Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) was a French lawyer and politician who played a key role in the French Revolution. A member of the Jacobin Club, Robespierre was the main driving force that initiated the Reign of Terror period, between September 1793 and July 1794, after the Jacobins had gained control of the Committee of Public Safety. A thorough republican from the beginning of the revolution, he was able to articulate with skill the beliefs of the left-wing bourgeoisie, who had been influenced by the Enlightment philosophical ideas. The greatest influence on Robespierre’s political ideas was Jean Jacques Rousseau. Robespierre’s conception of revolutionary virtue and his program for constructing political sovereignty out of direct participatory democracy came from Rousseau, and in pursuit of these ideals he eventually became known during the Jacobin Republic as “the Incorruptible".
Maximilien Robespierre was born in Arras, France, on May 6, 1758, to Maximilien Barthelemy François de Robespierre, also a lawyer at the Conseil d’Artois, and Jacqueline Marguerite Carrault. He was the oldest of 4 children and was conceived out of wedlock – his siblings were Charlotte, Henriette and Augustin. Robespierre attended the school of Arras and in October of 1769, on the recommendation of the bishop, he obtained a scholarship at the secondary school Louis-le-Grand in Paris, where he learned to admire the idealized Roman Republic and the rhetoric of Cicero, Cato and other classic figures. When he was 17, the King Louis XVI visited his school, and he was chosen to deliver a speech during the visit.
In 1789, Robespierre was elected to the Estates General by Artois. He attached himself to the extreme left wing, and soon commanded attention. His influence grew daily, and the mob frantically admired his ideals and his boasted incorruptibility. While the National Assembly occupied itself with drawing up a constitution, Robespierre turned from the assembly of provincial lawyers and wealthy bourgeois to the people of Paris. He was a frequent speaker in the Assembly, where he voiced many ideas for the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Constitutional Provisions, often with great success. In 1791 he carried the motion that no member of the present Assembly should be eligible for the next, and was appointed public accuser. On February 1792, Jacques Pierre Brissot, one of the leaders of the Girondist party in the Legislative Assembly, urged that France should declare war against Austria. Marat and Robespierre opposed him, because they feared the possibility of militarism, which might then be turned to the advantage of the monarchical reactionary forces.
Robespierre held the position that the King had to be executed, whereas previously he had opposed the death penalty. The position of Robespierre was that if one man’s life had to be sacrificed to save the Revolution, there was no alternative: it had to be that of King Louis. In his speech on December 3, 1792 Robespierre argued that the King, having betrayed the people when he tried to flee the country, and by being a king in the first place, posed a danger to the State as a unifying entity to enemies of the Republic.
Having resigned his post of public accuser in April 1792, Robespierre was elected first deputy for Paris to the new body of deputies called National Convention, which replaced the Lesgislative Assembly. Here, he was bitterly attacked by the Girondins. Robespierre energically opposed the Girondins’ idea of a special appeal to the people on the king’s death, and Louis’s execution on January 21, 1793, opened up the final stages of the struggle, which ended in a complete triumph of the Jacobins on June 2.
On April 6, 1793, the Committee of Public Safety, which was composed of nine members, replacing the larger Committee of General Defense. On July 27, 1793, the Convention elected Robespierre to the Committee, although he had not sought the position, as the Committee of General Security began to manage the country’s internal police. Though nominally all members of the committee were equal, Robespierre was the dominant force and, as such, the de facto dictator of the country. From February 13 to March 13, 1794, Robespierre withdrew from active service on the Committee due to illness. On March 15, when he reappeared in the National Convention, Hébert and nineteen of his followers were arrested on March 19, and executed by guillotine. Danton, Desmoulins and their friends were also arrested on March 30, accused of treason and guillotined on April 5, 1794.
In June 1794, his close friend and political allied, Louis Antoine de Saint-Just demanded the creation of a dictatorship in the person of Robespierre. On July 26, the reaction against Robespierre’s abuse began as the dictator delivered a long harangue complaining that he was being accused of crimes unjustly. The Convention, after at first obediently passing his decrees, next rescinded them and referred his proposals to the committees. That night at the Jacobin Club his party again triumphed. At the Convention the following day, Saint-Just could not obtain a hearing, and Robespierre was vehemently attacked (the 9th of Thermidor). A deputy proposed his arrest; at the fatal word Robespierre’s power came to an end. He fled to the Common Hall, whereupon the Convention declared him an outlaw. The National Guard under Barras turned out to protect the Convention, and Robespierre had his lower jaw broken by a shot fired by a gendarme. The next day (July 28, the 10th of Thermidor), he was sent to the guillotine along with Saint-Just, Couthon, and nineteen others.
