He practised as a lawyer at Chalons-sur-Marne until 1789, when he was elected to the States-General. He became secretary to the Assembly, and the violence of his attacks on the ancien régime won him the nickname of "Crieur de la Marne." In 1791 he became vice-president of the criminal tribunal of Paris. Re-elected to the Convention, he was sent to Normandy, where he directed bitter reprisals against the Federalists.
He voted for the death of Louis XVI, and as a member of the committees of national defence and of Public Safety he was despatched in October 1793 to Brittany, where he established the Terror. In May 1794 he became president of the Convention. The counter-revolutionaries drove him into hiding from May 1795 until the amnesty proclaimed in the autumn of that year. He took no part in public affairs under the Directory, the Consulate or the Empire, and in 1816 was banished as a regicide. He died in Brussels.
Reference
This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica - please update as needed