The
Reign of Terror (the latter is date 10
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 of the French Revolutionary Calendar), also known simply as
The Terror , was a period of violence that occurred after the onset 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...
, incited by conflict between rival political factions, the
GirondinsThe Girondists were a political faction in France within the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention during the French Revolution...
and the
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...
, and marked by mass executions of "enemies of the revolution."
The death toll ranged in the tens of thousands, with an estimated 16,000 to 17,000 executed by
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...
, and another 25,000 by firing squad in summary executions across France.
There were a large number of additional victims who were not executed, but killed in a number of massacres across the country, such as the
infernal columnsThe infernal columns were operations led by general Louis Marie Turreau during the War in the Vendee, aimed at eliminating all resistance after the setback of the virée de Galerne.-Other uses:...
organized by
Louis Marie TurreauLouis Marie Turreau , also known as Turreau de Garambouville or Turreau de Linières, was a French general officer of the French Revolutionary Wars. He was most notable as the organisor of the colonnes infernales during the war in the Vendée, which massacred tens of thousands of Vendéens and ravaged...
, which resulted in an estimated 20,000 to 50,000 deaths, or the
Battle of Le Mans (1793)The Battle of Le Mans was a battle of the War in the Vendée. It resulted in the rout of the Vendéen forces by Republican troops during the Virée de Galerne.-Prelude:...
where the revolutionaries killed an estimated 20,000 non-combattants (on top of 15,000 soldiers killed in the battle itself).
The
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...
(called the "National Razor") became the symbol of the revolutionary cause, strengthened by a string of executions: Louis XVI,
Marie AntoinetteMarie Antoinette ; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was an Archduchess of Austria and the Queen of France and of Navarre. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I....
, the Girondins,
Philippe Égalité (Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans)Louis Philippe Joseph d'Orléans commonly known as Philippe, was a member of a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon, the ruling dynasty of France. He actively supported the French Revolution and adopted the name Philippe Égalité, but was nonetheless guillotined during the Reign of Terror...
and
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...
, as well as many others, such as pioneering chemist
Antoine LavoisierAntoine-Laurent de Lavoisier , the "father of modern chemistry", was a French nobleman prominent in the histories of chemistry and biology...
, lost their lives under its blade.
During 1794, revolutionary France was beset with both real and imagined conspiracies by internal and foreign enemies. Within France, the revolution was opposed by the
French nobilityThe French nobility was the privileged order of France in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern periods.In the political system of the Estates General, the nobility made up the Second Estate...
, which had lost its inherited privileges. The Roman Catholic Church was generally against the Revolution, which had turned the clergy into employees of the state and required they take an oath of loyalty to the nation (through the
Civil Constitution of the ClergyThe 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....
). In fact, many French priests were imprisoned or executed, among them Blessed Hunot and Blessed du Vivier. In addition, the First French Republic was engaged in a series of
French Revolutionary WarsThe French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
with neighboring powers intent on crushing the revolution to prevent its spread.
The extension of civil war and the advance of foreign armies on national territory produced a political crisis and increased the rivalry between the Girondins and the 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...
. The latter were eventually grouped in the parliamentary faction called
the MountainThe 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...
, and they had the support of the Parisian population. The French government established 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...
, which took its final form on 6 September 1793, and was ultimately dominated by
Maximilien RobespierreMaximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre is one of the best-known and most influential figures of the French Revolution. He largely dominated the Committee of Public Safety and was instrumental in the period of the Revolution commonly known as the Reign of Terror, which ended with his...
, in order to suppress internal counter-revolutionary activities and raise additional French military forces. Through 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....
, the Terror's leaders exercised broad dictatorial powers and used them to instigate mass executions and political
purgeIn history, religion, and political science, a purge is the removal of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, from another organization, or from society as a whole. Purges can be peaceful or violent; many will end with the imprisonment or exile of those purged,...
s. The repression accelerated in June and July 1794, a period called "
la Grande Terreur" (the Great Terror), and ended in the coup of 9
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 (27 July 1794), the so-called "
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...
", in which several leaders of the Reign of Terror were executed, including
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...
and Robespierre.
Origins and causes
After the resolution of the foreign wars during 1791-1793, the violence associated with the Reign of Terror increased significantly: only roughly 4% of executions had occurred before November 1793 (
BrumaireBrumaire was the second month in the French Republican Calendar. The month was named after the French word brume which occurs frequently in France at that time of the year....
, Year I), thus signaling to many that the Reign of Terror might have had additional causes. These could have included inherent issues with revolutionary ideology, and/or the need of a weapon for political repression in a time of significant foreign and civil upheaval, leading to many different interpretations by historians.
Many historians have debated the reasons why the French Revolution took such a radical turn during the Reign of Terror of 1793-1794. The public was frustrated that the social equality and anti-poverty measures that the Revolution originally promised were not coming to fruition.
Jacques Roux’sJacques Roux was a radical Roman Catholic priest that took an active role in the revolutionary politics of Paris 1789, during the French Revolution...
“Manifesto of the Enraged” in June 25th, 1793 describes the extent to which, four years into the Revolution, these goals were largely unattained by the common people. The foundation of the Terror is centered on the April 1793 creation of 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 its militant
JacobinJacobin may refer to:* Jacobin , a member of the Jacobin club, or political radical, generally* The Jacobin Club, a political club during the French Revolution* Jacobin , an American leftist political magazine....
delegates. 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...
believed that the Committee needed to rule with “near dictatorial power” and the Committee was delegated new and expansive political powers to quickly respond to popular demands.
Those in power believed the Committee of Public Safety was an unfortunate, but necessary and temporary reaction to the pressures of foreign and civil war. Historian Albert Mathiez argues that the authority of the Committee of Public Safety was based on the necessities of war, as those in power realized that deviating from the will of the people was a temporary emergency response measure in order to secure the ideals of the Republic. According to Mathiez, they “touched only with trepidation and reluctance the regime established by the Constituent Assembly” so as not to interfere with the early accomplishments of the Revolution.
Similar to Mathiez, Richard Cobb introduces the competing circumstances of revolt and reeducation within France as an explanation for the Terror. Counterrevolutionary rebellions taking place in
LyonThe revolt of Lyon against the National Convention was a counter-revolutionary movement in the city of Lyon. It involved a revolt against the revolutionary government, breaking out in June 1793 and ending in December of the same year....
,
BrittanyThe Chouannerie was a royalist uprising in twelve of the western departements of France, particularly in the provinces of Brittany and Maine, against the French Revolution, the First French Republic, and even, with its headquarters in London rather than France, for a time, under the Empire...
, Vendée, Nantes and Marseille were threatening the Revolution with royalist ideas. Cobb writes, “the revolutionaries themselves, living as if in combat… were easily persuaded that only terror and repressive force saved them from the blows of their enemies.” Terror was used in these rebellions both to execute inciters and to provide a very visible example to those who might be considering rebellion. Cobb agrees with Mathiez that the Terror was simply a response to circumstances, a necessary evil and natural defense, rather than a manifestation of violent temperaments or excessive fervor. At the same time, Cobb rejects Mathiez’s
MarxistHistorical materialism is a methodological approach to the study of society, economics, and history, first articulated by Karl Marx as "the materialist conception of history". Historical materialism looks for the causes of developments and changes in human society in the means by which humans...
interpretation that elites controlled the Reign of Terror to the significant benefit to the bourgeoisie. Instead, Cobb argues that “social struggles” between the classes were seldom the reason for revolutionary actions and sentiments.
Francois Furet, however, argues that circumstances could not have been the sole cause of the Reign of Terror because “the risks for the Revolution were greatest” in the middle of 1793 but at that time “the activity of 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....
was relatively minimal.” Widespread terror and a consequent rise in executions came after external and internal threats were vastly reduced. Therefore Furet suggests that ideology played the crucial role in the rise of the Reign of Terror because “man’s regeneration” became a central theme for the Committee of Public Safety as they were trying to instill ideals of free will and enlightened government in the public. As this ideology became more and more pervasive, violence became a significant method for dealing with counterrevolutionaries and the opposition because for fear of being labeled a counterrevolutionary themselves, “the moderate men would have to accept, endorse and even glorify the acts of the more violent.”
The Terror
On 2 June 1793, Paris sections – encouraged by the
enragésLes Enragés were a loose amalgam of radicals active during the French Revolution. Politically they stood to the left of the Jacobins. Represented by Jacques Roux, Théophile Leclerc, Jean Varlet and others, they believed that liberty for all meant more than mere constitutional rights...
Jacques RouxJacques Roux was a radical Roman Catholic priest that took an active role in the revolutionary politics of Paris 1789, during the French Revolution...
and
Jacques HébertJacques René Hébert was a French journalist, and the founder and editor of the extreme radical newspaper Le Père Duchesne during the French Revolution...
– took over the Convention, calling for administrative and political purges, a low fixed price for bread, and a limitation of the electoral
franchiseSuffrage, political franchise, or simply the franchise, distinct from mere voting rights, is the civil right to vote gained through the democratic process...
to
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...
alone. With the backing of the
National GuardThe National Guard was the name given at the time of the French Revolution to the militias formed in each city, in imitation of the National Guard created in Paris. It was a military force separate from the regular army...
, they persuaded the Convention to arrest 31
GirondistThe Girondists were a political faction in France within the Legislative Assembly and the National Convention during the French Revolution...
leaders, including
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:...
. Following these arrests, the Jacobins gained control of 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...
on 10 June, installing the
revolutionary 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:...
. On 13 July the assassination of
Jean-Paul 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...
– a Jacobin leader and journalist known for his bloodthirsty
rhetoricRhetoric is the art of discourse, an art that aims to improve the facility of speakers or writers who attempt to inform, persuade, or motivate particular audiences in specific situations. As a subject of formal study and a productive civic practice, rhetoric has played a central role in the Western...
– by
Charlotte CordayMarie-Anne Charlotte de Corday d'Armont , known to history as Charlotte Corday, was a figure of the French Revolution. In 1793, she was executed under the guillotine for the assassination of Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat, who was in part responsible, through his role as a politician and...
, a Girondist, resulted in a further increase in Jacobin political influence.
Georges 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...
, the leader of the August 1792 uprising against 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....
, was removed from the Committee. On 27 July
Maximilien RobespierreMaximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre is one of the best-known and most influential figures of the French Revolution. He largely dominated the Committee of Public Safety and was instrumental in the period of the Revolution commonly known as the Reign of Terror, which ended with his...
, known in Republican circles as "the Incorruptible" for his ascetic dedication to his ideals, made his entrance, quickly becoming the most influential member of the Committee as it moved to take radical measures against the Revolution's domestic and foreign enemies.
Meanwhile, on 24 June the Convention adopted the first republican constitution of France, the
French Constitution of 1793The Constitution of 24 June 1793 , also known as the Constitution of the Year I, or the The Montagnard Constitution , was the constitution instated by the Montagnards and by popular referendum under the First Republic during the French Revolution...
. It was ratified by public
referendumA referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
, but never put into force; like other laws, it was indefinitely suspended by the decree of October that the government of France would be "revolutionary until the peace".
On 25 December 1793 Robespierre stated:
The goal of the constitutional government is to conserve the Republic; the aim of the revolutionary government is to found it... The revolutionary government owes to the good citizen all the protection of the nation; it owes nothing to the Enemies of the People but death... These notions would be enough to explain the origin and the nature of laws that we call revolutionary ... If the revolutionary government must be more active in its march and more free in his movements than an ordinary government, is it for that less fair and legitimate? No; it is supported by the most holy of all laws: the Salvation of the People.
On 5 February 1794 Robespierre stated, more succinctly that "Terror is nothing else than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible."
The result was policy through which the state used violent repression to crush resistance to the government. Under control of the effectively dictatorial Committee, the Convention quickly enacted more legislation. On 9 September the Convention established
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...
paramilitary forces, the
revolutionary armies, to force farmers to surrender grain demanded by the government. On 17 September the
Law of SuspectsThe Law of Suspects is a term which is used to refer to an enactment passed on 17 September 1793 during the course of the French Revolution. It allowed for the creation of revolutionary tribunals to try those who were suspected of treason against the Republic and to punish those convicted with death...
was passed, which authorized the charging of counter-revolutionaries with vaguely defined
crimes against liberty. On 29 September the Convention extended price-fixing from grain and bread to other essential goods, and also fixed wages. The guillotine became the symbol of a string of executions: Louis XVI had already been guillotined before the start of the terror; Marie-Antoinette, the Girondists, Philippe Égalité,
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...
and many others lost their lives under its blade. 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....
summarily condemned thousands of people to death by the guillotine, while mobs beat other victims to death. Sometimes people died for their political opinions or actions, but many for little reason beyond mere suspicion, or because some others had a stake in getting rid of them.
Among people who were condemned by the revolutionary tribunals, about 8 percent were aristocrats, 6 percent clergy, 14 percent middle class, and 72 percent were workers or peasants accused of hoarding, evading
the draftConscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
,
desertionIn military terminology, desertion is the abandonment of a "duty" or post without permission and is done with the intention of not returning...
, rebellion, and other purported minimal crimes. Maximilien Robespierre, "frustrated with the progress of the revolution," saw politics in a rather tyrannical way because "any institution which does not suppose the people good, and the magistrate corruptible, is evil."
Another
anti-clericalAnti-clericalism is a historical movement that opposes religious institutional power and influence, real or alleged, in all aspects of public and political life, and the involvement of religion in the everyday life of the citizen...
uprising was made possible by the installment of the Revolutionary Calendar on 24 October. Hébert's and Chaumette's
atheistAtheism 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...
movement initiated a religious campaign in order to
dechristianiseThe dechristianisation of France during the French Revolution is a conventional description of the results of a number of separate policies, conducted by various governments of France between the start of the French Revolution in 1789 and the Concordat of 1801, forming the basis of the later and...
society. The program of dechristianisation waged against Catholicism, and eventually against all forms of Christianity, included the
deportationDeportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation...
or execution of clergy; the closing of churches; the rise of
cultsThe Cult of Reason was an atheistic belief system established in France and intended as a replacement for Christianity during the French Revolution.-Origins:...
and the institution of a
civic religionThe 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 large scale destruction of religious monuments; the outlawing of public and private worship and religious education; the forced abjurement of
priestsThe ministerial orders of the Catholic Church include the orders of bishops, deacons and presbyters, which in Latin is sacerdos. The ordained priesthood and common priesthood are different in function and essence....
of their vows and forced marriages of the clergy; the word "saint" being removed from street names; and the War in the Vendée. The enactment of a law on 21 October 1793 made all suspected priests and all persons who harbored them liable to death on sight. The climax was reached with the celebration of the goddess "Reason" in
Notre DameNotre Dame de Paris , also known as Notre Dame Cathedral, is a Gothic, Roman Catholic cathedral on the eastern half of the Île de la Cité in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France. It is the cathedral of the Catholic Archdiocese of Paris: that is, it is the church that contains the cathedra of...
Cathedral on 10 November. Because dissent was now regarded as counterrevolutionary, extremist
enragés such as Hébert and moderate
MontagnardThe 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...
indulgents such as Danton were guillotined in the Spring of 1794. On 7 June Robespierre, who favoured
deismDeism in religious philosophy is the belief that reason and observation of the natural world, without the need for organized religion, can determine that the universe is the product of an all-powerful creator. According to deists, the creator does not intervene in human affairs or suspend the...
over Hébert's atheism and had previously condemned the
Cult of ReasonThe Cult of Reason was an atheistic belief system established in France and intended as a replacement for Christianity during the French Revolution.-Origins:...
, recommended that the Convention acknowledge the existence of God. On the next day, the worship of the deistic
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 :...
was inaugurated as an official aspect of the Revolution. Compared with Hébert's somewhat popular festivals, this austere new religion of Virtue was received with signs of hostility by the Parisian public.
The End of the Reign
The repression brought thousands of suspects before the Paris
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....
, whose work was expedited by the
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...
(10 June 1794). As a result of Robespierre's insistence on associating Terror with Virtue, his efforts to make the republic a morally united
patrioticPatriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
community became equated with the endless bloodshed. Finally, after 26 June's decisive military victory over Austria at the
Battle of FleurusIn the Battle of Fleurus on 26 June 1794, the army of the First French Republic under General Jean-Baptiste Jourdan faced the Coalition Army commanded by Prince Josias of Coburg in the most decisive battle of the Flanders Campaign in the Low Countries during the French Revolutionary Wars...
, Robespierre was overthrown by a conspiracy of certain members of the Convention on 9 Thermidor (27 July).
The fall of Robespierre was brought about by a combination of those who wanted more power for the Committee of Public Safety, and a more radical policy than he was willing to allow, with the moderates who opposed the Revolutionary Government altogether. They had, between them, made the Law of 22 Prairial one of the charges against him, and after his fall, advocating Terror would mean adopting the policy of a convicted enemy of the Republic, endangering the advocate's own head. Before his execution, Robespierre tried unsuccessfully to commit suicide by shooting himself, but the bullet merely shattered his jaw, and Robespierre was guillotined the next day.
The reign of the standing Committee of Public Safety was ended. New members were appointed the day after Robespierre's execution, and term limits were imposed (a quarter of the committee retired every three months); its powers were reduced piece by piece.
This was not an entirely or immediately conservative period; no government of the Republic envisaged a Restoration, and Marat was reburied in the Pantheon in September.
See also
- Bals des victimes
The Bals des victimes, or victims' balls, were balls that were said to have been put on by dancing societies after the Reign of Terror. To be admitted to these societies and balls, one had to be a near relative of someone who had been guillotined during the Terror...
- Great Fear
The "Great Fear" occurred from 20 July to 5 August 1789 in France at the start of the French Revolution. Rural unrest had been present in France since the worsening grain shortage of the spring, and the grain supplies were now guarded by local militias as rumors that bands of armed men were...
- Tricoteuse
Tricoteuse literally translates from the French as a knitter or knitting device. The term is most often used in its historical sense as a name for the women who frequented the public executions in Paris during the French Revolution.-Origins:...
- Use of the Guillotine in Paris
The first use of the guillotine in Paris was on April 25, 1792. The condemned was Nicolas Jacques Pellerier. He was executed in front of what is now the city hall of Paris,...
Secondary sources
-
- Reviewed by Adam Thorpe in The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, 23 December 2006.
External links
- The Terror from In Our Time (BBC Radio 4)
In Our Time is a live BBC radio discussion series exploring the history of ideas, presented by Melvyn Bragg since 15 October 1998.. It is one of BBC radio's most successful discussion programmes, acknowledged to have "transformed the landscape for serious ideas at peak listening time"...
- Reign of Terror from Khanacademy