Georges Couthon

Overview

Georges Couthon was a lawyer and member of the Committee of Public Safety who supported Robespierre’s integrated diagnosis of conspiracy and emergency during the French Revolution.

Current Profile

The sources present Couthon as one member of a leadership triangle with Robespierre and Saint-Just. He helped draft the democratic Constitution of 1793 while also supporting exceptional government and severe repression; at Lyon he proposed deporting much of the population, a measure Robespierre rejected as indiscriminate. In June 1794 he formally introduced the Law of 22 Prairial, which removed defence counsel and ordinary evidentiary requirements, broadened enemy categories, and left death as the only guilty sentence.

Key Characteristics

• He was a lawyer and was paralysed below the waist.
• He supported Robespierre’s unified reading of war, revolt, scarcity, and conspiracy.
• He helped draft the Constitution of 1793.
• He joined democratic social promises to acceptance of emergency coercion.
• His proposed mass deportation from Lyon exceeded what Robespierre would support.
• He formally introduced the Law of 22 Prairial and its radical compression of tribunal procedure.

Evidence

Committee leadership and constitutional work

• 708. The Terror: The Reign of Robespierre (Part 2) places Couthon beside Robespierre and Saint-Just in committee leadership and drafting the Constitution of 1793.

Lyon repression

• 708. The Terror: The Reign of Robespierre (Part 2) attributes to him a proposal to deport large sections of Lyon after the city’s fall.

Law of 22 Prairial

• 711. The Terror: Killing God (Part 5) identifies Couthon as the measure’s formal sponsor and describes its weakened defence, broad offences, and death-only conviction.

Qualifications

• The source supplies a supporting role rather than a full biography or independent account of Couthon’s political development.
• Robespierre’s rejection of the Lyon proposal shows that the committee leadership did not agree on every scope or instrument of repression.
• Formal introduction does not establish sole authorship; the episode attributes most drafting to Robespierre, and the precise division of responsibility remains source-scoped.

What Changed

• Extended Couthon’s profile from constitutional drafting and the Lyon debate to sponsorship of the Law of 22 Prairial.
• Added the contrast between a democratic constitutional program and extreme trial compression.

Relationships

• Maximilien Robespierre / 罗伯斯庇尔 - principal ally whose emergency diagnosis he supported.
• Louis Antoine de Saint-Just - fellow committee leader and constitutional collaborator.
• Committee of Public Safety - emergency executive body in which he exercised authority.
• Constitution of 1793 - democratic constitution he helped draft.
• Revolutionary Terror Politics / 革命恐怖政治 - coercive emergency politics in which his proposals operated.
• Law of 22 Prairial - procedural escalation he formally introduced in June 1794.
• Revolutionary Tribunal - court whose defence rights, evidence, and sentencing the law transformed.