Claude-François de Payan

Claude-François de Payan (4 May 1766, Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux - 28 July 1794, Paris) was a political figure of the French Revolution.

He was guillotined 28 July 1794 with 21 others during the Thermidorian Reaction, including Saint-Just and Robespierre.

Early career
Payan was from a noble family in the Dauphiné, descended from the count palatines, which had held important army and magistrate posts. His father was the squire François de Payan and so Claude-François naturally joined an artillery regiment before the Revolution. On the Revolution he was highly enthused by the new ideas and fully subscribed to them. His elder brother Joseph-François de Payan was also a revolutionary.