Charlotte Corday (Guillotined July 17, 1793)
- Gained access to the room where she killed radical revolutionary, Jean Paul Marat (who was in a medicinal bath due to a skin condition) by promising to give him names from the more moderate political party he opposed (which she supported)
- Given the nickname “The Angel of Assassination” by writer Alphonse de Lamartine in 1847
Marie Antoinette (Guillotined October 16, 1793)
- “Let them eat cake” is the most famous quote attributed to Marie Antoinette. However, there is no historical evidence that she ever said it. It is thought that the revolutionaries spread it as propaganda.
- Initially buried in Madeleine Cemetery, one of four cemeteries used to dispose of guillotine victims during the Reign of Terror (including Charlotte, Olympe, and Marie’s husband Louis XVI); later exhumed with Louis and moved to the Basilica of St. Dénis
Olympe de Gouges (Guillotined November 3, 1793)
- Wrote “The Declaration of the Rights of Woman,” a response to the “The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen” written by the Marquis de Lafayette with input from Thomas Jefferson. The dedication was addressed to Marie Antoinette
- Included Marie Antoinette as a character in her unfinished last play, FRANCE PRESERVED OR THE TYRANT DETHRONED, the manuscript of which was used as condemning evidence in Olympe’s trial
Marianne Angelle (Not an historical person)
- Has the same name as La Marianne, the national symbol of the French Republic, which emerged during the French Revolution
- Based on the women lost to history who were a part of the slave rebellion in Saint Domingue, Haiti, which started in 1791 and was the first successful slave revolt in the world