The French statesman and author Honoré Gabriel Victor de Riqueti, Comte de Mirabeau (1749-1791), was a key leader of the French Revolution in its first years. He sought an alliance of the Crown and the Third Estate against his own class, the nobility.

Born at Bignon near Nemours on March 9, 1749, Honoré Gabriel de Riqueti, later Comte de Mirabeau, was the son of a distinguished physiocratic author, Victor de Riqueti, Marquis de Mirabeau, known as the "friend of the people" for his reform proposals. Mirabeau's career began as a cavalry officer in 1767, but he was soon sent to prison on the Island of Ré for his escapades. He was released in 1769 to join the French expeditionary force that quelled rebellious Corsica. After retirement the next year with the rank of captain, he married Émilie de Marignane (1772) at his father's wish but quickly fell out with...