Yesterday I gathered a lot of information Charles Henri Sanson (1739-1806) and his son Henri (Henri-Nicolas-Charles Sanson). During the reign of Louis XV he introduced a fashion, wearing blue or green. In September 1790 he proposed to stop and to appoint his eldest son. It was not accepted. He was arrested after 10 august 1792, but released on 21st, to do a few executions. Sanson was accused of royalism by several journalists of the time and, in particular, by Camille Desmoulins.[Charles Henri Sanson par Roger Goulard. Mercure de France, 1 février 1951, p. 263] During the September Massacres he and two brothers were arrested again. On 20 January 1793 he refused to execute the King and the Tribunal looked for another person.[Mercure de France, 1 février 1951, p. 261, 264] Sanson secretly organised a mess/requiem for the soul of the King. Balzac had the information from Henri Sanson. There is no proof it was ever held.[Mercure de France, 1 novembre 1951, p. 479-480] He was accused by Fouquier-Tinville of “incivisme”. It is likely he was the executioner of Marie-Antoinette and Philippe d’Orléans and all the Girondins in November 1793.
* Roger Goulard (1968) Une lignée d’exécuteurs des jugements criminels; les Sanson, 1688-1847
* Bernard Lecherbonnier (1989) Bourreaux de pere en fils: les Sanson, 1688-1847
Sanson, his brother Pierre–Claude, lieutenant, and Henri were involved in the events of 9 Thermidor,. His brother and son were arrested and released on 1 September 1794. Henri, was a sergeant next “capitaine de la Garde Nationale de Paris (artillerie puis Gendarmerie des Tribunaux).” Henri was appointed executioner on 4 September 1795; his father stepped down.[Mercure de France, 1 février 1951, p. 266] After 1804, when asked by Napoleon if he was the executioner in 1793, Sanson confirmed.[Mercure de France, 1 février 1951, p. 267]
Someone questions the reliability of Memoirs of the Sansons: From Private Notes and Documents (1688-1847)—perhaps due to the issues raised in https://www.rarebookhub.com/articles/2309?id=2309?
These Memoirs of the Sanson, published in two volumes in 1829, had been written by a trio of compilers including Marco Saint-Hilaire, Louis-François L’héritier who called himself the Heir of the Ain and Balzac, who had written so far under various pseudonyms.
It was Monique Lebailly who started to question these Mémoires in 1988 in: La Révolution française vue par son bourreau : journal de Charles-Henri Sanson. I have not found a copy yet and cannot tell if she focuses specifically the 1830 version.
https://journals.openedition.org/ahrf/1561
Thibault Ehrengardt, a journalist and expert on reggae music, has been cited in this context. While respected in his field, his authority on historical subjects such as the Sanson family appears limited. His perspective may even be influenced by a “woke” approach to history.
The Memoirs have been deemed culturally significant by some scholars, though they were likely written with commercial motives in mind. Charles-Henri Sanson, a known royalist, provided detailed accounts, particularly of the execution of Louis XVI. The first edition of the memoirs (Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de la révolution française), published by bookseller Auguste Sautelet during the Bourbon Restoration, was widely regarded as apocryphal. Perhaps because he was not the executioner, but had appointed assistants?
Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de la révolution française
De Honoré de Balzac, Louis François L’Héritier
This online edition was not part of my research as Robespierre is mentioned only twice in the Memoirs. Louis-François L’Héritier is credited with rewriting parts of the text, though he is not listed as the editor in either the French or English Wikipedia entries.
It seems “almost the entire first volume” (p. 58) was written by Balzac and that in any case it would be necessary to publish the entire Mémoires de Sanson.
The involvement of Honoré de Balzac seems plausible, as he was involved in various unsuccessful printing ventures during the late 1820s. By April 1828, Balzac owed 50,000 francs to his mother [40]. In 1829 he published Les Chouans. Un épisode sous la Terreur (1830) , Le Réquisitionnaire in 1831. In 1842 La Rabouilleuse. It was in December 1842, in Le Royal Keepsake, Livre des Salons, that the “episode” found its almost definitive form, with its new epilogue and under the title of Une messe en 1793. It is signed “de Balzac”, and stripped of any connection with Sanson’s Memoirs. In all of these versions, the ending is changed.[https://www.maisondebalzac.paris.fr/vocabulaire/furne/notices/episode_sous_la_terreur.htm]
After his death in 1850, Balzac was praised for reworking a “moving account” (1851) that begins with the execution of Louis XVI.
The Memoirs were republished in 1862 (Volume I) and 1876 (Volume II). The 1862 edition contains no references to Robespierre. According to Bourdin, a publicist named d’Olbreuse may have edited about one-third of the text. Philippe Bourdin, in Seven Generations of Executioners: Memories of the Executioner Sanson (1688–1847) (2004), describes Henri-Clément Sanson as a literature enthusiast which suggests that he may have authored much of the work himself (pp. 217–219). He was seen as organised and methodical.[Le Petit Parisien, 8 juillet 1886]
According to the Sanson family’s diary, 2,548 individuals were executed between July 14, 1789, and October 1, 1796. Among them, 370 were women, 22 were under the age of 18, and nine were over 80. While striking, these statistics could be accurate.
The Sanson family’s tenure as executioners effectively ended in 1846 when Henri-Clément Sanson, burdened by gambling debts, was imprisoned. In 1847, facing severe financial ruin, he reportedly pawned the guillotine to settle his debts. [5]
https://www.weirdhistorian.com/the–unfortunate–career–of–charles–henri–sanson–executioner–of–france/
