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D. 5 In 1777, within a year of transferring his practice to Paris, Marat’s reputation as a healer received a considerable boost from his success in treating one especially influential patient, the marquise de l’Aubespine. She had long suffered from a chronic respiratory ailment that other doctors had deemed incurable. 6 The marquise was the niece of the duc de Choiseul, one of the King’s most powerful ministers, which likely accounts for how Marat gained entrée to the royal court. From 1777 to 1783 Marat served as a physician in the household of the comte d’Artois, one of King Louis XVI’s brothers.

Feudal dues would be legally eliminated, but only in exchange for cash payments. Because few peasants had the wherewithal to pay the amounts in question, they were faced with being in debt to their former landlords and paying off the “loans” in perpetuity. The peasants, of course, were certainly not satisfied with this result. They continued their struggle, often in open rebellion to the point of civil war, for four more years, until in 1793 they won a more fundamental victory. It was then that a more radical legislative body, the Jacobin-dominated Convention, declared the peasants’ redemptive debts null and void.

Degree by St. 2 His detractors have claimed that because there is no record of his actually having attended classes there, he must have bought the degree. His diploma was signed, however, by two medical examiners who officially certified Marat’s competence as a physician. One of them, Dr. 3 Marat’s proficiency in the healing arts is further corroborated by two pamphlets he had published that provide detailed accounts of some of his 19 Conner T02501 00 text 19 02/04/2012 08:24 20 Jean Paul Marat treatments.