Jacobin Club

The Jacobin Club, the most famous of the political clubs of the French Revolution, had its origin in the Club Breton, which formed at Versailles shortly after the opening of the Estates General in 1789.

Origins

It was at first composed exclusively of deputies from Brittany, but was soon joined by others from various parts of France, and counted among its early members Mirabeau, Sieyès, Barnave, Pétion, the Abbé Grégoire, Charles Lameth, Alexandre Lameth, Robespierre, the duc d'Aiguillon, and La Revellière-Lépeaux. It also had an Indian ruler Tipu Sultan among its ranks. At this time its meetings occurred in secret and few traces remain of what took place during them.

Related Topics:
Brittany - France - Mirabeau - Sieyès - Barnave - Pétion - Abbé Grégoire - Charles Lameth - Alexandre Lameth - Robespierre - Duc d'Aiguillon - La Revellière-Lépeaux - Tipu Sultan

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After the émeute of 5 October and 6, 1789, the club, still entirely composed of deputies, followed the National Constituent Assembly to Paris, where it rented the refectory of the monastery of the Jacobins in the Rue St Honoré the seat of the Assembly. The name "Jacobins", given in France to the Dominicans (because their first house in Paris was in the Rue St Jacques), was first applied to the club in ridicule by its enemies. The title assumed by the club itself, after the promulgation of the constitution of 1791, was Société des amis de la constitution séants aux Jacobins a Paris, which was changed on September 21, 1792, after the fall of the monarchy, to Société des Jacobins, amis de la liberté et de l'égalité. It occupied successively the refectory, the library, and the chapel of the monastery.

Related Topics:
5 October - National Constituent Assembly - Paris - Rue St Honoré - Dominican - September 21 - 1792

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