Story Highlights
- historical event: It is interesting that Marquis de Sade spent approximately 32 years of his life in various mental hospitals and prisons. He spent as many as 10 years in the famous Bastille, from which he was transferred shortly before it was attacked at the beginning of the French Revolution.
Marquis de Sade, after whose name the word sadism derived, died on this day. He was a descendant of an old French noble family, which originated back from the Middle Ages. Such families the French called “noblesse d’épée” (Nobles of the Sword) and were the most esteemed by all. Their members were able to take the title of marquis or count at will, regardless of whether they had the king’s permission to do so. The de Sade family possessed several castles in France, such as Château de Lacoste in the beautiful landscape of Provence and the Château de Condé in the northern French region of Champagne.
It is interesting that Marquis de Sade spent approximately 32 years of his life in various mental hospitals and prisons. He spent as many as 10 years in the famous Bastille, from which he was transferred shortly before it was attacked at the beginning of the French Revolution. During the Revolution, he was released for a while and even elected as representative in the National Convention (French Parliament of a kind).
Marquis de Sade died on this day in the famous asylum at Charenton, near Paris. The director of the institution was a priest called de Coulmier, a very gentle and intelligent man, who is considered a reformer of mental patients treatment procedures. Namely, before him, the patients were treated very rigorously and were subjected to all kinds of shock therapies, such as immersion in cold water. Father de Coulmier used a more humane approach and his patients even staged theatrical performances. Father de Coulmier is portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix in the film “Quills” (2000).
