Database: Jean-Paul Marat

Marat was a man of many talents: physician, politician, and most notably, radical journalist. His newspaper "L'Ami du people" (Friend of the People) brought him a great deal of notoriety during the French Revolution as an influential supporter of the sans-culottes and the radical Jacobin group. Following his role in the purge of the Girondists, there were some who felt his radical views would descent France into civil war. His notoriety would lead to his assassination on the 13 July 1793. This was immortalized in a painting by Jacques-Louis David that shows Marat stabbed to death in a medicinal bath. MArat had struggled with a debilitating skin condition his entire life and would often conduct his affairs while soaking in a bathtub.