Gauvain—marquis de Lantenac

Gauvain and the Marquis de Lantenac are uncle and nephew whose opposing political allegiances place their family relationship inside the civil war at the heart of Quatrevingt-treize. The Marquis leads the Vendée insurgency, while Gauvain has joined the people’s cause; their kinship thus links the conflict between the insurgents and the revolutionaries to a division within one family.

Kinship and Political Alignment

The Marquis is an old aristocrat who has taken command of the Vendée insurgency. Gauvain, his nephew, has aligned himself with the popular cause. The evidence establishes this contrast in rank and allegiance, making their relationship a point where inherited family ties and revolutionary commitments diverge.

Place in the Novel’s Conflict

Quatrevingt-treize draws on the French Revolution’s civil war between the Vendée insurgents and the revolutionaries, a period whose political and ideological repercussions remained sensitive. Through the Marquis and Gauvain, the novel gives that historical division a familial dimension: uncle and nephew belong to opposing causes. Their relationship contributes to the work’s wider staging of the Revolution and the Terror as conflicts fought not only between political camps, but also through bonds of kinship.