author

Henry Goudemetz

1749–1825

A French clergyman in exile who wrote about revolution from close range, he is best known for a vivid account of the French Revolution and the trial and execution of Louis XVI. His surviving record is sparse, which gives his work an added sense of discovery.

1 Audiobook

Historical Epochs of the French Revolution With The Judgment And Execution Of Louis XVI., King Of France And A List Of The Members Of The National Convention, Who Voted For And Against His Death

Historical Epochs of the French Revolution With The Judgment And Execution Of Louis XVI., King Of France And A List Of The Members Of The National Convention, Who Voted For And Against His Death

by Henry Goudemetz

About the author

Little is firmly documented about this writer, but library and public-domain records identify him as a French author named Henry Goudemetz, born in 1749. The Bibliothèque nationale de France lists him as Henry Goudemetz (1749–1828) and attributes to him the travel piece Voyage de Champeaux à Meaux, fait en 1785.

He is best known today for Historical Epochs of the French Revolution. In the English edition preserved by Project Gutenberg, the book is presented as translated from the French of H. Goudemetz, described there as a French clergyman emigrant in England. The work focuses on the upheavals of the Revolution, especially the judgment and execution of Louis XVI.

Some modern catalog records disagree about his death year, with LibriVox giving 1825 while the BnF record gives 1828. Because the biographical trail is thin, the safest picture is of a French clerical writer and observer of revolutionary history whose reputation now rests mainly on this one substantial historical work.