The revolutionaries were beset on all sides. In this context, the Convention itself voted for stringent measures that permitted terror in time of extreme danger for the country. While some Committee members were more practical organisers, Robespierre was the man whose speeches provided the legal and moral justification of terror, a role for which he would pay dearly. He became its public apologist.
What makes idealistic men choose terror? It is a problem as relevant today as it was in the late 18th century. To understand why Robespierre and other revolutionary leaders supported such extreme measures we must unravel the tangled, toxic world of revolutionary politics in the Year II.
Like his colleagues, Robespierre was motivated by conviction — but also by fear. The revolutionary leaders were under intense pressure. The integrity of their words and actions was judged by suspicious observers. This could be a spectator in the public galleries, a member of the crowds on the streets, a revolutionary journalist, or, indeed, one of his readers. Above all, revolutionary politicians were in danger of being denounced by one another.
Once they appeared before it, they were doomed, and a succession of political factions passed under the guillotine. Robespierre had tried to save them, but when it came to a choice between his friends and what he believed to be the security of the revolution, he chose the latter.
Once he had made up his mind to agree to their arrest, there would be no turning back, no mercy. He used his knowledge of their private lives to add weight to the denunciation made against them; and he supported the decision to arrest them without warning, giving them scant chance to defend themselves.
Certainly he had lost his political judgment. Instead he arrived with only his speech in his hand to defend himself. Much of this address consisted of an anguished protest at how his integrity had been undermined by his enemies.
He also brandished a list of Jacobins whom he wanted to denounce in a further purge. Yet he refused to give their names and, in doing so, gave much of his audience the impression that they were next in line for the guillotine. It was a fatal miscalculation on his part. On July 27, 9 Thermidor in the Revolutionary calendar , Robespierre and his allies were placed under arrest by the National Assembly.
Robespierre was taken to the Luxembourg prison in Paris, but the warden refused to jail him, and he fled to the Hotel de Ville. Armed supporters arrived to aid him, but he refused to lead a new insurrection. When he received word that the National Convention had declared him an outlaw, he shot himself in the head but only succeeded in wounding his jaw. Shortly thereafter, troops of the National Convention attacked the Hotel de Ville and seized Robespierre and his allies.
The next evening—July 28—Robespierre and 21 others were guillotined without a trial in the Place de la Revolution. During the next few days, another 82 Robespierre followers were executed. The Reign of Terror was at an end. In the aftermath of the coup, the Committee of Public Safety lost its authority, the prisons were emptied, and the French Revolution became decidedly less radical. The Directory that followed saw a return to bourgeois values, corruption, and military failure. In , the Directory was overthrown in a military coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte , who wielded dictatorial powers in France as first consul and, after , as French emperor.
But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Moreover, the contract can be changed at any time the "general will" desires. The nation's will is expressed in law. In such cases where an opponent consistently resists or rejects the general will as expressed in law, Rousseau recommends death: "When the entire nation is in danger.
Lenience toward conspirators is treason against the people. The sovereign -- that it to say the people -- may legitimately take away the goods of everyone, as was done at Sparta in the time of Lycurgus.
One of Rousseau's dictims that Robespierre took to heart in particular is the following: "The spirit of the people may reside in an enlightened minority, who consequently have the right to act for the political advantage. It became the basis for all his actions while in power; it is virtually the same as asserting that he did what he did "because France demanded it.
Welded firmly in Robespierre's mind with Rousseau's political and ethical philosophy was Montesquieu's concept of republican virtue:.
Virtue in a republic is a most simple thing; it is love of the republic; it is a sensation, and not a consequence of acquired knowledge, a sensation that may be felt by the meanest as well as by the highest person in the state.
When the common people adopt good maxims, they adhere to them more steadily than those whom we call gentlemen. The love of our country is favorable to a purity of morals, and the latter is again conducive to the former.
Robespierre and his compatriots, especially Louis-Antoine Saint-Just and George Couthon, envisioned a French Republic based on virtue, wherein economic class distinctions would cease, wherein it would be criminal to own an excess of wealth, wherein the highest and noblest goal of any citizen would be service to the state. Faith in the divine was necessary for the health of the nation, both spiritually and politically.
Atheism they considered immoral and punishable by death; it was a form of treason and as such in opposition and potentially harmful to the general will. Of course, these ideas did not take hold of Robespierre's intellect all at once; many came about as responses to prevailing political or intellectual trends.
Some of his ideas crystallized during his period of law practice in Arras. Robespierre received his bachelor of law degree on July 31, and his license on May 15, ; he was admitted to the Paris bar three months later.
His practice of law increased his growing concern for humanity. As he told Charlotte,. The duty of pleading the case of the weak against the strong is that of every heart not so poisoned by egoism and corruption. My life's task will be to aid those who suffer and to pursue with vengeful words those who, without pity for humanity, enjoy the suffering of others.
It was during his practice that he first began to seriously consider ways in which he might better the lot of his fellow human beings. There is evidence from this period that the sense of absolute conviction that so colored his later years was not yet fixed with rigidity.
Charlotte reports one incident that occurred while Robespierre was serving a term as Episcopal Judge in He kept repeating, 'I know he is to blame. He is a rascal. After his resignation as Episcopal judge, Robespierre enjoyed immediate success in his practice and earned a reputation as a protector of the poor and downtrodden, a reputation which he carefully cultivated.
Nonetheless, he usually won his cases, and his success and the example of Rousseau inspired him to publish many of them. These pamphlets served to further increase his notoriety and reputation.
It is not surprising that, when news came in August of of the imminent meetings of the Estates-General, Robespierre decided to somehow get elected as a delegate from his province of Artois. He took to active campaigning, especially through his personal manifesto, "An appeal to the Artesian People. He accomplished this through skillful political maneuvering and popular oratory, appealing to the prevailing opinions and spirit of change in the air. As Robespierre remarked at the time, "Everything in France is going to change now.
At the Estates-General, Robespierre involved himself in much but accomplished little at first. He was also somewhat disillusioned by many of the prominent and popular leaders Mounier, Target, Malouse -- who did not seem to him revolutionary at all. Robespierre played almost no part in the events leading up to the Tennis Court Oath of June 20 after which the Estates-General came to be called the National Constituent Assembly or the storming of the Bastille on July His speeches shortly after this, though, began to express his belief that the guilty must be executed as traitors, so the people would not lose faith in the laws.
His patriotic speeches began to win him the support of the common people who flocked each day to the proceedings.
By autumn the Assembly had split into four definite camps. On the extreme right were the monarchist, totally opposed to any reform.
They soon realized their impotence, however, and eventually ceased attending. The second group was made up of those monarchists who had begun the Revolution but who now felt it had gone too far and should be stopped.
The third group, and the majority, were constitutional monarchists, who advocated more reforms and a system of government balanced between the king and the assembly the feudal class structure had been abolished in early August.
The fourth group consisted of the extreme leftists, unknown radicals who had gained the ear of the public: Abbe Gregoire, Petion, Euzot, Dubois-Crance, Prieur of the Marne and Robespierre.
A settlement might have been forthcoming, which would have resulted in a victory for the moderates, had not Louis XVI been so obstinately opposed to compromise. At last, with high prices and rumors of famine circulating throughout Paris, a mob of angry Parisian women five or six thousand strong marched on Versailles, at the instigation of Marat, and "escorted" the royal family to Paris where they could be watched. Needless to say, Louis was now more open to suggestion.
A few days later, the Assembly also transferred to Paris in order to be closer to the king for debate and negotiation. In Paris, Robespierre began his rise to prominence in the Jacobin Club. He turned to the Jacobins because he was neglected and frustrated by the Assembly. The Jacobins owe much of their success to Robespierre; it was he who effected the organization of provincial branches of the club through personal visits, letters and his published speeches.
Part of the reason lies in the fact that the Jacobins were more willing to use force and terror than their opponents such as the Girondists and the Dantonists. Robespierre encouraged the provincial club members to make their voices heard as much as possible in the Assembly; by shouting the loudest, they appeared to be the majority.
Robespierre's rise in the Jacobins also increased his visibility and popularity with the general public, with whom he constantly identified himself. The Jacobins became the molders of public opinion -- there is much truth to the saying that whoever controlled the mob in Paris controlled the Revolution. The Jacobins provided Robespierre with a power base more than anything else.
He provided for them a sense of stability, a rallying-point, as it were, in a chaotic, confused time. The subsequent general course of events of the Revolution is well known. Maximilien de Robespierre was a radical Jacobin leader and one of the principal figures in the French Revolution.
In the latter months of , he came to dominate the Committee of Public Safety, the principal organ of the Revolutionary government during the Reign of Terror, but in he was overthrown and guillotined. His mother died when he was 6 years old, and his father left the family soon after. The children were raised by their maternal grandparents.
He practiced law in Arras, which provided him with a comfortable income. Robespierre soon took on a public role, calling for political change in the French monarchy.
He became a devotee of social philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau , intrigued by the idea of a virtuous man who stands alone accompanied only by his conscience. He gained a reputation for defending the poorest of society and earned the nickname "the incorruptible" for his adherence to strict moral values. At age 30, Robespierre was elected to the Estates General of the French legislature. He became increasingly popular with the people for his attacks on the French monarchy and his advocacy for democratic reforms.
He also opposed the death penalty and slavery. Some of his colleagues saw his refusal to compromise and his rigid stand against all authority as extreme and impractical.
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