Raymond Desèze

Raymond Romain, Comte Desèze (1760-1828) was a French advocate, who, together with François Tronchet, defended Louis XVI, when the king was brought before the Convention for trial. Though he had to prepare his defence arguments practically overnight, he pled the king's case for three hours, arguing eloquently yet discreetly that the revolution spare his life. Nevertheless, the case was lost, and the king was sent to the guillotine. Desèze himself was also imprisoned during the revolution, but he managed to elude the scaffold. Upon the return of the Bourbons he was made a peer.