Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve
| Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve | |
|---|---|
Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve
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| 2nd Mayor of Paris | |
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In office 18 November 1791 – 15 October 1792 |
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| Preceded by | Jean Sylvain Bailly |
| Succeeded by | Philibert Borie (temporary mayor) |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
3 January 1756 Chartres, Eure-et-Loir, France |
| Died | 18 June 1794 (aged 38) Saint-Magne-de-Castillon, near Saint-Émilion, Gironde, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Political party | Girondist |
| Occupation | Writer, politician |
Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve (3 January 1756 in Chartres, France – 18 [?] June 1794 in Saint-Magne-de-Castillon (near Saint-Émilion)) was a French writer and politician who served as the second mayor of Paris, from 1791 to 1792.
Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve was the son of a procureur at Chartres. Though it is known that he was trained as a lawyer, very few specifics are known about Petion's early life, as he was virtually unknown prior to the French Revolution. He became an advocate in 1778, and at once began to try to make a name in literature. His first printed work was an essay, Sur les moyens de prévenir l'infanticide, which failed to gain the prize for which it was composed, but pleased Brissot so much that he printed it in vol. vii. of his Bibliothèque philosophique des législateurs.
Pétion's next works, Les Lois civiles, and Essais sur le mariage, in which he advocated the marriage of priests, confirmed his position as a bold reformer. He also attacked long-held Ancien Régime traditions such as primogeniture, accusing it of dividing the countryside into "proletarians and colossal properties." Later works penned by Pétion include his account of Haiti entitled "Reflexions sur la noir et denonciation d'un crime affreux commis a Saint-Domingue" (1790) and "Avis aux francois" in which he chides France for its corruption.
When the elections to the Estates-General took place in 1789 he was elected a deputy to the Tiers Etat for Chartres. Both in the assembly of the Tiers Etat and in the Constituent Assembly Pétion showed himself a radical leader. Although Petion was overshadowed in the Assembly by such orators as Mirabeau and Barnave, his close relationship with Girondin leader Brissot provided him with helpful advice on political conduct. He supported Mirabeau on 23 June, attacked the queen on 5 October, and was elected president on 4 December 1790. On 15 June 1791 he was elected president of the criminal tribunal of Paris. On 21 June 1791 he was chosen one of three commissioners appointed to bring back the king from Varennes, and he has left an account of the journey. After the last meeting of the assembly on 30 September 1791 Robespierre and Pétion were made the popular heroes and were crowned by the populace with civic crowns.
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