Girondins, Madame Roland. Korday carried herself with a calmness that amazed everyone present. Once again, she confirmed that she had no accomplices. After the testimony was heard and Corday interrogated, Fouquier-Tinville read letters to Barbara and her father that she had written in prison. The public prosecutor demanded the death penalty for Korday.

During Fouquier-Tinville's speech, the defense was given orders from the jury to remain silent, and from the president of the court to declare Corday insane:

…They all wanted me to humiliate her. The defendant's face has not changed at all during all this time. It was only when she looked at me that she seemed to tell me that she didn't want to be justified. .

Chauveau-Lagarde's speech in defense of Charlotte Corday:

The accused herself confesses to the terrible crime she has committed; she admits that she did it in cold blood, having thought everything over in advance, and thereby recognizes the grave circumstances that aggravate her guilt; in a word, she admits everything and does not even try to justify herself. Unperturbed calmness and complete self-denial, not revealing the slightest remorse even in the presence of death itself - that, citizens of the jury, is its entire defense. Such calmness and such self-denial, sublime in their own way, are not natural and can only be explained by the excitement of political fanaticism, which put a dagger in her hand. And you, the citizens of the jury, will have to decide what weight to give to this moral consideration thrown on the scales of justice. I fully rely on your fair judgment.

The jury unanimously found Korday guilty and sentenced her to death. Leaving the courtroom, Corday thanked Chauveau-Lagarde for his courage, saying that he defended her the way she wanted. In her last letter, written before her execution, she addressed the deputy Dulce:

Citizen Dulce de Ponteculan acted cowardly in refusing to defend me when it was so easy to do so. The one who took on my protection, carried it out in the most worthy way, and I will be grateful to him until my last moment.

While awaiting execution, Charlotte posed for the artist Goyer, who had begun her portrait during the trial, and talked with him on various topics. Saying goodbye, she gave Goyer a lock of her hair.

Charlotte Corday refused to confess.

By court order, she was to be executed in a red shirt, clothes in which, according to the laws of that time, hired killers and poisoners were executed. Putting on a shirt, Corday said: "The clothes of death, in which they go to immortality."

execution

The executioner Sanson spoke in detail about the last hours of Charlotte Corday's life in his memoirs. According to him, he had not seen such courage in those sentenced to death since the execution of de La Barre in 1766 (François-Jean de La Barre). All the way from the Conciergerie to the place of execution, she stood in the cart, refusing to sit down. When Sanson, having risen, blocked the guillotine from Corday, she asked him to move away, since she had never seen this structure before. Charlotte Corday was executed at half past seven on the evening of July 17 in the Place de la Révolution.

Some witnesses to the execution claimed that the carpenter, who helped install the guillotine that day, grabbed Charlotte's severed head and stabbed her in the face. In the newspaper "Revolution de Paris" (fr. Revolutions de Paris) there was a note condemning this act. The executioner Sanson found it necessary to publish a message in the newspaper that "it was not he who did it, and not even his assistant, but a certain carpenter, seized with unprecedented enthusiasm, the carpenter admitted his guilt."

To make sure Korday was a virgin, her body was subjected to a medical examination. Charlotte Corday was buried in the Madeleine cemetery in ditch No. 5. During the Restoration, the cemetery was liquidated.

The fate of Korday's relatives

In July 1793, representatives of the municipality of Argentan searched the house of Charlotte's father Jacques Corday and interrogated him. In October 1793 he was arrested along with his elderly parents. Charlotte's grandmother and grandfather were released in August 1794, and her father in February 1795. He was forced to emigrate: the name of Jacques Corday was included in the list of persons who, according to the law of the Directory, had to leave the country within two weeks. Corday settled in Spain, where his eldest son (Jacques Francois Alexis) lived, died in Barcelona on June 27, 1798. Charlotte's uncle Pierre Jacques de Corday and her younger brother Charles Jacques François, who also emigrated, participated in the royalist landing on the Quiberon Peninsula on June 27, 1795. They were taken prisoner by the Republicans and shot. Charlotte's second uncle, Abbé Charles Amédée Corday, was persecuted because he did not swear allegiance to the new government, emigrated, returned to his homeland in 1801, and died in 1818.

Reaction to the murder of Marat

Marat was declared a victim of the Girondins, who colluded with the royalists. Vergniaud, when news reached him from Paris, exclaimed: "She [Corday] is ruining us, but she is teaching us to die!". Augustin Robespierre hoped that the death of Marat "thanks to the circumstances that accompanied her" would be useful to the republic. According to some opinions, Korday gave a reason to turn Marat from a prophet into a martyr, and to the supporters of terror to exterminate their political opponents. Madame Roland in Sainte-Pelagie prison regretted that Marat was killed, and not "the one who is much more guilty" (Robespierre). According to Louis Blanc, Charlotte Corday, who declared in court that she "killed one to save a hundred thousand," was Marat's most consistent student: she brought to its logical conclusion his principle - to sacrifice a few for the well-being of the whole nation.

A cult of veneration of Marat spontaneously arose: throughout the country, in churches on altars draped with tricolor panels, his busts were exhibited, he was compared with Jesus, streets, squares, cities were renamed in his honor. After a lavish and lengthy ceremony, he was buried in the garden of the Cordeliers, and two days later his heart was solemnly transferred to the Cordeliers club.

The publisher of the "Bulletin of the Revolutionary Tribunal", who wished to publish the suicide letters and "Appeal" of Charlotte Corday, was refused by the Committee of Public Safety, considering it unnecessary to draw attention to a woman "who is already of great interest to ill-wishers." Admirers of Marat in their propaganda writings depicted Charlotte Corday as an immoral special, old maid with a head “stuffed with various kinds of books”, a proud woman who had no principles, who wished to become famous in the manner of Herostratus.

One of the jurors of the Revolutionary Tribunal, Leroy, lamented that the convicts, imitating Charlotte Corda, were demonstrating their courage on the scaffold. “I would order each convict to be bled before execution in order to deprive them of the strength to behave with dignity,” he wrote.

Quote

President of the Court: Who inspired you with so much hatred?
Charlotte Corday: I did not need someone else's hatred, I had enough of my own.

In culture

The personality of Corday was extolled both by opponents of the French Revolution and by revolutionaries - enemies of the Jacobins (for example, by the Girondins who continued to resist). Andre Chenier wrote an ode in honor of Charlotte Corday. In the 19th century, the propaganda of regimes hostile to the revolution (Restoration, Second Empire) also presented Corday as a national heroine.

From the poem "Dagger"

The fiend of rebellion raises an evil cry:
Contemptible, dark and bloody,
Over the corpse of liberty headless
An ugly executioner arose.

Apostle of death, tired Hades
With a finger he appointed victims,
But the Supreme Court sent him
You and the virgin Eumenides.

Literature

• Aldanov M. A. Marat's bath. - In the book: Aldanov M. Essays (Works, book 2) M.: "News". 1995.
• Derevensky B. G. Kill Marat. The Case of Mary Charlotte Corday. - St. Petersburg. : "Aletheia", 2017. - ISBN 978-5-906980-07-6 .
• Mirovich N. Charlotte Corday. Biographical sketch. M .: Tov-vo I. D. Sytina. 1906.
• Morozova E. Charlotte Corday. - M .: Young Guard, 2009. -

French noblewoman, murderer of Jean Paul Marat.

Daughter of Jacques Francois Alexis de Corday d'Armon and Marie Jacqueline, nee de Gauthier de Menival, great-granddaughter of the famous playwright Pierre Corneille. Korday were an ancient noble family. The father of Marie Anna Charlotte, as the third son, could not count on the inheritance: in accordance with the primacy, it passed to the elder brother. For some time, Jacques Francois Alexis served in the army, then retired, got married and took up agriculture. Marie Anne Charlotte spent her childhood on her parents' farm, Roncere. For some time she lived and studied with her father's brother, the curate of the parish of Vic, Charles Amedea. Her uncle gave her a primary education and introduced her to the plays of their famous ancestor, Corneille.

When the girl was fourteen years old, her mother died during childbirth. The father tried to arrange Marie Anna Charlotte and her younger sister Eleanor in the Saint-Cyr boarding house, but he was refused, since Corday was not among the noble families who distinguished themselves in the royal service. The girls were accepted as boarders for government maintenance in the Benedictine abbey of the Holy Trinity in Cana, where their distant relative, Madame Panteculan, was coadjutriss.

Revolution

In accordance with the anti-clerical decrees of 1790, the monastery was closed, and in early 1791 Charlotte returned to her father. Korday first lived in Mesnil-Imbert, then, due to a quarrel between the head of the family and a local poacher, they moved to Argentan. In June 1791, Charlotte settled in Caen with her second cousin Madame de Betville. According to the memoirs of her friend in Caen, Amanda Loyer (Madame Maromme): “not a single man has ever made the slightest impression on her; her thoughts hovered in completely different areas ... she least of all thought about marriage. "From monastic times, Charlotte read a lot (with the exception of novels), later - numerous newspapers and brochures of various political directions. According to Madame Maromme, at one of the dinner parties in the house Aunt Charlotte defiantly refused to drink to the king, saying that she had no doubts about his virtue, but "he is weak, and a weak king cannot be kind, because he does not have the strength to prevent the misfortunes of his people. "Soon Amanda Loyer moved with her family to more calm Rouen, the girls corresponded and in Charlotte's letters “sadness, regrets about the futility of life and disappointment with the course of the revolution sounded.” Almost all Corday's letters addressed to her friend were destroyed by Amanda's mother when the name of Marat's killer became known.

The execution of Louis XVI shocked Charlotte, the girl who became "a republican long before the revolution" mourned not only the king:

... You know the terrible news, and your heart, like mine, trembles with indignation; here it is, our good France, given over to the people who have done us so much harm! I shudder with horror and indignation. The future, prepared by present events, threatens with horrors that can only be imagined. It is clear that the greatest misfortune has already happened. The people who promised us freedom killed her, they are just executioners.

In June 1793, rebellious Girondin deputies arrived in Caen. The Quartermaster's Mansion on Karm Street, where they were housed, became the center of the opposition in exile. Corday met with one of the Girondin deputies, Barbara, interceding for her friend from the monastery, Canoness Alexandrine de Forbin, who had emigrated to Switzerland, who had lost her pension. This was the pretext for her trip to Paris, for which she received her passport back in April. Charlotte asked for a recommendation and offered to deliver the letters of the Girondins to friends in the capital. On the evening of July 8, Corday received from Barbarou a letter of recommendation to Deperret, a member of the Convention, and several pamphlets that Deperret was to pass on to the supporters of the Girondins. In a reply note, she promised to write to Barbara from Paris. Taking a letter from Barbara, Charlotte risked being arrested on her way to Paris: on July 8, the Convention adopted a decree declaring the Girondins in exile "traitors to the fatherland." Cana will not know about it until three days later. Before leaving, Charlotte burned all her papers and wrote a farewell letter to her father, in which, in order to divert all suspicions from him, she announced that she was leaving for England.

Paris

Corday arrived in Paris on July 11 and stayed at the Hotel Providence on Rue Vieze-Augustin. She met Deperre in the evening of the same day. Having stated her request in the Forben case and having arranged to see him the next morning, Charlotte unexpectedly said: “Citizen Deputy, your place is in Caen! Run, leave no later than tomorrow evening! The next day, Deperre accompanied Corday to the Minister of the Interior Gard, but he was busy and did not receive visitors. On the same day, Deperre met with Charlotte again: his papers, like those of other deputies-supporters of the Girondins, were sealed - he could not help her in any way, and acquaintance with him became dangerous. Corday once again advised him to run, but the deputy was not going to "leave the Convention, where he was elected by the people."

Murder of Marat

On the morning of July 13, 1793, Corday went to the Palais Royal, then called the garden of the Palais Egalite, and bought a kitchen knife in one of the shops. She drove to Marat's house at 30 Cordeliers Street in a fiacre. Korday tried to go to Marat, saying that she had come from Caen to tell about the conspiracy that was being prepared there. However, the common-law wife of Marat Simone Evrard did not let the visitor in. Back at the hotel, Korday wrote a letter to Marat asking for an appointment for the afternoon, but forgot to include her return address.

Without waiting for an answer, she wrote a third note and in the evening drove again to the Rue Cordeliers. This time she achieved her goal. Marat took it while sitting in the bath, where he found relief from a skin disease (eczema). Corday informed him of the Girondin deputies who had fled to Normandy and stabbed him after he said he would soon send them all to the guillotine.

Korday was captured at the scene of the crime. From prison, Charlotte will write to Barbara: “I thought I would die right away; courageous people and truly worthy of all praise protected me from the understandable fury of those unfortunates whom I deprived of their idol.

Investigation and trial

The first time Charlotte was interrogated at Marat's apartment, the second - in the prison of the Abbey. She was placed in the cell where Madame Roland had previously been kept, and later Brissot. There were two gendarmes in the cell around the clock. When Corday learned that Lause Deperre and Bishop Fauchet had been arrested as her accomplices, she wrote a letter refuting these accusations. On July 16, Charlotte was transferred to the Conciergerie. On the same day, she was interrogated in a revolutionary criminal tribunal chaired by Montana in the presence of the public prosecutor Fouquier-Tenville. She chose as her official defender the deputy of the Convention from Caen, Gustave Dulce, who was notified by letter, but received it after Corday's death. At the trial, which took place on the morning of July 17, she was defended by Chauveau-Lagarde, the future defender of Marie Antoinette, the Girondins, Madame Roland. Korday carried herself with a calmness that amazed everyone present. Once again, she confirmed that she had no accomplices. After the testimony was heard and Corday interrogated, Fouquier-Tinville read letters to Barbara and her father, written by her in prison. The public prosecutor demanded the death penalty for Korday.

During Fouquier-Tinville's speech, the defense was given orders from the jury to remain silent, and from the president of the court to declare Corday insane:

…They all wanted me to humiliate her. The defendant's face has not changed at all during all this time. It was only when she looked at me that she seemed to tell me that she didn't want to be justified.

The jury unanimously found Korday guilty and sentenced her to death. Leaving the courtroom, Corday thanked Chauveau-Lagarde for his courage, saying that he defended her the way she wanted.

While awaiting execution, Charlotte posed for the artist Goyer, who had begun her portrait during the trial, and talked with him on various topics. Saying goodbye, she gave Goyer a lock of her hair.

Charlotte Corday refused to confess.

Putting on a red shirt, in which, according to the court order (as a parricide), she was to be executed, Corday said: “The clothes of death, in which they go to immortality.”

execution

The executioner Sanson spoke in detail about the last hours of Charlotte Corday's life in his memoirs. According to him, he had not seen such courage in those sentenced to death since the execution of de La Barra in 1766. All the way from the Conciergerie to the place of execution, she stood in the cart, refusing to sit down. When Sanson, having risen, blocked the guillotine from Corday, she asked him to move away, since she had never seen this structure before. Charlotte Corday was executed at half past seven in the evening of July 17 in the Place de la République. Some witnesses to the execution claimed that the carpenter, who helped install the guillotine that day, grabbed Charlotte's severed head and stabbed her in the face. In the newspaper "Revolution de Paris" (fr. Revolutions de Paris) there was a note condemning this act. The executioner Sanson found it necessary to publish a message in the newspaper that "it was not he who did it, and not even his assistant, but a certain carpenter, seized with unprecedented enthusiasm, the carpenter admitted his guilt."

To make sure that Corday was a virgin, her body was subjected to a medical examination.

Charlotte Corday was buried in the Madeleine cemetery in ditch No. 5. During the Restoration, the cemetery was liquidated.

The fate of Korday's relatives

In July 1793, representatives of the municipality of Argentan searched the house of Charlotte's father Jacques Corday and interrogated him. In October 1793 he was arrested along with his elderly parents. Charlotte's grandmother and grandfather were released in August 1794, and her father in February 1795. He was forced to emigrate: the name of Jacques Corday was included in the list of persons who, according to the law of the Directory, had to leave the country within two weeks. Corday settled in Spain, where his eldest son (Jacques Francois Alexis) lived, died in Barcelona on June 27, 1798. Charlotte's uncle Pierre Jacques de Corday and her younger brother Charles Jacques François, who also emigrated, took part in the royalist landing on the Quiberon Peninsula on June 27, 1795. They were taken prisoner by the Republicans and shot.

Reaction to the murder of Marat

Marat was declared a victim of the Girondins, who colluded with the royalists. Vergniaud, when news reached him from Paris, exclaimed: “She [Corday] is destroying us, but she is teaching us to die!” Augustin Robespierre hoped that the death of Marat "thanks to the circumstances that accompanied her" would be useful to the republic. According to some opinions, Korday gave a reason to turn Marat from a prophet into a martyr, and the supporters of terror to exterminate their political opponents. Madame Roland in Sainte-Pelagie prison regretted that Marat was killed, and not "the one who is much more guilty" (Robespierre). According to Louis Blanc, Charlotte Corday, who declared in court that she "killed one to save a hundred thousand," was Marat's most consistent student: she brought to its logical conclusion his principle - to sacrifice a few for the well-being of the whole nation.

A cult of veneration of Marat arose spontaneously: throughout the country, in churches on altars draped with tricolor panels, his busts were exhibited, he was compared with Jesus, streets, squares, and cities were renamed in his honor. After a magnificent and long ceremony, he was buried in the garden of the Cordeliers, and two days later his heart was solemnly transferred to the Cordeliers club.

The publisher of the Bulletin of the Revolutionary Tribunal, who wished to publish the suicide letters and the "Appeal" of Charlotte Corday, was refused by the Committee of Public Safety, considering it unnecessary to draw attention to a woman "who is already of great interest to ill-wishers." Admirers of Marat in their propaganda writings depicted Charlotte Corday as an immoral special, old maid with a head “stuffed with all sorts of books”, a proud woman who had no principles, who wished to become famous in the manner of Herostratus.

The MP from Mainz, PhD, Adam Luks, who was so upset by the defeat of the Girondins that he decided to die, protesting against the impending dictatorship, was inspired by the death of Charlotte Corday.

One of the jurors of the Revolutionary Tribunal, Leroy, lamented that the convicts, imitating Charlotte Corda, were demonstrating their courage on the scaffold. “I would order each convict to be bled before execution in order to deprive them of the strength to behave with dignity,” he wrote.

In culture

The personality of Corday was extolled both by opponents of the French Revolution and by revolutionaries - enemies of the Jacobins (for example, by the Girondins who continued to resist). André Chénier wrote an ode in honor of Charlotte Corday. In the 19th century, the propaganda of regimes hostile to the revolution (Restoration, Second Empire) also presented Corday as a national heroine.

Pushkin, like part of the Decembrists, who had a negative attitude towards the Jacobin terror, in the poem "Dagger" called Charlotte "the maiden Eumenis" (goddess of vengeance), who overtook the "apostle of death."

Henri Elman in 2007 directed the film "Charlotte Corday" with Emily Decken in the title role.

Love and Hate in the Realm of Reason

History developed in different ways, because it was created by Man, a contradictory creature, consisting of two halves, which are attracted to each other by Love, and repelled by Hatred. So that Hatred does not destroy Man, from above he was granted Mercy, Condescension and Forgiveness, as well as an all-encompassing Reason. Throughout the long journey of Man in History, one or another of his properties took the upper hand. In the 18th century, the primacy, thanks to brilliant philosophers, was given to Reason. The Age of Enlightenment, which ended with a volcano-like French Revolution, formed a cult of reason - reason recognized itself as a product of nature, discarded everything superfluous, triumphed ... and gave birth to monsters.
From love is just a step to hate. Especially when the world is splitting into pieces, and no one knows how to put them back together.
On July 14, 1789, a revolution took place in France, putting forward the noble slogan "freedom, equality, fraternity." On September 22, 1792, the Republic was proclaimed, "one and indivisible." On January 21, 1793, King Louis XVI was executed, the trial of which split the ranks of the deputies sitting in the Convention. On 9 Thermidor (July 27), 1794, the dictatorship of the Jacobin party, led by Robespierre, established during the revolution, was overthrown, unleashing revolutionary terror in the country.
During the five revolutionary years, many events have taken place, both glorious and sad. The so-called triumvirate collapsed, as the revolutionary leaders Marat, Danton and Robespierre were often called, and all the triumvirs, one by one, passed away. Danton and Robespierre ended their days on the guillotine, and Marat, a member of the Convention, publisher and author of the newspaper "Friend of the People", referred to by most of his contemporaries as nothing more than a "monster", fell at the hands of a 25-year-old beauty from Normandy Charlotte Corday. The great-great-great-granddaughter of the great playwright Pierre Corneille, on July 13, 1793, she plunged a deadly dagger into the chest of the Friend of the People, who considered severed heads a panacea in the fight against the enemies of the people ...

The beauty and the Beast

It is believed that this was a political assassination. But, rather, this is an act of a woman in which love and hatred are closely intertwined.
Contemporaries wrote about Marat: “He has leprosy in his soul; he drinks the blood of France to prolong his vile days. And if France does not get rid of this monster, anarchy, with all its horrors, will devour the children of the nation. There are many such reviews. For the happiness of the people Le monstere(monster), as Marat was openly called by his enemies, and behind his back by friends, awakened the demon of murder in the soul of the people, turning ink and printing ink into the blood of countless enemies. “What is the meaning of a few drops of blood shed by the mob during the current revolution in order to regain freedom, in comparison with the streams of blood shed by some Nero?” - Marat wrote in his newspaper "Friend of the People" after the storming of the Bastille. “Two or three heads, by the way, cut off by the way, stop public enemies for a long time and save the nation from the calamities of poverty, from the horrors of civil wars”, - he wrote a year later ... Then it took even more heads: “Five hundred or six hundred severed heads would provide you with peace, freedom and happiness; false humanity held your hands”; “Last year, 500-600 heads would have been enough to make you happy. In a few months, you will probably have to demolish 100,000 already. For happiness will not come to you until you exterminate the enemies of the fatherland. Enemies of the people were seen by Marat as a giant thousand-headed hydra ...
Tall, with a "light as a bird's" gait, Charlotte, who combined feminine grace and masculine confidence, also put republican ideals above all else. “Charlotte Corday, exalted soul, incomparable maiden! What meekness was in her face when she was carried in the midst of a raging crowd! How much calmness and courage in the eyes! What a fire burned her gaze, what a tender but fearless soul her eyes spoke of! Her gaze could touch even the rocks!” - wrote the German republican Adam Lux, following the wagon carrying Charlotte to the scaffold.
Going to plunge a dagger into Marat's chest, Charlotte wrote in her "Appeal to the French": "How long, O unhappy French, will you find pleasure in turmoil and strife? For too long, rebels and villains have been replacing the public interest with their own ambitious ambitions.<…>. And now Marat, the most vile of all villains, whose name alone already evokes a picture of all sorts of crimes, fell from the blow of a vengeful dagger, shaking the Mountain and making Danton, Robespierre and their minions pale, sitting on this bloody throne surrounded by lightning, a blow whom the gods, avenging mankind, delayed only to make their fall even more loud, and also to frighten all who would try, following their example, to build their happiness on the ruins of deceived peoples!
For the first time, the girl heard about Marat from the lips of the Girondins who fled Paris, a group of deputies of the Convention, defeated by their political opponents, the main of which was Marat. Both Marat and the Girondins and Charlotte Corday were republicans. It was the lofty aspirations and republican principles that brought the beauty to Paris, put a dagger in her hands and raised her to the scaffold.
Marat also loved the Republic, and in its name demanded more and more heads. From their shared love for the Republic, a hatred was born that destroyed both Marat and Charlotte.
If Charlotte had not interrupted Marat’s life, he would have remained in the memory of “one of the participants” in that distant revolution, about which contemporaries left for the most part the following memories: “It seems that nature itself has collected in him all the vices of the human race. He is ugly as a crime, he has an ugly body, ulcerated with debauchery, he looks like a wild beast, cunning and bloodthirsty. He only talks about blood, preaches blood, enjoys blood. He's a monster." If Charlotte had not dealt her fatal blow, her name would have been lost to posterity. But the Beauty shared the fate of the Beast, the legend found a tragic end.
The story connected Charlotte Corday and Jean Paul Marat, murderer and victim, victim and murderer. The artist David, by the power of art, sealed their deadly union forever. The mournful and majestic canvas "The Death of Marat" became the keeper of the memory not only of Marat, but also of Charlotte Korda. Today, when more than two hundred years have passed since those tragic days, many, when mentioning Marat, say: “Ah, this is the one in the bath in the picture of David”, and with the name of Charlotte Corday - “Ah, this is the one who killed the one who who is in the bath in the picture of David "...
By killing Marat, Charlotte Corday sacrificed her own life. No one knows how many people became victims of Marat's bloodthirsty appeals. Madness, according to Maximilian Voloshin, consisted in the fact that "the executioner Marat and the martyr Charlotte Corday, with the same consciousness of achievement, wanted to restore virtue and justice on earth." "I killed one person to save a hundred thousand" - these words of Charlotte reminded Marat's constant refrain: "Is it really incomprehensible that I want to cut off very few heads in order to save many?", "It is necessary to demand five hundred criminal heads in order to save five hundred thousand innocent."
While plunging her blade into Marat's chest, Charlotte imagined herself to be Brutus slaying the tyrant, and was sure that, like Brutus, she, by committing this murder, would enter History. Having died at the hands of the beautiful Corday, the monster Marat, whose popularity has steadily declined, gained hundreds of new admirers and became a cult figure of the revolution. If not for the dagger of Charlotte Corday, it is unlikely that the name of Marat in the history of the French Revolution would have been so loud. Do not step Charlotte on the path of tyrannicide, paved by the deeds of heroes Ancient Greece and Rome, History would not have preserved her name for us. Did Charlotte Corday's act change the course of the revolution? No. Rather, it had a moral impact - like the death of Marat.
“There is something terrible in the sacred feeling of love for the fatherland; it is so exclusive that it forces one to sacrifice everything, without compassion, without fear, disregarding the opinions of people in the name of the public good,” wrote Saint-Just, nicknamed “the angel of death.” The fanatic Marat believed that he was saving the "stupid" and "frivolous" people, urging them to cut as many heads as possible. Living on the thoughts of the heroes of Plutarch and the heroic fiction of Corneille's plays, Charlotte Corday went to kill Marat, confident that she was saving the fatherland and freeing the Republic from the tyrant.
Reflecting on the tragic community of Charlotte Corday and Marat, Lamartine wrote: “It seemed that Providence wanted to oppose one to the other two kinds of fanaticism: under the disgusting features of popular revenge, personified in Marat, and the heavenly beauty of love for the fatherland in the person of the new Joan of Arc, champion of freedom ; but both of them, however, committed the same crime - murder, and, unfortunately, they thus resemble each other before posterity: if not in purpose, then in means; if not in the face, then in the hand that struck; if not according to the soul, then according to the shed blood. Trying to reconcile admiration and horror at Charlotte's act, he called her "the angel of murder."
With his bloodthirsty articles and appeals, Marat aroused hatred not only among the enemies of the revolution, but also among many of its supporters. His appearance on the podium of the Republican Convention, according to contemporaries, was reminiscent of the appearance of Medusa the Gorgon: in a shabby tailcoat, an unbuttoned shirt, with a huge pistol in his belt, Marat looked militant and terrible. Black tangled hair fell over his forehead, black eyes sparkled menacingly from under his tousled hair. Even on Robespierre's associates, who sat in the upper stands and called themselves the Mountain, he made a repulsive impression. None of the members of the Jacobin club subscribed to the newspaper Druha Naroda. “This obsessed fanatic inspired us all with some kind of disgust and numbness. When he was shown to me for the first time, as he twitched on the top of the Mountain, I looked at him with that anxious curiosity with which one looks at some hideous insects. His clothes were in disarray, in his pale face, in his wandering gaze, there was something repulsive and terrible, which filled the soul with longing. All my colleagues with whom I had friendship agreed with me, ”montagnard Levasseur recalled.
Through the mouths of Marat, the eloquence of the violence and arbitrariness of the crowd led an offensive against the eloquence of revolutionary legality, which sounded in the mouths of the deputies from the Gironde department. The Girondins, as they called everyone who spoke along with them, called Marat "a bilious toad, which a stupid vote turned into a deputy" and saw in him the embodiment of anarchy and tyranny. Marat criticized any government, including the one he became a part of when he was elected to the Convention. Marat, tirelessly talking about treason, actively contributed to the creation of a revolutionary, without the right to appeal, tribunal to try the enemies of the people and the republic. The overthrow of the Girondins was also, above all, the work of Marat. Therefore, it is not surprising that Marat had plenty of enemies. But why exactly did the fragile maiden pick up the dagger of Nemesis?

Under the Dominion of Duty

Charlotte Corday was born on July 27, 1768, in Normandy, far from Paris, near the city of Caen, in a noble but impoverished noble family de Corday d'Armon. Her first books were the heroic tragedies of her great ancestor Corneille, a playwright who sang of noble heroes who were ready to plunge a dagger into the chest of the enemy for the sake of the public good. “Honor ordered my hand to kill,” little Charlotte probably parsed by syllables, and in her thoughts the ideal of a worthy death in the name of duty and murder justified by higher goals gradually took shape. Reading sublime poetry was not in vain: already in childhood, Charlotte even performed simple household duties with passion and ardor; it seemed that in her youth an ardent and sublime love awaited her, and her lover would be a real noble hero.
But for Charlotte, the hero was above all the one who did his duty. In the tragedies of Corneille, duty dominated all feelings, and even love; from the tragedies of Corneille, Charlotte stepped towards the heroes of ancient Greece and Rome: Plutarch's Comparative Lives became her favorite book for life. All these books taught civic virtues, leaving aside the education of feelings. Charlotte had no desire to find her soul mate.
The images of Antiquity excited the minds of enlightened people of the 18th century; ancient antiquity was felt not as distant history, but as a completely understandable way of thinking, understanding the world and even being. This attitude was supported by the widespread study of Latin and orators of antiquity. Future lawyers and generals were taught to make speeches in the Roman Senate and comprehend the wisdom of the Gallic War, partly forgetting that most of them would have to speak in court not about the fate of the state, but to solve specific everyday issues, and on the battlefield to fight not with wild Germans, but with trained Prussian soldiers. A new virtue was formed in society - admiration for the heroic virtues of Roman citizens, which became an integral part of civic consciousness during the revolution. The revolution, and especially the period of the Jacobin dictatorship, saw the peak of the enthusiasm for Antiquity. By this time, an ancient pantheon of "good" republicans had formed, the list of which was headed by Brutus, and "bad", tyrants, where Caesar was at the head of the list. Feeding a hatred of vice and tyrants, Brutus stabbed Caesar for the sake of general freedom, pursuing the only goal - to return the former republic to the Romans. Even such a grave accusation as the betrayal of a friend and savior, which Caesar was in relation to Brutus, did not bother this principled champion of the republican mode of government. Therefore, enthusiastic admirers of the irreconcilable republican flipped through those pages where Plutarch questioned the necessity of the murder committed by Brutus.
The principled Brutus became an exemplary model of a tyrant-fighter, a hero who asserted the rule of law at the cost of his own life. Considering the usurpation of power by Caesar illegal, he overthrew the tyrant directly in the Senate, the place where laws were created that were grossly violated by the tyrant. The impeccable virtue of Brutus, who did not receive any personal benefits from the assassination of Caesar, equated his act with a feat in the name of freedom, and his death - Brutus stabbed himself with a sword on the eve of inevitable defeat - exalted the image of a fighter against tyranny, ready to sacrifice his life in the name of the law.
Why did the images of the harsh heroes of Antiquity become so attractive to young Charlotte? By virtue of the integrity of character, independent, purposeful, capable of burning with only one passion? Or the habit of living in a fantasy world? Probably both. At any rate, Charlotte's fantasy world was clearly inhabited by the majestic and warlike heroes of antiquity. In her own words, she became a "republican long before the revolution", she argued that she probably should have been born in heroic times Athens, Sparta and Rome. “The beautiful times of antiquity show us the great and generous Republics! The heroes of that time were not ordinary people, as they are today; they wanted freedom and independence for all people! Everything for the fatherland and only for the fatherland!” Charlotte's thoughts could well have sounded in the mouths of the heroes of the great Corneille. And although Charlotte did not keep diaries, her friends, who left memories of her, wrote with admiration and amazement about the sublime way of thinking of Mademoiselle Corday, who amazed them with her enthusiasm and constant readiness to quote the ancients. And everyone unanimously assured that she always spoke out against marriage and never talked about love. But the Age of Enlightenment was also called the Gallant Age! The ability to conduct a love affair was elevated to the level of art, and the absence of amorous relationships was considered bad form. But Cupid's arrows flew past the stern and sublime Mademoiselle Corday.
Once formed, Charlotte's tastes never changed; she did not read the novels that flooded the bookshops of that time: she had enough own fantasies. From the writings of the enlighteners, from whose pen often graceful and very frivolous works came out, she perceived only lofty thoughts and stoic ideals close to her heart, rejecting everything frivolous and cynical, which often attracted many of her contemporaries in these works. Love of freedom, fortitude, courage, willingness to sacrifice everything for the sake of great principles - these are the virtues that Charlotte's heroes were endowed with. But to find the ideal in life - there was practically no hope, and, perhaps, therefore, Mademoiselle Corday was often thoughtful, which is why many considered her gloomy. Feelings and thoughts took her away from the world around her, she easily plunged into a contemplative mood and just as easily fell into exaltation. According to contemporaries, Charlotte spoke little, but thought a lot, and when they spoke to her, she often shuddered, as if waking up from a dream. She was very impressed with the thought of Abbé Reynal: "In heaven, glory belongs to God, and on earth - to virtue."
Given to be brought up in a monastery, she at first became interested in monastic life, and for some time even seriously considered the possibility of taking vows. Apparently, it was at that time that the biblical Judith was added to her favorite ancient heroes, who voluntarily took a sword in her hand in order to inflict death blow enemy commander Holofernes. It is said that in Charlotte's Bible the line was underlined: "I will go forth to do the work." Charlotte's soul longed for something unknown, noble, longed for a feat, but there was no field around either for Judith, or for the heroes of Corneille and Plutarch. If at this time Charlotte had met love, perhaps she would have given this feeling all the ardor of her soul. After all, she was very attractive! Her natural beauty: a face not spoiled by whitewash, who did not know powder dark hair, "angelic", according to contemporaries, a voice that sounded childishly sonorous - plunged many men into admiration. But, despite her attractive appearance, Charlotte was not interested in the opposite sex. As one of her friends wrote in her memoirs, “no man ever made the slightest impression on her; her thoughts soared in completely different areas<…>she thought least of all of marriage. If events had taken their course, she might have taken the tonsure and subsequently would have become an exemplary abbess of an exemplary monastery. If the revolution hadn't started.
The news of the storming of the Bastille shook the whole country. In Paris, the first victim of the rebels was the commandant of the Bastille, Delaunay, whose head, planted on a pike, the crowd carried around the city for a long time, terrifying the supporters of law and order. Riots, demonstrations and robberies began in Cana and its environs. Popular anger fell upon the staunch royalist Henri de Belzens, impudent and intemperate in language. He was literally torn to pieces, and his head, like the head of the unfortunate commandant of the Bastille, was put on a pike and carried screaming through the city. Whether Charlotte knew the unfortunate Belzens, it is impossible to say for sure. But him terrible death, without a doubt, shocked the girl. Many previously unknown thoughts boiled in her head. The blind hatred of the crowd, which had lost its human form, had nothing in common with the righteous anger of ancient heroes who sacrificed themselves in the name of republican virtues. The calculated cruelty of the aristocrats had nothing to do with the wisdom of the virtuous legislators. Are the long-awaited reforms necessarily accompanied by such terrible outbursts of the basest human passions? How could the noble slogan "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity", reinforced on the pediment of the fatherland renewed by the revolution, give rise to such bloody barbarism? Having become, in her own words, "republican long before the revolution," Charlotte saw that the coming times did not at all resemble the ancient republic of virtues, generous and lofty deeds, order and legality. "Beautiful times of antiquity!" she exclaimed. “The heroes of antiquity strove for freedom and independence, only passion overwhelmed them: everything for the fatherland, and only for the fatherland! Probably, the French are not worthy either to understand or to create a true Republic,” Charlotte sighed bitterly in conversations with her friends.
In accordance with the revolutionary laws, the monastery was closed, and Charlotte moved to her aunt in Caen, which became the capital of the newly formed department of Calvados. Newspapers reached the city faster, and she believed that there she might be able to understand the revolution that had taken place in distant Paris.
Despite the fact that Charlotte's social circle, or rather, the aunt, with whom she replaced both her daughter and companion, who died in her youth, were supporters of the monarchy, Charlotte did not intend to reckon with the views of relatives and friends and constantly expressed her anti-monarchist sentiments. Even when the circle of close people began to narrow sharply: anticipating the impending republican terror, the royalists went into exile. Nevertheless, Charlotte wrote: “... I have no hatred for our king, on the contrary, I am sure that he has good intentions; however, hell is also full of good intentions, but this does not stop it from being hell. The evil inflicted on us by Louis XVI is too great ... His weakness is both his and our misfortune. It seems to me that if he only wishes, he would be the happiest king, reigning over his beloved people, who would adore him, joyfully watching him resist the evil suggestions of the nobility ... For it is true - the nobility does not want freedom, which alone can give people peace and happiness. Instead, we see how our king resists the advice of good patriots, and what disasters result from this.<…>Friends will destroy the king, because he does not have the courage to remove his bad advisers ... Everything indicates that we are approaching a terrible catastrophe ... But we will not begin to predict the end. However, let us ask ourselves the question: is it possible to love Louis XVI after this? .. They pity him, and I pity him, but I don’t think that such a king could make his people happy. But, as the same letters testify, having learned about the execution of the king, the republican Charlotte "cried like a child", forgetting about all her claims to the monarch. Probably, she still had claims to the king as a representative of power, but she felt unbearably sorry for Louis himself. “I shudder with horror and indignation. The future, prepared by present events, threatens with horrors that can only be imagined. It is clear that the greatest misfortune has already happened.<…>The people who promised us freedom killed her; they are just executioners. So let us mourn the fate of our poor France!” And, perhaps, already after the execution of the king, Charlotte began to think about whether the sacrificial act of a weak woman could stop the bloodshed.
In late May - early June 1793, the Girondins were expelled from the Convention, and the deputies were outlawed. In the provinces, the fall of the Girondins and the subsequent establishment of the dictatorship of the Jacobins was perceived as a blow dealt to the revolution. Some of the deputies, taking advantage of the initial uncertainty of the situation, fled to the provinces, where they hoped to find asylum and continue the fight against the dictatorship that had seized power. The country was split into two camps, which soon moved against each other in a war.
In the first days of June, Girondins began to arrive in Caen, the capital of the department of Calvados, which had taken the side of the vanquished - eighteen deputies found refuge in Caen. And, as there is reason to believe, these people, without knowing it, determined the fate of Charlotte Corday. Although, perhaps, Mademoiselle Corday, independent in her judgments, had long prepared to take the dagger of Brutus in her hand and sacrifice herself on the altar of the fatherland, and the speeches of the exiled deputies only determined the name of the dictator. But these are just assumptions, because no one will recognize either the thoughts or feelings that overwhelmed Charlotte Corday at that time: she left no notes, her friends with whom she could be frank were in exile, and the perusal of private correspondence practiced in those years did not allow recklessly trusting the paper of thoughts and feelings. Therefore, let us replace the reflections of Mademoiselle Corday with the lines of Lamartine: “From now on, the popular assembly has ceased to be a representation: it has turned to the government. It independently ruled, judged, minted a coin, fought. It was a united France: head and hand at the same time. This collective dictatorship had the advantage over the dictatorship of one person that it was invulnerable and could not be interrupted or destroyed by a blow of a dagger. From now on, they stopped arguing, but began to act. The disappearance of the Girondins robbed the revolution of its voice. The meetings passed almost in silence. Silence reigned in the Convention, broken only by the steps of the battalions passing behind the fence, the volleys of the vestibule cannon and the blows of the guillotine's ax on Revolution Square.
Political history has treated the Girondins differently. According to Michelet, they reduced politics to the concept of "wait", and the revolution could not wait. According to Mathiez, having started, they were not able to complete what they started: they declared war abroad, but failed to defeat the enemy; exposed the king, but did not dare to eliminate him; they demanded a republic, but failed to manage it - and so it is in everything. And even the romantic poet Lamartine, who sang the Gironde, denied his heroes political intuition: “They made a revolution without understanding it; they ruled without understanding how it should be done.” But Charlotte Corday was far from the intricacies of politics: she was prompted to act by a heart consumed by the fire of republican virtues. Probably, if at that time she had found her other half, if love had flared up in her heart for someone who could have been the happiness of her whole life, perhaps she would not have done what she was destined to do. It remains only to assert, together with Lamartine, that “the passion that she would have had for one person, she transferred to the fatherland. She became more and more immersed in daydreams, seeking what service she could render to mankind. The thirst to sacrifice herself turned into madness, passion or virtue in her. Even if this sacrifice was supposed to be bloody, she still decided to make it. She has reached such a desperate state of mind that she destroys personal happiness not for the sake of glory and ambition, but for the sake of freedom and humanity. All she needed was a chance; she was waiting for him, and it seemed to her that he was already close.
Perhaps the fateful event was the execution of the priest Gombo, who at one time took the last breath of his mother Charlotte. Perhaps the reason was the appeals of the Girondins pasted around the city: “To arms, citizens! The supreme power of the people has been insulted, it is about to pass into the hands of vile conspirators, thirsty for gold and blood. To arms, or tomorrow all departments will become tributaries of Paris!”, “French, get up and go to Paris!” And their speeches, where Marat was most often called the culprit of all disasters. And Charlotte, along with others, listened to the speakers who called to stop the Beast, rushing to the dictatorial chair, which, by its mere existence, “dishonors the human race.” Charlotte Corday is credited with the phrase: "No, Marat will never rule France, even if we don't have a single man left!" Charlotte is said to have wept at times, and when asked why she wept, she replied, “I weep over France. As long as Marat is alive, who can be sure that she will live?

Crime and Punishment

Without telling anyone about her plan, Charlotte went to Paris, where she arrived on July 11, 1793. She was staying at a hotel; answering the hostess's question about how long she was going to live in the capital, Charlotte replied: "Five days." Where did she get this number from? It is unlikely that she could accurately calculate how long it would take her to find Marat in an unfamiliar city. Probably, she just felt that her strength would run out further. She did not think about the way back, for she knew that she would not have one. At first, she thought to go straight to the Tuileries, where the Convention met, but did not go, because she learned from the hostess that Marat had not left home for almost a month due to an exacerbated skin disease. Because of the disgusting scabs that covered his body, the Friend of the People practically did not get out of the boot-shaped copper bathtub, across which lay a wide, smooth board, which he used as a desk. On this board, he made his newspaper, where he called on the people to increase vigilance and mercilessly cut off the heads of the conspirators. Delegations have already come to him, and he told them: “My only desire is to be able to say with my last breath: “The Fatherland is saved.” The same words will be heard at the trial of the murder of citizen Marat by citizen Charlotte Corday. So, perhaps the chronicler of revolutionary Paris, Retief de La Breton, was right when he wrote: “If she had known him better, she would certainly have loved him”? ..
Paris did not interest Charlotte. The nature is whole and concentrated, she could not afford to be distracted by trifles, and everything that was not directly related to the purpose of her arrival now had no meaning for her, for she concentrated all her thoughts, all her strength on one thing: she must repeat feat of Brutus. And so that the blow that she was about to inflict would turn only against herself, and not against unsuspecting relatives and friends, she wrote “Appeal to the French, friends of laws and peace”: everyone should have known for sure: she herself, alone, without devoting anyone to her plans, she decided to kill the monster.
On the morning of July 13, Charlotte bought a knife from a hardware store in the gardens of the Palais Royal, and in the evening of the same day she plunged it into Marat's chest. About how she twice (or still three times?) came to Marat, no matter how neither the concierge nor Marat’s wife “before the Sun”, as Simone Evrard could call herself, did not let her into the apartment, how she had to come up with a conspiracy about which she allegedly wanted to tell the Friend of the People, many pages were written, including by contemporaries. But what feelings overwhelmed Charlotte when she was left alone with the formidable Marat and it was time to use the dagger of Brutus, no one knows. Who was Charlotte amazed when, drawing a knife from her bodice, she plunged it up to the hilt into the sunken chest of a man sitting in a bath? Deputy Jean Paul Marat? A paranoid journalist who called for killing? A disgusting monster ready to devour all of France?
Perhaps when she struck, she closed her eyes. Perhaps, in fright, pulling the dagger from Marat's hollow chest, she felt the consciousness of a duty fulfilled. Hard to say. But if Charlotte felt like a murderer, a criminal, she would probably look for a way out, jump out the window and run away before they started looking for her. But the great Corneille said: "He who justly takes revenge cannot be punished." And she stepped out into the corridor with a firm step.
Before the arrival of the police commissioner, a real hell was going on around Charlotte: screams, lamentations, curses against the killer, swearing. Bloody streams flowed from the bathroom; people were dragging soaked scraps of newspaper sheets on the soles of their shoes. The National Guardsmen could hardly hold back the onslaught of the raging women who rushed into the living room to tear the villain to shreds. Probably for the first time in her life, the laconic and restrained Charlotte found herself in the center of such a volcano of passions, and one can only guess what it cost her to keep the meek expression remembered by her contemporaries. Disheveled, in rumpled and torn clothes, with her hands tied with a rope digging into her skin, she whispered: “Unfortunate people, they demand my death, instead of erecting an altar to me because I saved them from such a monster! ..” “I thought I would die right away; courageous people and, indeed, worthy of all praise, protected me from the understandable fury of those unfortunate people whom I deprived of their idol. Since I did not lose my composure, it was bitter for me to hear the cries of some women, but the one who decided to save the fatherland will not reckon with the price, ”she writes in prison.
Charlotte's imprisonment did not last long, the process was quick, and the sentence was predetermined. On July 17, at half past seven in the evening, at the hour when she stabbed Marat, her head, cut off by the blade of the "national razor", fell on the scaffold, and the executioner's assistant grabbed her and slapped her. As if sensing an insult to her modesty, Charlotte's head turned red, and an indignant murmur swept through the rows of spectators.
The body of Charlotte Corday was taken to the Madeleine cemetery and lowered into ditch No. 5, between ditches No. 4, where the body of Louis XVI rested, and No. 6, where the body of the Duke of Orleans, who was trying to adapt to the revolution and even took the name of Egalite, would soon be thrown, " Equality". During the Restoration, the cemetery will be liquidated and the remains of the people buried there will be lost in the rapidly building Paris.
The cult of Marat, which began with his magnificent theatrical burial, has also gone down in history. On February 26, 1795, the bust of Marat was thrown out of the Pantheon into the sewer, and his remains - as unclaimed - were buried in a lead coffin in a cemetery near the Pantheon. During the reconstruction of the quarters adjacent to the Pantheon, the cemetery was liquidated. “There is often only one step from greatness to fall,” Voltaire wrote in Charlotte Corday’s beloved play “The Death of Caesar.”
Beauty and the Beast burned in a single flame of all-consuming love for a bright ideal.

It is hard to imagine that this woman in a snow-white cap with satin ribbons and a peaceful expression (virtue itself!) Is in fact a well-known rebel, a revolutionary who became famous not for her speeches and speculative treatises, but above all bloody murder Marat. She would fit perfectly into the pastoral landscape as some ruddy shepherdess surrounded by fluffy sheep - a sort of embodiment of Rousseauist ideas. But the great granddaughter of the great Corneille was destined for another place in history, which to this day causes fierce debate.

Some say that Charlotte Corday is just another exaggerated figure from a small circle of conspirators, others consider her almost the goddess of revenge and admire the courage of her act. The image of Charlotte is covered with a scab of mythologems, so it is impossible to figure out which of this is false and which is true. However, this happens with any historical person who, for some, appears exclusively in a heroic light, and for some, it necessarily becomes enemy No. 1.

But the uniqueness of Korday lies in the fact that she turned from an unremarkable poor noblewoman into an odious figure in just a split second. Her bloody trail in history (in general, insignificant compared to the "exploits" of her victim: Marat called for chopping heads left and right) inspired writers, playwrights, publicists. So it is not possible to leave such a person on the sidelines of attention even now ...

The formation of character

Charlotte Corday was born into the family of a landless Norman nobleman, d'Armont. The girl lost her mother early and after her death was given to the monastery of Our Lady in Cana. There, little Charlotte indulged in her favorite pastime - reading books. Corday was brought up not only on religious writings, but also on the ideals of antiquity and the Enlightenment. Eyewitnesses say that since childhood she was "merciless to herself" and insensitive to pain. True or another posthumous myth? This we will never know.

“There is nothing feminine in the character of Charlotte Corday, and perhaps nothing human. This is a moral geometry that is incomprehensible to us because we are not accustomed to approaching people with the idea of ​​perfection. geometric shapes. She was 25 years old. Her whole life, except for one week, does not matter.<…>This girl tracked down and stabbed a "friend of the people" in the bath in the same cold-blooded way as the old experienced hunter stalks and beats in the woods dangerous beast”, Mark Aldanov wrote about her.

But the time was not easy then: anti-clerical tendencies prevailed, the monastery was closed, and young Charlotte returned to her father in 1791. After wandering, they settled with her second cousin Madame de Betville. They say that even then the character of Charlotte manifested itself in full. Korday, unlike other girls of puberty, did not show the slightest attention to the representatives of the opposite sex. The girl was still immersed in reading, however, now she switched from novels to political pamphlets. And once Charlotte even refused to drink for the king, explaining that, of course, she did not doubt his virtue, but “he is weak, and a weak king cannot be kind, because he does not have enough strength to prevent the misfortunes of his people.” After the execution of Louis XVI, Charlotte completely lost her peace, desperately mourning the fate of all of France.

Path of War

In June 1793, the opposition Girondins arrived in Caen, to whom Charlotte joined with a petition for a monastic friend who had lost her pension. The choice has been made. The girlfriend was the perfect excuse for a trip to Paris. Corday received a letter of recommendation for Deputy Deperret and political pamphlets. This young lady left her parents' home and neglected the happiness of marriage and motherhood for the sake of struggle: there was no turning back. Brave Charlotte took risks (the Girondins were declared traitors to the Motherland), but, according to her philosophy, the game was worth the candle.

See Paris and die

Corday arrived in Paris on July 11, 1793, she stayed at the Providence Hotel and was already unshakable in her decision: Marat, who drowned France in blood, must die. It is not difficult to guess that Charlotte herself was well aware that she had already taken the first step to the scaffold.

“In order to ensure the preservation of his life, a person has the right to encroach on property, on freedom, even on the life of his own kind. To rid himself of oppression, he has the right to suppress, enslave, kill. In order to secure his own happiness, he has the right to do whatever he wants, and whatever the damage he inflicts on others, he considers only his own interests, yielding to the irresistible inclination put into his soul by his creator.- wrote Marat, calling for lawlessness and violence. The lower classes of society were delighted, the thirst for blood and revenge blinded, leaving no room for common sense. Familiar, isn't it?

Charlotte met with Deperret, but the petition for a friend was unsuccessful; moreover, the position of the disgraced deputy was extremely dangerous, but under no circumstances did he want to leave Paris. In the end, he was also arrested.

blood bath

Corday bought a kitchen knife from one of the shops in the Palais Royal: the murder weapon was chosen. The most important thing remained - to make retribution. Charlotte vainly sought an audience with Marat for 2 days: his common-law wife carefully guarded the peace of her disfigured beloved (Marat, already unattractive in appearance, suffered from a skin disease). "Friend of the People" lived at 30 Cordelier Street - everyone knew that. In the end, Charlotte by cunning (she was supposed to report on the plot being prepared) entered his home. Marat was in his bath - in the water he found at least some relief from physical torment. There he also wrote his compositions, urging the excited crowd to punish offenders and destroy everything around in the name of justice. After Marat once again said that he was guillotining the remaining Girondins, Charlotte calmly stuck a knife in his heart.

Execution of the Canian virgin

She was caught right away. The enraged crowd raged and longed to commit lynching right on the spot. But Corday was placed in a cell and tried according to the laws of that time. Her passionate aphoristic statements are known to this day.

- Who inspired you so much hatred?

I didn't need someone else's hatred, I had enough of my own.

- Do you really think that they killed all the Marats?

- This one is dead, and others, perhaps, will be frightened.

Korday was convicted (unanimous jury verdict: guilty) and executed 4 days later.

… Her act is really difficult to assess in terms of morality. After all, Korday repaid the executioner with the same coin, without opposing anything in return. But is dialogue with the killer possible? Did Korday have another way out? These questions haunt us to this day. But the murder of Marat, of course, did not stop: other tortures and executions followed, because it is impossible to exterminate all tyrants.

But Korday went down in history one way and nothing else, becoming a legend in a few days. Is this glory good? It is unlikely that anyone will be able to unequivocally answer such a question.

* Corday was placed in the cell where the revolutionary Jeanne Manon Rolland had previously been. And then it contained Jacques-Pierre Brissot.

* In anticipation of the execution, Corday posed for the artist.

* Charlotte refused to confess.

* It is said that the executioner Korday slapped her severed head, thereby outraging the crowd.

* Admirers of Marat compared Korday with Herostratus: they considered her an insignificant nature, who wished to become famous in a similar destructive way.

* Mainz MP Adam Lux, who compared Charlotte to Brutus and Cato, was executed for "insulting a sovereign people."

* The poem "Dagger" by A.S. Pushkin is dedicated to Charlotte Corday.

* In 2007, Henri Elman made a film about Korda. main role Belgian actress Emily Decienne played in it.

Valeria Mukhoedova