Jean-Baptiste Drouet (8 January 1763 – 11 April 1824) was a French politician of the Revolution and the Empire, best known for his key role in the arrest of King Louis XVI and his family during the Flight to Varennes.

[3] Shortly after the royal family's arrival, Drouet (by then himself the city's postmaster) recognized the king, under the identity of a valet "Mr. Durand", from his portrait printed on an assignat in his possession, but did not take action immediately.

[4] Riding separately, with Drouet going through Clermont and Guillaume through the Forest of Argonne in Les Islettes, they arrived with their horses in Varennes just a few minutes after the royal family, and quickly notified the local authority of their presence in town.

[1] In 1793 he voted for the death of Louis XVI without appeal, showed virulent opposition to the Girondins, and in July proposed the expulsion of all non-naturalized British speculators and stockjobbers residing in France.

In 1796 he was accused of involvement in Babeuf's Conspiracy of the Equals and imprisoned at the Prison de l'Abbaye,[5] but shortly made his escape, going first to Switzerland and from there to the Canary Islands, where he took part in the successful resistance to Horatio Nelson's attack on Tenerife in 1797, and later visited India.