Henri-Robert
Encyclopedia
Henri-Robert was a French lawyer, historian, and member of the Académie française
in 1923.
Born an illegitimate child, Robert was admitted to the bar in 1885 and rose to become a celebrated criminal defense laywer. He defended a young woman named Gabrielle Bompard in a sensational 1889 murder trial, calling in Georges Gilles de la Tourette
as an expert witness on hypnotism. He also defended the fraudster Thérèse Humbert
, and the serial child killer Jeanne Weber
, twice. In 1903 a Paris correspondent for the New York Times described him as "an exceptionally successful lawyer... the favorite advocate of the criminal classes (who) has already saved innumerable heads from the guillotine".
From 1913 through 1919 he was President of the Paris Bar. After World War I Robert turned his focus to civil litigation, and to the production of books on historical topics such as Marie Stuart, Henry VIII, Catherine de Médici, Marie-Antoinette, and Henri Coiffier de Ruzé, Marquis of Cinq-Mars
.
Robert's daughter Jeanne Henri-Robert married the future French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud
in 1912.
Académie française
L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...
in 1923.
Born an illegitimate child, Robert was admitted to the bar in 1885 and rose to become a celebrated criminal defense laywer. He defended a young woman named Gabrielle Bompard in a sensational 1889 murder trial, calling in Georges Gilles de la Tourette
Georges Gilles de la Tourette
Georges Albert Édouard Brutus Gilles de la Tourette was a French neurologist who is the eponym of Tourette syndrome, a neurological condition...
as an expert witness on hypnotism. He also defended the fraudster Thérèse Humbert
Thérèse Humbert
Thérèse Humbert was a French female fraudster, who pretended to be an heir of an imaginary American millionaire Robert Crawford.Humbert was born Thérèse Daurignac, a peasant girl in Aussonne, Languedoc, France. As a child, she once convinced her friends to pool their jewelry so that she could fool...
, and the serial child killer Jeanne Weber
Jeanne Weber
Jeanne Weber was a French serial killer. She strangled 10 children, including her own. She was convicted of murder in 1908, and declared insane. She hanged herself two years later.-Early life:...
, twice. In 1903 a Paris correspondent for the New York Times described him as "an exceptionally successful lawyer... the favorite advocate of the criminal classes (who) has already saved innumerable heads from the guillotine".
From 1913 through 1919 he was President of the Paris Bar. After World War I Robert turned his focus to civil litigation, and to the production of books on historical topics such as Marie Stuart, Henry VIII, Catherine de Médici, Marie-Antoinette, and Henri Coiffier de Ruzé, Marquis of Cinq-Mars
Henri Coiffier de Ruzé, Marquis of Cinq-Mars
Henri Coiffier de Ruzé, Marquis de Cinq-Mars was a favourite of King Louis XIII of France who led the last and most nearly successful of the many conspiracies against the king's powerful first minister, the Cardinal Richelieu....
.
Robert's daughter Jeanne Henri-Robert married the future French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud
Paul Reynaud
Paul Reynaud was a French politician and lawyer prominent in the interwar period, noted for his stances on economic liberalism and militant opposition to Germany. He was the penultimate Prime Minister of the Third Republic and vice-president of the Democratic Republican Alliance center-right...
in 1912.