Early life Born at
Évreux,
Eure, Buzot studied
Law, and, at the outbreak of the Revolution was a
lawyer in his home town. In 1789, he
was elected a deputy of the
Third Estate to the
Estates-General, and became known there for his radical opinions. He demanded the
nationalization of the possessions of the
Roman Catholic Church, and the
right of all citizens to bear arms. After the dissolution of the
National Constituent Assembly, Buzot returned to Évreux, where he was named president of the criminal tribunal.
Convention In 1792, Buzot was elected deputy to the
National Convention, and joined the
Girondists under the influence of his friend
Madame Roland. Buzot entered a polemic with the main rival of the Girondists,
Jean-Paul Marat, and demanded the formation of a
National Guard from the
départements to defend the Convention against the Paris crowds of
sans-culottes. His proposal was carried, but never put into force - the Parisians subsequently singled him out as a target of their hatred. In the trial of
King Louis XVI, Buzot voted in favour of the
capital punishment death, but with
appeal to the people and postponement of sentence (
sursis). He had a sentence of death passed against the
Royalist émigrés who did not return to France, and against anyone who should demand the re-establishment of the monarchy.
Flight and resistance Proscribed with the Girondists on 2 June 1793, Buzot escaped, and took refuge to
Calvados in
Normandy, where he contributed to organize a Girondist
insurrection against the convention, which was suppressed soon after. It is unclear whether the men used poison or shot themselves with a pistol, which is likely due to the decomposed state in which their bodies were found. Buzot's house in Evreux was purposefully burnt to the ground, plus an effigy of Buzot, by a crowd on 27 July 1793. Buzot left behind his
Memoirs, first published in 1823. ==References==