He had arranged to marry his illegitimate son Jean-Baptiste Martin Hérault de Séchelles to his wife's niece, so that he might present himself in society as the "uncle" of Marie-Jean.

Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles was also the first cousin of the famous Duchess of Polignac, the friend and confidant of Queen Marie Antoinette.

Finally, he was also the nephew of Claude-Henri Feydeau de Marville, Lieutenant General of Police of Paris between 1739 and 1747, who had married Marie-Jean's aunt - the second daughter of René Hérault and his first wife.

[1] During and after the 10 August 1792 insurrection, he worked alongside Georges Danton, one of the organizers and leading figures of this rising and, on 2 September, was appointed president of the Legislative Assembly.

[1] On his return to Paris, Hérault was several times president of the convention, notably on 2 June 1793, the occasion of the attack on the Girondins (when he unsuccessfully pleaded for the troops to retreat),[7] and on 10 August 1793, on which was celebrated the passing of the Acte constitutionnel (called "of The Mountain"); Hérault de Sechelles served, alongside Louis de Saint-Just, as one of the writers and redactors of the 1793 Constitution, which was fated never to be put into effect.

[1] Hérault, whose aristocratic background was also accounted a source of suspicion, was accused of collusion with foreign agents, amounting to treason by Bourdon de l'Oise on 16 December 1793.

[10] He was tried before the Revolutionary Tribunal and condemned alongside Danton,[1] François Joseph Westermann, Camille Desmoulins, and Pierre Philippeaux.