Raoul Vilain

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The Assassination of Jean Jaurès (Lithograph by Camille Ravot, 1915)

Raoul Vilain (1885-1936) was a French nationalist primarily remembered for his assassination of the French socialist leader Jean Jaurès on July 31, 1914 in Montmartre, Paris.

Vilain was a member of the Ligue des jeunes amis de l'Alsace-Lorraine (League of Young Friends of Alsace-Lorraine), a nationalist student group. After France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, the territories of Alsace and Lorraine were handed over to the Germans. This was the cause of much anger and resentment in France and many felt that a new war with Germany was in order to recover both territories and pride.

Therefore many like Vilain opposed to the pacifist policies of Jaurès. At about 21:40 on the evening of Friday July 31, 1914 Vilain fired two fatal bullets through a window into Jaurès' head while his victim was at a meeting in "Le café du croissant" at the corner of Rue Montmartre and Rue du Croissant. Next day posters went up all over France announcing the general mobilization for what would be the First World War.

Incarcerated for the duration of the war, Vilain was brought to trial in 1919. Controversially acquitted on March 29, 1919, he fled to Ibiza in the Balearic Islands, where he was assassinated on March 19, 1936 before the Spanish Civil War by Republicans or by Jean Coryn^[1].

[edit] Notes

^ Isabelle Vilain mentions that Coryn was the assassin "according to one theory", which she does not identify.

[edit] External links

Isabelle Vilain's brief note on three Vilains
Jean Jaurès School project. Ecole Jean Jaurès students created web pages about Jaurès that include a portrait photograph of Vilain, which may not yet be in the public domain.