thumb|raymond de sÃ¨ze. raymond romain, comte de sÃ¨ze or desÃ¨ze (26 september 1750 â 2 may 1828) was a french advocate. together with franÃ§ois tronchet and malesherbes, he defended louis xvi, when the king was brought before the convention for trial. ==life== de sÃ¨ze was born in bordeaux, aquitaine, and studied in the famous law school of that city. he gained a reputation for remarkable passion and persuasivness, and came to prominence in 1789 when he defended the baron de bensenval against charges of high treason. when, at forty-four, he was called out of retirement to aid the last push of the kings defence, he was considered one of the best lawyers in the kingdom. though he had to prepare his defence arguments in a short amount of time, his brilliance shone through in a first draft that, although moving, louis rejected as too rhetorical, saying, "i do not want to play on their (the convention's) feelings". when the time for the real defence came, despite having had no sleep for over four days, he pled the king's case for three hours, arguing eloquently yet discreetly that the revolution spare his life. beginning with a description of why the charges were invalid (under the terms of the constitution of 1791 louis, as king, was immune from prosecution), he attacked the right of convention to stand as judge and jury. finally, he moved to a rejection of the charges in the acte enonciatif drawn up by the constitution charge by charge, with a royalist history of the revolution, portraying louis as 'the restorer of french liberty". he finished, like many of the set-piece speeches of the revolution, with an appeal to history:  jean-paul marat, the dÃ©magogue of the sans-culottes, was favourably impressed, and declared: "de sÃ©ze read a long speech made with a great deal of art". the commune, the most violent of the factions at the time, described the speech as "very adroit". nevertheless, the case was lost, and the king w
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