No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
The Trial of Francisco de Miranda
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
Extract
In May 12, 1793, a tall handsome Spanish American strode quickly and confidently into the old Paris Parlement chamber, escorted by an usher, and followed by most eyes in the buzzing room. As he approached his place his eyes very likely met those of Danton, seated in the courtroom, for Danton, the real head of the Committee of Public Safety, was present and, although unable at the time for political reasons to show public sympathy for the Spanish American, was his friend.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1966
References
1 Briceño, Olga, Miranda: Mariscal de Francia y precursor de la Libertad de América (Madrid, 1935), p. 112–113 Google Scholar. Who your friends were could make considerable difference from day to day at this time. Danton had been an acquaintance of Dumouriez; the reason why this made a difference will be made clear shortly. Works from which background biographical material has been borrowed, in addition to the above cited work, are: Becerra, Ricardo, Vida de Don Francisco de Miranda, Tomo I (Madrid, 1918)Google Scholar; id., Ensayo histórico documentado de la vida de Francisco de Miranda, general de los ejércitos de la primera república francesa (Caracas, 1896); Cordoba, Diego, Miranda: Soldado del infortunio (Mexico, D. F., 1954)Google Scholar; Gálvez, Manuel, Don Francisco de Miranda: El más universal de los americanos (Buenos Aires, 1946)Google Scholar; Mendoza, E. Rodriquez, Miranda, el visionario (Buenos Aires, 1944)Google Scholar; Nucete-Sardi, José, Aventura y tragedia de Don Francisco de Miranda (tercera edición; Caracas, 1951)Google Scholar; de Galway, Comte C. Ô Kelly, Francisco de Miranda: Général de devision des armées de la République (1791–94): Héros de P'indépendance Américaine (1756–1814). Biographie et Iconographie (Paris, 1913)Google Scholar; ( Parra-Pérez, C., Miranda en la Révolution Française (Paris, 1925)Google Scholar; Picón-Salas, Mariano, Miranda (Buenos Aires, 1946)Google Scholar; Robertson, William Spence, The Life of Miranda, Vol. I (Chapel Hill, 1929)Google Scholar; Thorning, Joseph F., Miranda: World Citizen (Gainesville, Fla., 1952)Google Scholar; Veharano, Jorge Ricard, La vida fabulosa de Miranda (Bogatá, 1945)Google Scholar.
2 Thorning, Joseph F., Miranda: World Citizen (Gainesville, Fla., 1952), p. 105.Google Scholar
3 This is discussed in connection with simultaneous political developments in Cobban, Alfred, A History of Modern France (Baltimore, 1957), I, 186–209.Google Scholar
4 de Miranda, Francisco, Archivo del General Miranda (Caracas, 1931), XII, 36.Google Scholar
5 See: Robertson, William Spence, The Life of Miranda (Chapel Hill, 1929), I, 114–119 Google Scholar, for a discussion of Miranda’s relationship with Pitt. At one time it was gossiped in Paris that Miranda had three English mistresses, and that they were spies for Pitt.
6 Unattributed addresses in Correspondance No. 177 Journal de Débats et de la Correspondance de la Société des Jacobins, amis de l’Egalité de la Liberté, séate aux Jacobins, à Paris, included in Archivo del General Miranda, XI, 250.
7 This interrogation may be found in Rojas, Aristides, Miranda en la Revolución Francesa (Caracas, 1889), p. 138–165 Google Scholar. Also found here is Miranda’s correspondence with Brissot (pp. 1–11) and with Dumouriez (pp. 12–130).
8 Archives Parlementaires (Paris, 1902), 1. ser., LXI, 629. The writer did not come across the testimony to which Robespierre refers.
9 Ibid., pp. 536–538.
10 Ibid., p. 539.
11 Ibid., p. 541.
12 Ibid., p. 635.
13 Ibid., p. 629.
14 Ibid., LXII, 20.
15 Ibid., p. 21. Thorning, Miranda, p. 105, supports this. He says that it was through Pétion that Miranda met the Minister of War.
16 Archives Parlementaires, 1, ser., LXIII, 60.
17 Robertson, Life of Miranda, I, 134, quoting “Reflexion pour Miranda a ses juges,” May, 1793, Miranda MSS., Vol. 39.
18 Eustace disqualified himself from testifying. He was asked the routine question, “Do you know the accused? “He replied, “I have the honor of detesting the accused! “Miranda wished him to be allowed to testify, anyhow, but this was not permitted.
19 Tinville was arrested in 1793 after the ninth of Thermidor. He had been denounced by an old enemy, Férőn. He was tried in March, 1795. He defended himself on the ground that he had merely carried out the orders of the Committee of Public Safety, as a faithful public servant. He and fourteen jurors of the Revolutionary Tribunal were executed. Cobban, Modern France, I, 237–238. One writer depicts Tinville in the following terms: wearing a wide-brimmed hat down over his face, with a large tuft of feathers in the back of the hat, a tri-color ribbon on his chest, black hair, small eyes, a delicate, crooked nose, a mouth marked by antipathy, sour face, ex-spy, perverse and gross, lacking sense of right and justice, insulter of his victims, sending to the gallows in his two years of office more than 2000, almost all innocent: Manuel Gálvez, Don Francisco de Miranda, pp. 209, 212.
20 Buchez, P.-J.-B. and Roux, P.-C., Histoire Parlementaire de la Révolution Française (Paris, 1836), pp. 26–35 Google Scholar.
21 Ibid., p. 29.
22 Ibid., pp. 34–35.
23 Bulletin de Tribunal Criminel Revolutionaire, No. 30, p. 120.
24 Histoire Parlementaire, 27, 35.
25 Bulletin, No. 31, pp. 122–123.
26 Histoire Parlementaire, pp. 27, 36.
27 Ibid.,
28 Ibid., pp. 27, 37.
29 Bulletin, No. 32, p. 126.
30 Histoire Parlementaire, pp. 27, 39.
31 Ibid., pp. 27, 40.
32 “. . . Miranda pleaded his case with such sublime energy, as proved that his powers as an orateur were not inferior to his talents as a general. He covered himself with glory, and his enemies with confusion, and overstepping the usual forms, the jury made their verdict the vehicle of eulogium upon his conduct.” Williams, Helen Maria, Letters Containing A Sketch of the Politics of France (London, 1795), I, 247 Google Scholar.
33 Bulletin, No. 34, p. 134.
34 Quoted in: C. Parra-Pérez, Miranda en la Révolution Française, p. 247.
35 Ibid.
36 Ibid.
37 Ibid., p. 248.
38 Ibid.
39 Histoire Parlementaire, pp. 27, 66.
40 On the charges themselves, cf. ibid., p. 67. “Miranda ne s’est trouvé à Liège qu’en allant du poste de Visé à celui de Tongres, qui tous deux étainet sous ses ordres. Valence commandait dans cette ville; c’était lui qui était chargé des mesures nécessaires à sa conservation; et dans les réponses faites par Miranda aux Liégeois pendant la journée du 4 mars dernier, je n’ai rien vu qui manifestât le dessein de librer la ville aux ennemis.
“Pour la bataille de Nervinde, Miranda avait reçu de général Dumourier l’order positif d’attaquer sur tous les points; il m’a paru que la mauvaise position de l’aile gauche de l’ armée qu’il à été la seule cause de sa defaite, et qu’il n’y avait, a cet égard, aucun reproche à faire à Miranda.
“Le bombardement de Maëstricht m’a paru avoir été entrepris avec trop de précipitation, et sans avoir suffisamment prépare les pièces nécessaires a l’attaque, que Dumourier annocait ne pas devoir être longue; mais je n’aperçois point de trahision dans cette opération; l’artillerie était spécialement contiée au général Dangest, et Miranda ne pouvait pas être personnellement responsable des faute particulières de cet officier.”
41 Le Moniteur, May 21, 1793, p. 1.
42 Histoire Parlementaire, pp. 27, 70.
43 Le Moniteur, May 30, 1793, p. 1. This may not be accurate, for this story is based on a letter from Miranda, and he may have been giving the event some icing.