Jean Joseph Mounier

[1] He took part in the struggle between the parlements and the court in 1788, and promoted the meeting of the estates of Dauphiné at Vizille (20 July 1788), on the eve of the French Revolution.

He was secretary of the assembly, and drafted the cahiers ("notebooks") of grievances and remonstrances presented by it to King Louis XVI.

[2] There, and in the Constituent Assembly, he was at first an upholder of the new ideas, pronouncing himself in favor of the union of the Third Estate with the two privileged orders, proposing the famous Tennis Court Oath, assisting in the preparation of the new constitution, and demanding the return of Jacques Necker.

Being unable to approve the proceedings which followed, Mounier withdrew to Dauphiné, resigned as deputy, and, becoming suspect, took refuge in Switzerland in 1790.

Napoleon Bonaparte named him prefect of the department of Ille-et-Vilaine, which he reorganized, and in 1805, he was appointed councillor of state.