- Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette, and later becoming Marie Antoinette, Queen of France and Navarre, was the Queen consort of France, as the wife of Louis XVI. She was the daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. She was a direct descendant of powerful European royalty, including Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille, to whom she can trace her ancestry back through both her parents. - Joseph-Ignace Guillotin
Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin (May 28, 1738 - March 26, 1814) proposed on October 10, 1789 the use of a mechanical device to carry out death penalties in France. While he did not invent the guillotine, his name became an eponym for it. From 1756 until 1762 Guillotin got his formation as Master of Arts as a member of the Jesuit order. He became professor of literature at Irish College in Bordeaux, … - Sophie Scholl
Sophia Magdalena Scholl (9 May 1921 - 22 February 1943), along with her brother Hans Scholl, were members of the White Rose non-violent resistance movement in Nazi Germany. They were both convicted of treason and executed by guillotine. Since the 1970s she has been celebrated as one of those Germans who actively opposed the Third Reich during the Second World War. - Georges Danton
Georges Jacques Danton (October 26, 1759 - April 5, 1794) was a leading figure in the early stages of the French Revolution. - Olympe de Gouges
Olympe de Gouges (born Marie Gouze; May 7, 1748 - November 3, 1793) was a playwright and journalist whose feminist writings reached a large audience. A proponent of democracy, she demanded the same rights for French women that French men were demanding for themselves. In her "Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen" (1791), she challenged the practice of male authority and the notion of male-female inequality. - Madame Roland
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. - Hamida Djandoubi
Hamida Djandoubi (c. 1949-10 September, 1977) was the last person to be guillotined in France, at Baumettes Prison in Marseille. He was a Tunisian immigrant who had been convicted of the torture and murder of 21-year-old Elisabeth Bousquet, his former girlfriend, in Marseille. Marcel Chevalier served as chief executioner. Born in Tunisia around 1949, Djandoubi started living and working in Marseille, France in 1968, as a packer. - Ravachol
François Claudius Koeningstein, known as Ravachol, was a French anarchist best known for terrorism. He was born 14 October 1859 at Saint-Chamond (Loire) and died guillotined 11 July, 1892 at Montbrison. - Antoine Louis
Antoine Louis was a French surgeon and physiologist who was born in Metz. He was associated with Parisian hospitals for much of his career, including the Salpêtrière and Hôpital de la Charité. Originally trained as a military surgeon, Louis became a professor of physiology in 1750. In 1764 he was appointed secretary to the Académie Royale de Chirurgie. He published numerous articles on surgery, including several biographies of surgeons who died during his lifetime. - Christian Ranucci
Christian Ranucci was one of the last people executed in France, having been convicted of the abduction, sexual assault, and murder of a young girl, Marie-Dolorès Rambla. He was tried in Aix-en-Provence in Southern France on March 9-March 10, 1976 and sentenced to death. His appeal for a second trial was overturned by a higher court on July 16. President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing refused his pardon for Ranucci only ten days after the case's arrival to his office, … - Hans Scholl
Hans Scholl (22 September 1918-22 February 1943) was a member of the White Rose resistance movement in Nazi Germany. Hans was born in Ingersheim, a district of Crailsheim. He, along with his sister, Sophie, Christoph Probst, Alexander Schmorell, Willi Graf, and Professor Kurt Huber, wrote and distributed six leaflets denouncing Nazi actions in Europe and calling on the German people to resist what their government was doing. - André Chénier
André Marie Chénier was a French poet and is associated with the events of the French Revolution of which he was an innocent victim. His sensual, emotive poetry marks him as one of the precursors of the Romantic movement. His career was brought to an abrupt end when he was guillotined for alleged "crimes against the state", just three days before the end of the Reign of Terror. - Jean Sylvain Bailly
Jean-Sylvain Bailly (September 15, 1736-November 12, 1793) was a French astronomer and orator, one of the leaders of the early part of the French Revolution. He was ultimately guillotined during the Reign of Terror. - Kurt Huber
Kurt Huber (October 24, 1893-July 13, 1943) was a member of the White Rose group, which carried out resistance against Nazi Germany. Huber was born in Chur, Switzerland, to German parents. He grew up in Stuttgart and, later (after his father's death), in Munich. He showed an aptitude for such subjects as music, philosophy and psychology, and became a professor in 1920. - Joseph Vacher
Joseph Vacher was a French serial killer, sometimes known as The French Ripper, or as L'éventreur du Sud-Est (The South-East Ripper) due to comparisons to the more famous Jack the Ripper murderer of London, England in 1888. His appearance became infamous for his scarred face, his accordion and his plain white rabbit-fur hat which he made himself. - Grace Elliott
Grace Dalrymple Elliott was a Scottish courtesan who was resident in France at the time of the French Revolution and an eyewitness to events. She was once mistress of the Duke of Orléans, who was cousin to King Louis XVI. She was arrested and held awaiting death by guillotine but was released after the death of Robespierre. She wrote an autobiographical account of her experiences entitled "Ma Vie Sous La Révolution" published posthumously in 1859. - Jacques Fesch
Jacques Fesch was the murderer of a French police officer, who became such a devout Roman Catholic while in prison awaiting execution that he has been proposed for canonization as a saint. Fesch's father was a wealthy banker of Belgian origin, an artist and atheist, distant from his son and unfaithful to his wife, whom he ultimately divorced. Jacques was an idler; brought up a Roman Catholic, he abandoned religion by the age of 17. At 21, … - Hubert Robert
Hubert Robert, French artist, was born in Paris. His father, Nicolas Robert, was in the service of François-Joseph de Choiseul, marquis de Stainville. Young Robert finished his studies with the Jesuits at the Collège de Navarre in 1751 and entered the atelier of the sculptor Michel-Ange Slodtz who taught him design and perspective but encouraged him to turn to painting. In 1754 he left for Rome in the train of Étienne-François de Choiseul, son of his father's employer, … - Hilde Benjamin
Hilde Benjamin (February 5 1902 in Bernburg – April 18 1989 in Berlin; née Hilde Lange) was an East German judge and minister of justice. She is best known for presiding over a series of political show trials in the 1950s. Hilde Benjamin studied law in Berlin, Heidelberg and Hamburg from 1921 to 1924. Afterwards, she worked as a practicing attorney in Berlin-Wedding for the Rote Hilfe, a Communist aid organization. - Marcel Chevalier
Marcel Chevalier was the last executioner (Monsieur de Paris) in France. He succeeded André Obrecht in 1976 and held his position until 1981, when capital punishment was abolished under president François Mitterrand and justice minister Robert Badinter. The method of application of death penalty for civil capital offences in France 1791-1981 was beheading with the guillotine. - Conrad Lant
Conrad Thomas Lant (aka Cronos), born in London, UK, in 1963, is a musician who is the vocalist and bass player of the influential thrash metal/speed metal band Venom, from 1979 to 1987 and from 1995 to this day. After joining his high school band "Dwarfstar", he joined a "Guillotine" as a guitarist in 1978, where he met Jeffrey Dunn (aka Mantas). In 1980, the original bass player left one week before a gig. - Lucile Duplessis
Lucile Duplessis was the daughter of Annette Duplessis and Claude Duplessis, a Treasury official. She had one sister, Adèle, who was briefly engaged to Maximilien Robespierre. A flirtatious yet dreamy and sometimes morbid girl, Lucile was fascinated by the tragic figure of Mary Stuart. She imagined, quite prophetically, that she would also die young. She married the French revolutionary journalist Camille Desmoulins, her childhood tutor, … - Isabel Jewell
Isabel Jewell (July 19, 1907 - April 5, 1972) was an American film actress. Born in Shoshoni, Fremont County, Wyoming, Jewell was a Broadway actress who achieved immediate success and glowing critical reviews in two productions, "Up Pops the Devil" (1930) and "Blessed Event" (1932). She was brought to Hollywood for the film version of the latter, by Warner Brothers. A petite 4' 11" tall and with platinum blonde hair, … - Nicolas Luckner
Nikolaus, Count Luckner (* January 12, 1722 - January 4 1794 in Paris) was a German in French service who rose to become a Marshal of France. Luckner originated in Cham, in eastern Bavaria and received his early education from the Jesuits in Passau. Before entering the French service, Luckner had spent time in the Bavarian, Dutch and Hanoverian armies. He fought as a commander of hussars during the Seven Years' War against the French. - Adam Philippe Comte de Custine
Adam Philippe, Comte de Custine, French general. Born in Metz, he began his military career in the Seven Years' War. He next served with distinction against the English in the War of American Independence. In 1789 he was elected to the states-general by the "bailliage" of Metz. In October 1791 he again joined the army, with the rank of lieutenant-general and became popular with the soldiers, amongst whom he was known as "général moustache". - Philippe de Noailles duc de Mouchy
Philippe, comte de Noailles and later prince de Poix, duc de Mouchy, and duc de Poix "à brevêt" (27 December 1715 - 27 June 1794), was a younger brother of Louis, 4th duc de Noailles, and a more distinguished soldier than his brother. He served at Minden and in other campaigns, and was made a marshal of France in 1775, on the same day as his brother. He was long in great favor at court, and his wife, … - Jules-Henri Desfourneaux
Jules-Henri Desfourneaux (17 December 1877-1 October 1951) was the last French executioner to officiate in public. He came from a long line of executioners named Desfourneaux stretching back many hundreds of years. Like all French executioners since 1792 his method of application of the death penalty was beheading by guillotine. Desfourneaux was recruited by his predecessor Anatole Deibler and attended his first execution as second assistant in 1909. - Maurice Bavaud
Maurice Bavaud attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1938. He travelled to Germany on 9 October 1938, staying in Munich and Berchtesgaden, following the whereabouts of Hitler in the news. He intended to shoot Hitler on 9 November (the day followed by the "Kristallnacht") at a memorial march in Munich, posing as an enthusiastic Nazi supporter visiting from Switzerland to see Hitler in order to get a good place. - Eugène François Vidocq
Eugène François Vidocq was a French criminal who later became the first director of Sûreté Nationale and one of the first modern private investigators. Vidocq was Victor Hugo's inspiration for both of the main characters in his novel "Les Misérables". Most of the information about Vidocq's early life comes from his ghost-written biography. According to it, Vidocq was born in Arras, France in July 23, 1775. His father was a baker. - James Douglas 4th Earl of Morton
James Douglas, 4th Earl of Morton (c. 1525 - June 2, 1581), was the last, and arguably the most successful, of the four regents of Scotland during the minority of King James VI. However he met an unfortunate end: during his time as regent he introduced the maiden, a primitive guillotine, to Scotland, and he was eventually executed by it himself. He was the second son of Sir George Douglas of Pittendriech. - Benita von Falkenhayn
Benita von Falkenhayn (died February 18, 1935) was a German baroness. She was related to Erich von Falkenhayn. In her early thirties she met the Polish intelligence agent Major Jerzy Sosnowski and became his lover. In February 1935, she was arrested with her friend and Sosnowski's other lover, Renate von Natzmer. They were both found guilty of espionage and treason and sentenced to death. Two days later, after appeals for clemency had been turned down, … - John Biffen
William John Biffen, Baron Biffen, PC (born 3 November, 1930), is a Conservative member of the House of Lords, who previously spent 36 years in the House of Commons. He represented the constituency of Oswestry, later renamed Shropshire North, from the time of his election at a by-election in 1961 until his retirement immediately prior to the 1997 General Election. In the same year he was made a life peer, sitting as Baron Biffen, … - Jean-Antoine Roucher
Jean-Antoine Roucher (February 22, 1745 - July 25, 1794), was a French poet. Roucher was the son of a tailor from Montpellier. His epithalamium on Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette won him the favour of Turgot, and a salt-tax collectorship. His poem, entitled "Les Mois", appeared in 1779, was praised in manuscript, but critically lambasted until the 19th century. The malicious wit of Antoine de Rivarol's "mot" on the critical failure of the poem, … - Johan Alfred Ander
Johan Alfred Andersson Ander was a convicted Swedish murderer and the last person to be officially executed in Sweden. - Sante Geronimo Caserio
Sante Geronimo Caserio was an Italian anarchist, assassin of Marie François Sadi Carnot, President of the French Third Republic. Caserio was born in Motta Visconti, Lombardy. On June 24, 1894, Caserio fatally stabbed President Carnot at a banquet to avenge Auguste Vaillant and Emile Henry. He was executed by guillotine in Lyon at 4:55 am, August 16, 1894. - Quatremère de Quincy
Antoine-Chrysostome Quatremère de Quincy was a French archaeologist and writer on art, born in Paris. He was involved in the troubles of the French Revolution. In 1796 he was accused of taking part in the preparations for the royalist insurrection of "13 vendémiaire" and condemned to death, but later acquitted. Next year he was elected to the Council of Five Hundred from the Seine department, went into hiding after taking part in a royalist coup, … - Jacques Guillaume Thouret
Jacques Guillaume Thouret (April 30, 1746 - April 22, 1794) was a French revolutionary, lawyer, president of the National Constituent Assembly and victim of the guillotine. - Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans
Louis Philippe Joseph II, Duke of Orléans, called Philippe Égalité, was a member of a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon, the dynasty then ruling France. He actively supported the French Revolution, but was nonetheless guillotined during the Reign of Terror. His son Louis-Philippe became King of the French in the July Revolution of 1830. - Betje Wolff
Elizabeth ("Betje") Wolff-Bekker (Flushing, 24 July 1738 - The Hague, 5 November 1804) was a Dutch writer. On 18 November 1759 she married the 52-year-old clergyman Adriaan Wolff. In 1763 she published her first collection "Bespiegelingen over het genoegen" ('Reflections on Pleasure'). In 1777, after her husband's death, she lived together with Aagje Deken and from then on they published their work together. - Paul Gorguloff
Paul Gorguloff was a Russian imigrant who was the assassin of the French President Paul Doumer. Gorguloff was born in Labinskaja, Russia. He was beheaded by guillotine in Paris. His last words were :"Russia, my country!"
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