# The Rights of Man — Character guide

> Key figures in The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine.

- [Edmund Burke](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rights_of_man_se/characters/edmund_burke.md): Burke arrives in Paine's pages as a man of towering reputation turned pamphleteer, pouring what Paine calls the copious fury of rancour and prejudice onto the French nation and its National Assembly. He once insisted no 
- [Thomas Paine](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rights_of_man_se/characters/thomas_paine.md): Paine writes as a man who once counted Burke a friend to mankind and now must publicly break with him, dedicating his treatise to Washington and his second part to Lafayette. His politics grow straight from his early Qua
- [William Pitt](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rights_of_man_se/characters/william_pitt.md): Pitt hovers over the argument as the living embodiment of the government Paine wants reduced to a limited association for defending individual rights. Where the French Declaration proclaims that sovereignty resides essen
- [Marquis de La Fayette](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rights_of_man_se/characters/marquis_de_la_fayette.md): Lafayette is Paine's friend of nearly fifteen years, tested in difficult situations in America and consulted across Europe, and the man to whom Paine dedicates his second part. Their only disagreement is pace: Lafayette 
- [Charles Calonne](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rights_of_man_se/characters/charles_calonne.md): French finance minister under Louis XVI, blamed for financial crisis.
- [George Washington](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rights_of_man_se/characters/george_washington.md): American general and first president, praised by Paine.
- [William the Conqueror](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rights_of_man_se/characters/william_the_conqueror.md): Norman king of England, cited as an example of conquest-based rule.
- [Count de Broglie](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rights_of_man_se/characters/count_de_broglie.md): French military commander during the early Revolution.
- [Benjamin Franklin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rights_of_man_se/characters/benjamin_franklin.md): American inventor and diplomat, admired by Paine.
- [Charles James Fox](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rights_of_man_se/characters/charles_james_fox.md): British Whig politician who supported the French Revolution.
- [George Chalmers](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rights_of_man_se/characters/george_chalmers.md): British writer and critic of Paine, author of a hostile biography.
- [George I](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rights_of_man_se/characters/george_i.md): First Hanoverian king of England, cited in debates on succession.
- [Abbé Sieyès](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rights_of_man_se/characters/abbe_sieyes.md): French revolutionary clergyman and author of political pamphlets.
- [Thomas Rickman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rights_of_man_se/characters/thomas_rickman.md): Friend and publisher of Paine, mentioned in endnotes.
- [Louis XVI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rights_of_man_se/characters/louis_xvi.md): King of France during the Revolution, executed in 1793.
- [King John](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rights_of_man_se/characters/king_john.md): English king who signed Magna Carta, cited in constitutional debates.
- [Richard Price](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rights_of_man_se/characters/richard_price.md): Welsh moral philosopher and supporter of the French Revolution.
- [Jean Sylvain Bailly](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rights_of_man_se/characters/jean_sylvain_bailly.md): First mayor of Paris during the French Revolution.
- [Henry Laurens](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rights_of_man_se/characters/henry_laurens.md): American statesman and diplomat, mentioned in passing.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_rights_of_man_se/characters