An aristocrat who embraced the Revolution, he was elected to the Estates-General and later served as a deputy in the National Convention, where he voted for the execution of King Louis XVI in January 1793. Assassinated on the eve of the king's execution by a royal guard, he became the first martyr of the French Revolution and was temporarily interred in the Panthéon.
Louis-Michel Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau
Louis-Michel Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau
8 min read
Frequently asked questions
Famous Quotes
« I vote for death.»
Key Facts
- 1760: born in Paris into a family of high nobility
- 1789: elected as a deputy for the Third Estate to the Estates-General, despite his aristocratic rank
- January 1793: votes for the death of Louis XVI during the king's trial
- January 20, 1793: assassinated at the Palais-Royal by the royal guard Paris, on the eve of the king's execution
- 1793: interred in the Panthéon as the first martyr of the Revolution; his remains were later claimed by his family
Works & Achievements
An active member of the criminal legislation committee of the Constituent Assembly, Lepeletier took part in drafting the first modern French penal code, which abolished judicial torture and introduced penalties proportionate to the severity of crimes.
During the historic night of August 4, he took the floor to support the abolition of seigneurial rights, publicly agreeing to renounce his own privileges — a powerful symbolic gesture from a great aristocrat.
His vote “for death” during the roll call on the fate of Louis XVI is his most resounding political act. As a former nobleman and magistrate, this choice carried particular weight — and ultimately cost him his life.
His major intellectual work, envisioning free, compulsory, and universal public education for all French children aged 5 to 12 in “houses of equality.” Taken up by Robespierre, this plan foreshadowed the principles of Jules Ferry’s republican school system.
Anecdotes
Born into one of France's oldest noble families, Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau was one of the first aristocrats to sit in the Estates General of 1789 and vote, on the night of August 4th, for the abolition of his own privileges. This act astonished his peers: he voluntarily renounced considerable income and centuries-old feudal rights, asserting that reason must take precedence over birth.
During the trial of Louis XVI, Lepeletier was among the deputies of the Convention who voted for death without delay or reprieve, on January 17, 1793. His vote was all the more remarkable because, as a former nobleman and friend of the king, he was expected to choose clemency. He declared from the tribune that his conscience demanded this choice, whatever the personal cost.
On the evening of January 20, 1793, the eve of Louis XVI's execution, Lepeletier was dining at the Restaurant Février in the Palais-Royal. A former royal bodyguard, Philippe de Paris, recognized him there and drove a blade into his side, reproaching him for his regicide vote. Lepeletier died a few hours later, becoming the first martyr of the French Republic.
The painter Jacques-Louis David, a friend of the deceased, persuaded the Convention to display the body on a shield at Place Vendôme, the wound visible for all to see. David then produced a commemorative painting showing Lepeletier dead, with his vote “death” visible on a piece of paper beside him. This political staging was one of the first modern uses of the revolutionary martyr as a propaganda tool.
Shortly before his death, Lepeletier had submitted to the Convention an ambitious Plan for National Education envisioning “houses of equality” where all French children, rich and poor, would be raised together at the State’s expense from the ages of 5 to 12. Robespierre took up and championed this plan posthumously in July 1793, presenting it as the martyr’s political testament. The project foreshadowed debates on republican schooling that would run throughout the entire nineteenth century.
Primary Sources
I ask that, from the age of five until twelve for boys, and until eleven for girls, all children without distinction or exception be raised together at the expense of the Republic.
Lepeletier (Michel): Death.
Citizens, a dreadful crime has just been committed. Michel Lepeletier, representative of the people, was assassinated last evening by one of the tyrant's henchmen.
I felt it my duty to offer the homeland a final tribute to our friend Michel Lepeletier; I painted his features at the moment when, struck down by the hand of a villain, he had just given his life for liberty.
The National Convention decrees that Michel Lepeletier has well deserved of the homeland; that his body shall be conveyed to the French Panthéon, and that his ashes shall rest there until peace is restored to the Republic.
Key Places
The aristocratic family residence where Lepeletier was born in 1760. He grew up in this environment of high *noblesse de robe*, surrounded by jurists and magistrates.
It was at this restaurant in the Palais-Royal — a hub of Parisian political and social life — that Lepeletier was assassinated on the evening of 20 January 1793 by a royalist.
The republican temple where Lepeletier's body was provisionally interred on 24 January 1793 during a grand state funeral, before his daughter arranged for his remains to be transferred after Thermidor.
The Lepeletier family's ancestral estate in Burgundy, where his remains were permanently reinterred after their transfer from the Panthéon in 1794.
The meeting hall of the National Convention, where Lepeletier sat and cast his historic votes — most notably his vote in favor of the death of Louis XVI in January 1793.