Louis Legendre

He was present in the crowd that demanded the removal of King Louis XVI on Champ de Mars in July 1791 (and during the subsequent massacre ordered by Jean Sylvain Bailly).

[1] Deputy for the Seine département to the National Convention, he joined the non-affiliated group led by Jean-Paul Marat, and voted for the execution of Louis XVI.

Upon his return from Lyon, he was singled out as a moderate by the Jacobins, but became an adversary of the Girondists after clashes with Count Lanjuinais - as a member of the Committee of General Security during the Reign of Terror, he contributed to the downfall of the group; he was excluded by the Cordeliers after Jacques Hébert accused him of favoring Maximilien Robespierre.

On 27 July, the start of the Thermidorian Reaction, Legendre, after having signed his name on the list of speakers, would have asked Jacques-Alexis Thuriot de la Rosière (one of the putsch leaders): "Strike my name off.

He was elected president of the convention, and helped bring about the impeachment of Jean-Baptiste Carrier, the perpetrator of mass executions by drowning (noyades) of royalist sympathizers.

Louis Legendre
Side view sketching of Louis Legendre, whose portrait was mistakenly used, for nearly 200 years, to represent French mathematician Adrien-Marie Legendre , i.e., up until 2005 when the mistake was discovered. [ 2 ]