Philippe-François-Joseph Le Bas

Philippe-François-Joseph Le Bas was a French politician and revolutionary who was close to Maximilien Robespierre and Louis Antoine de Saint-Just. As a member of the National Convention, he aligned with the Montagnards and voted to convict and execute the former king, Louis XVI, for high treason. He was elected to the powerful Committee of General Security and served as a représentant en mission — a civilian deputy endowed with extraordinary powers — to reorganize the armies of the North and the Rhine during the French Revolutionary Wars. He was also appointed to lead the School of Mars, a new military school for teenage boys from all over France. In 1793, he married Élisabeth Duplay, and, the following year, they had a son also named Philippe.