Corday

Corday typically refers to Charlotte Corday (1768-1793), a figure in the French Revolution.

Charlotte Corday (1768-1793)

Charlotte Corday was a French woman who assassinated Jean-Paul Marat, a radical journalist and politician, in 1793. Corday, a Girondin sympathizer, believed that Marat's extremist views and inflammatory rhetoric were inciting violence and undermining the stability of France. She travelled to Paris with the intention of killing him, and after gaining access to Marat's residence under the pretense of delivering information about counter-revolutionaries, she stabbed him to death in his bathtub.

Corday was arrested immediately after the assassination and put on trial. She openly admitted to the killing, claiming that she acted alone and with the intention of saving France from further chaos and bloodshed. Despite her defense, she was convicted of murder and executed by guillotine four days after the assassination.

Charlotte Corday's act made her a controversial figure. Some viewed her as a heroic figure who sacrificed herself to stop the Reign of Terror, while others condemned her as a murderer. Her assassination of Marat, however, is considered one of the significant events of the French Revolution, marking a turning point in the conflict between the Girondins and the Montagnards.