Lucie-Simplice-Camille-Benoit Desmoulins was a French journalist, politician and a prominent figure of the French Revolution.
23 Facts About Camille Desmoulins
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Camille Desmoulins is best known for playing an instrumental role in the events that led to the Storming of the Bastille.
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Camille Desmoulins's agitation sparked widespread unrest in Paris, which culminated in the Storming of the Bastille two days later.
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Camille Desmoulins advocated explicitly in favour of republicanism and revolutionary violence, and mounted relentless attacks on not only the Ancien Regime, but once-sympathetic revolutionary figures such as Jacques Pierre Brissot.
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Camille Desmoulins was born at Guise, in the province of Picardy, northern France.
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Camille Desmoulins's father, Jean Benoit Nicolas Desmoulins, was a lieutenant-general of the bailliage of Guise.
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Camille Desmoulins proved an exceptional student even among such notable contemporaries as Maximilien Robespierre and Louis-Marie Stanislas Freron.
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Camille Desmoulins excelled in the study of Classical Literature and Politics, and gained a particular affinity for Cicero, Tacitus and Livy.
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Camille Desmoulins initially pursued a career in law, and succeeded in gaining acceptance as an advocate in the parliament of Paris in 1785; however, his stammer and lack of connections to the Parisian legal community proved obstacles to success in this arena.
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The Comte de Mirabeau, a powerful political figure within the Estates-General who positioned himself as a bridge between the aristocracy and the emerging reformist movement, briefly enlisted Camille Desmoulins to write for his newspaper at this time, strengthening Camille Desmoulins' reputation as a journalist.
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Camille Desmoulins became notorious, and was able to leave behind the poverty that had marked his previous life in Paris.
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The savagery with which Camille Desmoulins attacked those with whom he disagreed drew lawsuits, criticism, and reciprocal attacks.
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Accounts differ as to whether or not Camille Desmoulins was present at the Champs de Mars; in the subsequent upheaval, warrants for the arrest of himself and Georges Danton were issued.
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Early in 1792, following a bitter quarrel with Jean Pierre Brissot over a legal case which Camille Desmoulins had taken up and discussed in several broadsheets, Camille Desmoulins published a pamphlet, Jean Pierre Brissot demasque, which attacked Brissot savagely and personally.
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Camille Desmoulins was affiliated with The Mountain, and voted for the establishment of the Republic and the execution of Louis XVI.
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Camille Desmoulins assisted in creating the first draft of the Civil Code and pushed for its implementation.
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Camille Desmoulins appealed to Robespierre to help steer these institutions in a more moderate direction.
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Camille Desmoulins used a variety of arguments to support his proposal, including pragmatic arguments and historical analysis, making especially heavy use of parallels to Ancient Rome:.
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Robespierre, initially seeking to protect Camille Desmoulins, suggested as an alternative that the offending issues of the Vieux Cordelier be publicly burnt.
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Camille Desmoulins struggled and tried to plead with the mob, ripping his shirt in the process.
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Camille Desmoulins married Zoe Villefranche and they had four children.
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Camille Desmoulins was later pensioned by the French government, and died in 1825 in Haiti.
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Camille Desmoulins is among the central characters in the following works of fiction:.