Transcription
The year is 1793. Louis XVI has just been executed. France is devastated by a civil war and is now threatened by the First Coalition. Paranoia and terror, oh terror, grips the country by a stroke as the people demand more and more purges. As a result, almost 17,000 were executed in just over a year. France now lives under the tyranny of the Committee of Public Safety, with Maximilien Robespierre at its head.
Robespierre was born on the 6th of May, in Arras, France. A model student, he studied law practice at the prestigious University of Paris in hopes of becoming a lawyer, just like his father and grandfather. There, he came to admire an idealized Roman Republic through the lectures of Cicero, Cato, and other classical writers. He was also attracted to 18th-century philosophers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whose ideas he would later try to emulate in France. He passed the bar of Arras at the age of 23 as a fervent supporter of direct democracy, which, my friend at House of History recently made a video about, believing the people of France virtuous enough to ensure the well-being of the nation. The strength and conviction he showed for these views would earn him the nickname "L'Incorruptible," and in 1789, French revolutionary Mirabeau commented, "This man (will go far); he believes everything he says."
With these ideas in mind, he was appointed as criminal judge in 1782 by the Bishop of Arras. Ironically, he would quickly resign over his opposition to the death penalty and instead became a strong advocate for poor clients, whom he would defend through ideas of enlightenment and rights of men. In 1783, he was elected as a member of the Academy of Arras, whose meetings he would regularly attend, and in 1789, he campaigned as deputy of the Third Estate to represent the peasants and bourgeoisie. He was young, relatively poor, unknown, and strongly opposed the very system he was running for, which, he believed, failed to represent the people of France. Yet, against all odds, thanks to the support he had gained in the countryside from his "Avis aux habitants de Campagne," Robespierre won. On the 5th of May, 1789, for the first time since the Estates-General to deal with France's crippling debt, which had soared during the American Revolution.
When Robespierre arrived at Versailles for the assembly, few deputies had ever heard of him, but that won't last long. Robespierre didn't have the courage of a statesman, the qualities of a great orator, or the belief in himself which marks a great man. No, he was nervous, timid, and suspicious. But his unwavering faith in Rousseau's ideas, however, would make his name. During the assembly, the Third Estate, which were twice as many as the other estates, demanded sweeping political and social reforms and hoped to get it thanks to their higher numbers. However, they were quickly informed that all voting would be based on (order) rather than number, thus making their superior numbers meaningless. While this event deserves its own video, it's easy to see why the Third Estate was upset and flat-out refused to take part of the assembly. Instead, they decided to meet separately by forming a National Assembly in Paris, of which Robespierre was appointed as one of its representatives on the 13th of July, 1789.
After his arrival to the capital from Versailles that same year, he will get involved with the Society of the Friends of the Constitution, better known as the Jacobins, where he found a sympathetic audience to his ideas. Soon, Robespierre and his supporters, which had come to idolize him for his fanaticism, would dominate the club as more moderate right-wing members left within the same year. By then, the National Assembly had turned into the National Constituent Assembly, whose membership mostly comprised of lawyers and wealthy Parisian bourgeois, occupied with drafting a constitution for their own interests. Robespierre instead favors France's lower classes, particularly Jews, blacks, and actors. Through powerful speeches in front of the Constituent Assembly, he frequently advocated for a declaration of the rights of man, often with great success. Above all, he coined the phrase, "Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité," which would shape the Republic up until today. He still fervently opposed the death penalty and campaigned for universal male suffrage, price controls on basic food commodities, and the abolition of slavery in French colonies. Quickly, he was recognized as one of the leaders of the small body of the extreme left, the thirty voices, as Mirabeau would scornfully describe them.
On the of the Constituent Assembly and the creation of the Legislative Assembly, the people of Paris honored him by naming him one of the incorruptible Patriots. But these ideals that Robespierre had fervently defended before would start to falter, when in February 1792, Brissot, leader of the Girondins, another prominent faction of the Jacobins, urged France to declare war on Austria. Robespierre fervently opposed this, as he feared the rise of a Caesar-like figure during these times of war. With great wisdom, he reminded his listeners, "In troubled periods of history, generals often become the arbiters of the fates of their countries." This conflict started a great divide within the Jacobins, a divide that would come to set ablaze France for the years to come.
In April 1792, the largely Girondin Legislative Assembly declared war on Austria, thus starting the war of the First Coalition. Unprepared and weakened by the revolution, France quickly suffered disastrous defeats. And Robespierre, along with Danton, a revolutionary who later that year became the chief force behind the overthrowing of the monarchy and the establishment of the First Republic, feared a military coup d'état. They were especially concerned by Le Marquis de Lafayette, who had openly advocated for the dissolution of the Jacobin club. During that time, in June 1792, Robespierre had proposed an end to the monarchy and the subordination of the assembly to popular will. And in September, despite the insults and accusations of the Girondins, he was elected as first deputy of Paris to the National Convention, which had now replaced the Legislative Assembly. There, he and his closest supporters sat on the highest benches of the assembly, thus acquiring the nickname "Les Montagnards."
Later that year, following the early success of the Austrians and the capture of two fortresses, the Parisians were afraid the city would soon be captured and its aristocratic prisoners freed to take part in the city's sacking. As a result, more than fourteen hundred prisoners, most common criminals, were massacred in what would later be known as the September Massacre. The Girondins quickly accused Robespierre of failing to stop this massacre, as well as trying to install a dictatorship along with Marat, a radical journalist turned politician, and Danton – a Roman triumvirate much like Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus. Robespierre turned these accusations back to them, as it delivered some of the most famous lines of the revolution: "Citizens! Do you want a revolution without a revolution? What is the spirit of persecution which has directed itself against those who freed us from chains?" These words marked a profound divide between the two Jacobin factions, the Montagnards and the Girondins, which, along with the fall of Louis XVI, the September Massacre, and the invasion of France, tilted the balance towards further extremism in the country.
And on the 14th of January, 1793, Louis XVI was voted guilty of conspiracy and attacks upon public safety after the discovery of compromising documents in his chambers. At his trial, in direct contradiction to his past stance on the death penalty, Robespierre strongly pushed for the King's execution through a famous speech that he finished by stating: "With regret, I pronounced this fatal truth – Louis must die so the nation may live." On the 21st, at 5:00 in the morning, Louis XVI was woken up in his cell. At 10 a.m., he arrived at the place of the execution. The first political execution of the revolution, a drop in the bucket against the 16,594 more that would come the following year, as the sharp sound of the guillotine echoed in la Place de la Révolution, announcing a new reign: the Reign of Terror.
Following the execution of the King, the people of Paris became increasingly restless. France's economic situation was rapidly deteriorating, and the Girondins, who controlled the National Convention, were blamed for failing to deliver the gains the revolution had promised. As a result, their influence wavered further and further to the benefit of radicals such as Robespierre and Danton. This was further exacerbated by accusations of Royalism following their "Appel au Peuple," a referendum to let the people decide the King's fate. As an example of France's violent shift towards extremism, the Girondins, which had been considered radicals just a couple of years ago, were now accused of being too conservative. One of these accusers was Marat, who denounced them for bringing France to its ruins, as he decried: "Nous sommes trahis!" A chant that was picked up all over Paris, which now largely supported the Montagnards thanks to their revolutionary zeal. Eventually, the capital's hostility towards the leading party was such that riots arose in retaliation of the foolish arrest of Marat on the 18th of May, 1791. His exoneration a few days later did little to calm public outrage, and when the threatened to march France upon Paris, the Parisians responded by marching themselves to the Tuileries Palace, where the National Convention was held. There, they demanded the removal of 22 leading Girondins from the Convention, as Robespierre advocated for moral insurrection against the corrupt deputies of the Jacobin Club.
These insurrections would start on the June, when François Hanriot, at the head of 80,000 sans-culottes, lower-class Parisians that could not afford to wear "la culotte" like as the bourgeois and nobles did, surrounded and aimed 160 cannons at the Tuileries. When the president of the National Convention, Marie-Jean Hérault, sent a messenger to demand that Hanriot stop his intimidations, Hanriot replied: "Tell your fucking president that I don't give a fuck about him and his assembly. And that if in one hour, you don't deliver me the 22, I will blow you up." As a result, the convention attempted to escape only to be pushed back by Hanriot's order to man the guns. Finally, the situation was solved after the convention voted in favor of the suspension and arrest of 29 Girondins, including their leader, Brissot. On the trialed by the Revolutionary Tribunal and seven days later, they were guillotined. It took only 36 minutes to execute them all. The National Convention was now purged of its Girondin majority, giving full rein to the Montagnards, giving full rein to the Committee of Public Safety, Danton, and Robespierre.
In March 1793, as violence grew within the streets of Paris, Danton, with the support of Robespierre, proposed the creation of a Revolutionary Tribunal with extraordinary powers to impose the death sentence. At first, the deputies of the National Convention opposed the idea, but Danton reminded them of the September Massacres and claimed that more would occur if they didn't take justice in their own hands. In his own words, "Let us be terrible so that the people will not have to be." And thus was created the Revolutionary Tribunal, the first cog in the instrument of the terror.
On April 5th, General Dumouriez, who had been campaigning in Belgium against the First Coalition, defected to the Austrians following his failure to persuade his troops to march on Paris and overthrow the provisional government. This, coupled with growing revolts within the country, especially in the Vendée region, meant that the provisional government felt increasingly vulnerable to both external and internal actors. One solution! The creation of a committee that could use all the power of the Revolutionary Tribunal to destroy the enemies of France. "A hand to grasp the weapon of the Revolutionary Tribunal," as Danton put it. That hand was created the following day and was closely tied to the leadership of Danton. So much so that despite being named the Committee of Public Safety, it was better known as the Danton Committee. They governed the war and appointed generals. It appointed the judge and juries of the Revolutionary Tribunal. Provisioned the armies and the public. Maintained public order and oversaw the entire bureaucracy of the state. With such a broad mandate, it wouldn't be long before the Committee of Public Safety started to become the de facto government of France and thus its leader, Danton, the ruler of France.
Yet, despite his fulgurant rise in power, he left his position in the Committee of Public Safety on July 10th, following the downfall of the Girondins. His reasons are unsure – some believed he was simply tired of dealing with France's growing struggles, while others claim it was a calculated shot to later strengthen his power. Nevertheless, his absence meant that Robespierre was asked to join the committee, which he agreed to reluctantly two weeks later. Along with him, he brought his closest supporters, especially Saint-Just, a radical politician that became the youngest deputy of the convention at only 25, and Couthon, a talented, paraplegic lawyer whose laws would allow the worst acts of the terror. And while all 12 members of the committee were supposed to be equal, the overwhelming hold that the Mountain had on the committee made Robespierre a clear leader. And while all 12 members were reappointed monthly, it soon became clear that some people were more appointed than not.
In the summer following the election of Robespierre to the committee, France was further split apart by the delivery of Toulon to the English and the numerous Federalist revolts that followed the elimination of the Girondins. Above all, on August 23rd, the National Convention decreed a "Levée en Masse," which conscripted all unmarried and able-bodied young men. The first of its kind in Europe, but this fueled further discontentment within the provinces, as the Vendée rebels were now openly at war against the revolutionary government. A war that would come to kill, massacred the local populace.
On September 4th, the sans-culottes stormed once more the National Convention demanding further measures against rising prices as well as a strengthening of the terror to target anybody suspected of conspiring against the republic, no matter how little. The following day, Barère built on these extremist sentiments by making an inflammatory speech. "It is time that equality bore its scythe above all heads. It is time to horrify all the conspirators. So legislators, place Terror on the order of the day. Let us be in revolution because everywhere counter-revolution is being woven by our enemies. The blade of the law should hover over all the guilty." Terror was now the official policy of the convention. This stressed the idea that the Revolutionary Government should and would use any means necessary to ensure that citizens complied to its laws. This was enforced by the creation, two days later, of a revolutionary army made of sans-culottes. An army that would be increasingly used as harsher and harsher laws were implemented by the Committee of Public Safety in order to defeat the enemies of the nation.
One of these laws was the Law of Suspects, which significantly weakened individual freedoms as they allowed the committee to arrest anyone suspected of treason, whether it was hoarding, royalism, or simply disapproving with how violent the revolution had turned. Furthermore, the law removed any presumption of innocence, thus making you guilty until proven innocent. That same month, the committee's scope and power were further strengthened by the Law of the General Maximum, which imposed price and wage controls. And while it was meant to target price gougers and rent-seekers, it mostly ended up affecting small businesses and farmers who were harassed by the Revolutionary Army into surrendering the little food they had. It is thanks to these laws that the Revolutionary Police, named the Committee of General Safety, whose members were appointed by the Committee of Public Safety, were able to imprison more than shortages in France, and in fact worsened them as price controls discouraged any food production. They did significantly strengthen Robespierre's grasp on the country and his ability to spread the terror. So much so that on October 10th, the convention abolished the Constitution and recognized the Committee of Public Safety as the "Supreme Revolutionary Government." Government officials now no longer reported to the National Convention but to the committee itself, thus making its members to dictatorial leaders of the country, with Maximilien Robespierre at its head.
But Robespierre's rise didn't occur without creating some friction, as factions from both sides of the political spectrum rose against him. On one side, Danton and his supporters, called "The Indulgents," protested further and further against the Reign of Terror. One of Danton's supporters being Camille Desmoulins, a young journalist whose speech had rallied the mob into storming the Bastille in 1789. But above all, Desmoulins was his classmate and old friend. He had even made Robespierre the Godfather of his only child, and for someone like Robespierre, who had always been isolated, timid, and introverted, one can imagine the pain and abandonment he felt. Much like what he had felt when his father abandoned his siblings and him following the death of his mother when he was only six years old.
On the other side, there was the "Hébertists," radical sans-culottes led by the bloodthirsty calls for violence and persecution of Père Duchesne, a character that Jacques Hébert had created for his popular and crude journal of the same name. Through his writings, Hébert regularly incited a merciless brutality against the enemies of the revolution, such as those the Girondins, who were eventually arrested and executed, as we have previously discussed. And stuck in the middle was him, Robespierre. Increasingly powerful, yes, but also increasingly lonely. Increasingly distant from his ideals, but also those around him. Increasingly overwhelmed by the events surrounding him, and torn apart by the growing discontentment of those who asked for more blood and those who asked for less. Earlier that year, in a Jacobin meeting, Robespierre had confessed, "Exhausted by four years of difficult and fruitless work, I sense that my physical and moral resources are no longer at the level required by a great revolution..."
We are now in 1794. Robespierre didn't know it, but this would be the last year of his life. Winter came and with it, hardship. The cold and misery overshadowed only by the violence of the revolution. In Nantes, Commissioner Carrier brutally repressed the royalist revolts by ordering the execution by drowning of 4,000 civilians, mostly priests, women, and children, in what he would describe as "The National Bathtub." In Lyon, Commissioner Fouché also brutally repressed the federalist revolts by chaining civilians together and firing at them with grapeshot at point-blank range. A grotesquely ineffective method of execution that resulted in heaps of mutilated, screaming, half-dead men, who were finished off with sabers and musket fire by soldiers physically sickened by the task. Robespierre was outraged by their acts, or rather their inability to distinguish between the instigators of the revolts and those who were dragged into it by them. He demanded that both commissioners be called back to Paris and tried, but that amounted to nothing, as in February, Commissioner Carrier, who was deemed the greatest sinner of them all, was amnestied by the National Convention. This meant that the faults of the other commissioners were pardoned too. During that time, Robespierre was struck by illness and unable to argue his case in front of the convention. He later attempted to have Fouché kicked out of the Jacobin club, but despite his prominent position among the Jacobins, he was unsuccessful, and the attempt marked the beginning of Fouché’s plot. A plot that would eventually lead to Robespierre’s downfall.
On February 4th, 1794, the National Convention abolished slavery in all French territories, but Napoleon would reinstate it only 8 years later in 1802. Meanwhile, Camille Desmoulins had started an inflammatory paper called "Le Vieux Cordelier." At first, the paper was dedicated to Robespierre and Danton, whom Desmoulins called his dearest friends, and it focused on denouncing the excesses and bloodthirst of the ultra-radical Hébertist faction. This would turn out to be widely successful, and Desmoulins, who had taken up the cause of the 300,000 defenseless civilians that had been imprisoned by the republican government, started to focus his attacks on Robespierre instead. In doing so, he hoped to shift the Committee of Public Safety towards moderation, as he regularly compared Robespierre to the Roman Dictator Julius Caesar and asked for a "Committee of Clemency" to put an end to the Reign of Terror.
Now, to his credit, Robespierre did attempt to offer clemency to some prisoners, but he was shot down by other members of the Committee of Public Safety, with Saint-Just accusing Danton and his supporters of, "not being virtuous enough to be terrible." A direct attack to Danton’s appeal to violence that had led to the creation of the Committee of Public Safety less than a year prior. Finally, the Hébertists had only grown more extreme, going as far as creating their own non-theistic religion, the Cult of Reason. And while Robespierre did approve of Dechristianization, as Christianity was nothing more than a corrupt and royalist religion, he was staunchly anti-atheist. Furthermore, rumors had spread that their cult took part in "licentious affairs of scandalous depravities." Thus, it was clear to Robespierre that this charade had to stop; the Hébertists had to die. Such an opportunity arose in early March when they attempted a coup against the Montagnards, much like the coup that had brought the downfall of the Girondins. Following the recall of Commissioner Carrier in February, the Hébertists called for insurrection by covering the Declaration of Rights of Man with a black veil. However, this time the sans-culottes did not answer their call, as they had when they stormed the National Convention on June 2nd, 1793. The coup was a total failure, and on March the arrest of Jacques Hébert, and 19 other conspirators. They were tried and sent to the guillotine only eleven days later. Morbidly, their execution was rather light-hearted, as the people mocked Hébert’s reluctance to get guillotined, his constant screams as he was placed below the blade, his cowardness towards the very end that many had been sent to by his own words. The crowd laughed as the executioner adjusted the blade such that it stopped just above his neck, and they laughed again as he did it two more times. Each time, Hébert screaming hysterically until on the fourth try, he screamed no more.
The downfall of the Indulgents, however, was much less enjoyable. It wasn’t long before Robespierre walked back on his early support for clemency by stating that, "To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to forgive them is barbarity." As such, Desmoulins’ attacks against the Committee of Public Safety and Robespierre only further bolstered, and thus, the demands to do something about him. Robespierre desperately tried to save his dearest friend by claiming that he was a "spoilt child that others had led astray," only to see Desmoulins further antagonize himself by doubling his attacks. And when the Jacobin club attempted to expel him, Robespierre instead proposed publicly burning the offending issues of "Le Vieux Cordeliers," to which Desmoulins replied, "burning is not answering," words that echoed Rousseau’s own writings. Writings that had shaped Robespierre’s ideals. Writings that had shaped his vision of a Virtuous Republic.
Eventually, Robespierre could do no more, as he was caught between Danton, whose popularity had grown menacingly strong thanks to his triumphant speeches calling for the end of the Terror, and Saint-Just, who countered Danton’s words with just as much ardor by demanding the end of the Indulgents and their royalist plots. And when a supporter of Danton, Fabre D’Églantine, was embroiled in a financial scandal involving the French East India Company, Robespierre had no choice but to agree with Saint-Just. On March 30th, 1794, he reluctantly signed the papers that ordered their arrest, including Desmoulins. The trial started on April 3rd and lasted only two days. Danton argued his case with such ferocity and fervor that the National Convention had to pass a decree that forbade them from defending themselves in fear that Danton’s words would turn the crowd in their favor. The accused were also forbidden from summoning witnesses, despite having asked for numerous ones, including Desmoulins who had asked for Robespierre. Finally, their conviction was done without their presence, and on April 5th, the fifteen Indulgents were found guilty. They were sent to the guillotine on the very same day. On his way to the guillotine, as he saw Robespierre’s home, Danton screamed, anger whispering in his ear prophetic words, "You are hiding yourself in vain, Robespierre! You will follow me! Your house will be burnt to the ground and its land sowed with salt!"
Desmoulins was the third to be executed. At first, he showed an honorable calmness in the face of death, only to be driven totally mad by the news of his wife’s arrest. It took several men to contain him, but eventually, his fate was sealed. Danton was executed last. Before laying below the blade, he told the executioner, "Show my head to the people, it is worth seeing." Robespierre had finally removed these two thorns that had pained him for so long. But their executions only created a false sense of security, as these acts largely estranged the National Convention against the growing radicalism of the Committee of Public Safety, while the loss of the Hébertists to control the sans-culottes only meant that a volatile and bloodthirsty group was now more unpredictable than ever.
It was June 8th, 1794. In the Ancien Régime, the people of France would have celebrated Pentecost. Now, they celebrate the Cult of the Supreme Being, a religion which honored virtue, an ideal often discussed by Rousseau. Robespierre had introduced this new religion just a month prior on his thirty-sixth birthday, and the following day, the National Convention had made it the civic religion of France. And so, on this holy day, a procession left the Tuileries Palace and was now headed towards the Champs de Mars. It was led by the members of the National Convention, but also pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers with their infants. At its head, there was Robespierre, wearing an elaborate sky-blue suit, feathers in his hat, and elevated shoes to offset his small stature. Soon, he was far ahead of the procession as he walked quickly with an agitated air, as he usually did. The other members of the National Convention trailed behind, either out of defiance or apathy. Many openly mocked the ridicule of the event. But Robespierre didn’t seem to care, as for him, his festival was a resounding success. Having arrived at the Champs de Mars, the convention now climbed atop an artificial mountain where a Liberty Tree was planted. There, Robespierre delivered two speeches in which he emphasized the importance of a Supreme Being, before walking down the mountain under the applause of the crowd. He was beaming with joy, and he had every reason to be. Having been elected President of the National Convention just four days prior, Robespierre was at the height of his power. But this celebration, this joy, hid an underlying layer of tension, of exacerbation, of anger, as the stiffness and discomfort of the event reflected the state of the revolution. And the prominent role of Robespierre and his recurrent allusions to Christianity, with his descent from the mountain resembling Moses and the ten commandments, led to a growing discontentment among the members of the National Convention. Some openly questioned whether the Supreme Being wasn’t Robespierre himself, with one decrying, “Look at the bugger; it’s not enough for him to be master, he had to be God.”
On June 10th, the National Convention passed the Law of the 22 Prairial, a law co-authored by Robespierre and Georges Couthon. Feeling that France’s prisons were overcrowded and imagining enemies of the revolution at every corner, the law hoped to solve these problems by drastically reducing the rights of the accused. As Couthon stated, “The guilty have no right to a counsel and the innocents do not need any.” As such, the accused were no longer entitled to a public trial, were no longer entitled to counsel or a lawyer, and were no longer entitled to a review of the witnesses, who were often made up. Anyone deemed an “enemy of the people” could be deemed guilty, but the definition of such an enemy was so broad that as little as “inspiring discouragement” could find you guilty. And now, all guilt meant death. Execution rates, which were already quite high following the Law of Suspects, soared to 80%, and as a result, in just two months, the Revolutionary Government had executed more than half as many people as they had executed the year prior. In its pursuit of virtue, France had now entered the Great Terror.
On June 26th, the Revolutionary Army decisively defeated the Coalition army during the Battle of Fleurus, thus allowing France to capture the entirety of the Austrian Netherlands. This victory also meant that Paris was no longer threatened by the royalist troops, and with this looming peril now gone, many members of the National Convention demanded an end to the Reign of Terror, but Robespierre strongly objected to it. However, the toll that the revolution was taking on him worsened and worsened his mental and physical health to the point that Robespierre was increasingly absent from the Jacobin Club and the National Convention. This absence allowed the growth of conspiracies, as Fouché worked tirelessly day and night to organize Robespierre’s downfall, saying to each and every Deputy, “You perish tomorrow if [Robespierre] does not.” He quickly gained allies among the many deputies that Robespierre had disenfranchised, such as the members of the Committee of General Security who felt marginalized by the Law of the 22 Prairial, which had been introduced without their consultation, and the increasing amount of functions that the Committee of Public Safety had taken away from them.
Robespierre knew all too well that opinions were shifting against him, as his speeches, while fewer and farther between, became increasingly accusatory and filled with laments. On July 1st, he denounced a conspiracy against him, saying, “In London I am denounced to the French army as a dictator; the same slanders have been repeated in Paris.” Two days later, following a heated argument, he stormed out of the committee, slamming the door on his way out, shouting, “Well then, I release you from my tyranny; I withdraw. Save the country without me, if you can.” Repeatedly he attacked members of the convention and made no secrets of his intention to punish them, thus further bolstering the ranks of the conspirators.
It was now July 26th, known as the 8th of Thermidor in the republican calendar, the first appearance of Robespierre at the National Convention in forty days. He wore the same sky-blue suit that he had worn during the Festival of the Supreme Being and gave a two-hour-long speech where he defended himself against the accusations of dictatorship and tyranny, lamented the fact that he was blamed for everything, threatened to kill himself by drinking hemlock, and claimed that England and the Committee of General Security were plotting to bring him down. He finished with a call for more purges, demanding that we, “Punish the traitors, purge the bureaux of the Committee of General Security… purge the Committee of Public Safety itself…” These vague accusations targeting no one in particular meant that everyone felt they could fall victim of these new purges. And that night, the conspirators met up again, adamant that they needed to end Robespierre before he ended them.
It was now the 9th of Thermidor. Saint-Just had just started a long tirade before he was abruptly interrupted by a deputy who threatened to use his dagger if the National Convention didn’t have the courage to arrest Robespierre. Soon, more and more accusations from the deputies were thrown at Robespierre and his allies, who, feeling increasingly uneasy, increasingly overwhelmed, rushed to the Plain, appealing for them to defend him against the Montagnards, but they shouted him down, remembering all too well the numerous peers he had sent to the guillotine. Robespierre was at a loss for words, alone. Unable to defend himself without stammering, a deputy shouted, “The blood of Danton chokes him!” to which Robespierre replied, finding his composure again, “Is it Danton you regret? … Cowards! Why didn’t you defend him?” As he was dragged down the tribune by the members of the convention, he shouted that the revolution was lost before he was arrested along with his little brother, Augustin Robespierre, and his closest supporters, Couthon and Saint-Just.
Soon after, Hanriot rallied the sans-culottes and much like his insurrection against the Girondins, he was now on his way to the Tuileries Palace along with 3,000 soldiers of the National Guard to take over the Convention. But as soon as they arrived, Hanriot was arrested by the Committee of General Security, and having lost their leader and seeing that Barras and his troops were heading towards them, the National Guard decided to retreat to the Hôtel de Ville. But the capture of Robespierre and his supporters, including Hanriot, didn’t last long, as the prison guards released them, and they had now taken shelter in the Hôtel de Ville with the National Guard. There, a long standoff started with either side unsure on what to do next, and, receiving no new orders and no supplies while suffering under the intense summer heat, many soldiers of the National Guard simply returned home until eventually, Robespierre and his supporters were left with only 51 men to defend them. As such, when the Convention declared them outlaws and ordered Barras with 4,000 men to arrest them, Robespierre knew he was lost, and he attempted suicide by shooting himself in the mouth but only succeeded in destroying his jaw. Although other accounts claim that it was a soldier that shot him while he was attempting to escape. His little brother, Augustin, also attempted an escape by jumping out of a window but only succeeded in shattering his pelvis, while Hanriot was found severely injured in a gutter and an eye out of its socket after he had been defenestrated. Couthon was found at the bottom of a staircase, seriously injured after he had fallen off his chair during the assault, while Saint-Just, unmoved, simply surrendered without a word.
The following day, Robespierre and twenty-one of his supporters were sent to the guillotine. The same guillotine that had executed Louis XVI, Danton, Desmoulins, Hébert, and many more. It was the 10th of Thermidor, a day of rest and festivity. A vast mob had gathered around the scaffold, where they eagerly cursed the accused and cheered their execution. As Saint-Just was brought to the guillotine, he kept his head high, full of pride, and said nothing but one last “Adieu” to Robespierre, while Couthon screamed of pain as they forced him under the blade, his crippled body being too rigid to properly lay on the machine. Robespierre at first, said nothing, still in shock from his shattered jaw, from the events that had just unravelled, from the realization he would soon die and along with him, his virtuous Republic. But as the executioner removed his bandager to clear his neck, he let out an agonizing scream. A scream only silenced by the blade of the guillotine. Echoing in la Place de la Révolution, announcing the end of a Reign.
Epilogue
The victory of the Revolutionary Army against the Coalition Army at Fleurus marked a turning point in the war, as France would maintain this momentum to victory. Against all odds, despite fighting the greatest powers of its time, despite going through a violent revolution and just as violent counter-revolutions, despite being torn apart by the Vendée and Federalist revolts, despite dealing with hyperinflation and food shortages, the young French republic not only survived but succeeded in gaining significant territorial concessions, annexing Savoy, Nice, and the Austrian Netherlands while creating multiple sister republics in Italy and the Netherlands. Finally, in 1797, France decisively defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Rivoli, allowing France to capture Mantua and thus forcing Austria to sue for peace and putting an end to the First Coalition war. During this Italian campaign, a young artillery officer, recently promoted to the rank of General, particularly distinguished himself by his tactical genius and prowess. A certain Napoléon Bonaparte.