Born: 17 March 1754, France
Died: 8 November 1793
Country most active: France
Also known as: Marie-Jeanne ‘Manon’ Roland de la Platière, Marie-Jeanne Phlipon
From Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. Written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company:
Madame Roland, a French patriot. Marie Jeanne Philpon was born in Paris; her father was an engraver of some talent, her mother a woman of fine qualities, and to whom Marie was deeply attached.
At an early age the child gave evidence of exceptional brain by the wide extent of her reading, which included Plutarch, Greek and Latin Classics, and the French philosophers. In the midst of her youthful studies she heard the sound of the muttering thunder which preceded the great storm of the French Revolution, and the condition of the people occupied her thoughts more and more, as she noted the violent contrast of their miserable poverty to the state and magnificence of their rulers.
In 1779 she married M. Roland, a manufacturer of Lyons, and her life was uneventful until the Revolution broke out ten years later. M. Roland, who held an important government position in Lyons was summoned to Paris to aid the National Assembly, and from that moment Madame Roland began to play a leading part in the drama. Her powers of thought, her clear sight, her vigorous speech, made her a valuable partisan, while her freedom from mere party instincts, her love of the people, and her high moral tone made her the ideal of the purer revolutionary spirit.
Events moved rapidly on, a new Assembly was formed, conspicuous in which were a little band of ardent men, the Girondists, full of zeal for a free Republic, but determined to achieve it by worthy means and to keep clear of violence and bloodshed. With these high-minded men the Rolands threw in their lot, and Madame Roland became the leading spirit of the party. But lofty ideals of the Girondists which might have saved the Republic could not check the approaching Reign of Terror.
Soon after the king and queen were sent to the scaffold, the leading Girondists were placed under arrest, but M. Roland, assisted by his wife, managed to escape. Madame Roland, thinking herself in no immediate danger, and having the care of their daughter, intended to follow later. The next morning she was arrested, and thrown into one of the lowest and most sordid of the prisons. Yet she kept a brave heart, refusing to attempt an escape which was offered by the kindness of her jailer, for fear of inciting her enemies to greater zeal in the pursuit of her husband.
It was while she lay in prison that Marat was killed by the hand of Charlotte Corday, and this hastened the end of the twenty-one Girondist chiefs who were in captivity. The death-sentence was pronounced on them, and they were led to the scaffold singing the Song of Liberty with their last breath.
A few days later, at a trial which was but a parody of justice, Madame Roland was declared guilty. She received her sentence with the utmost calmness, saying, “You consider me worthy to share the fate of the great men whom you have assassinated; I shall try to carry to the scaffold the courage they have shown.”
The next morning, having mounted the fatal steps cheerfully, she bowed her head to the statue of Liberty which stood near, and said in a firm voice, “O Liberty! what cries are committed in thy name!”
So passed this heroine of the Revolution, the representative of all that was fine and pure and good in that great movement. On learning of her death, her husband died by his own hand.
From Woman: Her Position, Influence and Achievement Throughout the Civilized World. Designed and Arranged by William C. King. Published in 1900 by The King-Richardson Co. Copyright 1903 The King-Richardson Co.:
Martyr of the French Revolution
Marie Jeanne Roland, one of the most conspicuous martyrs of the French revolution, was born at Paris, March 18, 1754. the daughter of an engraver, who had ruined himself by unlucky speculation. From the first an eager and imaginative child, she read everything, even heraldry, and Plutarch made the young idealist a republican for life. At eleven she went, for a year, into a convent to prepare for her first communion, next passed a year with her grandmother, and returned to her father’s house, where she read Buffon, Bossuet, and Helvetius, and at length found her gospel in the writings of Rousseau.
After the death of her admirable mother, in 1775, the girl, solitary and poor, untouched in heart by her many admirers, and cold toward the father through his misconduct, at length, in February, 17S0, married M. Roland, a manufacturer of Lyons. He was over forty, thin, yellowish, careless in dress, abrupt and austere in manners, and unyielding in his virtues, a man whom few would have thought likely to fascinate a young and beautiful woman. In her enthusiasm she overrated his qualities; he proved a selfish, exacting husband; but she buried the latent passions of her heart, and for ten years made herself an admirable wife and mother, with perfect domestic simplicity. Her only child, a daughter, Eudora, was born at Amiens.
The opening of the French revolution drew Madame Roland from the retirement of private life. She accompanied her husband, in 1791, to Paris, whither he had been sent by the city of Lyons to represent it in the States-General. Her beauty, enthusiasm, and eloquence soon exercised a wonderful fascination over her husband’s friends, and added a charm to patriotism that was irresistible. All the famous and ill-fated leaders, Brissot, Petion, Buzot, and at first even Robespierre and Danton, met constantly at her house, and she was a deeply interested observer of all that passed. She had little faith in constitutional monarchy; her aspirations were for a republic, pure, free, and glorious as her ideal.
In March, 1792, Roland became minister of the interior, and in her new and elevated position Madame Roland influenced not only her husband but the entire Girondist party. Dismissed from his post in consequence of his celebrated letter of remonstrance to the king — which letter was, in fact, written by his wife — Roland, upon the downfall of the monarchy, was recalled to the ministry.
This triumph was but short lived. The power which had been set in motion could not be arrested in its fearful course, and the Girondist party fell before the influence of their bloodthirsty opponents. Protesting against the reign of terror, they fell its victims. Both she and her husband drew down upon themselves the hatred of Marat and Danton, and their lives were soon openly threatened. Roland escaped; but Madame Roland was arrested, and thrown into prison. Here, during a confinement of several months, she prepared her memoirs, which have been given to the world.
On November 1, 1793, she was removed to the Conaergerie, and her trial, as a Girondist, commenced. She was condemned to death, and November 5, dressed all in white, her long, black hair hanging down to the girdle, she ascended the fatal cart. Carried with her to the guillotine was a trembling printer of assignats whom she asked Samson to take first to save him the horror of seeing her head fall. “You cannot,” said she, “refuse the last request of a woman.”
It is usually told how, on the point of entering the awful shadows of eternity, she asked for pen and paper to write down the strange thoughts that were rising within her, but Sainte-Beuve thinks it impossible, puerile, untrue to the nature of the heroine, as well as unauthenticated by good contemporary evidence. As she looked up at the statue of Liberty, she exclaimed, “Oh Liberty, how many crimes are committed in thy name!” She died at the age of thirty-nine.
She had often said her husband would not long survive her. Her prediction was fulfilled. A week later, the body of Roland was found seated beneath a tree, on the road to Rouen, stabbed to the heart. A paper affixed to his breast bore these words: “From the moment when I learned that they had murdered my wife I would no longer remain in a world stained with her enemies.”