"Fellow women citizens, why should we not enter into rivalry with the men? Do they alone lay claim to have rights to glory; no, no . . . And we too would wish to earn a civic crown and court the honor of dying for a liberty which is dearer perhaps to us than it is to them, since the effects of despotism weigh still more heavily upon our heads than upon theirs. . . . let us open a list of French Amazons; and let all who truly love their Fatherland write their names there."
-- Théroigne de Méricourt
No one who knew the
young Anne-Josèphe Théroigne would have predicted her career
as a revolutionary. Bright and beautiful, she shook off the dust of her
Belgian village early and made straight for a dissolute life among the
demi-monde.
She
traveled to England, and spent time in Rome, always as the mistress of
some gentleman. When the French Revolution began, she rushed back
to Paris. Were her peasant roots calling her back to address the oppression
of her class? We may never know, but one thing is certain: at that
moment she abandoned her old life and became a leader among the female
contingent of the movement.
Théroigne
de Méricourt, as she was soon styled, was a dramatic figure. She
wore a man's riding habit, complete with a dashing red jacket. Always in
the forefront of the crowd, she made a number of public speeches urging
her fellow Citizenesses to arm themselves and join the men on the battlements.
She also organized a women's club dedicated to the proposition that women
should have the vote in the new Republic, and be equal to the men.
This was viewed as a problem by many of the male leaders. In many
opinions, revolutionary women still belonged in the kitchen cooking
for their brave men. Théroigne refused to be silent, and as a result,
was marginalized. She was imprisoned twice (by different parties), and
once had to flee back to Belgium. But she kept right on -- writing
when it was not safe to speak publicly.
In 1792, as
the revolutionaries began to turn on each other, she aligned herself with
the relatively moderate Girondins. Big mistake. In May of 1793, the
Girondists were thrown out. Théroigne was cornered by a mob
of Jacobin women who beat her and stripped her naked. She never recovered
from this blow. Some biographers state that the humiliation broke her mind.
Others opine that she probably had syphilis. At least one claims that she
was probably manic all along, her condition disguised by the general mania
of the revolution. Whatever the cause, Théroigne became increasingly
paranoid. She was eventually committed to an insane asylum,
and stayed there for the rest of her life. Historians often used
her life as a metaphor for the revolution, because it began so brightly
and burned itself out so completely.
A plethora of French Revolution Links.
