French revolutionary, born in Grenoble, E France. He studied law, and became a member of the new National Assembly (1789), where he established a reputation as an orator, and helped to carry through the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. He brought back the royal family from their abortive flight to Varennes (1791), but subsequently developed royalist sympathies, advocated a constitutional monarchy, and was guillotined.
Antoine Pierre Joseph Marie Barnave (October 22, 1761—November 29, 1793), was a French politician, and, together with Honoré Mirabeau, the most influential orators of the French Revolution.
In Dauphiné
He was born at Grenoble in Dauphiné, of a Protestant family. Barnave was prepared for a career in law, and at the age of twenty-two made himself known by a speech pronounced before the local Parlement on the division of political powers.
Dauphiné was one of the first of the provinces of France to be touched by the revolutionary ideals, and Barnave was one of the first to give voice to the general feeling, in a pamphlet entitled Esprit des édüs enregistrés militairement le 20 mai 1788.
States-General and Assemblies
A few months later he became better known, when the States-General were convoked at the Palace of Versailles for May 5, 1789, and Barnave was chosen deputy of the Third Estate for his native province.
He soon rose to prominence in the National Assembly, becoming the friend of most of the leaders of the party originating in the Third Estate, and formed with Adrien Duport and Alexandre Lameth the group known during the Constituent Assembly as "the triumvirate". He took part in the conference on the claims of the three orders, drew up the first address to King Louis XVI, and supported the proposal of Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès that the Assembly should declare itself "National".
Views
Although a partisan of political freedoms, he hoped to preserve revolutionary liberties together while maintaining the ruling House of Bourbon.
His conflict with Mirabeau on the question of assigning to the King the right to make peace or war (from May 16 to 23, 1791) was one of the main episodes of the Assembly's mandate. About the close of October 1790, Barnave was called to the presidency of the Assembly.
Downfall and execution
On the arrest of the king and the royal family during the Flight to Varennes, Barnave was one of the three appointed to conduct them back to Paris.
Barnave led the Feuillants out of the Jacobin Club in early 1791, and their faction entered a conflict with the Girondists after they opposed war with Habsburgs, and were driven out of the Assembly.
He was denounced (August 15, 1792) in the Legislative Assembly, arrested and imprisoned for ten months at Grenoble, then transferred to Fort Barraux, and in November 1793 to Paris (during the Reign of Terror).
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