Camillle Desmoulins

Camille Desmoulins (1760-1794) was a major figure in the French Revolution.
Born in a rural area, he studied as a boarder at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand (1771) in Paris. One of his classmates was Maximilien de Robespierre. He gained fame as a journalist and became one of the youngest deputies of the National Convention. His first speech in Paris in 1789 was an event that triggered the storming of the Bastille.
But a few years later, the Reign of Terror took hold. Considered a Dantonist, Camille Desmoulins was arrested in March 1794 and sentenced to death. He was guillotined at the Place de la Révolution at the side of Danton and their friends. A week later, his young wife, aged 24, followed him to the scaffold.