22 Thermidor
An CCXXXIV
Madame Roland
Manon Roland was curious and unconventional from an early age. At eleven, she voluntarily spent a year in a convent – not out of piety, but out of longing for a greater and different life. She married Jean-Marie Roland, who was much older than she was. He became Minister of the Interior. But she wrote his texts and shaped his politics. Her Paris salon became a meeting place for moderate republicans. Madame Roland was the soul of the Girondins. But when the king was overthrown and the Republic became reality, radicalization continued. Manon refused to go along – and that became her death sentence. On 8 November 1793, she died under the guillotine. Her husband had managed to escape beforehand. When he heard of his wife’s death, he killed himself.
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1754 - 1793
- March 17, 1754 · Jeanne Marie Phlipon (called Manon) is born in Paris, the daughter of an engraver.
- May 1765 · She voluntarily enters a convent in Saint-Michel, where she lives for a year.
- June 1775 · Her mother dies. Manon now takes care of her father’s household.
- February 1780 · She marries Jean-Marie Roland, who is twenty years older than she.
- October 1781 · Birth of her daughter Eudora.
- 1789 · Madame Roland publishes articles under her husband’s name in the Courrier de Lyon, supporting the Revolution. Later she also writes for the Patriote Français, edited in Paris by Brissot.
- 1791 · She opens a political salon in Paris that quickly becomes well known. Among its guests are Brissot, Pétion and Robespierre.
- March 1792 · Jean-Marie Roland becomes Minister of the Interior. Manon handles much of his correspondence and advises him on political matters. Her salon grows increasingly influential.
- June 10, 1792 · Because of the publication of a protest letter against the king, Minister Roland is dismissed.
- August 1792 · After the fall of the king, Roland regains his office. His wife receives her own office in the ministry.
- September 1792 · The Rolands increasingly criticize the radical policy of the Jacobins and the Montagnards. By sharply condemning the September Massacres, she turns the Parisian sans-culottes against her.
- December 1792 · Manon Roland is heard before the National Convention on accusations of corresponding with émigré aristocrats. The deputies applaud her at length, but the spectators in the galleries remain silent. She no longer feels safe in Paris and leaves her house only with an escort.
- January 23, 1793 · Shortly after the execution of the king, Interior Minister Roland resigns. The couple is forbidden to leave Paris.
- May 31, 1793 · Jean-Marie Roland flees to Rouen. Manon remains in Paris by her own choice.
- June 1, 1793 · Manon Roland is arrested.
- November 8, 1793 · Trial before the Revolutionary Tribunal and death sentence. Manon Roland is guillotined the same evening on the Place de la Révolution in Paris.
- November 10, 1793 · Jean-Marie Roland takes his own life in Rouen.
Quotes
Danton directs everything; and we are merely the oppressed, waiting until we fall as his victims.
Manon Roland, September 1792.
I loved the republic before it existed.
Manon Roland, Memoirs written in prison, 1793.
O Liberty, what crimes are committed in your name!
Last words attributed to Manon Roland on the way to the guillotine, 8 November 1793.
Le Moniteur
Madame Roland before the Revolutionary Tribunal
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