A presentation by Sciences Po Grenoble-UGA at the Nuit du droit 2024 at the Grenoble Law Courts, Friday, October 4, starting at 7 p.m.

The great hours of the trial of Marie-Antoinette of Austria-Lorraine, known as the Widow Capet

A text by Aurélien Lignereux, University Professor of History

With :
Nordine Hocine (English teacher): Joseph Prunelle de Lière
Aurélien Lignereux (History teacher): André Amar
Lynda Maurice (Legal Director): Marguerite de Blacons
Simon Varaine (Economics lecturer): Joseph Chanrion

Presentation

Re-enacting the trial of Marie-Antoinette? Cinema, theater and docu-fiction have all taken up the subject, relying on historical reconstruction or experimenting with audience participation. In the context of the Nuit du Droit, the approach will be resolutely different, since the aim will be to stage the reception of this trial by contemporaries, in order to address the issues of the moment and their subsequent resonances: natural law put to the test by revolutionary law, exceptional justice in the age of revolutionary government, individual mores before the court of opinion, chauvinist and egalitarian passions at work in a court of law, the dissemination of information in the provinces, and women's political rights.

In the aftermath of the trial and execution of the deposed Queen of France (October 1793), four Grenoble residents living in Paris met to compare their views on the Queen's trial and comment on the course taken by justice at a time when terror was on the Convention's agenda.