Marie Antoinette's

To enhance the uncomfort she already felt, she was watched twenty four hours a day by two armed men.  Having these gens d'armes was not typical for a female prisoner, and Corday make constant complaints about it.  She protested as it was a profanation of her sex, but nothing was done about it.

A last request of sorts, which Corday made was to have her portrait painted in the form of a miniature.  In a letter to the Committee of General Safety she wrote, "As I have yet some moments to live, may I hope, citizens, that you will permit me to sit for my portrait, as I would fain leave this good souvenir to my friends. besides, as the likenesses of good citizens are carefully preserved, so curiosity sometimes seeks those of great criminals, in order to perpetuate their crime."

"Great thoughts are always better nursed in the heart's solitude"

Marie-Anne Charlotte was born in 1768 to Jacques Francois de Croday et d'Armont and lady Marie Charlotte-Jacqueline of Gauthier des Authieux. Her parents had an ancient noble name, however any fortune the family once had had been lost to time and they lived by very modest means. She was born a fourth child and second daughter. One sister died young, and her brothers left for the army. She also lost her mother.

She and her last sister left for the Abbaye aux Dames, where religion made a deep impression on her. She remained there until she was 20, the revolution forced the abbaye to close.

"Her open forehead, dark and well-arched eyebrows, and eyes of a gray so deep that it was often mistaken for blue, added to her naturally grave and meditative appearance; her nose was straight and well-formed, her mouth serious but exquisitely beautiful...she had a complexion of transparent purity' enhanced by the rich brown hair which fell in thick curls around her neck, according to the fashion of the period."¹

She went to live with her aunt, an old royalist, and watched the Revolution develop, listening intently to all the politics but never participating. She learned all about the fall of the Girondists whom she understood Marat to be their prosecutor.

Charlotte received several offers of marriage at this time, all which she turned down, perhaps the most affected by her rejection was M. de Franquelin, a handsome fellow who worked for the cause of the Girondists. Marie-Anne Charlotte spent much time at her aunts thinking, and thinking about her falling country. Her aunt caught her several times dwelling on the topic, sometimes even crying over it.

Finally she gathered some money and a passport and paid a visit to her father to say she was going to England for safety. She gave her properties to her friends and left. She actually headed to Paris, and took up a room for a few days that was dark and shabby.


She sent Marat 2 letters requesting an interview, but was denied, so she called on him that evening anyway. His 'wife' answered the door and refused to let her in, but Marat recognized she was the lady that had written him twice and had her sent in. He was in the bath with his papers in front of him. She then related business about Girondists in her home town, which he took note of and assured her they would be at the guillotine soon enough. This upset her and she pulled a knife from under her fichu and stabbed him in the heart.

Portrait of Charlotte Corday, paintined while she was in prison by Hauer in 1793. Versailles. Photo via Elisabeth

Charlotte was interrogated in his living room later that evening. She wanted to go out in the style of 'Perfume' where the crowd ended her life instantly, but instead she was transferred to a prison. She was tried and promptly sent by cart to the guillotine.

¹ Corday, Charlotte, Kavanagh, Julia, Woman in France during the Eighteenth Century. New-York; London: Putnam's Sons, 1893. p. 144