The Woman Who Killed Marat, and Why the Court Wouldn't Believe She Acted Alone
Corday had written her declaration before the assassination, and after her arrest she insisted she acted alone — yet the revolutionary tribunal kept pressing her about the "chain of conspiracy." They could not imagine that provincials thought Marat a monster.
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The assassination declaration was written before the act
When Corday was arrested she was carrying a declaration titled "To the Friends of Law and Peace in France." In it she named Marat as "the most vile scoundrel," said he "has been condemned by the universe, and therefore is outside the law," and called on the French to "rise. Strike. Strike." This text was not a post-hoc defense; it was written before the act — she did not want to escape, she wanted her death to become a rallying point.
Marat was the first modern populist
Keith Michael Baker's new biography positions Marat as the first modern populist. His formula included: constantly invoking the capitalized "People," claiming the people are at every moment in danger of being betrayed by appeasers and traitors; an obsession with conspiracy theories, explicitly stating his goal was to keep readers "perpetually on their guard," lest they be dragged into the abyss by royalists, priests and the like. The show points out that this "wake up, sheep" language is used by both left and right today.
Paper-money inflation pushed the poor into the streets
In early 1793 France had successive poor harvests, the national grain market collapsed, and the government, lacking money for war, could only print paper money, the assignat, with about four billion in circulation. This caused severe inflation, bread and sugar prices soared, protests occurred almost daily in the markets, and women's marches appeared in the streets of Paris. The show stresses: these were the same conditions that had originally sparked the Revolution and the storming of the Bastille, and the poor would think, "The Revolution happened, yet life hasn't improved, so someone must be scheming."
The commander's defection confirmed the conspiracy theories
On 8 March 1793 the Austrians counterattacked and decisively defeated Dumouriez at Neerwinden, forcing him to withdraw from Belgium and Holland. He wanted to emulate Sulla and march on Paris as a military dictator, asking his subordinates, "Shall we march on Paris?" They said no. On 5 April he rode over to the Austrian lines, taking with him a number of senior officers, including the future French king Louis Philippe. A volunteer wrote to his mother: "Whom can we trust now?"
The Terror machine was improvised
The show stresses that the key institutions of the Terror had no blueprint, no plan; they were built as they went along, and only in retrospect did they assemble into a machine — and many who helped build it were eventually swallowed by it. On 10 March the Revolutionary Tribunal was established to try political crimes, with death sentences to be carried out within 24 hours and no right of appeal, located in the Palais de Justice in Paris, with the existing Conciergerie prison in its basement. Danton said: "Let us be terrible, so that the people need not be."
The Girondins used new rules to strike back at Marat, and it backfired
Having just abolished parliamentary immunity, the Girondins, taking advantage of the many deputies away on provincial missions, indicted Marat on 14 April, accusing him of inciting insurrection. Marat first went into hiding for three days, then, finding that Parisian street opinion was on his side, turned himself in for trial. On 24 April the trial opened at the Palais de Justice; the chief prosecutor, Fuquietanville, was a Montagnard supporter and allowed Marat a long self-defense. The ten-man jury acquitted him within hours, and Marat was carried back to the National Convention by some 800 people, crowned with roses, shouting "vive la république, vive Marat." For the Girondins it was a complete humiliation.
Corday buys a knife: a 15 cm black-handled kitchen knife
Around eight in the morning on 13 July, Charlotte Corday left her hotel, walked to the Palais-Royal arcades, bought a newspaper (which said the Convention would likely sentence the imprisoned Girondin deputies to death), and bought a black Paris hat with a green ribbon, replacing the white Norman-style hat. She entered a cutlery shop called Le Coutelier Badin and bought a kitchen knife with a black handle and a blade about 15 cm long. Between 11:30 a.m. and noon she took a carriage to Marat's home on the rue des Cordeliers, but lacking an appointment, she was turned away by Marat's sister-in-law.
The court did not believe a woman could act alone
Corday was arrested on the spot; one of her interrogators was Jean-Baptiste Drouet, the postmaster who had recognized Louis XVI's flight at Varennes. From the start she said she had acted alone. But the revolutionary tribunal repeatedly interrogated her about the "chain of conspiracy," convinced she must be part of a Girondin plot. The interrogator Montané said: impossible, because you say Marat is the source of all France's woes, yet Marat is precisely the one who never stopped exposing traitors and conspirators, so someone must have lied to you. Corday replied: you are mad; only in Paris do people see Marat, in the provinces he is taken for a monster. The court could not imagine that provincials would think Marat a bad man.
In their own words · checked verbatim
Condemned by the universe, he is outside the law. What court will judge me?
Frenchman, I have shown you the way. You know your enemies. Rise up. Strike. Strike.
i think that if there is a lesson of french history it is that when you hear a toxin ringing out over paris story ecstatic you probably better go and hide in a cellar
you're mad. It is only in Paris that people have eyes for Marat. In the other departments, he is regarded as a monster.
Their Jesus was but a false prophet. But Mara is a god. Long live the heart of Mara.
Figures
| Date of Corday's arrest | 13 July 1793 | 0:00 |
| Corday's age | 24 | 0:00 |
| Year Marat was born | 1743 | 4:18 |
| Amount of assignats in circulation | about four billion | 21:57 |
| Number of Girondins suspended and placed under house arrest | 29 | 51:59 |
| Length of the kitchen knife blade Corday bought | about 15 cm | 1:04:31 |
| Number of Girondin names Corday read out to Marat | 18 | 1:07:46 |
| Length of Corday's trial | 6 hours | 1:12:53 |
Glossary
- assignat
- Paper money issued during the French Revolution, backed by confiscated church property, later severely devalued by overissue.
- sans-culottes
- Radical common people of Paris during the French Revolution, named for not wearing aristocratic knee breeches.
- conciergerie
- The old prison inside the Palais de Justice in Paris, where many awaiting trial were held during the Terror.
- federalist revolts
- Armed uprisings in 1793 by provincial cities against the centralizing Montagnard power in Paris, led mainly by merchants and the middle class.
How to listen
Listeners interested in the French Revolution, the origins of the Terror, and the mechanics of political violence; readers who want to understand how populist language and revolutionary institutions get improvised.
The last two minutes are a trailer for another podcast, with no historical content, and can be skipped.