Claude François Chauveau-Lagarde

Who was Claude François Chauveau-Lagarde?

Claude François Chauveau-Lagarde came into the public spotlight in the early stages of the French Revolution. he was already a respected lawyer in Paris, when in 1789, when the Estates General were convoked, he published a hopeful Théorie des états généraux ou la France régénérée. Under the Revolution he continued to exercise his profession, now as défenseur officieux, a public defender. His name appears in the lists of civil trials in the collection of Aristide Douarche,. From these one sees that on 16 May 1793 he was the lawyer for general Francisco de Miranda before the revolutionary tribunal, while it still represented a spirit of good will towards the accused; thanks to his effective plea, his client was acquitted, a triumph for the accused and his advocate. However, Jean-Paul Marat denounced Chauveau-Lagarde as a liberator of the guilty. He was entrusted with the defense of Louis-Marie-Florent, duc du Châtelet, Jean-Sylvain Bailly, Madame Roland and Charlotte Corday, who had assassinated Marat. In her case, judgment had been rendered in advance, he was well aware. He limited himself to pleading in her defense "the exaltation of political fanaticism" that had placed the knife in her hand.