Case of the Lyons Mail
- When
- 1796
- Where
- Commune of Vert-Saint-Denis, outside Paris
- Episodes
- 1
The Courrier de Lyon case concerns the ambush of a mail coach travelling from Paris to Lyon during the night of 27–28 April 1796, in which robbers stole a large sum of money destined for the Army of Italy. The attack occurred outside Paris in the commune of Vert-Saint-Denis, and the affair became a famous French criminal case.
Episodes
Background and detail
Background. The mail coach involved in the case was a stage coach scheduled to travel from Paris to Lyon. It carried money intended for the Army of Italy, making its cargo a substantial sum of public funds moving along a major postal route.
The Attack. During the night of 27 and 28 April 1796, the coach was ambushed outside Paris by several men. The attack took place in the commune of Vert-Saint-Denis, where the robbers seized a large sum of money reported as 7 million livres.
Significance. The robbery became known as the Courrier de Lyon case, a famous French criminal case. Its notoriety stemmed from the theft of funds destined for the armies in Italy and the circumstances of the ambush on the Paris–Lyon route.
People involved
- The robbers · Collective: several unnamed men who ambushed the coach
Sources
- Courrier de Lyon case Wikipedia, revision of 2026-04-27
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.