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.

The Reign of Terror

Terror is only justice that is prompt, severe and inflexible. (Maximilien Robespierre)

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Some have argued that Robespierre's role in the Reign of Terror was but minor, and that he was a subordinate player within the Committee of Public Safety, whose contribution was ideological rather than practical. Other apologists such as Babeuf and Buonarroti have sought more reasonably to exculpate him on the grounds of practical expediency. However, although Robespierre may not have raised the levers on the guillotine himself, as the leader, mouthpiece and articulator of the Terror, his responsibility cannot be denied.

Related Topics:
Babeuf - Buonarroti

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The Terror was initially the embodiment of the idea of Danton, that it was necessary to resort to extreme measures to keep France united and strong at home in order to successfully meet her enemies upon the frontier. This idea was systematized by the Committee of Public Safety.

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The reason why Robespierre is almost universally regarded as its creator and the dominant spirit in the Committee is not however hard to discern. Robespierre had a fanatical following among the Jacobins. He was one of the most popular orators in the Convention, on which his carefully prepared addresses often made a deep impression. His panegyrics on the system of revolutionary government and his praise of virtue led his hearers to believe that the system of the Terror, instead of being monstrous, was entirely necessary, laudable and inevitable. His moral standing and self-proclaimed incorruptibility threw a lustre on the Committee of which he was a member. His colleagues offered no opposition to his acting as their representative and reflecting some of his personal popularity upon them so long as he did not interfere with their work.

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Although Robespierre was not the sole author of the subsequent overthrow of the Dantonists and the Hébertists, he thoroughly agreed with the majority and had no desire to save them, the principles of both parties being obnoxious to him. In the winter of 1793–1794 it became obvious that the Hébertist party must perish, or its opposition within the Committee would become overwhelming due to its significant influence in the Commune of Paris. Robespierre shared his colleagues' fear of the Hébertist opinions, and he had a personal reason for intensely disliking that party of atheists and sans-culottes, since he believed in the necessity of religious faith.

Related Topics:
Hébertists - 1793 - 1794 - Atheist - Sans-culottes - Faith

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His position towards the Dantonist party was of a different character. After having seen established the strong executive he had laboured for, and having moved the resolutions which finally consolidated the power of the Committee of Public Safety in September 1793, Danton retired to his country house. But to his retreat came the news of the means the Committee used to maintain their supremacy. Danton did not believe that this continuous series of sacrifices under the guillotine was necessary, especially since the danger to the country had passed away with the victories of the revolutionary army; hence he inspired Camille Desmoulins to protest against the Terror in Le Vieux Cordelier:

Related Topics:
1793 - Le Vieux Cordelier

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: Where is this system of terror to end? What is the good of a tyranny comparable only to that of the Roman emperors as described by Tacitus?

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Such were the questions which Camille Desmoulins asked under Danton's inspiration. This moderantism, as it was called, was as objectionable to the members of the Committee under Robespierre's influence as the doctrines of the Hébertists. Both parties had to be crushed. Before the blows at the leaders of those two parties were struck, Robespierre retired for a month (from February 13 to March 13 1794) from active business in the Convention and the Committee, apparently to consider his position; but he came to the conclusion that the cessation of the Reign of Terror would mean the loss of that supremacy by which he hoped to establish the ideal of Rousseau. Danton, he knew, was essentially a practical statesman and laughed at his ideas and especially his politico-religious projects. He must have considered too that the result of his siding with Danton would probably have been fatal to himself.

Related Topics:
February 13 - March 13 - 1794

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The result of his deliberations was that he abandoned Danton and co-operated in the attacks of the Committee on the two parties. On the March 15 he reappeared in the Convention; on March 19 Hébert and his friends were arrested; and on March 24 they were guillotined. On the March 30 Danton, Camille Desmoulins and their friends were arrested, and on the 5th of April they too were guillotined. In formulating charges against both parties, Robespierre alleged complicity with foreign powers to overthrow France.

Related Topics:
March 15 - March 19 - Hébert - March 24 - Guillotine - March 30

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It was not until after the execution of Danton that Robespierre began to develop a policy distinct from that of his colleagues in the Committee, an opposition which ended in his downfall. He began by using his influence over the Jacobin Club to dominate the Commune of Paris through his devoted adherents, two of whom, Fleuriot-Lescot and CF de Payan, were elected respectively mayor and procureur of the Commune. He also attempted to usurp the influence of the other members of the Committee over the armies by getting his young adherent, Saint-Just, sent on a mission to the frontier.

Related Topics:
Fleuriot-Lescot - CF de Payan - Saint-Just

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In Paris Robespierre determined to increase the pressure of the Terror: no one should accuse him of moderantism. Through the increased efficiency of the revolutionary tribunal Paris should tremble before him as the chief member of the Committee. The Convention should pass whatever measures he might dictate.

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To secure his aims, Couthon, his other ally in the Committee, proposed and carried on 10 June the drastic Law of 22 Prairial, by which even the appearance of justice was taken from the tribunal, which, as no witnesses were allowed, became a simple court of condemnation. The result of this law was that between 12 June and the 28 July, the day of Robespierre's death, no fewer than 1,285 victims perished by the guillotine in Paris. It was the bloodiest and the least justifiable period of the Terror. But before this there had taken place in Robespierre's life an episode of supreme importance, as illustrating his character and his political aims:

Related Topics:
Couthon - 10 June - Law of 22 Prairial - 12 June - 28 July

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On May 7 he secured a decree from the Convention recognizing the existence of the Supreme Being. This worship of the Supreme Being was based upon the ideas of Rousseau in The Social Contract, and was opposed by Robespierre to Catholicism on the one hand and the Hébertist atheism on the other. In honour of the Supreme Being a great fête was held on 8 June; Robespierre, as president of the Convention, walked first and delivered his harangue, and as he looked around him he may well have believed that his position was secured and that he was at last within reach of a supreme power which should enable him to impose his belief on all France, and so ensure its happiness. The majority of the Committee found his popularity—or rather his ascendancy, for as that increased his personal popularity diminished—useful to them, since by increasing the stringency of the Terror he strengthened the position of the Committee, whilst attracting to himself, as occupying the most prominent position in it, any latent feeling of dissatisfaction at such stringency. Of the issue of a struggle between themselves and Robespierre they had little fear: they controlled the Committee of General Security through their alliance with its leaders, André Amar and Marc Guillaume Alexis Vadier; they were hopeful of obtaining a majority in the Convention; for they knew that the chief deputies on the left, or the Mountain, were Dantonists, who burned to avenge Danton's death; while they felt sure also that the mass of the deputies of the centre, or the Marsh, could be hounded on against Robespierre if they were to accuse him of aiming at the dictatorship and pour on him the obloquy of having increased the Terror when victory on the frontier rendered it less necessary; and they knew finally that his actual adherents, though devoted to him, were few in number.

Related Topics:
May 7 - Supreme Being - Social Contract - Catholicism - 8 June - André Amar - Marc Guillaume Alexis Vadier - The Mountain

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The devotion of these admirers had been further excited by the news that a half-witted girl, named Cécile Renault, had been found wandering near his house, with a knife in her possession, intending to play the part of Charlotte Corday. She was executed on June 17, on the very day that Vadier raised a laugh at Robespierre's expense in the Convention by his report on the conspiracy of Catherine Théot, a mad woman, who had asserted that Robespierre was a divinity.

Related Topics:
Cécile Renault - Charlotte Corday - June 17 - Catherine Théot

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Robespierre felt that he must strike his blow now or never. Yet he was not sufficiently audacious to strike at once, as Payan and Jean Baptiste Coffinhal, the ablest of his adherents, would have had him do. He retired from the Convention for some weeks, as he had done before the overthrow of the Hébertists and the Dantonists, to prepare his plan of action. This retirement seemed ominous to the majority of the Committee, and they too prepared for the struggle by communicating with the deputies of the Mountain, who were either friends of Danton or men of proved energy like Barras, Fréron and Tallien.

Related Topics:
Jean Baptiste Coffinhal - Barras - Tallien

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