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.

Family and early life

He was born in Arras, France. A myth persists that his family was of Irish descent, having emigrated from Ireland at the time of the Protestant Reformation for religious reasons, and that his direct ancestors in the male line had been notaries in the little village of Carvin near Arras from the beginning of the 17th century. However, several genealogists have traced his family back to the Middle Ages in Northern France.

Related Topics:
Arras - France - Irish - Protestant Reformation - Carvin - 17th century

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His paternal grandfather established himself in Arras as an advocate. His father, who followed the same profession, married Jacqueline Marguerite Carraut, daughter of a brewer, in 1757. Robespierre was the eldest of four children. In 1767 Madame Derobespierre, as the name was then spelt, died, and her husband left Arras and wandered about Europe until his death in Munich in 1777. The children were raised by their maternal grandfather and aunts.

Related Topics:
1757 - 1767 - Munich - 1777

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Maximilien was sent to the college of Arras. In 1770, by recommendation of the bishop, he obtained a scholarship at the college of Louis-le-Grand in Paris. Here his fellow pupils included Camille Desmoulins and Stanislas Fréron.

Related Topics:
1770 - Paris - Camille Desmoulins - Stanislas Fréron

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