The Girondins (US: /(d)ʒɪˈrɒndɪnz/ ji-RON-dinz, zhi-,[3] French: [ʒiʁɔ̃dɛ̃]

(listen)), or Girondists, were members of a loosely knit political faction during

the French Revolution. From 1791 to 1793, the Girondins were active in the
Legislative Assembly and the National Convention. Together with the Montagnards,
they initially were part of the Jacobin movement. They campaigned for the end of
the monarchy, but then resisted the spiraling momentum of the Revolution, which
caused a conflict with the more radical Montagnards. They dominated the movement
until their fall in the insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793, which resulted in the
domination of the Montagnards and the purge and eventual mass execution of the
Girondins. This event is considered to mark the beginning of the Reign of Terror.

The Girondins were a group of loosely affiliated individuals rather than an

organized political party and the name was at first informally applied because the
most prominent exponents of their point of view were deputies to the Legislative
Assembly from the département of Gironde in southwest France. Girondin leader
Jacques Pierre Brissot proposed an ambitious military plan to spread the Revolution
internationally, therefore the Girondins were the war party in 1792–1793. Other
prominent Girondins included Jean Marie Roland and his wife Madame Roland. They
also had an ally in the English-born American activist Thomas Paine.

Brissot and Madame Roland were executed and Jean Roland (who had gone into hiding)
committed suicide when he learned about the execution. Paine was imprisoned, but he
narrowly escaped execution. The famous painting The Death of Marat depicts the
fiery radical journalist and denouncer of the Girondins Jean-Paul Marat after being
stabbed to death in his bathtub by Charlotte Corday, a Girondin sympathizer. Corday
did not attempt to flee and was arrested and executed.