Claire Lacombe

Claire Lacombe (4 August 1765 – 2 May 1826) was a French actress, revolutionary, and women's rights activist during the French Revolution. She was a founding member of the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women, a political club of largely working-class women that agitated for participatory democracy and policies addressing the basic needs of urban workers, who suffered from high food prices and food shortages.

Early life

Lacombe was born in the provincial town of Pamiers in southwestern France. She became an actress at a young age and appeared in theatrical productions "somewhere in southern France, probably Marseille" The actress, in her mid-twenties, was "self-assured, self-assertive, and self-dramatizing, all useful qualities for making one's mark on the revolutionary scene."

After acquiring a certain level of recognition due both to her public speaking and her abilities in insurrectionary combat, Lacombe strengthened her position as a political actor. She was a frequent attendee at meetings of the Cordeliers Club, through which she became involved with the most radical elements of the Revolution.

Society of Revolutionary Republican Women

In February, 1793, Lacombe and another female revolutionary, Pauline Léon, founded "the most famous of women’s clubs," the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women. Composed chiefly of working-class women, the Society was aligned with the most militant revolutionaries, the and . The Society also functioned as a fighting force, and employed violent tactics to intimidate people that they considered to be anti-revolutionaries.

Almost from the outset, the French Revolution, including its most radical elements, encountered difficulties incorporating women's rights into their broader principles of human rights. This debate took place within a societal context in which women of all classes were almost entirely without political or civil rights. For example, women had no right to vote; men had total legal authority over their wives; and female children received a non-existent or inferior education relative to males.

Demise of the Society

On September 16, 1793, Lacombe, then president of the Society, was publicly denounced by the Jacobins to the Committee of General Security. They accused her of "making counter-revolutionary statements," and having lived with and aided a "notorious counter-revolutionary, the Leclerc". Lacombe was arrested by order of the Committee of General Security, but, for unknown reasons, she was quickly released.

She defended herself vigorously to the working-class women in her Society and continued her political activities. However, the writing was already on the wall for this group, which was seen by the Revolutionary government as uncontrollable and no longer politically useful. The Society nevertheless continued its activism, carrying petitions to the convention. These asked for policies that would "rehabilitate prostitutes through useful work and indoctrination" and called for "the enforcement of price fixing laws" and policing of warehouses through "domiciliary visits."

The confrontation resulted in the market women laying charges against the women of the Society, including Claire Lacombe. This gave the Jacobins "the excuse they were looking for"

End of Lacombe’s political career

Barred from any political activity, Lacombe attempted to return to her acting career. On April 2, 1794, she was arrested as she prepared to leave for a theater in Dunkirk. She was imprisoned one year longer than Léon and Leclerc because, unlike them, she refused to condemn the Revolutionary government and Robespierre in order to please the Thermidorians during the Thermidorian Reaction (when Robespierre’s government gave way to a more moderate group).

After prison, Lacombe abandoned her political activities and took up again her career in acting. Numerous documents attest to the roles she played, mainly in Nantes. Ultimately, her career wound down and she seems to have ended her life in poverty. where her profession was recorded as "teacher" . She died there on 2 May 1826, from a cardiac aneurysm.