Honoré Gabriel Riqueti

Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, was a French nobleman and revolutionary orator who became a leading figure in the early stages of the French Revolution.

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Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès: A French clergyman and political writer whose pamphlet argued that the Third Estate constituted the French nation. Sieyès and Mirabeau both represented the Third Estate in the Estates-General, despite their sharply different political styles.
Estates-General of 1789: The French representative assembly convened in 1789 to address the monarchy’s fiscal crisis. Mirabeau entered national politics as a deputy for the Third Estate at this assembly.
French National Constituent Assembly: The assembly that governed France and drafted a constitution from 1789 to 1791. Mirabeau’s parliamentary speeches and motions gained influence within this revolutionary legislature.
House of Riqueti: A French noble family from which Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, descended. His aristocratic birth gave him a noble title even as he became a spokesman for the Third Estate.
Panthéon: A Paris monument that has served as a mausoleum for prominent French citizens since the Revolution. Mirabeau became the first person interred there during the Revolution.
Jacques Necker: A Genevan-born French finance minister whose dismissal in July 1789 helped spark popular unrest in Paris. Mirabeau opposed Necker’s dismissal and warned the royal court of its danger.
Tennis Court Oath: A pledge made by deputies in June 1789 to remain assembled until France had a constitution. Mirabeau backed the deputies’ refusal to disperse and became associated with their defiance of royal authority.
Constitutional monarchy: A system in which a monarch’s powers are limited by a constitution and representative institutions. Mirabeau sought to reconcile popular sovereignty with a continuing, limited monarchy.
Victor Riqueti, Marquis de Mirabeau: A French economist and nobleman, and the father of Honoré Gabriel Riqueti. His father’s authority and conflict with Mirabeau shaped the latter’s early life and writing.
Armoire de fer: A hidden iron safe in the Tuileries Palace containing Louis XVI’s secret political papers. Documents found there exposed Mirabeau’s covert payments and correspondence with the king.