chambers_search-1

Search Chambers

Consult Chambers 21st Century Dictionary, The Chambers Thesaurus (1996) or Chambers Biographical Dictionary (1997 edition with amendments). Enter your search and choose your title from the drop-down menu.

Corday, Charlotte, properly Marie Charlotte Corday d'Armont 1768-93
French noblewoman

She was born in St Saturnin. Despite her aristocratic background she welcomed the Revolution at first, but was then so horrified by the behaviour of the Jacobins that she resolved to kill either Robespierre or Jean Paul Marat. After hearing of Marat's demand for 200,000 more victims, she entered his house in Paris by pretending to be a messenger. Marat was having a bath, and his heartless comment about the fugitive Girondins ('I will have them all guillotined at Paris') incited her to stab him to death. Unrepentant, she was brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal and guillotined four days later.

Bibliography: Jacqueline Dauxois, Charlotte Corday (1988)