Robespierre: The Man Behind the Revolution

The French Revolution

Maximilien De Robespierre

Maximilien de Robespierre is one of the most influential people during the French Revolution. He was born on May 6th, 1758 in Arras, France. He was born to a family full of lawyers. His father and his paternal grandfather were both lawyers. He was the eldest of his siblings, Charlotte, Henriette, and Augustin. He was literate at the age of 8 and started attending the college (middle school) of Arras and received a scholarship for the College Louis-le-Grand. After finishing school, he studied law at the University of Paris and became a lawyer like his father.

During the years before the French Revolution started, France was under economic crisis. Firstly, their loss during the Seven Years’ War. Secondly, they lost a lot of money funding the Americans with supply, men, and arms during the American Revolutionary War. Thirdly, how the clergy and the King used too much money for their personal luxury, like parties in the Versailles, and finally, the harsh taxes on the third estate, or peasants, who make up most of the French population. This enraged much of the population of France, 90% of which were peasants and starving because of the crisis.

In 1789, the King, Louis XVI, called upon the Estates General, who represented the three classes of the people, the clergy, nobility, and the bourgeoisie and peasants, to propose a solution to solve the economic problems. Maximilien de Robespierre attended it. The Crown and the Estates General failed to solely focus on the economic crisis. The three estates met separately and discussed and debated its own structure instead. This was also because although the Third Estate represented most of the French population, the votes of 578 representatives were considered the same as the votes of other estates who had lesser representatives.

Maximilien de Robespierre and others like Georges Danton created the Jacobin Club, a radical “party” who resisted the Crown and wanted equal representation. He was a powerful orator and his audience was sympathetic with everything he said, like equality before the law or the abolishment of the death penalty. Robespierre held several speeches about civil rights, concluding that “all Frenchmen must be admissible to all public positions without any other distinction than that of virtues and talent”. He gained a big reputation in the Jacobin Club and was made president of the Club. He too was the one who wrote France’s motto, “Liberty, Egality, Fraternity”.

In 1789, Parisians, mutinied soldiers, and third estate citizens stormed the Bastille, acquiring lots of munitions and weapons. After Bastille, King Louis XVI ordered troops to be stationed in and around Paris. Parisians were confused and afraid that the military would take action and ‘massacre’ them. Their anger grew, and Parisians marched on Versailles, demanding the King that he return to his people in Paris. Louis XVI had no choice but to obey and return to Paris with his wife, Marie Antoinette. After that, he was made a puppet of the revolutionaries and considered a citizen of France, after his name Louis XVI was changed to citizen Louis Capet.

The people were put in charge of the government and started a reformation. After the King was made puppet, many of the clergy fled France, fearing their lives were at stake. The National Constituent Assembly, later changed to the Legislative Assembly, was established as the French government. However, this government was weak as they had many things to consider. For example, who is in charge of selecting people to government positions? Or what is France’s new political landscape? Louis Capet failed to flee to Prussia in 1791 which angered the people, as they thought he was abandoning the French people.

Although the Jacobin Club had achieved its goal, the abolition of the Monarchy, there were some who believed that there were others who managed to flee and were forming counterrevolutionary alliances with other countries. They also wanted to spread their idea of establishing a government with the people at its center in other countries. For example, Germany, or Prussia at the time under the Kaiser monarchy. The newly formed French government declared war on Austria and Prussia in 1792. England and Italy joined the war on Austria and Prussia’s side. This weakened the public view of Louis Capet and his Austrian wife, Marie Antoinette.

Meanwhile, the Jacobin Club stormed the Tuileries Palace in Paris and arrested the King, his wife, and his children. A month later, Parisians massacred many accused counterrevolutionaries and the French Legislative Assembly was replaced by the National Convention. In January 1793, Louis XVI was found guilty of high treason and was given the death sentence. He was beheaded on the guillotine, with his wife following a few months later. After that, the Jacobins seized control of the National Convention and put Maximilien de Robespierre as leader of the French people. At this phase is when Robespierre became famous.

At first, Robespierre erased the Gregorian calendar and Christianity from France. He made an entirely new calendar and a new religion called, Cult of the Supreme Being. The Supreme Being was himself. He then unleashed the 10-month Reign of Terror. This period of time was when French men and women, regardless of class, were executed by the thousands, most under orders by Robespierre. He was delusional, not trusting anyone. His closest friend, Georges Danton, was beheaded on the 5th April of 1794. Many others were wrongly accused and guillotined or died in prison without trial.

After 10 months, during a meeting, Robespierre presented a new list of ‘enemies of the state’. Once everybody demanded who was on the list, Robespierre was apprehended. He was beheaded by the same guillotine that murdered thousands. The French Revolutionary Government lasted 5 more years before Napoleon Bonaparte staged a coup, overthrowing it. Robespierre’s Reign of Terror was one of the first acts from that of a dictator. He was most influential of the French Revolution for this act. Many condemned his bloodthirsty behavior, while others credited him for dictatorial behavior.

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Works Cited

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“Maximilien Robespierre.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 7 Dec. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilien_Robespierre.

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