Born, 1755; died, 1794. Until 1789 he was a butcher in Paris.
He headed that procession which on July 13, 1789, carried round Paris
busts of the Duke of Orleans and Necker. On the following day he
conducted the mob to the Invalides, where they plundered the armoury,
previous to attacking the Bastille. He soon became one of the principal
revolutionary leaders, and was instrumental in forming the _Club des
Cordeliers_. He it was who, when the crowd invaded the Tuileries
upon June 20, 1792, forced the red cap upon Louis XVI. On August 10 he
took a prominent part in the attack upon the Palace.
Member for Paris in the Convention, he pressed incessantly for the
speedy trial and execution of the King. During that trial he was
constantly appearing at the Convention and in the Jacobin Club, where
mounting the tribune he demanded with violence that the body of Louis
after his execution should be divided into eighty-four pieces, so
that a portion of the tyrant’s remains might be despatched to every
Department in the Republic. Legendre as Member of the Committee of
Public Safety was, like Marat, one of the principal instigators of
the proscription and execution of the Girondins. When Lanjuna made an
attempt to speak in their defence, the ex-butcher threatened to hurl
the orator from the tribune, unless he was instantly silent. In January
1794, Legendre was accused of _Hébertisme_, and threatened with
expulsion from the Jacobin Club, but he escaped by proving his intimate
friendship with Marat. Danton had been his friend and ally, and when
the former was arrested Legendre at first spoke in his favour; finding
that the Convention were against such a proceeding, he immediately
declared that he answered for no one’s patriotism, and would never
again defend an accused person. Legendre became the ally of Tallien
and Fréron, and played an important part in the revolution of 9th
Thermidor. As soon as the decree of arrest against Robespierre had been
carried, Legendre sprang into the tribune and harangued with great
heat and much vigour against the accused, after which he rushed to the
Jacobin Club, forced every member to quit the building, locked the
doors and brought the keys to the Convention. From that day Legendre
never ceased clamouring for the immediate condemnation of the members
of the very party of which he had so long been a leader, calling them
“blood drinkers” and “terrorists.”
He was elected President of the Convention, and in that capacity
marched at the head of the troops who dispersed and shot down the
surging mobs who surrounded the walls of the Convention demanding bread.
This was his last exploit. His excesses and the violence of his
temperament had undermined his constitution, and as Member of the
Council of Ancients, he took little part in debate. A few weeks before
his death he made a speech indicting the Government for their leniency
towards the _emigrés_. He bequeathed his body to the School of
Medicine, “so that even after his death he might still serve mankind.”