Marat, Charlotte Corday and Revolutionary Martyrs

On 13 July 1793 Charlotte Corday, a young woman from Normandy who sympathised with the Girondins, gained entry to Jean-Paul Marat's home in Paris and stabbed him while he sat in a medicinal bath. She believed killing Marat, whose journalism had called for violence against enemies, would save France from civil war. She was tried and executed four days later. Instead of calming politics, the assassination made Marat a revolutionary martyr.

Jacques-Louis David painted 'The Death of Marat', presenting him with the calm dignity of a religious martyr. Marat's heart was displayed at the Cordeliers Club and his body was later placed in the Panthéon, though it was removed in 1795 after the political tide turned. The episode shows how the Revolution used images, funerals and martyr cults to build political loyalty, and how quickly reputations could change.