Marie-Anne Charlotte de Corday d'Armont was a female supporter of the Girondins party and an assassin. Charlotte was born in Normandy. Her parents were minor members of the aristocratic class. After her mother's death, her father sent his remaining children and Charlotte to an abbey, the Abbaye aux Dames, in Caen, Normandy. There Charlotte had access to the writings of Plutarch, Rousseau and Voltaire. Charlotte was educated at the Abbey and probably lived there until 1791 when she began living with her cousin Madame Le Coustellier de Bretteville-Gouville in Caen. Charlotte identified with the Girondin party, which was less radical and did not agree with the way the Revolution was evolving. Charlotte became very influenced by Girondin speakers and leaders. This influence would lead to Charlotte's plan to murder Jean-Paul Marat.
Marat was a journalist and major leader of the radical Jacobins, who implemented the Reign of Terror. Charlotte, at only 24 years old, left her home in Caen and traveled to Paris. She believed that Marat and his writings were influencing the people in a bad way and were contributing to the violence in the city and throughout the country. Charlotte rented a room and bought a kitchen knife. She wrote letters explaining her motives, Charlotte knew she was going to die for her actions and she accepted that her end would come from this plan. Initially, she had planned to kill Marat in public since she had heard that he often went to the National convention to attend meetings. She later discovered that he was at his home, suffering from a skin condition he had picked up while hiding in the Parisian sewers.
Charlotte went to Marat's home on the 13th of July, 1793. She asked to speak with him twice before being admitted in the evening. Marat was famously in his bathtub, soaking his putrifing sores. Charlotte had only been allowed to visit because she was going to give him the names of some of her Girondin friends. After telling Marat the names of her fellow Girondins, Charlotte stabbed him through his chest and straight through his heart with her kitchen knife. Charlotte was arrested and put on trial for the assassination of Marat. She testified that she alone had planned the murder. She was sentenced to die by the guillotine like so many other people during the Terror. On the 17th of July, Charlotte's hair was chopped off, she was loaded onto a tumbrel with several other people, and brought to the place of execution. Charlotte was probably wearing a red dress, symbolizing that she was being executed for murder. Charlotte was a heroine for willingly giving her life by ". . . [killing] one man to save a hundred thousand" from the Reign of Terror.
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