Moments in C.P. History - Number 13: Theroigne de Mericourt

Penultimate part of the series by Paul Melrose, from Februs 44

Theroigne de Mericourt was born Anne-Joseph Mericourt into a rich Liege family in 1762. Her upbringing was chaste and modest, the young girl brought up in the Church by God-fearing parents. It was their intention that their young daughter should take holy orders and indeed she took instruction for four years in her teens with a view to entering a convent. However, it was not to be for Anne-Joseph Mericourt, who had blossomed into a truly beautiful young woman, decided that the cloistered life of the convent was not for her.

To the chagrin of her devoted parents Anne-Joseph decided, in 1784, to seek her fame and fortune in Paris, for her beauty had attracted much favourable comment. She changed her name to Theroigne, presumable because she felt that Anne-Joseph lacked a little glamour. It was not long before she became the favourite of the Paris Opera set, always seen at opening nights, always the Belle of the Ball. She was befriended by Tenducci, a well-known opera singer of the time though it is not suggested that they were lovers, Tenducci’s homosexuality being an open secret. Through his influence however, Theroigne met many influential Parisians including the Marquis de Persan whose mistress she soon became.

The chaste and virtuous Anne-Joseph from Liege could no longer be recognised for Theroigne had fallen in love with power and influence. Not content with one lover, she soon began to sell her charms to the highest bidder, in essence becoming a very rich and beautiful prostitute. Although seduced by the wealth and influence of the bourgeoisie, Theroigne was no fool and took due heed of the storm clouds gathering over France. She began to acquire friends among the leaders of the proletariat and, it is said, became the lover of Marat, who was captivated by her beauty and her wit.

In 1789, the French Revolution broke out and Theroigne de Mericourt’s life changed for ever. On the morning of October 5^th 1789, an amazing crowd of 6,000 women walked the 12 miles from Paris to Versailles in freezing cold and rain in order to lay siege to the Royal Palace. En route, the motley crew of women looted shops, broke windows, attacked anyone suspected of opposing the revolution and stole transport to assist their journey. Theroigne de Mericourt became the centre of attention on the march by turning up at some point on a jet black horse and wearing a fashionable riding hat and blood red riding coat. She carried pistols and a sabre, immediately riding to the front of the march and proclaiming herself its leader. The effect on the predominantly male leaders of the revolution was electric and Theroigne de Mericourt, the lover of Jean-Paul Marat was a folk heroine.

To the other women, most of them of fairly coarse and poor stock, her impact was greeted with somewhat less enthusiasm. There were angry suggestions that she had spent most of the march in a café applying her make-up and changing her clothes for she looked as fresh as a daisy amid the bedraggled horde. Dark mutterings about this ‘stuck-up whore’ who knew which side her bread was buttered were rife and many of the women resolved to make due restitution when the occasion presented itself.

After the march was over and the revolutionary leaders celebrated their success, Theroigne was hailed ‘Amazon’ of the Revolution and given responsibility for the revolutionary education of women across Paris. She became a significant figure for two or three years until her constant carping on behalf of women for more power and influence finally severed the patience of the Revolutionary leaders, her relationship with Marat coming to an end and her influence decidedly on the wane.

In 1793, Theroigne de Mericourt’s life became a living hell. Dissatisfied with the progress made under the Revolutionary leaders, Paris was in ferment and what is now known as the Terror began. Aristocrats were brought in tumbrils daily to Madame Guillotine and the first revolutionary leaders themselves were arrested and executed. Marat, Theroigne’s erstwhile lover and mentor was murdered by Charlotte Corday and soon Robespierre was to fall from grace. Frightened by the turn of events, Theroigne took refuge in a small convent  near her home but it was to be of little use. Hordes of rampaging, angry women were roaming Paris and soon the whereabouts of Theroigne were discovered. All the pent-up anger of the march 6 years before was let loose and the cry went up to teach the ‘stuck up whore’ a lesson.

Using a subterfuge, three of the women gained access to the convent and dragged the shrieking Theroigne out on to the street. A crowd soon gathered and a mob of about forty or fifty screaming women frogmarched the terrified Theroigne down the street and across to the Tuileries Garden, the beautiful gardens by the Seine. The crowd was now swelled to hundreds as poor Theroigne was dragged through the gardens until the crowd reached the base of the Terrasse des Feuillants. Theroigne was forcibly dragged up the steps until at the top she was in full view of a crowd of hundreds.

As she shrieked in terror, the women began to tear off her clothing piece by piece until she was completely naked. Then a bench was turned upside down and Theroigne forced across it, her hands and feet secured to the slats, her legs pulled wide apart. Then the women, armed with straps and whips, began to thrash Theroigne’s bottom in a frenzy, the poor woman screaming in agony after only a few blows. This was not enough for these wild women however, the beating continuing for some considerable time until Theroigne’s bottom was pulped and bleeding. Then someone screamed that the whore should feel it where it hurts, the women beginning to concentrate their attention on her vagina, whipping her mercilessly until she passed out.

Only then did some of the Tricoteuses, the people’s police, in the crowd rush up onto the terrace steps and put an end to proceedings.

After receiving treatment for her terrible wounds, Theroigne recovered physically but never mentally, finally going mad from the shame of the proceedings. She was incarcerated in the lunatic asylums of Bicetre and Charenton for twenty years. Such was the mental consequence of her whipping that, as soon as she could escape the attention of her keepers, she would dash into the yard, strip naked and begin to whip her own buttocks and vagina with anything that came to hand, many times ending up in the asylum hospital with dreadful injuries.

Poor Theroigne, a woman whose life had begun with so much promise, finished in shame and degradation, the memory of her public whipping having scarred her mentally for life.  She died, still in a mental institution, at the age of 55 in 1817.