HST 122 -- The French Revolution: the Radical Phase
Case Study: Maximilien Robespierre
I. Introduction
- Robespierre (1758-94) was born in a town called Arras
about 100 miles north of Paris
II. Early Years (1758-88)
A. Death
1. most of those close to him had died
a. his mother died in 1764
b. his father abandoned him; died in 1777
c. his sister died in 1780
d. his mentor in Paris died in 1771
e. his grandparents died soon after he finished school
2. he was probably desensitized by it; it became the norm for him
B. Poverty
1. he was born into the middle class, but raised by poor grandparents
2. he had to get a scholarship to go to school
3. this made him sympathetic to the poor
4. he continued to live modestly as an adult
5. he became known as the "Incorruptible"
C. Religion and Morals
1. he followed a strict moral and religious regimen at school
2. he becomes an idealized version of his old school master
3. he wanted to instill religion and morals in all the citizens of France
D. Rousseau
1. Robespierre had a deep commitment to the ideas of Rousseau
- esp. the Social Contract (1762) and its devotion to individual liberty
2. he also embraced Rousseau's idea of citizen virtue
- one must be willing to put one's country first
III. Rise to Power (1788-91)
A. The Estates General
1. Election
a. Robespierre published a pamphlet in 1788
in which he advocated fair voting procedures
b. he was elected to be a representative from the province of Artois
2. Versailles
a. the Estates-General opened on May 4th 1789
b. Robespierre went largely unnoticed at first
3. The Beginning of Robespierre's Rise
a. the archbishop of Nîmes begged the deputies of the Third Estate
to return to the Estates General "for the good of the people"
b. Robespierre lost his temper and berated him
c. his fellow deputies finally took notice
B. The Jacobins
1. Breton Club became the Jacobin Club
2. met nightly to discuss the new constitution
3. Robespierre became more and more comfortable
making speeches to his fellow Jacobins
C. The Royal Family Flees
1. they were being held at the Tuileries in central Paris
2. they fled on June 20th 1791, but were caught before they got to Austria
3. this forces a split in the Jacobin Club
a. Robespierre and others argued that the king was guilty
and that he should stand trial
b. some Jacobins supported the king;
they argued that he must have been kidnapped
c. these Jacobins left and formed a new club (the Feuillants)
IV. Pinnacle of Power (1792-94)
A. Pragmatism v. Idealism
1. Robespierre tried to hold onto his ideals
2. but he became more of a pragmatist
a. he limited freedom of the press
b. he used the death penalty
c. he opposed war with Austria and Prussia
B. Politics Becomes Personal
1. war
a. some of Robespierre's friends and allies supported the war
b. they got their way; France went to war
c. the war went badly; there was rioting
d. the Jacobins and the sans-culottes took over Paris
e. they forced an election of a NEW assembly, the National Convention
2. the fate of the king
a. the Mountain faction v. the Girondins
b. Robespierre and the Mountain won
c. the king was tried, found guilty and guillotined in early 1793
3. the tension builds
a. these disagreements led to animosity between the factions,
especially between the leaders themselves
b. Robespierre and Jacques-Pierre Brissot had been friends
c. these disputes made them hate each other
C. The Reign of Terror
1. the Revolutionary Tribunal
a. special court to hand out swift justice via guillotine
b. supported by Robespierre and his ally Georges Danton
2. the Committee of Public Safety
a. created to supervise the tribunal
b. Robespierre was not initially on the committee;
he was elected in July 1793
3. the Law of Suspects
a. passed by the Convention in September 1793
b. allowed the Committee of Public Safety
to arrest and kill anyone they wanted
4. Robespierre's former friends and allies began to fall
a. Brissot and the Girondins
- had supported the war with Austria
b. Jacques Hébert and his allies
- leaders of the de-Christianization movement
c. Danton
- questioned the rule of the Committee
5. enemies of the people
- thousands of people were guillotined
V. Downfall
A. Fear
1. Robespierre's colleagues in the Convention and on the Committee
began to fear that they might be next
2. indiscriminate killing
a. Marie Angelica Plaisant
b. Francis Bertrand
c. Henrietta Frances de Marboeuf
3. Cartoon: Robespierre guillotined everyone!
4. his colleagues began to conspire to get rid of him
B. Religion
1. many of the leaders of the revolution had tried to
de-Christianize France
2. Robespierre was opposed to this for religious and practical reasons
3. he instituted the Cult of the Supreme Being to oppose the atheism
4. he then organized a Festival of the Supreme Being (June 1794)
5. his atheist opponents publicly mocked him
C. No Allies Left
1. Robespierre had no one to protect him when he needed it most
2. he had killed nearly all of his friends and allies
D. Thermidorian Reaction
1. revolt against Robespierre during the revolutionary month
of Thermidor (late July)
2. he made one final effort to save himself; he gave a speech
at the Convention to rally support
3. all this did was galvanize the opposition
4. the Convention voted to arrest Robespierre (July 27, 1794)
5. later the same day, he and his last remaining allies were arrested
(his brother Augustin, Saint-Just, Georges Couthon, Phillipe Le Bas)
6. a city official named Francois Hanriot refused to allow the prison
to accept the prisoners
7. in the ensuing confusion, Robespierre and the others escaped
to city hall (Hôtel de Ville)
8. the Convention sent soldiers to apprehend them
9. calamity ensued
a. Augustin went out a window and fell off the roof
b. Hariot jumped out a window (or was pushed)
c. Le Bas shot himself
d. Couthon fell down some stairs
e. Saint-Just froze
f. Robespierre was shot in the face
10. the next day, they were hauled before the tribunal
11. that evening, they went to the guillotine:
Robespierre's execution
Early Modern Europe 
