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Person1758 – 1794

Maximilien Robespierre

Also called: Robespierre

Jacobin leader who dominated the Committee of Public Safety during the Reign of Terror and was guillotined after the Thermidorian Reaction of 1794

Born in Arras in 1758, he studied at the Collège Louis-le-Grand in Paris and became a lawyer in his home town, deeply influenced by Rousseau. Elected to the Estates-General for the Third Estate in 1789, he argued for universal suffrage and the abolition of the death penalty, and his austerity earned him the name “the Incorruptible”. A leader of the Jacobin Club, he entered the Convention in 1792, pressed for the execution of Louis XVI and in July 1793 joined the Committee of Public Safety, where he led the Reign of Terror. He purged the Hébertists and Dantonists and presided over the Festival of the Supreme Being, but was arrested on 27 July 1794 (9 Thermidor) and guillotined the next day.

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6 related events

  1. 1
    1789Tennis Court Oathparticipant

    Locked out of their hall, the Third Estate deputies gathered in a nearby real-tennis court and swore not to disperse until they had given France a constitution.

  2. 2
    1792National Convention and the Proclamation of the Republicparticipant

    Elected by universal male suffrage, the National Convention abolished the monarchy at its first sitting and began counting days from “Year I of the Republic”.

  3. 3
    1793Execution of Louis XVIrelated figure

    The National Convention sentenced “Citizen Louis Capet” to death for treason, and the king was guillotined in the Place de la Révolution.

  4. 4
    1793 – 1794Committee of Public Safety and the Reign of Terrorkey figure

    Amid crises at home and abroad, the Committee of Public Safety made “terror the order of the day” and rounded up suspects; some 17,000 were officially executed.

  5. 5
    1794Festival of the Supreme Beingkey figure

    Robespierre replaced the atheistic Cult of Reason with a state festival honouring the Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul, staged by David.

  6. 6
    1794Thermidorian Reactionrelated figure

    Fearing they would be next, deputies had Robespierre arrested and executed; the Terror ended and the Revolution turned in a moderate direction.

People who appear alongside

  • Louis XVI1754 – 1793

    King of France, executed during the Revolution

  • Georges Danton1759 – 1794

    Revolutionary orator who led France as Minister of Justice in the crisis of 1792 and was guillotined in 1794 after calling for an end to the Terror

  • Comte de Mirabeau1749 – 1791

    Nobleman elected for the Third Estate whose oratory led the early National Assembly towards a constitutional monarchy

  • Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès1748 – 1836

    Cleric and political theorist whose pamphlet What Is the Third Estate? opened the Revolution and who plotted the coup of Brumaire with Napoleon in 1799

  • Jean-Paul Marat1743 – 1793

    Physician turned journalist and Convention deputy whose paper L’Ami du peuple urged radical revolution; assassinated by Charlotte Corday in 1793

  • Jacques-Louis David1748 – 1825

    Neoclassical painter and Convention deputy who painted The Tennis Court Oath and The Death of Marat, staged the revolutionary festivals and later became Napoleon’s court painter

  • Paul Barras1755 – 1829

    Convention deputy who led the Thermidorian Reaction and became the strongman of the Directory until the coup of Brumaire

Themes this person appears in

  • The French Revolution1787 – 1799

    From the Assembly of Notables and the Estates-General to the coup of 18 Brumaire — twelve years that toppled the absolute monarchy, founded a republic, passed through Terror and reaction, and ended with Napoleon