Thermidorian Reaction
Also called: 9 Thermidor, Fall of Robespierre
Fearing they would be next, deputies had Robespierre arrested and executed; the Terror ended and the Revolution turned in a moderate direction.
After Fulchran-Jean Harriet · Public domain · Source
Even after the victory at Fleurus in June 1794 eased the foreign threat, the executions kept rising. When Robespierre told the Convention on 26 July that he would purge unnamed “traitors”, frightened deputies joined forces. The next day, 27 July (9 Thermidor Year II), the Convention voted to arrest Robespierre, Saint-Just and others.
The Paris Commune freed them and took them to the Hôtel de Ville, but few people rallied, and that night Convention troops under Barras burst in. Wounded in the jaw by a gunshot, Robespierre was guillotined with 21 associates on 28 July. The Jacobin Club was then closed, suspects were released, and in the “White Terror” the Jacobins themselves faced reprisals.