Madame Roland

Portrait of Madame Roland by Adelaide Labille-Guiard (1787)

Marie-Jeanne Roland de la Platiere, better known simply as Madame Roland and born Marie-Jeanne Phlipon (March 17, 1754 – November 8, 1793) was, together with her husband Jean Marie Roland de la Platiere, a supporter of the French Revolution and influential member of the Girondist faction, but fell out of favor during the Reign of Terror and died by the guillotine.

Early years

She was the daughter of Gatien Phlipon (alternatively spelt Phlippon), a Paris engraver, who was ambitious, speculative and nearly always poor. From her early years she showed great aptitude for study, an ardent and enthusiastic spirit, and unquestionable talent. She was largely self-taught; and her love of reading acquainted her with Plutarch — an author she continued to cherish throughout her life — thereafter with Bossuet, Massillon, and authors of a like stamp, and finally with Montesquieu, Voltaire and Rousseau. As her studies developed under the influence of these authors, she abandoned the idea of entering a convent, and added to the enthusiasm for a republic which she had imbibed from her earlier studies, she was inspired by her reading with cynicism and daring.

While she was attaining these characteristics, Manon Phlipon (as her close friends and relatives called her) was also developing a great sense of awareness regarding the world around her. In 1774, on a trip to Versailles, some of the most famous letters written by Manon were sent to her friend Sophie. It is in these letters that Manon first begins to display a slight interest in politics when she describes the perfect government as one which contained, "enlightened and well-meaning ministers, a young prince docile to their council who wants to do good, a lovable and well doing queen, an easy court, pleasant and decent, an honorable legislative body, a charming people who wants nothing but the power to love its master..." Already Manon was disregarding the idea of an absolute monarchy by putting the ministers before the king or, in this case, the prince.

Marriage

She married Jean Marie Roland in 1781, every bit his equal in intellect and character, even though he was more than 20 years older than she. With him and through him she exercised a singularly powerful influence over the destinies of France.

In the early days of their marriage, Madame Roland wrote political articles for the Courrier de Lyon. When the couple moved from Lyon to Paris in 1791, she began to take an even more active role. Her salon on the rue Guénégaud in Paris became the rendezvous of Brissot, Pétion, Robespierre and other leaders of the popular movement. An especially esteemed guest was Buzot, whom she loved with platonic enthusiasm.

In person, Madame Roland is said to have been attractive but not beautiful; her ideas were clear and far-reaching, her manner calm, and her power of observation extremely acute. It was almost inevitable that she should find herself in the centre of political aspirations and presiding over a company of the most talented men of progress. She began this movement toward political involvement slowly, starting out simply as working as a secretary for her husband. As time went on, however, she found that she was able to tweak his letters and still sign them in his name as he appreciated her input and assistance. Following her husband’s rise in influence within the Girondin group, Madame Roland was given more and more influence over the group. The rupture between the Girondist party and that section would become still more extreme with The Mountain, which had not yet occurred. For a time the whole remained united in forcing the resignation of the ministers.

After Monsieur Roland had made a stand against the worst excesses of the Revolution, however, the couple became unpopular. Once, Madame Roland appeared personally in the Assembly to repel the falsehoods of an accuser, and her ease and dignity evoked enthusiasm and compelled acquittal.

Nevertheless, the accusations continued. On the morning of June 1 1793 she was arrested and thrown into the prison of the Abbaye. Her husband escaped to Rouen with her help. Released for an hour from the Abbaye, she was again arrested and placed in Sainte-Pelagie. Finally, she was transferred to the Conciergerie. In prison she was respected by the guards, and was allowed the privilege of writing materials and occasional visits from devoted friends. There she wrote her Appel à l'impartiale postérité, those memoirs which display a strange alternation between self-laudation and patriotism, between the trivial and the sublime. She was tried on trumped up charges of harbouring royalist sympathies; the plain fact was that she was to be expunged as part of the purge by Robespierre of the Girondist opposition, and was duly convicted.

Imprisonment and death

Perhaps some of the most interesting days of Madame Roland’s life took place in prison as she struggled with her concept of the woman’s place in the nation of France having been forced to lurk in the shadows to gain her own influence over the nation. Though she had earlier stated that she would “rather chew off (her own) fingers than become a writer,” Madame Roland began writing her Memoirs during her stay in prison before being guillotined.

On November 8, 1793, she was conveyed to the guillotine. Before placing her head on the block, she bowed before the clay statue of Liberty in the Place de la Révolution, uttering the famous remark for which she is remembered:

O Liberté, que de crimes on commet en ton nom! (Oh Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy name!)

Two days after her execution, her husband, Jean Marie Roland, committed suicide in his hovel outside Lyon.

Fictionalized accounts

• Madame Roland, Danton, and Robespierre, among others are the main characters in Marge Piercy's rendering of the French Revolution, City of Darkness, City of Light (1996).

References

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help) The 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica, in turn, gives the following references:

• Madame Roland's Memoires, first printed in 1820, have been edited among others by P. Faugere (Paris, 1864), by C. A. Dauban (Paris, 1864), by J. Claretie (Paris, 1884), and by C. Perroud (Paris, 1905). Some of her Lettres inedites have been published by C. A. Dauban (Paris, 1867), and a critical edition of her Lettres by C. Perroud (Paris, 1900-2).
• C.A. Dauban, Etude sur Madame Roland et son temps (Paris, 1864)
• V. Lamy, Deux femmes célèbres, Madame Roland et Charlotte Corday (Paris, 1884)
• C. Bader, Madame Roland, d'après des lettres et des manuscrits inédits (Paris, 1892)
• A.J. Lambert, Le ménage de Madame Roland, trois années de correspondance amoureuse (Paris, 1896)
• Austin Dobson, Four Frenchwomen (London, 1890) articles by C. Perroud in the review La Revolution française (1896-99).
• Kathryn Ann Kadane, "The Real Difference between Manon Phlipon and Madame Roland," French Historical Studies, Vol. 3, No. 4 (Autumn 1964), http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0016-1071%28196423%293%3A4%3C542%3ATRDBMP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-M
• Brigitte Syzmanek, “French Women’s Revolutionary Writings: Maname Roland or the Pleasure of the Mask,” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Spring 1996), http://www.jstor.org/view/07327730/ap020030/02a00080/10?frame=noframe&userID=c63cc0dd@albertson.edu/01c0a834740050788b0&dpi=3&config=jstor
• Gita May, Madame Roland and The Age of Revolution (New York: Columbia University Press, 1970).