The founder of a radical newspaper, he became prominent during the French Revolution as a virulent critic of the moderate Girondists and was instrumental (with Danton and Robespierre) in their fall from power in 1793. Suffering from a skin disease, he spent much of his time in later life in his bath, where he was murdered by the Girondist Charlotte Corday. This was used as a pretext by Robespierre and the Jacobins to purge their Girondist rivals.