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André Boniface Louis Riqueti, Vicomte de Mirabeau (30 November 175415 September 1792), son of Victor de Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau and brother of the orator Honoré Mirabeau, was one of the reactionary leaders at the opening of the French Revolution.

Life

thumb|Caricature of Mirabeau.

Known as Barrel Mirabeau (Mirabeau-Tonneau) because of his rotundity and heavy drinking, he was sent to the army in Malta in 1776, and spent part of his two years there in prison for insulting a religious procession.

He served as a colonel, commanding the Touraine Regiment under the comte de Rochambeau in the American Revolution. During the war, he was in several sea-fights with the English and witnessed the Battle of Yorktown in 1781.

In the following year, he had two narrow escapes from drowning. With his debts paid up by his father, he was elected by the noblesse of Limoges a deputy to the States General.

Unlike his brother, he opposed the French Revolution. He was a violent conservative who opposed everything that threatened the old régime.

In about 1790, he emigrated and attempted to raise a legion of French exiles and deserters to support the royalist cause. His efforts were largely unsuccessful, as his insolence alienated German princes, and his command was eventually taken from him. He died in Freiburg im Breisgau in August 1792, reportedly from apoplexy or possibly as the result of a duel.

Mirabeau is sometimes credited with a statement more commonly associated with Voltaire:

Notes

References

Attribution:

  • Kurzbiogramm Mirabeau-Tonneau – Biography of "Barrel Mirabeau" in German