PETION DE VILLENEUVE, JEROME

born Jan. 3, 1756, Chartres, France died 1794, near Saint-milion politician of the French Revolution who was at first a close associate, and later a bitter enemy, of the Jacobin leader Robespierre. The son of a lawyer of Chartres, Ption practiced as an advocate before accepting a seat with the bourgeois Third Estate at the States General of 1789. When the Third Estate obtained control of the States General (which became the National Assembly) and set about abolishing France's feudal institutions, Ption and Robespierre led the small minority of deputies who pressed for enfranchisement of the lower classes and other far-reaching democratic reforms. The National Assembly dissolved itself on Sept. 30, 1791, and in November Ption was elected mayor of Paris. Without breaking with Robespierre, he formed ties with the Girondins, the moderate bourgeois-democrats who opposed Robespierre in the newly formed Legislative Assembly. When the Girondins organized a popular demonstration against King Louis XVI in Paris on June 20, 1792, Ption made only half-hearted efforts to preserve order. Louis retaliated by suspending him from office on July 12, but the Legislative Assembly reinstated the mayor on August 3. Nevertheless, during the Paris insurrection that overthrew the monarchy on August 10, Ption avoided committing himself to the Revolutionary cause. In September 1792, Ption was elected the first president of the National Convention, which succeeded the Legislative Assembly. Jealous of Robespierre's preeminence among the Montagnards (as the Jacobins of the Convention were called), Ption joined the Girondins, and on June 2, 1793, he, together with 28 other Girondin leaders, was expelled from the Convention in a Montagnard coup d'tat. Escaping arrest, Ption made his way to the vicinity of Saint-milion, where he and another prominent Girondin, Franois Buzot, committed suicide. Their bodies were discovered on June 18, 1794.