Antoine Joseph Santerre

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Antoine Joseph Santerre (16 March 1752 – 6 February 1809) was a Republican general during during the French Revolution.

Born in Paris to a family of brewers, his generosity won great popularity in the Faubourg St. Antoine. When the French Revolution erupted in 1789, he was given command of a battalion of the Parisian National Guard and participated in the storming of the Bastille. After the Champ de Mars Massacre on 17 July 1791, a warrant was issued for his arrest and Santerre went into hiding. He emerged again the following year to lead the people of the Faubourg St. Antoine, the eastern units, in the assault on the Tuileries Palace by the Paris mob, which overwhelmed and massacred the Swiss Guard as the royal family fled through the gardens and took refuge with the Legislative Assembly. Louis XVI was officially removed as king soon after.

Santerre was appointed by the National Convention to serve as the jailer of the former king. He notified Louis that the motion had passed for his execution, and the next day, at eight o'clock on a July morning, Santerre arrived at the convicted man's room and said, "Monsieur, it's time to go". He escorted Louis XVI through the some eighty-thousand armed men and countless citizens down the streets of Paris to the guillotine. There are differing accounts of his conduct at the execution itself. According to some, he ordered a drum roll half way through the king's speech in order to drown out his voice. Others say that it was actually General J.F. Berruyer – the man in command of the execution – who ordered the drum roll, and that Santerre only relayed the order. Santerre's family maintained, however, that he actually silenced the drums so that Louis could speak to the people – though there is no proof that this is actually the case.

Santerre was promoted to General of a division of the Parisian National Guard in July of 1793. When the revolts broke out in the Vendée, Santerre took command of a force sent in to put a stop to the rebellions. He was not as successful as a military commander in the field; his first military operation saw the defeat of the Republican forces at Saumur. After the battle, reports circulated that Santerre himself had been killed; the Royalists even composed a humorous epitaph about his death. Nor was Santerre popular among the sans-culottes he commanded. Wounded soldiers returning to Paris reported that he was living in Oriental luxury and complained that their defeat was due either to his treason or his incompetence. Some demanded that he be relieved of his command or even sent to the guillotine. On the other hand, Santerre was not in supreme command, and not considered responsible for the outcome of the war.

In October, Santerre returned to Paris, where his popularity in the Faubourg St. Antoine was undiminished. Nevertheless, his report on this expedition, in which he drew attention to the plight of the Republican army in the Vendée, aroused suspicion. Accused of being a Royalist due to his lack of glory during the battles in the Vendée, he was arrested in April of 1794 and was imprisoned until the fall of Robespierre. Upon his release, he resigned his command and attempted to return to business, but his brewery was ruined. He died in poverty in Paris on 6 February 1809.

[edit] References

David Andress, The Terror: the Merciless War for Freedom in Revolutionary France (2005).
Lynn Hunt, Politics, Culture, and Class in the French Revolution (1984).
David Jordan, The King’s Trial: Louis XVI vs the French Revolution (1979).
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.