Biography
Born in Saint-Sever in the Landes department of France, Lamarque was a member of a powerful and influential family. His father Joseph Peter Lamarque (1733-1802) was a lawyer and Seneschal of Saint-Sever. His uncle Jean-Jacques Lamarque (1737-1809) was director of a theological college and was persecuted during the Reign of Terror. Lamarque's father was elected a member of the Third Estate to the Estates General of 1789 and took the Tennis Court Oath. He became a member of the Constituent National Assembly.
Lamarque joined his father in Paris and joined the army in 1791. He was involved in early revolutionary and anti-clerical activity. He was a member of a battalion that gutted Vabres Cathedral, removing a marble altar to build a monument for the recently murdered Jean-Paul Marat. He then burned the building. In 1793 he was in the 4e bataillon de volontaires des Landes.
Read more about this topic: Jean Maximilien Lamarque
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