Editing Jean-Paul Marat (section)

== In the early French Revolution ==

=== Estates General and Fall of the Bastille ===
[[File:Jean Garneray Marat.jpg|thumb|right|Marat by [[Jean-François Garneray]]]]
In 1788, the [[Assembly of Notables]] advised [[Louis XVI]] to assemble the [[Estates-General of 1789|Estates-General]] for the first time in 175 years. According to Marat, in the latter half of 1788 he had been deathly ill. Upon hearing of the King's decision to call together the [[Estates General (France)|Estates General]], however, he explains that the "news had a powerful effect on me; my illness suddenly broke and my spirits revived".<ref>[[#Conner2012|Conner (2012)]], p. 32</ref> He strongly desired to contribute his ideas to the coming events and subsequently abandoned his career as a scientist and doctor, taking up his pen on behalf of the [[Estates of the realm|Third Estate]].<ref name="Bianchi2017" />

Marat anonymously published his first contribution to the revolution in February 1789, titled ''Offrande à la Patrie'' (''Offering to the Nation''), which touched on some of the same points as the [[Abbé Sieyès]]' famous "''Qu'est-ce que le Tiers État?''" ("[[What is the Third Estate?]]").<ref name="Bianchi2017">{{cite book|author=Bianchi, Serge |title=Marat. "L'Ami du peuple"|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DWYkDwAAQBAJ|date=2017|publisher=Humensis|isbn=978-2-410-00662-9}}</ref> Marat claimed that this work caused a sensation throughout France, though he likely exaggerated its effect as the pamphlet mostly echoed ideas similar to many other pamphlets and cahiers circulating at the time.<ref>[[#Gottschalk|Gottschalk]], pp. 38–39</ref> This was followed by a "Supplément de l'Offrande" in March, where he was less optimistic, expressing displeasure with the King's ''Lettres Royales'' of 24 January. In August 1789, he published ''La Constitution, ou Projet de déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen'', intended to influence the drafting of France's new constitution, then being debated in the [[National Assembly (France)|National Assembly.]]<ref name="Bianchi2017" /> In this work, he builds his theories upon ideas taken from [[Montesquieu]] and Rousseau, claiming that the sovereignty of the nation rests with the people and emphasizing the need for a [[separation of powers]]. He argues for a [[constitutional monarchy]], believing that a [[republic]] is ineffective in large nations.<ref>[[#Gottschalk|Gottschalk]], pp. 45–47</ref> Marat's work elicited no response from the National Assembly.

On 14 July, three days after Louis XVI dismissed [[Jacques Necker]] as his financial advisor, enraged Parisians attacked the [[Les Invalides|Hotel des Invalides]] and the Bastille, marking the first insurrection of the French Revolution. Marat was not directly involved in the [[Storming of the Bastille|Fall of the Bastille]] but sought to glorify his role that day by claiming that he had intercepted a group of German soldiers on [[Pont Neuf]]. He claims that these soldiers were seeking to crush the revolution in its infancy,  and that he had successfully convinced a crowd to force the soldiers to surrender their weapons.<ref>[[#Conner2012|Conner (2012)]], pp. 39–40</ref> Whether or not this event actually occurred is questionable as there are no other known accounts that confirm Marat's story.

=== ''L'Ami du peuple'' ===
On 12 September 1789, Marat began his own newspaper,  entitled ''Publiciste parisien'', before changing its name four days later to ''[[L'Ami du peuple]]'' ("The People's friend").<ref name="Jacques2013">{{cite book|author=De Cock, Jacques|title=Un journal dans la Révolution: "L'Ami du Peuple"|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6QIJNG-YMHMC&pg=PA19|date=2013|publisher=fantasques éditions|isbn=978-2-913846-30-2}}</ref>{{rp|19}} From this position, he often attacked the most influential and powerful groups in Paris as conspirators against the Revolution, including the Commune, the [[National Constituent Assembly (France)|Constituent Assembly]], the ministers, and the [[Grand Châtelet|Châtelet]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Albert|first1=Pierre|title=Ami du Peuple l'|url=https://www.universalis.fr/encyclopedie/l-ami-du-peuple/|website=universalis.fr|date=19 January 1999 |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Universalis]]|access-date=23 May 2018}}</ref> In January 1790, he moved to the radical [[Cordeliers]] section, then under the leadership of the lawyer [[Georges Danton|Danton]],<ref name="Bianchi2017" /> was nearly arrested for his attacks against Jacques Necker, [[Louis XVI of France|Louis XVI's]] popular Finance Minister, and was forced to flee to London.<ref name="Walter2012">{{cite book|author=Walter, Gérard |title=Marat|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yxmH8MCZNnMC&pg=PT56|date=2012|publisher=Albin Michel|isbn=978-2-226-26096-3|pages=56–59}}</ref> In May, he returned to Paris to continue publication of ''L'Ami du peuple'' and briefly ran a second newspaper in June 1790 called ''Le'' ''Junius'' ''français'' named after the notorious English polemicist [[Junius (writer)|Junius]].<ref name="Jacques2013" />{{rp|73–76}} Marat faced the problem of counterfeiters distributing falsified versions of ''[[L'Ami du peuple]]''.<ref name="Bax2015">[[#Belfort Bax|Belfort Bax]], p. 70</ref> This led him to call for police intervention, which resulted in the suppression of the fraudulent issues, leaving Marat the continuing sole author of ''L'Ami du peuple''.<ref name="Massin">{{cite book|last1=Massin|first1=Jean|title=Marat|year=1988|publisher=Éditions Alinéa|location=Aix en Provence|isbn=2-904631-58-5}}</ref>{{rp|122}}

During this period, Marat made regular attacks on the more conservative revolutionary leaders. In a pamphlet from 26 July 1790, entitled "''C'en est fait de nous''" ("We're done for!"), he warned against counter-revolutionaries, advising, "five or six hundred heads cut off would have assured your repose, freedom and happiness."<ref name=Fremont>{{cite book|author=Fremont-Barnes, Gregory |title=Encyclopedia of the age of political revolutions and new ideologies, 1760–1815: vol 1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=30EEq8R2feIC&pg=PA450|year=2007|publisher=Greenwood |pages=450–451|isbn=978-0313334450}}</ref>

Between 1789 and 1792, Marat was often forced into hiding, sometimes in the [[Paris Sewer Museum|Paris sewers]], where he almost certainly aggravated his debilitating chronic skin disease (possibly [[dermatitis herpetiformis]]).<ref name="Jelinek, J.E. 1979">{{cite journal | last1 = Jelinek | first1 = J.E. | year = 1979 | title = Jean-Paul Marat: The differential diagnosis of his skin disease | journal=American Journal of Dermatopathology | volume = 1 | issue = 3| pages = 251–52 | pmid = 396805 | doi=10.1097/00000372-197900130-00010}}</ref> In January 1792, he married the 26-year-old [[Simonne Évrard]]<ref>[[#Belfort Bax|Belfort Bax]], p. 191</ref> in a common-law ceremony on his return from exile in London, having previously expressed his love for her. She was the sister-in-law of his typographer, Jean-Antoine Corne, and had lent him money and sheltered him on several occasions.

Marat only emerged publicly on the [[10 August (French Revolution)|10 August insurrection]], when the [[Tuileries Palace]] was invaded and the royal family forced to shelter within the [[Legislative Assembly (France)|Legislative Assembly]]. The spark for this uprising was the [[Brunswick Manifesto]], which called for the crushing of the Revolution and helped to inflame popular outrage in Paris.<ref name="Massin" />{{rp|206}}<ref name="SimpsonJones2013">{{cite book|author1=Simpson, William |author2=Jones, Martin |title=Europe 1783–1914|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GZfcAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT87|date=2013|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-134-72088-0|page=87}}</ref>