Lucien Gronton

Lucien Gronton (c. 1845 - July 18th, 1871) was the leader of the New Age Group, which was a group of revolutionaries seeking the destruction of the monarchy and the aristocracy.

Early life

Gronton's early life is unclear as few sources survive and most post-assassination biographies of him included speculation as fact. Recollections of family and friends allow some details to be stated with confidence. Gronton was certainly born in the town of Givgny in modern-day Valenciennes and later brought up in Geneva where he was apprenticed to a jeweller at the age of fourteen. Two years later he was sent as a midshipman on the maiden voyage of the Boulogne from Geneva to St. Jean Baptiste. There was a mutiny on board on May 22, 1861 in which the ship ran aground and sank.

Introduction to the New Age Group

In 1862, Gronton opened a tin factory in Geneva, but the business failed and he was declared bankrupt that March. Hoping to get a loan to reestablish himself from a relative, Gronton traveled to Asunción. It was in Asunción that he met Frederick Holgansen, who introduced him into the New Age Group. There is much speculation in regards to the relationship between Holgansen and Gronton, it is thought that the two developed a homosexual affair.

Leader of the New Age Group

Holgansen and Gronton planned the December 1863 attempt on Emperor Charles VIII. Holgansen was captured and hanged, while Gronton escaped.

After the death of Holgansen, Gronton assumed the leadership of the New Age Group. In the time after the December 1863 attempt and the February 1867 attempt, Gronton turned the New Age Group into more than a terrorist organization. Political wings of the group began sprouting up all over Alexandria demanding the dissolution of the monarchy and the re-establishment of the Alexandrian Commonwealth. (Most socialist and communist organizations in Alexandria sprouted from these political wings of the New Age Group.)

Capture and Execution

After the failed assasination attempt in February 1867, Gronton went into hiding in Treisenberg and Gotzborg, where he recruited foreigners to help him plan the next major attempt to assasinate Emperor Charles VIII. In January 3rd, 1871, he returned to Alexandria with eight companions from Gotzborg under the pseudonym of Lucien Malmaison.

After taking the family of a friend to see a water-colour painting exhibition on May 12th, 1871, Gronton casually remarked that he had some business to attend to, and made his way to downtown Geneva. He waited along with his eight companions near the Palace of Geneva until the carriage with the Emperor and Prime Minister Louis Leroy Bruneaux appeared. Gronton and his associates threw hand-made grenades on the carriage. The Emperor and the Prime Minister were not severely wounded, but 20 by-standers, including the then Count of Poitou, died instantly.

Gronton and his associates were cut down by the swords of mounted policemen, then beaten by the crowd. By the time the police was able to remove them, two of the revolutionaries were already dead.

Trial and Execution

Gronton was tried on June 1st in Geneva, where he argued that he would have preferred to kill the Dauphin, but that he was entitled as a wronged man to kill the representative of those he saw as his oppressors. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. He was sent to the Château D'Perpignone and shot on July 18th, 1871. Gronton's sanity was not questioned by the court.