Home /
Dramatis Personae /
Merlin de Douai, Philippe-Antoine

Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai

Born

30 October 1754

Died

26 December 1838

A jurist of the parlement of Flanders elected for the Third Estate of Douai, Merlin de Douai was rapporteur on the feudal regime in the Constituent Assembly and drafted the legislation giving effect to the abolition of feudal rights, together with the law on intestate succession that ended primogeniture. Elected to the Convention for the Nord, he voted for the king’s death and, for the committee of legislation, presented the law of suspects of 17 September 1793, an earlier draft of his having been rejected as too moderate. He was president of the Convention shortly after Thermidor, twice minister of justice, and a Director from September 1797 until his forced resignation in June 1799. He was afterwards procureur general of the court of cassation for thirteen years. Exiled as a regicide in 1815, he returned in 1830 and died in Paris in 1838.

Related peopleDeputies & Officials

Duc d’Aiguillon

Antoine-Louis Albitte

Charles Alquier All in this faction →

Articles about

Merlin de Douai

No articles about this figure yet.

Browse all articles →