TALLIEN, JEAN LAMBERT French revolutionary, was born in Paris in 1767. He entered a printer's office, and by 1791 he had reached the position of overseer of the printing department of the Moniteur. While thus employed he conceived the idea of the journal-affiche, and after the arrest of the king at Varennes in June 1791 he placarded a large printed sheet on all the walls of Paris twice a week, under the title of the Ami des Citoyens, journal fraternel.
This enterprise, financed by the Jacobin Club, made him well known to the revolutionary leaders; and he made himself still more conspicuous in organizing the great "Fête de la Liberte" on April 15, 1792, in honour of the released soldiers of Chateau Vieux, with Collot d'Herbois. He was active in the events of Aug. Io, and was made clerk to the Revolutionary Commune of Paris. At the close of September he resigned his post on being elected a deputy to the Convention by the department of Seine et-Oise. He took his seat upon the Mountain, and was one of the most vigorous Jacobins, particularly in his defence of Marat, on Feb. 26, 1 793 ; he was elected a member of the Committee of General Security on Jan. 21, 1793. He took an active part in the coups d'etat of May 31 and June 2, which resulted in the over throw of the Girondists. On Sept. 23, 1793, he was sent with Claude Alexandre Ysabeau (1754-1831) to Bordeaux. This was the month in which the Terror was organized under the superin tendence of the Committees of Public Safety and General Se curity.
Tallien showed himself one of the most vigorous of the pro consuls sent over France to establish the Terror in the provinces and soon awed the great city. Among his prisoners was Therese, the divorced wife of the comte de Fontenay, and daughter of the Spanish banker, Francois Cabarrus, one of the most fascinating women of her time, and Tallien not only spared her life but fell in love with her. Suspected of "Moderatism" on account of this incident, Tallien increased, in appearance, his revolutionary zeal, but from the lives Therese saved by her entreaties she received the name of "Our Lady of Thermidor," after the 9th of Ther midor. Tallien was even elected president of the Convention on March 24, 1794. Robespierre began to see, however, that he i must strike at his own colleagues in the committees if he was to carry out his theories; but they determined to strike first, and on the great day of Thermidor Tallien opened the attack upon Robespierre. Robespierre and his friends were guillotined; and
Tallien, as the leading Thermidorian, was elected to the Commit tee of Public Safety. He suppressed the Revolutionary Tribunal and the Jacobin Club and fought bravely against the insurgents of Prairial. He was supported by Therese, whom he married on Dec. 26, 1794, and who became the leader of the social life of Paris. His last political achievement was in July 1795, when he was present with Hoche at the destruction of the army of the émigrés at Quiberon, and ordered the executions which followed.
Tallien's political importance came to an end with the Con vention for, though he sat in the Council of Five Hundred, the moderates attacked him as terrorist, and the extreme party as a renegade. Madame Tallien also tired of him, and became the mistress of the rich banker Ouvrard. Bonaparte took him to Egypt in his great expedition of June 1798, and he edited the Decade Egyptienne in Cairo. But General J. F. Menou sent him away from Egypt, and he was captured by an English cruiser and taken to London, where he had a good reception among the Whigs and was well received by Fox. On returning to France in 1802 he obtained a divorce from his wife (who in 1805 married the comte de Caraman, later prince de Chimay), and was for some time without employment. At last he was appointed consul at Alicante, and remained there until he lost the sight of one eye from yellow fever. On returning to Paris he lived on his half pay, and his latter days were spent in poverty. He died in Paris on Nov. 16, 1820.
Tallien left an interesting Discours sur les causes qui ont produit la Revolution francaise (1791) and a Memoire sur l'adnzinistration de l'Egypte a l'arrivee des Francais. See "Tallien et l'Expedition d'f;gypte" in La Revolution Francaise: Revue d'histoire moderne et contempo raine, t. iii. p. 269. On Madame Tallien see Arsene Houssaye, Notre Dame de Thermidor (1866) ; J. Turquan, Souveraines et grandes Dames: La citoyenne Tallien, temoignages des contemporains et docu ments inedits (1898) ; and Louis Gastine, La belle Tallien (1909).