Charlotte Corday

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Charlotte Corday (1768 – 1793)
Charlotte Corday was born in Saint-Saturnin, France on July 27, 1768, and was educated in the Roman Catholic convent in Caen. She considered herself devoted to the “Enlightened” ideals of her time, but was a supporter of the monarchy when the French Revolution began in 1789.
As the Revolution progressed, factions arose within the national convention. Corday favored the more moderate Girondins rather then men such as Marat and Robespierre who wanted to destroy the monarchy. The Girondins were expelled form the convention in May and June of 1793, after which they gathered at Caen hoping to organize against their opponents. Corday, devoted to their cause, went to Paris. She was convinced that their primary enemy was Marat, and devised a plan to gain access to him under the pretext of wanting to tell him of the events at Caen. On July 13, 1793 she stabbed him through the heart while he was in his bath.
Corday was immediately apprehended, and was sentenced to death. While awaiting execution, Charlotte wrote a letter to her father, asking forgiveness for “having disposed of my existence without your permission.” Corday refused the ministrations of a priest in the moments before her death; her last request was that a National Guard officer named Hauer paint her portait. As a token of thanks for his work, Coorday presented Hauer with a lock of her hair. She was executed on july 17, 1793, at the young age of 25....