Barnave, Antoine

(1761-1793)

   revolutionary

   Born in Grenoble, Barnave was a lawyer and member of the estates for the Dauphiné region. In 1789, he was elected to the Third Estate of the Estates General and, at the beginning of the revolution, became spokesman for the liberal bourgeois position. As one of the most brilliant speakers in the National Assembly, he spoke against mirabeau and his defense of royal prerogatives. After the king's failed attempt at escape in 1791, Barnave was charged with returning the monarch to Paris. He then rallied to the constitutional monarchist side and joined the club des feuillants. One of the authors of the Constitution of 1791, Barnave favored a "free and limited" monarchy. Denounced by the Jacobins, he was guillotined during the Terror. As author of an Introduction à la Révolution française (1792, published 1843), Barnave described both the political and the social implications of that event.