Citizen Chauvelin

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Armand Chauvelin (Citoyen Chauvelin in French, Citizen Chauvelin in English) is the villain in Baroness Emmuska Orczy’s classic novel The Scarlet Pimpernel and the various plays and movies derived from the work.

He is cast as Sir Percy's arch-enemy throughout the novel's many sequels and appears in almost all of them. The former ambassador to England (The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Elusive Pimpernel), Chauvelin is both a representative in the National Assembly and the chief agent of the Committee of Public Safety.

Chauvelin is a ruthless, conscienceless patriot who firmly believes that the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel is a threat and a mockery to Revolutionary France, and uses his position incessantly to attempt to destroy or discredit the Pimpernel and his associates. While he is depicted as slight and physically incapable, he is fearless concerning his own safety, except so far as his own incapacity or death might foil his plans.

Although he learns the true identity of the Pimpernel early on, Chauvelin keeps the knowledge to himself, partially because he realises that if the government knew, he would lose his leverage over them as the only man who knows what the Pimernel looks like, and partially because his bitter hatred of Sir Percy has become an obsession and he wishes to be personally responsible for stopping the Pimpernel's interference in French politics.

Orczy shows Chauvelin has a more human side and fills in some background details in the novel Sir Percy Hits Back which features his daughter, Fleurette. Protected from the brutalities of the Revolution, she is unaware of her beloved father's identity as a leading politician. Fleurette's mother is never mentioned, except for the implication that she was not involved in her daughter's upbringing within Fleurette's memory.

Chauvelin's exact marital status, and whether or not he has other children, is unknown. His final brief appearance is in The Triumph of the Scarlet Pimpernel; sometime between then and the events of Mam'zelle Guillotine, he has been executed, presumably by the authorities after the Thermidorean Reaction.

Chauvelin was an old friend of the Pimpernel's wife, Lady Marguerite Blakeney (and is often depicted in film treatments as Marguerite's suitor or lover before her marriage to Sir Percy).

Orczy's depiction is based on Bernard-François, marquis de Chauvelin, a notable political figure in revolutionary France. Although there are some similarities between the real and fictional Chauvelins, Orczy's depiction of Chauvelin's career, personality and history is highly distorted.