Database: Death of Mirabeau

On April 2, 1791, Honoré-Gabriel Riqueti Mirabeay lay on his death bed. The 42 year-old was exhausted from his excessive drinking and womanizing.* -- * Has anyone ever been so exhausted from womanising that they have to go straight to their death bed? I mean - that's actually quite impressive. I think I'd probably have been standing at the end of his bed as he went, applauding. -- Mirabeau had been a double agent since the Estates General of 1789. He had received money from Louis XVI in return for his advisory services, and to make sure that the Revolution would never overthrow the monarchy.

An impassioned speaker who was always willing to stand up to his enemies, his death caused a considerable amount of dismay in Paris; he was seen as a potential minister as well as a first-rate thinker. His ashes were later transferred to the Panthéon. And yet, in 1792, when an iron chest was discovered at the Tuileries Palace containing correspondence between Louis XVI and, among others, Mirabeau, the latter was immediately discredited and removed from the Pantheon.