Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (maksimiljɛ̃ fʁɑ̃swa maʁi izidɔʁ də ʁɔbɛspjɛʁ; 6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) is one of the best-known and most influential figures of the
French RevolutionThe French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
. He largely dominated the
Committee of Public SafetyThe Committee of Public Safety , created in April 1793 by the National Convention and then restructured in July 1793, formed the de facto executive government in France during the Reign of Terror , a stage of the French Revolution...
and was instrumental in the period of the Revolution commonly known as the
Reign of TerrorThe Reign of Terror , also known simply as The Terror , was a period of violence that occurred after the onset of the French Revolution, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the Girondins and the Jacobins, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of...
, which ended with his arrest and execution in 1794.
Robespierre was influenced by 18th-century
EnlightenmentThe Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
philosophes such as
Jean-Jacques RousseauJean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century Romanticism. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought.His novel Émile: or, On Education is a treatise...
and Montesquieu, and he was a capable articulator of the beliefs of the
left-wingIn politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
bourgeoisieIn sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
. He was described as being physically unimposing yet immaculate in attire and personal manners. His supporters called him "The Incorruptible", while his adversaries called him dictateur sanguinaire (bloodthirsty dictator).
Early life
Maximilien de Robespierre was born in
ArrasArras is the capital of the Pas-de-Calais department in northern France. The historic centre of the Artois region, its local speech is characterized as a Picard dialect...
, France. His family has been traced back to the 12th century in
PicardyThis article is about the historical French province. For other uses, see Picardy .Picardy is a historical province of France, in the north of France...
; some of his direct ancestors in the
male linePatrilineality is a system in which one belongs to one's father's lineage. It generally involves the inheritance of property, names or titles through the male line as well....
were
notariesCivil-law notaries, or Latin notaries, are lawyers of noncontentious private civil law who draft, take, and record legal instruments for private parties, provide legal advice and give attendance in person, and are vested as public officers with the authentication power of the State...
in the village of
CarvinThis article refers to a French commune. For the guitar manufacturer see Carvin Corporation. For the late New Orleans political consultant see Jim Carvin.Carvin is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France....
near Arras from the beginning of the 17th century. He is sometimes rumoured to have been of Irish descent, and it has been suggested that his surname could be a corruption of 'Robert Speirs'.
George Henry LewesGeorge Henry Lewes was an English philosopher and critic of literature and theatre. He became part of the mid-Victorian ferment of ideas which encouraged discussion of Darwinism, positivism, and religious scepticism...
, Ernest Hamel,
Jules MicheletJules Michelet was a French historian. He was born in Paris to a family with Huguenot traditions.-Early life:His father was a master printer, not very prosperous, and Jules assisted him in the actual work of the press...
,
Alphonse de LamartineAlphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine was a French writer, poet and politician who was instrumental in the foundation of the Second Republic.-Career:...
and
Hilaire BellocJoseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc was an Anglo-French writer and historian who became a naturalised British subject in 1902. He was one of the most prolific writers in England during the early twentieth century. He was known as a writer, orator, poet, satirist, man of letters and political activist...
have all cited this theory although there appears to be little supporting evidence.
His paternal grandfather, Maximilien de Robespierre, established himself in Arras as a lawyer. His father, Maximilien Barthélémy François de Robespierre, also a lawyer at the Conseil d'Artois, married Jacqueline Marguerite Carrault, the daughter of a
brewerBrewer may refer to:*Brewer, someone who makes beer by brewing*Brewer , a disambiguation page that lists people with the surname Brewer*Brewer, Maine, a city in southern Penobscot County, Maine, United States, near the city of Bangor...
, in 1758. Maximilien was the oldest of 4 children and was conceived out of
wedlockMarriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
– his siblings were Charlotte, Henriette and Augustin. To hide the fact as best they could, his father and mother had a rushed wedding (which the grandfather refused to attend). In 1764, Madame de Robespierre died in childbirth. Her husband left Arras and wandered around Europe until his death in
MunichMunich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
in 1777, leaving the children to be brought up by their maternal grandfather and aunts.
Maximilien attended the collège (middle school) of Arras when he was eight years old, already knowing how to read and write. In October of 1769, on the recommendation of the bishop, he obtained a scholarship at the
Lycée Louis-le-GrandThe Lycée Louis-le-Grand is a public secondary school located in Paris, widely regarded as one of the most rigorous in France. Formerly known as the Collège de Clermont, it was named in king Louis XIV of France's honor after he visited the school and offered his patronage.It offers both a...
in Paris. Here he learned to admire the idealised
Roman RepublicThe Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...
and the rhetoric of
CiceroMarcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
,
Cato-Literature:*Distichs of Cato, or simply Cato, a Latin collection of proverbial wisdom and morality from the 3rd or 4th century AD author Dionysius Cato...
and other classic figures. His fellow pupils included
Camille DesmoulinsLucie Simplice Camille Benoît Desmoulins was a journalist and politician who played an important role in the French Revolution. He was a childhood friend of Maximilien Robespierre and a close friend and political ally of Georges Danton, who were influential figures in the French Revolution.-Early...
and Stanislas Fréron. He also was exposed to
RousseauJean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century Romanticism. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought.His novel Émile: or, On Education is a treatise...
during this time and adopted many of the same principles. Robespierre became more intrigued by the idea of a virtuous self, a man who stands alone accompanied only by his conscience.
Shortly after his coronation,
Louis XVILouis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
visited Louis-le-Grand. Robespierre, then 17 years old, had been chosen out of five hundred pupils to deliver a speech to welcome the king; as a prize-winning student, the choice had been clear. On the day of the speech, Robespierre and the crowd waited for the king and queen for several hours in the rain. Upon arrival, the royal couple remained in their coach for the ceremony and immediately left thereafter.
Early politics
As an adult, and possibly even as a young man, the greatest influence on Robespierre's political ideas was Jean Jacques Rousseau. Robespierre’s conception of revolutionary virtue and his program for constructing political sovereignty out of
direct democracyDirect democracy is a form of government in which people vote on policy initiatives directly, as opposed to a representative democracy in which people vote for representatives who then vote on policy initiatives. Direct democracy is classically termed "pure democracy"...
came from Rousseau, and in pursuit of these ideals he eventually became known during the Jacobin Republic as “the Incorruptible.” Robespierre believed that the people of France were fundamentally good and were therefore capable of advancing the public well-being of the nation.
After having completed his law studies, Robespierre was admitted to the Arras bar. The Bishop of Arras, Louis François Marc Hilaire de Conzié, appointed him criminal judge in the Diocese of Arras in March 1782. Although this appointment did not prevent him from practicing at the bar, he soon resigned as he was uncomfortable ruling on capital cases due to his early opposition to the death penalty. He quickly became a successful advocate and chose in principle to represent the poor. During court hearings he was known to often advocate the ideals of the Enlightenment and argue for the rights of man. Later in his career, he read widely and also became interested in society in general. He became regarded as one of the best writers and most popular young men of Arras.
In December 1783, he was elected a member of the academy of Arras, the meetings of which he attended regularly. In 1784, he obtained a medal from the academy of
MetzMetz is a city in the northeast of France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers.Metz is the capital of the Lorraine region and prefecture of the Moselle department. Located near the tripoint along the junction of France, Germany, and Luxembourg, Metz forms a central place...
for his essay on the question of whether the relatives of a condemned criminal should share his disgrace. He and
Pierre Louis de LacretellePierre Louis de Lacretelle was a French lawyer, politician and writer.He was born in Metz, the elder brother of Jean Charles Dominique de Lacretelle....
, an advocate and journalist in Paris, divided the prize. Many of his subsequent essays were less successful, but Robespierre was compensated for these failures by his popularity in the literary and musical society at Arras, known as the "Rosatia", of which
Lazare CarnotLazare Nicolas Marguerite, Comte Carnot , the Organizer of Victory in the French Revolutionary Wars, was a French politician, engineer, and mathematician.-Education and early life:...
, who would be his colleague on the
Committee of Public SafetyThe Committee of Public Safety , created in April 1793 by the National Convention and then restructured in July 1793, formed the de facto executive government in France during the Reign of Terror , a stage of the French Revolution...
, was also a member.
In 1788, he took part in a discussion of how the French provincial government should be elected, showing clearly and forcefully in his Addresse à la nation artésienne that if the former mode of election by the members of the provincial estates were again adopted, the new Estates-General would not represent the people of France. It is possible he addressed this issue so that he could have a chance to take part in the proceedings and thus change the policies of the monarchy. King Louis XVI later announced new elections for all provinces, thus allowing Robespierre to run for the position of deputy for the Third Estate.
Although the leading members of the corporation were elected, Robespierre, their chief opponent, succeeded in getting elected with them. In the assembly of the
bailliageA bailiwick is usually the area of jurisdiction of a bailiff, and may also apply to a territory in which the sheriff's functions were exercised by a privately appointed bailiff under a royal or imperial writ. The word is now more generally used in a metaphorical sense, to indicate a sphere of...
rivalry ran still higher, but Robespierre had begun to make his mark in politics with the Avis aux habitants de la campagne (Arras, 1789). With this he secured the support of the country electors and, although only thirty, comparatively poor and lacking patronage, he was elected fifth deputy of the Third Estate of
ArtoisArtois is a former province of northern France. Its territory has an area of around 4000 km² and a population of about one million. Its principal cities are Arras , Saint-Omer, Lens and Béthune.-Location:...
to the Estates-General. When Robespierre arrived at
VersaillesVersailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
, he was relatively unknown, but he soon became part of the representative National Assembly which then transformed into the Constituent Assembly.
While the Constituent Assembly occupied itself with drawing up a constitution, Robespierre turned from the assembly of provincial lawyers and wealthy bourgeois to the people of Paris. He was a frequent speaker in the Constituent Assembly; he voiced many ideas for the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Constitutional Provisions, often with great success. He was eventually recognized as second only to Pétion de Villeneuve – if second he was – as a leader of the small body of the extreme left; "the thirty voices" as
MirabeauHonoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau was a French revolutionary, as well as a writer, diplomat, freemason, journalist and French politician at the same time. He was a popular orator and statesman. During the French Revolution, he was a moderate, favoring a constitutional monarchy built on...
contemptuously called them.
Robespierre soon became involved with the new Society of the Friends of the Constitution, known eventually as the
Jacobin ClubThe Jacobin Club was the most famous and influential political club in the development of the French Revolution, so-named because of the Dominican convent where they met, located in the Rue St. Jacques , Paris. The club originated as the Club Benthorn, formed at Versailles from a group of Breton...
. This had consisted originally of the deputies from
BrittanyBrittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
only. After the Assembly moved to Paris, the Club began to admit various leaders of the Parisian
bourgeoisieIn sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
to its membership. As time went on, many of the more intelligent artisans and small shopkeepers became members of the club. Among such men, Robespierre found a sympathetic audience. As the wealthier bourgeois of Paris and right-wing deputies seceded from the club of 1789, the influence of the old leaders of the Jacobins, such as Barnave, Duport,
Alexandre de LamethAlexandre-Théodore-Victor, comte de Lameth was a French soldier and politician.He was born in Paris. Having served in the American War of Independence under Rochambeau, he was sent in 1789 as deputy to the States-General by the nobles of the bailliage of Péronne...
, diminished. When they, alarmed at the progress of the Revolution, founded the club of the
FeuillantsThe Feuillants were a political grouping that emerged during the French Revolution. It came into existence from a split within the Jacobins from those opposing the overthrow of the king and proposing a constitutional monarchy. The deputies publicly split with the Jacobins when they published a...
in 1791, the left, including Robespierre and his friends, dominated the Jacobin Club.
On 15 May 1791, Robespierre proposed and carried the motion that no deputy who sat in the Constituent could sit in the succeeding Assembly.
The flight on 20 June, and subsequent arrest at Varennes of Louis XVI and his family resulted in Robespierre declaring himself at the Jacobin Club to be "ni monarchiste ni républicain" ("neither monarchist nor
republicanRepublicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
"). But this was not unusual; very few at this point were avowed republicans.
After the
massacre on the Champ de MarsDuring the French Revolution, on 17 July 1791, the Champ de Mars in Paris was the site of a massacre, the . On that day, the National Constituent Assembly issued a decree that the king, Louis XVI, would remain king under a constitutional monarchy...
on 17 July 1791, in order to be nearer to the Assembly and the Jacobins, he moved to live in the house of
Maurice DuplayMaurice Duplay was a French carpentry contractor and revolutionary in the French Revolution. He was landlord to Robespierre....
, a cabinetmaker residing in the Rue Saint-Honoré and an ardent admirer of Robespierre. Robespierre lived there (with two short intervals excepted) until his death. In fact, according to some sources, including his doctor, Souberbielle, Vilate, a juror on the
Revolutionary TribunalThe Revolutionary Tribunal was a court which was instituted in Paris by the Convention during the French Revolution for the trial of political offenders, and eventually became one of the most powerful engines of the Reign of Terror....
, and his host's youngest daughter (who would later marry
Philippe Le BasPhilippe-François-Joseph Le Bas was a French revolutionary.- Life :The son of a notary, intendant to the prince de Rache, avocat to the parliament of 1789, companion and collaborator of Saint-Just, in 1792 Le Bas was elected député to the National Convention for the Pas-de-Calais, sitting among...
of the
Committee of General SecurityThe Committee of General Security was a French parliamentary committee which acted as police agency during the French Revolution that, along with the Committee of Public Safety, oversaw the Reign of Terror....
), he became engaged to the eldest daughter of his host,
Éléonore DuplayÉléonore Duplay , called Cornélie, after Cornelia Africana of Ancient Rome, was the daughter of Maurice Duplay, a master carpenter, and Françoise-Éléonore Vaugeois. She was the eldest of five children and was born in 1768, two years after her parents' marriage, in Paris, where she would live all...
.
On 30 September, on the dissolution of the
Constituent AssemblyA constituent assembly is a body composed for the purpose of drafting or adopting a constitution...
, the people of Paris crowned Pétion and Robespierre as the two incorruptible patriots in an attempt to honor their purity of principles, their modest ways of living, and their refusal of bribes and offers.
With the dissolution of the Assembly he returned to Arras for a short visit, where he met with a triumphant reception. In November he returned to Paris to take the position of Public Prosecutor of Paris.
Opposition to war with Austria
In February 1792,
Jacques Pierre BrissotJacques Pierre Brissot , who assumed the name of de Warville, was a leading member of the Girondist movement during the French Revolution. Some sources give his name as Jean Pierre Brissot.-Biography:...
, one of the leaders of the
GirondistThe Girondists were a political faction in France within the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention during the French Revolution...
party in the
Legislative AssemblyDuring the French Revolution, the Legislative Assembly was the legislature of France from 1 October 1791 to September 1792. It provided the focus of political debate and revolutionary law-making between the periods of the National Constituent Assembly and of the National Convention.The Legislative...
, urged that France should
declare warA declaration of war is a formal act by which one nation goes to war against another. The declaration is a performative speech act by an authorized party of a national government in order to create a state of war between two or more states.The legality of who is competent to declare war varies...
against Austria.
MaratJean-Paul Marat , born in the Principality of Neuchâtel, was a physician, political theorist, and scientist best known for his career in France as a radical journalist and politician during the French Revolution...
and Robespierre opposed him, because they feared the possibility of
militarismMilitarism is defined as: the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests....
, which might then be turned to the advantage of the
reactionaryThe term reactionary refers to viewpoints that seek to return to a previous state in a society. The term is meant to describe one end of a political spectrum whose opposite pole is "radical". While it has not been generally considered a term of praise it has been adopted as a self-description by...
forces. Robespierre was also convinced the internal stability of the country was more important; this opposition from expected allies irritated the Girondists and political rivalry arose between them. "A revolutionary war must be waged, [Robespierre] claimed, to free subjects and slaves from unjust tyranny, not for the traditional reasons of defending dynasties and expanding frontiers... Indeed, argued Robespierre, such a war could only favour the forces of counter-revolution, since it would play into the hands of those who opposed the sovereignty of the people. The risks of Caesarism were clear, for in wartime the powers of the generals would grow at the expense of ordinary soldiers, and the power of the king and court at the expense of the Assembly. These dangers should not be overlooked, he reminded his listeners; in troubled periods of history, generals often became the arbiters of the fate of their countries." Robespierre warned against the threat of dictatorship, stemming from war, in the following terms:
In April 1792, Robespierre resigned the post of
public prosecutorThe prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries with either the common law adversarial system, or the civil law inquisitorial system...
of Versailles, which he had officially held, but never practiced, since February, and started a journal, Le Défenseur de la Constitution. The journal served multiple purposes: defending Robespierre from the accusations of Girondist leaders, countering the influence of the royal court in public policy, and also giving voice to the economic interests of the broader masses in Paris and beyond.
The National Convention
When the
Legislative AssemblyDuring the French Revolution, the Legislative Assembly was the legislature of France from 1 October 1791 to September 1792. It provided the focus of political debate and revolutionary law-making between the periods of the National Constituent Assembly and of the National Convention.The Legislative...
declared war against Austria on 20 April 1792, Robespierre responded by working to reduce the political influence of the officer class, the generals, and the king. While arguing for the welfare of common soldiers, Robespierre urged new promotions to mitigate domination of the officer class by the aristocratic
École MilitaireThe École Militaire is a vast complex of buildings housing various military training facilities located in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, southeast of the Champ de Mars....
; along with other Jacobins he also urged the creation of popular
militiasThe term "fédérés" most commonly refers to the troops who volunteered for the French National Guard in the summer of 1792 during the French Revolution...
to defend France. This sentiment reflected the perspective of more radical
JacobinsThe Jacobin Club was the most famous and influential political club in the development of the French Revolution, so-named because of the Dominican convent where they met, located in the Rue St. Jacques , Paris. The club originated as the Club Benthorn, formed at Versailles from a group of Breton...
including the those of the Marseille Club, who in May and June 1792 wrote to
PétionJérôme Pétion de Villeneuve was a French writer and politician.Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve was the son of a at Chartres. Though it is known that he was trained as a lawyer, very few specifics are known about Petion’s early life, as he was virtually unknown prior to the French Revolution...
and the people of Paris, "Here and at Toulon we have debated the possibility of forming a column of 100,000 men to sweep away our enemies... Paris may have need of help. Call on us!"
Because French forces had suffered disastrous defeats and a series of defections at the onset of the war, Robespierre and
DantonGeorges Jacques Danton was leading figure in the early stages of the French Revolution and the first President of the Committee of Public Safety. Danton's role in the onset of the Revolution has been disputed; many historians describe him as "the chief force in theoverthrow of the monarchy and the...
feared the possibility of a military
coup d'étatA coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
above all led by Lafayette, who in June advocated the suppression of the Jacobin Club. Robespierre publicly attacked him in scathing terms: "General, while from the midst of your camp you declared war upon me, which you had thus far spared for the enemies of our state, while you denounced me as an enemy of liberty to the army, national guard and Nation in letters published by your purchased papers, I had thought myself only disputing with a general... but not yet the dictator of France, arbitrator of the state." In early June Robespierre proposed an end to the Monarchy and the subordination of the Assembly to the popular will. Following the
King'sLouis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
veto of the Legistative Assembly's efforts to raise a militia and suppress
non-juring priestsThe Civil Constitution of the Clergy was a law passed on 12 July 1790 during the French Revolution, that subordinated the Roman Catholic Church in France to the French government....
, the Monarchy faced an abortive insurrection on 20 June, exactly three years after the
Tennis Court OathThe Tennis Court Oath was a pivotal event during the first days of the French Revolution. The Oath was a pledge signed by 576 of the 577 members from the Third Estate who were locked out of a meeting of the Estates-General on 20 June 1789...
. Insurrectionary forces entered Paris without the King's approval, and on 10 August 1792, these
insurrectionary militiasThe term "fédérés" most commonly refers to the troops who volunteered for the French National Guard in the summer of 1792 during the French Revolution...
led a successful assault upon the
Tuileries PalaceThe Tuileries Palace was a royal palace in Paris which stood on the right bank of the River Seine until 1871, when it was destroyed in the upheaval during the suppression of the Paris Commune...
with the intention of overthrowing the Monarchy. On 16 August, Robespierre presented the petition of the Commune to the Legislative Assembly, demanding the establishment of a revolutionary tribunal and the summoning of a Convention. Lafayette, dismissed of his command of the French Northern Army, fled France along with other sympathetic officers.
In September, Robespierre was elected first deputy for Paris to the
National ConventionDuring the French Revolution, the National Convention or Convention, in France, comprised the constitutional and legislative assembly which sat from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795 . It held executive power in France during the first years of the French First Republic...
. Robespierre and his allies took the benches high at the back of the hall, giving them the label '
the MontagnardsThe Mountain refers in the context of the history of the French Revolution to a political group, whose members, called Montagnards, sat on the highest benches in the Assembly...
'; below them were the 'Manège' of the Girondists and then 'the Plain' of the independents. Robespierre has often been reproached with failing to stop the
September MassacresThe September Massacres were a wave of mob violence which overtook Paris in late summer 1792, during the French Revolution. By the time it had subsided, half the prison population of Paris had been executed: some 1,200 trapped prisoners, including many women and young boys...
, and at the Convention, the Girondists immediately attacked Robespierre. On 26 September, the Girondist Marc-David Lasource accused Robespierre of wanting to form a
dictatorshipA dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual, the dictator. It has three possible meanings:...
. Rumours spread that Robespierre,
MaratJean-Paul Marat , born in the Principality of Neuchâtel, was a physician, political theorist, and scientist best known for his career in France as a radical journalist and politician during the French Revolution...
and
DantonGeorges Jacques Danton was leading figure in the early stages of the French Revolution and the first President of the Committee of Public Safety. Danton's role in the onset of the Revolution has been disputed; many historians describe him as "the chief force in theoverthrow of the monarchy and the...
were plotting to establish a
triumvirateA triumvirate is a political regime dominated by three powerful individuals, each a triumvir . The arrangement can be formal or informal, and though the three are usually equal on paper, in reality this is rarely the case...
. On 29 October,
Louvet de CouvraiJean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai was a French novelist, playwright, journalist, politician, and diplomat.-Early life and literary works:...
attacked Robespierre in a speech, possibly written by
Madame RolandMarie-Jeanne Roland, better known simply as Madame Roland and born Marie-Jeanne Phlipon , was, together with her husband Jean-Marie Roland de la Platière, a supporter of the French Revolution and influential member of the Girondist faction...
. On 5 November, Robespierre defended himself, the Jacobin Club and his supporters in and beyond Paris.
Turning the accusations upon his accusers, Robespierre delivered one of the most famous lines of the French Revolution to the
AssemblyDuring the French Revolution, the Legislative Assembly was the legislature of France from 1 October 1791 to September 1792. It provided the focus of political debate and revolutionary law-making between the periods of the National Constituent Assembly and of the National Convention.The Legislative...
:
Robespierre's speech marked a profound political break between the Montagnards and the
GirondinsThe Girondists were a political faction in France within the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention during the French Revolution...
, strengthening the former in the context of an increasingly revolutionary situation punctuated by the fall of Louis XVI, the invasion of France, and the
September MassacresThe September Massacres were a wave of mob violence which overtook Paris in late summer 1792, during the French Revolution. By the time it had subsided, half the prison population of Paris had been executed: some 1,200 trapped prisoners, including many women and young boys...
in Paris. It also heralded increased involvement and intervention by the
Sans-CulottesIn the French Revolution, the sans-culottes were the radical militants of the lower classes, typically urban laborers. Though ill-clad and ill-equipped, they made up the bulk of the Revolutionary army during the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars...
in revolutionary politics.
Execution of Louis XVI
The
ConventionDuring the French Revolution, the National Convention or Convention, in France, comprised the constitutional and legislative assembly which sat from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795 . It held executive power in France during the first years of the French First Republic...
's unanimous declaration of a
French RepublicThe French First Republic was founded on 22 September 1792, by the newly established National Convention. The First Republic lasted until the declaration of the First French Empire in 1804 under Napoleon I...
on 21 September 1792 left open the fate of the
KingLouis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
; a commission was therefore established to examine evidence against him while the Convention's Legislation Committee considered legal aspects of any future trial. Most Montagnards favored judgement and execution, while the
GirondinsThe Girondists were a political faction in France within the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention during the French Revolution...
were divided concerning Louis' fate, with some arguing for royal inviolability, others for clemency, and some advocating lesser punishment or death. On 20 November, opinion turned sharply against Louis following the discovery of a
secret cache of 726 documentsL'armoire de fer refers to a hiding place at the apartments of Louis XVI of France at the Tuileries Palace where some secret documents were kept. The existence of this iron cabinet, hidden behind wooden panelling, was publicly revealed in November 1792 to Roland, Girondin Minister of the Interior...
consisting of Louis' personal communications. Robespierre had taken ill in November and had done little other than support Saint-Just in his argument against the King's inviolability; Robespierre wrote in his Defenseur de la Constitution that a Constitution which Louis had violated himself, and which declared his inviolability, could not now be used in his defense. Now, with the question of the King's fate occupying public discourse, Robespierre on 3 December delivered a speech that would define the rhetoric and course of Louis' trial. Robespierre argued the King, now dethroned, could only function as a threat to liberty and national peace, and that the members of the Assembly were not fair judges, but rather statesmen with responsibility for public safety:
In arguing for a judgement by the elected Convention without trial, Robespierre supported the recommendations of Jean-Baptiste Mailhe, who headed the commission reporting on legal aspects of Louis' trial or judgement. Unlike some Girondins, Robespierre would specifically oppose judgement by primary assemblies or a referendum, believing that this could cause civil war. While he called for a trial of queen Marie Antoinette and the imprisonment of the Dauphin, Robespierre argued for the death penalty in the case of the king:
On 15 January 1793 Louis XVI was voted guilty of conspiracy and attacks upon public safety by 691 out of 749 deputies; none voted for his innocence. On 19 January 387 deputies voted for death as penalty, 334 voted for detention or a conditional death penalty, and 28 abstained or were absent. Louis was
guillotinedThe execution of Louis XVI by means of the guillotine took place on 21 January 1793 at the Place de la Révolution in Paris. It was a major event of the French Revolution...
two days later in the
Place de la RevolutionThe Place de la Concorde in area, it is the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées.- History :...
.
Destruction of the Girondists
After the King's execution, the influence of Robespierre, Danton, and the pragmatic politicians increased at the expense of the Girondists. The Girondists refused to have anything more to do with Danton and because of this the government became more divided.
In May 1793, Desmoulins, at the behest of Robespierre and Danton, published his Histoire des Brissotins, an elaboration on the earlier article Jean-Pierre Brissot, démasqué, a scathing attack on Brissot and the Girondists.
Maximin IsnardMaximin Isnard , French revolutionary, was a dealer in perfumery at Draguignan when he was elected deputy for the département of the Var to the Legislative Assembly, where he joined the Girondists.- Before the French Revolution :Born in 1755, he was the last son of Maximin Isnard and Anne-Thérèse...
declared that Paris must be destroyed if it came out against the provincial deputies. Robespierre preached a moral "insurrection against the corrupt deputies" at the Jacobin Club. On 2 June, a large crowd of armed men from the
Commune of ParisThe Paris Commune during the French Revolution was the government of Paris from 1789 until 1795. Established in the Hôtel de Ville just after the storming of the Bastille, the Commune became insurrectionary in the summer of 1792, essentially refusing to take orders from the central French...
came to the Convention and arrested thirty-two deputies on charges of
counter-revolutionaryA counter-revolutionary is anyone who opposes a revolution, particularly those who act after a revolution to try to overturn or reverse it, in full or in part...
activities.
Reign of Terror
After the fall of the monarchy, France faced troubles as the war and the civil war continued. A stable government was needed to quell the chaos. On 11 March 1793, a Revolutionary Tribunal was established in Paris. On 6 April, the nine-member
Committee of Public SafetyThe Committee of Public Safety , created in April 1793 by the National Convention and then restructured in July 1793, formed the de facto executive government in France during the Reign of Terror , a stage of the French Revolution...
replaced the larger Committee of General Defense. On 27 July 1793, the Convention elected Robespierre to the Committee, although he had not sought the position. The
Committee of General SecurityThe Committee of General Security was a French parliamentary committee which acted as police agency during the French Revolution that, along with the Committee of Public Safety, oversaw the Reign of Terror....
began to manage the country's internal police.
Though nominally all members of the committee were equal, Robespierre was presented during the
thermidorian reactionThe Thermidorian Reaction was a revolt in the French Revolution against the excesses of the Reign of Terror. It was triggered by a vote of the Committee of Public Safety to execute Maximilien Robespierre, Antoine Louis Léon de Saint-Just de Richebourg and several other leading members of the Terror...
by the surviving protagonists of the Terror, especially Bertrand Barère, as prominent. They may have exaggerated his role to downplay their own contribution and used him as a scapegoat after his death.
As an orator, he praised revolutionary government and argued that the Terror was necessary, laudable and inevitable. It was Robespierre's belief that the Republic and virtue were of necessity inseparable. He reasoned that the Republic could only be saved by the virtue of its citizens, and that the Terror was virtuous because it attempted to maintain the Revolution and the Republic. Therefore, "Robespierre didn’t see the use of terror as a compromise of virtue, but as the enforcement of it." For example, in his Report on the Principles of Political Morality, given on 5 February 1794, Robespierre stated:
If virtue be the spring of a popular government in times of peace, the spring of that government during a revolution is virtue combined with terror: virtue, without which terror is destructive; terror, without which virtue is impotent. Terror is only justice prompt, severe and inflexible; it is then an emanation of virtue; it is less a distinct principle than a natural consequence of the general principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing wants of the country ... The government in a revolution is the despotismDespotism is a form of government in which a single entity rules with absolute power. That entity may be an individual, as in an autocracy, or it may be a group, as in an oligarchy...
of liberty against tyranny.
Robespierre’s speeches were exceptional, and he had the power to change the views of almost any audience. His speaking techniques included invocation of virtue and morals, and quite often the use of rhetorical questions in order to identify with the audience. He would gesticulate and use ideas and personal experiences in life to keep listeners’ attentions. His final method was to state that he was always prepared to die in order to save the Revolution.
Robespierre believed that the Terror was a time of discovering and revealing the enemy within Paris, within France, the enemy that hid in the safety of apparent patriotism. Because he believed that the Revolution was still in progress, and in danger of being sabotaged, he made every attempt to instill in the populace and Convention the urgency of carrying out the Terror.
Robespierre saw no room for mercy in his Terror, stating that "slowness of judgments is equal to impunity" and "uncertainty of punishment encourages all the guilty". Throughout his Report on the Principles of Political Morality, Robespierre assailed any stalling of action in defense of the Republic. In his thinking, there was not enough that could be done fast enough in defence against enemies at home and abroad. A staunch believer in the teachings of Rousseau, Robespierre believed that it was his duty as a public servant to push the Revolution forward, and that the only rational way to do that was to defend it on all fronts. The Report did not merely call for blood but also expounded many of the original ideas of the 1789 Revolution, such as political equality, suffrage, and abolition of privileges.
In the winter of 1793–1794, a majority of the Committee decided that the
Hébertist partyThe Hébertists were an ultra-revolutionary political faction associated with the populist journalist Jacques Hébert. They came to power during the Reign of Terror and played a significant role in the French Revolution....
would have to perish or its opposition within the Committee would overshadow the other factions due to its influence in the Commune of Paris. Robespierre also had personal reasons for disliking the Hébertists for their "
atheismAtheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
" and "bloodthirstiness", which he associated with the old aristocracy.
In early 1794, he broke with Danton who had more moderate views on the Terror and had Camille Desmoulins protest against it in the third issue of
Le Vieux CordelierLe Vieux Cordelier was a journal published in France between 5 December 1793 and 3 February 1794. Its radical criticism of ultra-revolutionary fervor and repression in France during the Reign of Terror contributed significantly to the downfall and execution of the Dantonists, among whom its author,...
. Robespierre considered an end of the Terror as meaning the loss of political power he hoped to use to create the
Republic of VirtueThe "Republic of Virtue" was a period in French history where Maximilien Robespierre remained in power. Many proponents of the Republic of Virtue developed their notion of civic virtue from the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The "Republic of Virtue" was part of the de-Christianization of the...
. Subsequently, he joined in attacks on the Dantonists and the Hébertists. Robespierre charged his opponents with complicity with foreign powers.
From 13 February to 13 March 1794, Robespierre withdrew from active business on the Committee due to illness. On 15 March, he reappeared in the Convention. Hébert and nineteen of his followers were arrested on 19 March and
guillotineThe guillotine is a device used for carrying out :executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which an angled blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the head from the body...
d on 24 March. Danton, Desmoulins and their friends were arrested on 30 March and guillotined on 5 April.
He used his influence over the Jacobin Club to dominate the Commune of Paris through his followers. Two of them, Jean-Baptiste Fleuriot-Lescot and Claude-François de Payan, were elected mayor and procurator of the Commune respectively. Robespierre tried to influence the army through his follower
Louis de Saint-JustLouis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just , usually known as Saint-Just, was a military and political leader during the French Revolution. The youngest of the deputies elected to the National Convention in 1792, Saint-Just rose quickly in their ranks and became a major leader of the government of the French...
, whom he sent on a mission to the frontier.
Georges CouthonGeorges Auguste Couthon a French politician and lawyer in the French Revolution. Couthon would befriend Robespierre and serve on the Committee of Public Safety with him from 30 May 1793 until his and Robespierre’s deaths in 1794...
, his ally on the Committee, introduced and carried on 10 June the drastic
Law of 22 PrairialThe Law of 22 Prairial, also known as the loi de la Grande Terreur, the law of the Reign of Terror, was enacted on June 10, 1794 . It was proposed by Georges Auguste Couthon and lent support by Robespierre...
. Under this law, the Tribunal became a simple court of condemnation without need of witnesses.
Cult of the Supreme Being
Robespierre's desire for revolutionary change was not limited to the political realm. He sought to instill a spiritual resurgence in the French nation based on his Deist beliefs. Accordingly, on 7 May 1794, Robespierre had a decree passed by the Convention that established an official religion, the
Cult of the Supreme BeingThe Cult of the Supreme Being was a form of deism established in France by Maximilien Robespierre during the French Revolution. It was intended to become the state religion of the new French Republic.- Origins :...
. The notion of the Supreme Being was based on ideas that Jean-Jacques Rousseau had outlined in
The Social ContractOf The Social Contract, Or Principles of Political Right by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, is the book in which Rousseau theorized about the best way in which to set up a political community in the face of the problems of commercial society which he had already identified in his Discourse on Inequality...
. A nationwide "Festival of the Supreme Being" was held on 8 June (which was also the Christian holiday of
PentecostPentecost is a prominent feast in the calendar of Ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai, and also later in the Christian liturgical year commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ after the Resurrection of Jesus...
). The festivities in Paris were held in the
Champ de MarsThe Champ de Mars is a large public greenspace in Paris, France, located in the seventh arrondissement, between the Eiffel Tower to the northwest and the École Militaire to the southeast. The park is named after the Campus Martius in Rome, a tribute to the Roman god of war...
, which was renamed the Champ de la Réunion ("Field of Reunion") for that day. This was most likely in honor of the
Champ de Mars MassacreDuring the French Revolution, on 17 July 1791, the Champ de Mars in Paris was the site of a massacre, the . On that day, the National Constituent Assembly issued a decree that the king, Louis XVI, would remain king under a constitutional monarchy...
where the Republicans first rallied against the power of the Crown. Robespierre, as President of the Convention, walked first in the festival procession and delivered a speech in which he emphasised his concept of a Supreme Being:
Is it not He whose immortal hand, engraving on the heart of man the code of justice and equality, has written there the death sentence of tyrants? Is it not He who, from the beginning of time, decreed for all the ages and for all peoples liberty, good faith, and justice? He did not create kings to devour the human race. He did not create priests to harness us, like vile animals, to the chariotThe chariot is a type of horse carriage used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Ox carts, proto-chariots, were built by the Proto-Indo-Europeans and also built in Mesopotamia as early as 3000 BC. The original horse chariot was a fast, light, open, two wheeled...
s of kings and to give to the world examples of basenessEvil is the violation of, or intent to violate, some moral code. Evil is usually seen as the dualistic opposite of good. Definitions of evil vary along with analysis of its root motive causes, however general actions commonly considered evil include: conscious and deliberate wrongdoing,...
, pridePride is an inwardly directed emotion that carries two common meanings. With a negative connotation, pride refers to an inflated sense of one's personal status or accomplishments, often used synonymously with hubris...
, perfidyIn the context of war, perfidy is a form of deception, in which one side promises to act in good faith with the intention of breaking that promise once the enemy has exposed himself .The practice is specifically prohibited under the 1977 Protocol I Additional to the...
, avarice, debauchery and falsehoodFor other uses, see Lie A lie is a type of deception in the form of an untruthful statement, especially with the intention to deceive others....
. He created the universe to proclaim His power. He created men to help each other, to love each other mutually, and to attain to happiness by the way of virtue.
Throughout the "Festival of the Supreme Being", Robespierre was beaming with joy; not even the negativity of his colleagues could disrupt his delight. He was able to speak of the things about which he was truly passionate, including Virtue and Nature, typical deist beliefs, and, of course, his disagreements with atheism. Everything was arranged to the exact specifications that had been previously set before the ceremony; the ominous and symbolic guillotine had been moved to the original standing place of the
BastilleThe Bastille was a fortress in Paris, known formally as the Bastille Saint-Antoine. It played an important role in the internal conflicts of France and for most of its history was used as a state prison by the kings of France. The Bastille was built in response to the English threat to the city of...
, all of the people were placed in the appropriate area designated to them, and everyone was dressed accordingly. Not only was everything going smoothly, but the Festival was also Robespierre’s first appearance in the public eye as an actual leader for the people, and also, as President of the Convention to which he had been elected only four days earlier.
While for some it was an excitement to see him at his finest, many other leaders involved in the Festival agreed that Robespierre had taken things a bit too far. Multiple sources state that Robespierre came down the mountain in a way that resembled
MosesMoses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
as the leader of the people, and one of his colleagues, Jacques-Alexis Thuriot, was heard saying, “Look at the bugger; it’s not enough for him to be master, he has to be God.” While these words may have been a simple release of resentment at the time, this same idea would come back in an attempt to remove Robespierre from his high and lofty position in the very near future.
Marc-Guillaume Alexis VadierMarc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier was a French politician of the French Revolution.-Early career:Son of a wealthy family in Pamiers, Ariège, he served in the army of the king Louis XV, taking part in the Seven Years' War and the Battle of Rossbach on 5 November 1757...
was not one of Robespierre’s devotees, and was actually attempting to find something that Robespierre had done wrong. Vadier was on a mission to attack Robespierre and his faith, and was also trying to bring down Robespierre’s political stature as well. This is when he found
Catherine ThéotCatherine Théot was a French visionary.From her youth a victim of hallucinations, a long course of religious asceticism in the convent of the Miramiones in Paris unhinged her mind, and she was placed under restraint...
, who was a seventy-eight-year old, self declared “prophetess” who had, at one point, been imprisoned in the Bastille. By Théot stating that he was the “herald of the Last Days, prophet of the New Dawn,” (because his Festival had fallen on the Pentecost, which she claimed would be the day revealing a “divine manifestation”) Catherine Théot made it seem as though Robespierre had made these claims himself to her. Many of her followers were supporters or friends of Robespierre as well, which made it seem as though he was attempting to create a new religion with himself as its god. While Robespierre had nothing to do with Catherine Théot or her followers, many assumed that he was on his way to dictatorship, and it sent a current of fear throughout the Convention, which led to his downfall the following July.
Downfall
On 23 May, only one day after the attempted assassination of
Collot d’HerboisJean-Marie Collot d'Herbois was a French actor, dramatist, essayist, and revolutionary. He was a member of the Committee of Public Safety during the Reign of Terror and, while he saved Madame Tussaud from the Guillotine, he administered the execution of more than 2,000 people in the city of...
, Robespierre’s life was also in danger: as a young woman by the name of
Cécile RenaultCécile-Aimée Renault was a French woman accused of trying to assassinate Robespierre during the Reign of Terror with two small knives. Born in 1774 in Paris, she was guillotined on 17 June 1794 in what is now Place de la Nation....
was arrested after having approached his place of residence with two small knives; she was executed one month later. At this point, the
decree of 22 Prairial (also known as law of 22 Prairial)The Law of 22 Prairial, also known as the loi de la Grande Terreur, the law of the Reign of Terror, was enacted on June 10, 1794 . It was proposed by Georges Auguste Couthon and lent support by Robespierre...
was introduced to the public without the consultation from the
Committee of General SecurityThe Committee of General Security was a French parliamentary committee which acted as police agency during the French Revolution that, along with the Committee of Public Safety, oversaw the Reign of Terror....
, which in turn doubled the number of executions permitted by the
Committee of Public SafetyThe Committee of Public Safety , created in April 1793 by the National Convention and then restructured in July 1793, formed the de facto executive government in France during the Reign of Terror , a stage of the French Revolution...
.
This law permitted executions to be carried out even under simple suspicion of citizens thought to be counter-revolutionaries without extensive trials. When Robespierre allowed this law to be passed, the people of France began to question him and the Committee because they were executing people for seemingly meaningless reasons, and also because they had passed a law without the help of the
Committee of General SecurityThe Committee of General Security was a French parliamentary committee which acted as police agency during the French Revolution that, along with the Committee of Public Safety, oversaw the Reign of Terror....
. This was part of the beginning of Robespierre’s downfall.
Reports were coming into Paris about excesses committed by the envoys sent en-mission to the provinces, particularly
Jean-Lambert TallienJean-Lambert Tallien , was a French political figure of the revolutionary period.-Clerk and journalist:He was the son of the maître d'hôtel of the Marquis de Bercy, and was born in Paris. The marquis, noticing his ability, had him educated, and got him a place as a lawyer's clerk...
in Bordeaux and
Joseph FouchéJoseph Fouché, 1st Duc d'Otrante was a French statesman and Minister of Police under Napoleon Bonaparte. In English texts his title is often translated as Duke of Otranto.-Youth:Fouché was born in Le Pellerin, a small village near Nantes...
in Lyons. Robespierre had them recalled to Paris to account for their actions and then expelled them from the Jacobins club. However they evaded arrest. Fouché spent the evenings moving house to house, warning members of the Convention that Robespierre was after them, while organising a coup d'état.
Robespierre appeared at the Convention on 26 July (8th
ThermidorThermidor was the eleventh month in the French Republican Calendar. The month was named after the French word thermal which comes from the Greek word "thermos" which means heat....
, year II, according to the
Revolutionary calendarThe French Republican Calendar or French Revolutionary Calendar was a calendar created and implemented during the French Revolution, and used by the French government for about 12 years from late 1793 to 1805, and for 18 days by the Paris Commune in 1871...
), and delivered a two-hour-long speech. He defended himself against charges of dictatorship and tyranny, and then proceeded to warn of a
conspiracyIn a political sense, conspiracy refers to a group of persons united in the goal of usurping or overthrowing an established political power. Typically, the final goal is to gain power through a revolutionary coup d'état or through assassination....
against the Republic. Robespierre implied that members of the Convention were a part of this conspiracy, though when pressed he refused to provide any names.
The speech however alarmed members particularly given Fouché's warnings. These members who felt that Robespierre was alluding to them tried to prevent the speech from being printed, and a bitter debate ensued until Bertrand Barère forced an end to it. Later that evening, Robespierre delivered the same speech again at the
Jacobin ClubThe Jacobin Club was the most famous and influential political club in the development of the French Revolution, so-named because of the Dominican convent where they met, located in the Rue St. Jacques , Paris. The club originated as the Club Benthorn, formed at Versailles from a group of Breton...
, where it was very well received.
The next day,
Saint-JustLouis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just , usually known as Saint-Just, was a military and political leader during the French Revolution. The youngest of the deputies elected to the National Convention in 1792, Saint-Just rose quickly in their ranks and became a major leader of the government of the French...
began to give a speech in support of Robespierre. However, those who had seen him working on his speech the night before expected accusations to arise from it. He only had time to give a small part of his speech before
Jean-Lambert TallienJean-Lambert Tallien , was a French political figure of the revolutionary period.-Clerk and journalist:He was the son of the maître d'hôtel of the Marquis de Bercy, and was born in Paris. The marquis, noticing his ability, had him educated, and got him a place as a lawyer's clerk...
interrupted him. While the accusations began to pile up, Saint-Just remained uncharacteristically silent. Robespierre then attempted to secure the tribune to speak but his voice was shouted down. Robespierre soon found himself at a loss for words after one deputy called for his arrest and another,
Marc-Guillaume Alexis VadierMarc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier was a French politician of the French Revolution.-Early career:Son of a wealthy family in Pamiers, Ariège, he served in the army of the king Louis XV, taking part in the Seven Years' War and the Battle of Rossbach on 5 November 1757...
, gave a mocking impression of him. When one deputy realised Robespierre's inability to respond, the man shouted, "The blood of Danton chokes him!"
The Convention ordered the arrest of Robespierre, his brother
AugustinAugustin Bon Joseph de Robespierre was the younger brother of French Revolutionary leader, Maximilien Robespierre....
, Couthon, Saint-Just,
François HanriotFrançois Hanriot was a French leader and street orator of the Revolution. He played a vital role in the Insurrection and subsequently the fall of the Girondins.-Early years:...
and
Le BasPhilippe-François-Joseph Le Bas was a French revolutionary.- Life :The son of a notary, intendant to the prince de Rache, avocat to the parliament of 1789, companion and collaborator of Saint-Just, in 1792 Le Bas was elected député to the National Convention for the Pas-de-Calais, sitting among...
. Troops from the Commune, under General Coffinhal, arrived to free the prisoners and then marched against the Convention itself. The Convention responded by ordering troops of its own under
BarrasPaul François Jean Nicolas, vicomte de Barras was a French politician of the French Revolution, and the main executive leader of the Directory regime of 1795–1799.-Early life:...
to be called out. When the Commune's troops heard the news of this, order began to break down, and Hanriot ordered his remaining troops to withdraw to the
Hôtel de VilleThe Hôtel de Ville |City Hall]]) in :Paris, France, is the building housing the City of Paris's administration. Standing on the place de l'Hôtel de Ville in the city's IVe arrondissement, it has been the location of the municipality of Paris since 1357...
, where Robespierre and his supporters also gathered. The Convention declared them to be
outlawIn historical legal systems, an outlaw is declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, this takes the burden of active prosecution of a criminal from the authorities. Instead, the criminal is withdrawn all legal protection, so that anyone is legally empowered to persecute...
s, meaning that upon verification the fugitives could be executed within twenty-four hours without a trial. As the night went on, the forces of the Commune deserted the Hôtel de Ville and, at around two in the morning, those of the Convention under the command of Barras arrived there. In order to avoid capture, Augustin Robespierre threw himself out of a window, only to break both of his legs; Couthon was found lying at the bottom of a staircase; Le Bas committed suicide; another radical shot himself in the head. Robespierre tried to kill himself with a pistol but only managed to shatter his lower jaw, although some eye-witnesses claimed that Robespierre was shot by
Charles-André MerdaCharles-André Merda was a French soldier. A National Guardsman in the Parisian National Guard from September 1789, then a gendarme from 1794, he participated in the arrest of Maximilien de Robespierre on the night of 9/10 thermidor Year II and claimed to have fired the pistol shot which broke...
.
For the remainder of the night, Robespierre was moved to a table in the room of the Committee of Public Safety where he awaited execution. He lay on the table bleeding abundantly until a doctor was brought in to fix up his jaw. Although Robespierre was known for his speeches, the last words that have been recorded of him saying are, “Merci, monsieur,” to a man that had kindly given him a handkerchief to sop up some of the blood from his face and his clothing. Later, Robespierre was held in the same containment chamber where Marie Antoinette, the wife of King Louis XVI, had been held.
The next day, 28 July 1794, Robespierre was guillotined without trial in the Place de la Révolution. His brother Augustin, Couthon, Saint-Just, Hanriot and twelve other followers, among them the cobbler Simon, were also executed. When clearing Robespierre's neck the executioner tore off the bandage that was holding his shattered jaw in place, producing an agonised scream until the fall of the blade silenced him. Together with those executed with him, he was buried in a common grave at the newly opened Errancis cemetery (cimetière des Errancis) (March 1794 – April 1797) (now the Place de Goubeaux). Between 1844 and 1859 (probably in 1848), the remains of all those buried there were moved to the
Catacombs of ParisThe Catacombs of Paris or Catacombes de Paris are an underground ossuary in Paris, France. Located south of the former city gate , the ossuary holds the remains of about 6 million people and fills a renovated section of caverns and tunnels that are the remains of Paris' stone mines...
.
Legacy
Maximillien Robespierre remains a controversial figure to this day. Apart from one
Metro stationRobespierre is a station on line 9 of the Paris Métro, on the Rue Robespierre. It is in the commune of Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis, just to the east of Paris....
in Paris, there are no memorials or monuments to him in France. He was a bourgeois who championed the cause of the poor city workers, the sans-culottes. By making himself their spokesman, he took control of the Revolution in its most radical and bloody phase – the Jacobin republic. His goal in the Terror was to use the guillotine to create what he called a '
republic of virtueThe "Republic of Virtue" was a period in French history where Maximilien Robespierre remained in power. Many proponents of the Republic of Virtue developed their notion of civic virtue from the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The "Republic of Virtue" was part of the de-Christianization of the...
', wherein terror and virtue, his principles, would be imposed. He argued, "Terror is nothing more than speedy, severe and inflexible justice; it is thus an emanation of virtue; it is less a principle in itself, than a consequence of the general principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing needs of the patrie.
In terms of historiography, he has a few defenders, who agree on the use of terror to purify society. Marxist historian
Albert SoboulAlbert Marius Soboul was a French historian of the French Revolution and of Napoleon. A professor at the Sorbonne, he was Chair of the History of the French Revolution and author of numerous influential works of history and historical interpretation.-Early life and education:Albert Marius Soboul...
viewed most of the measures of the Committee for Public Safety necessary for the defense of the Revolution and mainly regretted the destruction of the Hébertists and other enragés.
Robespierre’s main ideal was to ensure the virtue and sovereignty of the people. He disapproved of any acts which could be seen as exposing the nation to counter-revolutionaries and traitors, and became increasingly fearful of the defeat of the Revolution. He instigated the Terror and the deaths of his peers as a measure of ensuring a Republic of Virtue; but his ideals went beyond the needs and wants of the people of France. He became a threat to what he had wanted to ensure and the result was his downfall.
The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica sums up Robespierre as a bright young theorist but out of his depth in the matter of experience:
Cultural depictions
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla...
together with Robert SoutheyRobert Southey was an English poet of the Romantic school, one of the so-called "Lake Poets", and Poet Laureate for 30 years from 1813 to his death in 1843...
wrote a verse drama, The Fall of RobespierreThe Fall of Robespierre is a three-act play written by Robert Southey and Samuel Coleridge in 1794. It follows the events in France after the downfall of Maximilien Robespierre. Robespierre is portrayed as a tyrant, but Southey's contributions praise him as a destroyer of despotism...
in 1794, Coleridge writing Act 1 and Southey, Acts 2 and 3, although the work was published under Coleridge's name. Coming very soon after Robespierre's execution, it may be regarded as the first literary portrayal of the man. Indeed, much of the material was drawn from contemporary newspaper accounts of the events in Paris.
- In Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
's novel Les MisérablesLes Misérables , translated variously from the French as The Miserable Ones, The Wretched, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, or The Victims), is an 1862 French novel by author Victor Hugo and is widely considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century...
, Robespierre and Rousseau are mentioned being deeply admired by the character Enjolras, the leader of the student revolutionaries.
- In another novel by Hugo, Quatrevingt-treize, Robespierre is featured in the "Three Gods" scene, along with Danton and Marat.
- Robespierre is a significant character in the 1912 novel The Gods Are Athirst
The Gods Are Athirst is a 1912 novel by Anatole France...
by Anatole FranceAnatole France , born François-Anatole Thibault, , was a French poet, journalist, and novelist. He was born in Paris, and died in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire. He was a successful novelist, with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters...
, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
- Robespierre is a significant character in the 'Roger Brook' series of historical novels written by Dennis Wheatley
Dennis Yates Wheatley was an English author. His prolific output of stylish thrillers and occult novels made him one of the world's best-selling authors from the 1930s through the 1960s.-Early life:...
.
- Robespierre's dispute against Joseph Fouché, and the coup against Robespierre are described in Stefan Zweig's 1929 biography of Fouché, Portrait of a Politician.
- He appears frequently in The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Scarlet Pimpernel is a play and adventure novel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, set during the Reign of Terror following the start of the French Revolution. The story is a precursor to the "disguised superhero" tales such as Zorro and Batman....
by Baroness Emmuska Orczy. He also plays a prominent role in the BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
mini-series version.
- Robespierre is featured in the 1835 play Danton's Death
Danton's Death was the first play written by Georg Büchner, set during the French Revolution.-History:Georg Büchner wrote his works in the period between Romanticism and Realism in the so-called Vormärz era in German history and literature...
, written by German playwright Georg BüchnerKarl Georg Büchner was a German dramatist and writer of poetry and prose. He was the brother of physician and philosopher Ludwig Büchner. Büchner's talent is generally held in great esteem in Germany...
.
- A highly-idealized Robespierre is featured in the anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
and mangaManga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
series Rose of Versailles by Riyoko Ikedais a Japanese manga artist and singer. She is included in the Year 24 Group. She was one of the most popular Japanese comic artists in the 1970s, being best known for The Rose of Versailles.- Biography :...
. He's initially shown in his younger and more idealistic self, prior to the Terror days, and as the series advances he becomes closer to the embittered leader usually portrayed in media. He's voiced by Katsuji Moriis a Japanese voice actor often accredited as the Casey Kasem of Japan. He is most known for the roles of Go Mifune , Joe Shimamura/009 , Ken the Eagle , Jouji Minami , and Garma Zabi .- Anime :*Nephrite in Sailor Moon*Seiji Hayami in Cutey Honey*Go Mifune in Mach Go Go Go/Speed Racer is a...
.
- A more cruel and ruthless portrayal of Robespierre is featured in Tow Ubukata
is a Japanese science fiction light novel, manga and anime creator. He spent ages four to nine of his childhood in Singapore and ages 10 to 14 in Nepal. In Nepal, Ubukata made great effort to maintain his Japanese heritage and language abilities; he read dictionaries to keep in touch with his...
's novel (later adapted as an anime series) Le Chevalier D'Eonis a 24-episode anime TV series produced by Production I.G based on an original story by Tow Ubukata. The anime originally aired in Japan on WOWOW from August 19, 2006 to February 2, 2007. The story has also been adapted into a manga series written by Tow Ubukata and illustrated by Kiriko Yumeji,...
. He appears as a villain of the story and a mysterious occultist. He is voiced by Takahiro Sakuraiis a voice actor who was born in Aichi. He is a member of 81 Produce; his height is .Many of his roles are handsome men. However, he has also voiced reluctant heroes as well as the occasional villain...
. However, the Robespierre known to history (as seen in the anime, being beheaded at the end of the Terror) is the main character named Robin, who assumed the name after the first Robespierre's death.
- John Eaton
John Charles Eaton is an American composer , MacArthur Fellow, is professor emeritus of composition at the University of Chicago John Charles Eaton (born 30 March 1935 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania) is an American composer (Anon. [n.d.]; Morgan 2001), MacArthur Fellow, is professor emeritus of...
wrote an opera, "Danton and Robespierre" in 1978.
- He plays an important role in the short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
"ThermidorThermidor was the eleventh month in the French Republican Calendar. The month was named after the French word thermal which comes from the Greek word "thermos" which means heat....
" from Neil GaimanNeil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
's The Sandman, serving as the antagonist to Lady Johanna Constantine's protagonist, with his guillotining depicted at the conclusion.
- He, along with Louis de Saint-Just
Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just , usually known as Saint-Just, was a military and political leader during the French Revolution. The youngest of the deputies elected to the National Convention in 1792, Saint-Just rose quickly in their ranks and became a major leader of the government of the French...
, gives his name and role to Rob S. PierreRobert Stanton Pierre is a fictional character and primary antagonist in the Honorverse, a series of military science fiction novels written by David Weber....
in the HonorverseThe Honorverse refers to the military science fiction book series and sub-series created by David Weber and published by Baen Books. The series is set primarily after Honor Harrington's October 1, 3961, birth; although she is the protagonist in most of the stories, more recent entries make only...
.
- One of the two primary plot lines of Katherine Neville's 1988 novel The Eight
The Eight, published December 27, 1988, is American author Katherine Neville's debut novel. Compared to the works of Umberto Eco when it first appeared, it is a postmodern thriller in which the heroine, accountant Catherine Velis, must enter into a cryptic world of danger and conspiracy in order to...
features Robespierre alongside other famous figures of the French Revolution.
- In the 1927 silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
Napoléon, he is played by Edmond Van Daële. Although this six-hour long epic is about the rise of Napoleon, it does incorporate some aspects of Robespierre's presence.
- In the 1949 film Reign of Terror
Reign of Terror is a 1949 drama film set in the French Revolution. Plotters seek to bring down Maximilien Robespierre and end his bloodthirsty Reign of Terror...
(also known as The Black Book), Robespierre is played as a bloodthirsty tyrant by Richard BasehartJohn Richard Basehart was an American actor. He starred in the 1960s television science fiction drama Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, in the role of Admiral Harriman Nelson.-Career:...
, with Robert CummingsCharles Clarence Robert Orville Cummings , mostly known professionally as Robert Cummings but sometimes as Bob Cummings, was an American film and television actor....
and Arlene DahlArlene Carol Dahl is an American actress and former MGM contract star, who achieved notability during the 1950s. She is the mother of actor Lorenzo Lamas.-Early years:...
as adversaries.
- Robespierre is a central character in Hilary Mantel
Hilary Mary Mantel CBE , née Thompson, is an English novelist, short story writer and critic. Her work, ranging in subject from personal memoir to historical fiction, has been short-listed for major literary awards...
's novel A Place of Greater SafetyA Place of Greater Safety is a 1992 novel by Hilary Mantel. It concerns the events of the French Revolution, focusing on the lives of Georges Danton, Camille Desmoulins, and Maximilien Robespierre from their childhood through the execution of the Dantonists, and also featuring hundreds of other...
, along with Camille DesmoulinsLucie Simplice Camille Benoît Desmoulins was a journalist and politician who played an important role in the French Revolution. He was a childhood friend of Maximilien Robespierre and a close friend and political ally of Georges Danton, who were influential figures in the French Revolution.-Early...
and Georges-Jacques Danton. The novel traces the lives of the three men from their respective childhoods through to the end of their careers.
- He plays a supporting role in http://www.amazon.com/Far-Better-Rest-Susanne-Alleyn/dp/1933523921/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1288795407&sr=1-2A Far Better Rest (2000), a re-imagining of A Tale of Two Cities, by American author Susanne Alleyn.
- The 1964 Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
serial The Reign of TerrorThe Reign of Terror is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from August 8 to September 12, 1964. The story was set in France during the period of the French Revolution known as the Reign of Terror.-Plot:The Doctor, Ian,...
concerns the involvement in this period of history of the time-travelling DoctorThe Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
and his friends. It portrays Robespierre as an implacable tyrant obsessed with increasing the pace of executions, despite the Doctor's attempts (in disguise) to influence him for the good. The time-travellers play a small part in his downfall, with his arrest and imprisonment, even the infamous shot to the mouth, included at the serial's climax (albeit with the violence itself taking place off-camera).
- In the 1983 French and Polish film
The history of cinema in Poland is almost as long as history of cinematography, and it has universal achievements, even though Polish movies tend to be less commercially available than movies from several other European nations....
DantonDanton is a 1983 French language film depicting the last months of Georges Danton, one of the leaders of the French Revolution. It is an adaptation of the Polish play The Danton Case by Stanislawa Przybyszewska....
, Robespierre is played by Wojciech PszoniakWojciech Pszoniak , is a Polish film and theater actor.Pszoniak gained international visibility following Andrzej Wajda's 1975 film The Promised Land, in which he played Moritz, one of the three main characters....
. The film depicts the last days of Danton and is based on The Danton Case by Stanislawa PrzybyszewskaStanisława Przybyszewska was a Polish dramatist who wrote almost exclusively about the French Revolution. Her play The Danton Case, which examines the conflict between Maximilien Robespierre and Georges Danton, is considered to be one of the most exemplary liary works about the Revolution, and was...
. While Przybyszewska's Robespierre is a heroic figure, Wajda's film radically deviates from the play and portrays him in a negative light.
- In the 1989 film La Révolution Française, he is played by Andrzej Seweryn
Andrzej Seweryn is a Polish and French actor and director. One of the most successful Polish theatre actors, he starred in over 50 films, mostly in Poland, France and Germany. He is also one of only three non-French actors to be hired by the Paris-based Comédie-Française.- Biography :Andrzej...
; this film spans six hours, or the entire revolution from 1789 to 1794.
- "The Palace of Versailles", a song about the French Revolution from the 1978 Al Stewart
Al Stewart is a Scottish singer-songwriter and folk-rock musician.Stewart came to stardom as part of the British folk revival in the 1960s and 1970s, and developed his own unique style of combining folk-rock songs with delicately woven tales of the great characters and events from history.He is...
album Time PassagesTime Passages is the eighth studio album by Al Stewart, released in 1978. It is the follow-up to his 1976 album Year of the Cat. The album, like its predecessor, was produced by Alan Parsons...
, includes the lyrics "We burned out all their mansions/In the name of Robespierre."
- In Frank Wildhorn
Frank Wildhorn is an American composer known for both his musicals and popular songs. He is most known for his musical Jekyll & Hyde, which ran four years on Broadway, and for writing the #1 International Hit song "Where Do Broken Hearts Go?" for Whitney Houston.-Early years:Wildhorn was born in...
's 1997 The Scarlet Pimpernel (musical)The Scarlet Pimpernel is a musical with music by Frank Wildhorn and lyrics and book by Nan Knighton, based on the novel of the same name by Baroness Orczy. The show is set in England and France during the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution...
, Robespierre, played by David Cromwell in the original Broadway cast, makes a brief appearance.
- In The French Revolution, a 2005 History Channel documentary, he is played by George Ivascu.
- In Joni Mitchell's song "Sex Kills", she sings "Doctor's pills give you brand new ills and the bills bury you like an avalanche, and lawyers haven't been this popular since Robespierre slaughtered half of France."
- In an episode of Blackadder The Third
Blackadder the Third is the third series of the BBC situation comedy Blackadder, written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, which aired from 17 September to 22 October 1987....
, Edmund Blackadder claims to have broken into Monsieur Robespierre's bedroom and left him a box of chocolates and an insulting note.
- The 1996 Marge Piercy
Marge Piercy is an American poet, novelist, and social activist. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Gone to Soldiers, a sweeping historical novel set during World War II.-Biography:...
novel; City of Darkness, City of Light, features Robespierre as one of six first-person characters.
- The Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
-based punk band Team RobespierreTeam Robespierre is a Brooklyn based band formed in 2005 that plays punk, hyphy, hard house and electro pop music. The band members are Rex , Ty , Tomasz , Mike House , Jason , and Jim . Their debut album Everythings Perfect was released January 22, 2008 on Impose Records...
is named after him.
- It is customary for practitioners of socionics
Socionics , in psychology, is a theory of information processing and personality type, distinguished by its information model of the psyche and a model of interpersonal relations. It incorporates Carl Jung's work on Psychological Types with Antoni Kępiński's theory of information metabolism...
to refer to the Logical Intuitive Introvert personality type as "Robespierre", who is a recognized representative of the type.
- Famous British children's series ChuckleVision
ChuckleVision is a popular British television series shown mainly on CBBC. New episodes are always first aired on BBC One, and occasionally episodes are shown on BBC Two. The first episode was shown on 26 September 1987. It follows the adventures of the Chuckle Brothers & the Patton Brothers, who...
has featured Robespierre as a villain trying to steal the Countess and defeat the Purple Pimple (who is actually Sir Percy with a purple headcover in the series). Citizen Robespierre calls himself "the best swordsman of France". He was featured in Series 17 and 18 (2005/2006), where Barry and Paul go back in time during the French Revolution.
Further reading
- Cobban, Alfred. "The Fundamental Ideas of Robespierre," English Historical Review Vol. 63, No. 246 (Jan., 1948) , pp. 29–51 in JSTOR
- Cobban, Alfred. "The Political Ideas of Maximilien Robespierre during the Period of the Convention," English Historical Review Vol. 61, No. 239 (Jan., 1946), pp. 45–80 in JSTOR A collection of essays covering not only Robespierre's thoughts and deeds but also the way he has been portrayed by historians and fictional writers alike.
- Reviewed by Hilary Mantel
Hilary Mary Mantel CBE , née Thompson, is an English novelist, short story writer and critic. Her work, ranging in subject from personal memoir to historical fiction, has been short-listed for major literary awards...
in the London Review of Books, Vol. 22, No. 7, March 30, 2000. Presents Robespierre as the origin of Fascist dictators.
- Goldstein Sepinwall, Alyssa. "Robespierre, Old Regime Feminist? Gender, the Late Eighteenth Century, and the French Revolution Revisited," Journal of Modern History Vol. 82, No. 1 (March 2010), pp. 1–29 in JSTOR argues he was an early feminist, but by 1793 he joined the other Jacobins who excluded women from political and intellectual life. Presents three contrasting views
- Linton, Marisa. "Robespierre and the Terror", History Today, August 2006, Volume 56, Issue 8, pp. 23–29 online A sympathetic study of the Committee of Public Safety
The Committee of Public Safety , created in April 1793 by the National Convention and then restructured in July 1793, formed the de facto executive government in France during the Reign of Terror , a stage of the French Revolution...
. A MarxistMarxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
political portrait of Robespeirre, examining his changing image among historians and the different aspects of Robespierre as an 'ideologue', as a political democrat, as a social democrat, as a practitioner of revolution, as a politician and as a popular leader/leader of revolution, it also touches on his legacy for the future revolutionary leaders Vladimir LeninVladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
and Mao ZedongMao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
. A revisionist account.
- Scurr, Ruth. Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution. London: Metropolitan Books, 2006 (ISBN 0-8050-7987-4).
- Soboul, Albert
Albert Marius Soboul was a French historian of the French Revolution and of Napoleon. A professor at the Sorbonne, he was Chair of the History of the French Revolution and author of numerous influential works of history and historical interpretation.-Early life and education:Albert Marius Soboul...
. "Robespierre and the Popular Movement of 1793–4", Past and Present, No. 5. (May, 1954), pp. 54–70. in JSTOR Traditional biography with extensive and reliable research.
External links