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Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just ((:sɛ̃ʒyst); 25 August 1767 – 28 July 1794) was a military and political leader during the French Revolution. The youngest of the deputies elected to the National Convention in 1792, Saint-Just rose quickly in their ranks and became a major leader of the government of the French First Republic. He spearheaded the movement to execute King Louis XVI and later drafted the radical French Constitution of 1793. He became a close friend of Maximilien Robespierre, and served with him as one of the commissioners of the powerful Committee of Public Safety. Dispatched as a commissar to the army during its rocky start in the French Revolutionary Wars, Saint-Just imposed severe discipline, and he was credited by many for the army's subsequent revival at the front. Back in Paris, he supervised the consolidation of Robespierre's power through a ruthless and bloody program of intimidation. In his relatively brief time on the historical stage, he became the enduring public face of the Reign of Terror and was dubbed the "Angel of Death" by later writers. Saint-Just organized the arrests and prosecutions of many of the most famous figures of the Revolution. Saint-Just was arrested in the violent episode of 9 Thermidor and executed the next day with Robespierre and their allies. In many histories of the Revolution, their deaths at the guillotine mark the end of the Reign of Terror. ==Early life== Louis Antoine de Saint-Just was born at Decize in the former Nivernais province of central France.〔 He was the eldest child of Louis Jean de Saint-Just de Richebourg (1716–1777), a retired French cavalry officer, knight of the Order of Saint Louis,〔Vinot (edition Fayard), p. 16.〕 and of the 20-years younger Marie-Anne Robinot (1736–1811), the daughter of a notary.〔Vinot (edition Fayard), p. 17.〕 He had two younger sisters, born in 1768 and 1769. The family later moved north and in 1776 settled in the village of Blérancourt in the former Picardy province, establishing themselves as a countryside noble family living out of the rents from their land. A year after the move, Louis Antoine's father died leaving his mother with the three children. She saved diligently for her only son's education, and in 1779 he was sent to the Oratorian school at Soissons. After a promising start, Saint-Just acquired a reputation as a troublemaker, augmented by infamous stories (almost certainly apocryphal) of how he led a students' rebellion and tried to burn down the school.〔Vinot (edition Fayard), p. 41.〕 Nonetheless, he earned his graduation in 1786.〔Hampson, p. 4.〕 His restive nature, however, did not diminish. As a young man, Saint-Just was "wild, handsome, () transgressive".〔Scurr, p. 132.〕 Well-connected and popular, he showed a special affection toward a young woman of Blérancourt, Thérèse Gellé. She was the daughter of another wealthy notary, a powerful and autocratic figure in the town; he was still an undistinguished adolescent. He is said to have proposed marriage to her; she is said to have desired it.〔Hampson, p. 5.〕 Though no hard evidence exists regarding their relationship, official records show that on 25 July 1786, Thérèse was married to Emmanuel Thorin, the scion of a prominent local family. Saint-Just was out of town and unaware of the event, and tradition portrays him as brokenhearted. Whatever his true state, it is known that a few weeks after the marriage he abruptly left home for Paris – without an announcement, but not without gathering up a pair of pistols and a good quantity of his mother's silver.〔Hampson, pp. 5–6.〕 His venture turned short when his mother had him seized by police and sent to a reformatory (''maison de correction'') where he stayed from September 1786 to March 1787. Chastened, Saint-Just attempted to begin anew: he enrolled as a student at the School of Law, Reims University.〔Vinot (edition Fayard), pp. 57–58.〕 After a year, however, he drifted away from law school and returned to his mother's home in Blérancourt penniless, without any occupational prospects.〔Hampson, pp.6–9.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Louis Antoine de Saint-Just」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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