Honoré-Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau
Date of Birth
March 9, 1749
Date of Death
April 2, 1791
About
Born into the Provençal nobility, Mirabeau reached the Estates-General after years marked by debt, family conflict, imprisonment and political writing. Elected for the Third Estate of Aix in 1789, he became a leading advocate of constitutional monarchy, seeking to combine national representation with an effective royal executive. From 1790 he secretly supplied the court with political memoranda and received substantial payments, without abandoning that constitutional programme. After his death on 2 April 1791 he was interred in the Panthéon. Documents found in the Tuileries revealed the arrangement, and his remains were removed in September 1794.