28 Facts About Albert Laponneraye

Albert Laponneraye was a French republican socialist and journalist, popular historian, educator and an editor of Robespierre's writings.

Albert Laponneraye was a representative of the Neo-Babouvist tendency in the 1840s, along with Richard Lahautiere, Jean-Jacques Pillot and others.

Albert Laponneraye combined Jacobin republicanism with egalitarian communism and anti-clericalism.

Albert Laponneraye was influenced by the doctrines of Philippe Buonarroti and Etienne Cabet.

Albert Laponneraye is viewed as a forerunner of Karl Marx.

Albert Laponneraye's father was Albert Philippe Dulin de la Ponneraye, an aristocrat and legitimist officer who had emigrated from 1791 to 1801.

Albert Laponneraye's mother, Genevieve Delomais, was an unwed peasant girl.

Albert Laponneraye was abandoned at the gates of the Tours orphanage by his parents.

In 1830, Albert Laponneraye took an active part in the July Revolution, which overthrew the Restauration Bourbon king Charles X and replaced him with Louis Philippe, the duke of Orleans.

At Sainte-Pelagie, Albert Laponneraye became one of the leaders of a prison revolt.

Albert Laponneraye was convicted of exciting class hatred and sentenced to a year in prison and a fine of 1000 francs.

Albert Laponneraye had reportedly met her in 1830, after he had written an article in the journal L'Universel protesting against a forgery of Robespierre's memoirs.

In 1832 Albert Laponneraye had several long conversations with Charlotte Robespierre.

Albert Laponneraye was sentenced to three years incarceration and the enormous fine of 3000 francs.

Albert Laponneraye wrote a funeral oration for her which was delivered by a friend.

Charlotte Robespierre left her papers to Albert Laponneraye, including an unfinished manuscript of her memoirs.

Albert Laponneraye often launched ambitious multi-volume projects he could only partially complete.

However, it is noteworthy that Albert Laponneraye, anticipating Marx to some extent, saw class struggles as the driving force of history and interpreted the French Revolution as the result of a class struggle between 'exploiters' and 'exploited'.

In 1836, while still in prison, Albert Laponneraye married Francoise Sebille.

Albert Laponneraye had already made several forays into pamphleteering and journalism.

Albert Laponneraye avoided arrest for a few months, moving from city to city and occasionally spotted by police informers.

Albert Laponneraye was left with a personal debt of 20,566 francs.

Apparently the authorities eventually accepted that Albert Laponneraye had not been involved in the 'Society of the Seasons' plot.

In 1847, Albert Laponneraye published the journal Revue Politique et Commerciale de la Mediterranee; the title suggests that he may have been trying for a broader, more middle-class audience.

In February 1848, the Orleanist monarchy which had so often imprisoned Albert Laponneraye was overthrown and the Second Republic proclaimed.

Albert Laponneraye welcomed it enthusiastically and threw himself into political journalism and organisational work.

Albert Laponneraye contributed to L'Independant and, in October 1848, founded his own journal, La Voix du Peuple, to which his sister Zoe contributed.

Albert Laponneraye was then living in Marseille, where he became president of the local branch of the Solidarite Republicaine.