Corday, << kawr DAY, >> Charlotte (1768-1793), a French patriot, killed Jean-Paul Marat, a radical leader of the French Revolution, on July 13, 1793. She was tried in a Revolutionary court, and on July 17, she was guillotined. She sympathized with the Girondists, a group of representatives in the French legislature (see Girondists). When the Girondist leaders were arrested, Corday resolved to kill Marat, an opponent in the legislature. She obtained an interview with him. While he was in his bath, where he spent several hours each day seeking relief from a skin disease, she stabbed him to death. Charlotte Corday was born on July 27, 1768, in Normandy, France.
See also French Revolution; Marat, Jean-Paul.
