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Philippe-Antoine, Count Merlin
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Philippe-Antoine, Count Merlin

French jurist
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Also known as: Merlin de Douai
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Last Updated: • Article History
Quick Facts
Byname:
Merlin de Douai
Born:
October 30, 1754, Arleux, France
Died:
December 26, 1838, Paris (aged 84)
Subjects Of Study:
French law
Napoleonic Code
Role In:
French Revolution
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Philippe-Antoine, Count Merlin (born October 30, 1754, Arleux, France—died December 26, 1838, Paris) was one of the foremost jurists of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. As a deputy for the town of Douai in the revolutionary Constituent Assembly of 1789, he was instrumental in the passage of important legislation abolishing feudal and seignorial rights. Merlin was elected to a new assembly, the National Convention, in September 1792, and he voted for the death sentence at King Louis XVI’s trial in January 1793. After July 1794 Merlin was almost continuously a member of the Committee of Public Safety, in which ...(100 of 253 words)

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