Writer, orator.

One of the French Revolution’s most well known orators. Called for the National Assembly’s official mourning of Franklin (June 11, 1790).

Son of Victor de Riquetti, marquis de Mirabeau, the famous physiocrat. Soldier in the French service in Corsica.

Involved in various scandals that led to his imprisonment on several occasions.

Identified as the anonymous author of Essai sur le despotisme (1775). Fled to Amsterdam where he was arrested with his mistress, Sophie de Monnier (1777). Imprisoned in the Donjon de Vincennes (1777-80) where he wrote, Des lettres de cachet et des prisons d’Etat. Lost a suit against his wife that led to their legal separation.

Fled to London. With Franklin’s help, he found a publisher for his work, Considérations sur l’ordre de Cininnatus, an expanded translation of the American Aedanus Burke’s pamphlet that Franklin had given to Mirabeau along with his own critique the Cincinnati (1784). His work, La Monarchie Prussienne (1788), was highly praised.

Born in Loiret. Married to Emilie de Marignane in 1772.