Jean-Paul Marat

Jean-Paul Marat (UK: , US: ; French: [ʒɑ̃pɔl maʁa]; born Mara; 24 May 1743 – 13 July 1793) was a French scientist, physician, political theorist, journalist, and politician. Before the French Revolution, he pursued a career in medicine and science and spent more than ten years abroad. He published works on subjects including optics, electricity, political theory, and criminal law. During the Revolution he became one of its most prolific, radical and controversial journalists. Through his newspaper L'Ami du peuple (The Friend of the People), Marat responded rapidly to political events but also publicized complaints and grievances brought to him by ordinary citizens, presenting himself as their advocate against officials and others whom he accused of injustice or abuse.

Marat became closely associated with the sans-culottes and the radical politics of Paris. Unable to find printers willing to publish some of his more controversial writings, he established his own printing press and continued to publish despite repeated attempts by the authorities to suppress his newspaper, spending periods in hiding.

Marat was elected to the National Convention in September 1792 and aligned with the Montagnards in their struggle against the Girondins. His journalism became notorious for increasingly violent calls for the punishment and sometimes the pre-emptive killing of those he regarded as enemies of the Revolution. Marat repeatedly justified such violence as a means of preventing greater bloodshed. His writings and political activity have consequently remained central to debates about political violence during the Revolution, including the September Massacres.

In early June 1793, he played an active part in the conflict that culminated in the fall of the Girondins. On 13 July 1793, Marat was assassinated by Charlotte Corday, a Girondin sympathizer, while taking a bath to alleviate a debilitating skin condition.

Marat's assassination transformed his political image. Jacques-Louis David took a leading role in organizing his funeral ceremonies, while popular societies, the sections of Paris, and the Montagnards increasingly represented him as the murdered Ami du peuple and as a martyr of the Revolution. His remains were transferred to the Panthéon in September 1794, but during the Thermidorian Reaction his public cult rapidly collapsed and he was removed from the Panthéon in February 1795.