Henri-Robert
Henri-Robert
Henri-Robert (4 September 1863 – 12 May 1936) was a French lawyer, historian, and member of the Académie française in 1923.
Born of unknown parents and probably illegitimate, Henri-Robert was admitted to the Paris bar in 1885 and rose to become a celebrated criminal defense lawyer. 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.[1] He also defended the fraudster Thérèse Humbert, and the serial child killer Jeanne Weber, twice.[2] 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".[3]
From 1913 through 1919 he was President of the Paris Bar. After the First World War, Henry-Robert turned his focus to civil litigation, and to the production of books on historical topics such as Mary Stuart, Henry VIII, Catherine de Médici, Marie-Antoinette, and Henri Coiffier de Ruzé, Marquis of Cinq-Mars.
Henri-Robert's daughter Jeanne Henri-Robert married the future French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud in 1912.
References
External links
