Maximilien Robespierre

Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (IPA /maksimiljε̃ fʁα̃swa maʁi izidɔʁ d? ʁɔbεspjεʁ/), (6 May 1758, Arras – 28 July 1794, Paris), known to his contemporaries also as "the Incorruptible", is one of the best known of the leaders of the French Revolution. He was an influential member of the Committee of Public Safety which oversaw the period of the French Revolution in which the revolutionaries consolidated their power, a period which is commonly known as the Reign of Terror. The myth that Robespierre himself became a virtual dictator in his final years is often repeated, but while the Committee of Public Safety was certainly a dictatorial committee, Robespierre was not in his own right a dictator. In Thermidor of the Revolutionary calendar's Year Two he was executed by his conspiring comrades.

Related Topics:
IPA - 6 May - 1758 - Arras - 28 July - 1794 - Paris - French Revolution - Committee of Public Safety - Reign of Terror - Dictator - Thermidor

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Politically he was a disciple of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, among other Enlightenment philosophers, and a capable articulator of the beliefs of the bourgeois left. He harnessed this talent as a means of rabble-rousing. He is often described as a rather impractical man, who coupled deistic beliefs in the Supreme Being with marked fanaticism.

Related Topics:
Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Bourgeois - Left - Supreme Being

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He was described as physically unimposing, although he dressed immaculately, so much so that some described him as a dandy.

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