Robespierre
at a Glance
Maximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) was one of the most influential leaders and orators of the French Revolution. He had a great interest in humanity and studying and practicing the law. In his early years,Robespierre saw the injustices committed to the common man. He began considering how society could be reformed by the law, since he was seeing the aristocracy, so often, stripping away man's natural rights. In 1790, as the Revolution approached, Robespierre presided over the Jacobins, a political club promoting the ideals of the French Revolution. They were a radical group advocating death for France's nobility. In 1792, after mobs dethroned Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, Robespierre helped organize the new revolutionary governing body, the Commune of Paris. On September 5, 1792, the people elected him to head the delegation to the National Convention. Then, on July 27, 1793, Robespierre took his place at the head of the Committee of Public Safety. He strove to prevent division among the revolutionaries. The Committee of Public Safety took over the rule of France and began a three year Reign of Terror. Robespierre sent Georges Danton, who wanted to halt the Reign of Terror, and sans culottes inspiration and atheist Jacques-René Hébert to the guillotine. In doing this and initiating the Law of 22 Prairial, strifes within his committees formed. Robespierre wanted to purge the committees of all suspected corrupters of his Republic and they would not stand for it. On 9 Thermidor, Robespierre was arrested by his political enemies. Though Robespierre tried to end his life, he only succeeded in shooting himself in the jaw. Robespierre would not escape the guillotine that awaited him on July 28, 1794. Thus ended the life of a legend, leader, idealist, dictator, tyrant, and dreamer.
