Marie- Adélaïde Lambert:A Recruiter for the Conspiracy of the Equals during the French Revolution
Marie- Adélaïde Lambert was one of the many revolutionary women who have been largely forgotten in the history of the French Revolution. Yet during her lifetime she was well known and became one of the most prominent figures of the Babouvist Conspiracy, particularly during her trial.
At the time of her arrest, this young woman was twenty-five years old. She was therefore probably born around 1771 . According to Robert Legrand, in his book Babeuf et ses compagnons de route, she “worked as a broker and was employed in the linen trade.”
Her address was on Rue Vieille-du-Temple. She frequently visited the Bains chinois, a place where the Babouvists prepared their conspiracies and where subscriptions to the newspaper Le Tribun du Peuple were collected (according to Aulard).
When she was arrested, “she admitted having been five or six times to this café and having seen Darthé there. At first, she refused to answer the interrogation (…) During the search of her home, a large number of Babeuf’s newspapers and pamphlets were found” (Robert Legrand).
However, her role in the conspiracy was not limited to possessing Babeuf’s newspapers or maintaining political relations with Darthé (the brother-in-law of the late Joseph Lebon). Drouin, a young man indicted at the Vendôme trial (and later acquitted), who had been in contact with the Babouvist Sophie Lapierre, stated that it was Marie- Adélaïde Lambert who recruited him for the insurrectionary wing of the Babouvist conspiracy. She was reportedly in charge of enlistment.
According to Maurice Dommanget, she “boasted of having recruited 2,000 legionaries by herself.” This claim suggests a degree of exaggeration—perhaps deliberate—but it nonetheless indicates that her role within the conspiracy was of some importance.
She distinguished herself once again in a remarkable manner during the Vendôme trial. She became part of the group of ten Babouvists who refused to acknowledge the authority of the Vendôme Court, alongside Babeuf, Blondeau, Darthé, Moroy, Germain, Cochet, Sophie Lapierre, Toulotte, and Cazin.
She also signed several manifestos together with some of the other accused. These are as follows:
PUBLIC DECLARATION
Statement made by all the detainees in the House of Justice of the High Court, in response to two perfidious, infamous, and slanderous notes inserted in issue no. 422 of Le Rédacteur officiel, presented as a report emanating from the offices of the Ministry of General Police concerning the prisoners of Vendôme.
There are here neither divisions nor parties, neither quarrels nor fears. A single sentiment animates us; one and the same resolution unites us. There is but one principle: to live and die free, to show ourselves worthy of the sacred cause for which each of us considers himself happy to suffer.
There is also here another general and no less unanimous thought: that the proscribed republican would have no need to see his brothers under unworthy chains in order to love them; but that when he does see them thus, he cannot help but feel for them a more tender love and a reverent respect.
Vendôme, 25 Pluviôse, Year V of the Republic.
Signed: Ch. Germain, G. Babeuf, Cochet, Antonelle, Toulotte, Darthé, Maurice Roy, Taffoureau, Didier, Moroy, Lamberté, Cazin, Fossard, Antoine Fiquet, Rayebois, Blondeau, Clerx, Dufour, Goulard, Boudin, Crépin, Cordas, Laignelot, Ricord, Mugnier, Nayez, Vergne, Vadier, Amar, Fyon, Morel, Massart, Buonarotti, Potofeux, Maurice Duplay, Jacques-Maurice Duplay, Widow Monnard, Breton’s wife, Breton, Sophie Lapierre, Adélaïde Lambert.
There is another circular which they are said to have drafted and signed(according to Victor Advielle, Histoire de Gracchus Babeuf et du babouvisme ).
Circular to Journalists
Vendôme, 26 Pluviôse.
Citizen, there are two sacred things on earth: misfortune and truth. If you wish to know the respect shown by Mr. Cochon for either, read his two notes on the prisoners of Vendôme, which Le Rédacteur officiel has just embellished in its issue no. 422. Every line of these two notes is a lie and a snare. We shall not debase ourselves by refuting the infamies of this report, which, if it is not the greatest of the Minister of Police’s crimes, is at least the most cowardly.
We merely ask you to insert in your paper the declaration which we believe we must oppose to it; it is desired that this declaration be placed immediately following the two notes themselves: such a juxtaposition would say everything.
Democratic and fraternal greetings.
Other accounts of Marie-Adélaïde Lambert’s trial
There are other traces of the trial of Marie-Adélaïde Lambert, notably in an excerpt cited by Victor Advielle in his book Histoire de Gracchus Babeuf et du babouvisme d'après de nombreux documents inédits :
“The following session is partly occupied by three women, one of whom is the wife of a wine merchant. What was drunk, who paid, did such a person wear this waistcoat, what was said? Such are the questions that make up the proceedings of that day.
The trial, whose resonance is so great, becomes, through excessive minutiae, childish and grotesque.
Citizen Lambert is heard; herself disgusted by these debates, she replies to the President: ‘If my previous protest is not sufficient, I declare to you once again that I protest against your competence.’”
It appears that, like Sophie Lapierre, Marie- Adélaïde Lambert supported Babeuf’s tactics—alongside Blondeau and at times Germain—by engaging in disruptive behavior in prison in order to draw public attention to their incarceration. She suffered the consequences of this conduct, as reported in a letter dated 11 Nivôse (Daude correspondence):
“Blondeau, the perpetual voice of the troublemakers, attempted to flout rules and laws by installing himself among the women in order to share scandalous pleasures with a few other accused men, whom these women had invited to dine in their corridors. We opposed this blatant violation. There were shouts, disturbances, insults, threats, and even violence… Determined to overcome all resistance, we called in the gendarmerie and had Blondeau and the other guests escorted back to their rooms. Babeuf, moments later, struck the cook. We reported the incident to the municipal administration, which issued a decree sentencing Blondeau, Sophie Lapierre, Adélaïde Lambert, and Babeuf to three days of confinement in their rooms, while the others were sentenced to five days.”
According to Robert Legrand, she was closely associated with Sophie Lapierre in particular. At the end of the Vendôme trial, she was acquitted, but like many of her co-defendants, she faced severe financial hardship. It is easy to assume that she was deeply affected by the deaths resulting from the repression of the Grenelle camp, as well as by the executions of Darthé and Babeuf.
Like many acquitted co-accused, she was among the detainees who requested compensation for the time they had spent in prison—some of them having been detained for up to thirteen months. This request was initially refused by the Directory, but compensation was eventually granted after the Coup of 18 Fructidor, Year V.
Like Sophie Lapierre, she disappeared from the political scene thereafter. Nothing is known about what became of her or the date of her death, even though she had been one of the most famous women of that period.
Sources: Maurice Dommanget Victor Advielle Robert Legrand Jean-Marc Schiappa
For further information on Sophie Lapierre—former activist alongside Claire Lacombe and a Babouvist singer—see: https://www.tumblr.com/nesiacha/804946147651272704/sophie-lapierre-activist-of-the-french-revolution?source=share
For further information on Antonelle, see: https://www.tumblr.com/nesiacha/761515728971202560/the-political-career-of-the-revolutionary?source=share His occupation at the time as a juror of the Revolutionary Tribunal is discussed here: https://www.tumblr.com/nesiacha/781747560324956160/antonelles-role-as-juror-during-the-revolution?source=share And his imprisonment in 1794, as well as his relationship with Robespierre, is discussed here: https://www.tumblr.com/nesiacha/802041947886878720/antonelles-arrest-and-the-beginning-of-his?source=share
