117 Facts About Maximilien Robespierre

Maximilien Robespierre faced growing disillusionment due in part to the politically motivated violence associated with him.

Maximilien Robespierre was arrested and along with around 90 individuals, he was executed without trial.

Maximilien Robespierre's legacy has been heavily influenced by his actual or perceived participation in repression of the Revolution's opponents, but he is notable for his progressive views for the time.

Maximilien Robespierre, the eldest of four children, was born four months later.

Maximilien Robespierre was drawn to the concepts of the influential philosophe regarding political reforms expounded in his work, Contrat Social.

However, Maximilien Robespierre soon resigned, due to his ethical discomfort in adjudicating capital cases, stemming from his opposition to the death penalty.

In 1786 Maximilien Robespierre passionately addressed inequality before the law, criticising the indignities faced by illegitimate or natural children, and later denouncing practices like lettres de cachet and the marginalisation of women in academic circles.

Maximilien Robespierre advocated in his Address to the Nation of Artois that following the customary mode of election by the members of the provincial estates would fail to adequately represent the people of France in the new Estates-General.

Maximilien Robespierre shared an apartment on the third floor with Pierre Villiers who was his secretary for several months.

Maximilien Robespierre associated with the new Society of the Friends of the Constitution, commonly known as the Jacobin Club.

Maximilien Robespierre coined the famous motto by adding the word fraternity on the flags of the National Guard.

In 1791, Maximilien Robespierre gave 328 speeches, almost one a day.

Maximilien Robespierre demanded that it should be reconstituted on a democratic basis, with an end to military decorations and an equal number of officers and soldiers in courts martial.

Maximilien Robespierre argued that the National Guard had to become the instrument of defending liberty rather than a threat to it.

Maximilien Robespierre is therefore neither a monarchy nor a republic.

Maximilien Robespierre, after attending the Jacobin club, did not go back to the Rue Saintonge where he lodged, and asked Laurent Lecointre if he knew a patriot near the Tuileries who could put him up for the night.

Maximilien Robespierre took up residence in the back house where he was distracted by the noises of work.

Collot d'Herbois gave his chair to Maximilien Robespierre, who presided that evening.

Marat and Maximilien Robespierre opposed him, arguing that victory would create a dictatorship, while defeat would restore the king to his former powers.

Maximilien Robespierre advocated specific measures to strengthen, not so much the national defences as the forces that could be relied on to defend the revolution.

Maximilien Robespierre promoted a people's army, continuously under arms and able to impose its will on Feuillants and Girondins in the Constitutional Cabinet of Louis XVI and the Legislative Assembly.

Shortly after Maximilien Robespierre was accused by Brissot and Guadet of "trying to become the idol of the people".

For Maximilien Robespierre this meant a thankless position as public prosecutor.

Maximilien Robespierre was responsible for the coordination of the local and the federal police in the department and the sections.

An isolated Maximilien Robespierre responded by working to reduce the political influence of the officer class and the king.

Maximilien Robespierre considered it a triumph for the "passive" citizens.

Maximilien Robespierre secured a position in the Paris Commune, representing the Section de Piques, his residential district.

Maximilien Robespierre published the twelfth and final edition of Le Defenseur de la Constitution, serving as an account and political testament.

However, citing a lack of impartiality, Maximilien Robespierre declined to preside over it.

Marat and Maximilien Robespierre both disliked Condorcet who proposed that the "enemies of the people" belonged to the whole nation and should be judged constitutionally in its name.

Maximilien Robespierre was no longer willing to cooperate with Brissot and Roland.

Maximilien Robespierre, who was sick, was given a week to respond.

Condorcet considered the French Revolution as a religion and believed that Maximilien Robespierre had all the characteristics of a leader of a sect, or a cult.

Maximilien Robespierre was not enthusiastic and feared that it might become the political instrument of a faction.

Maximilien Robespierre believed that all institutions are bad if they are not founded on the assumption that the people are good and their magistrates corruptible.

Maximilien Robespierre urged the Duke of Chartres to join his plan to negotiate peace, dissolve the Convention, restore the French Constitution of 1791 and a constitutional monarchy, and to free Marie-Antoinette and her children.

Maximilien Robespierre called for the removal of Dumouriez, who in his eyes aspired to become a Belgian dictator or chief of state, and Dumouriez was placed under arrest.

Maximilien Robespierre demanded that relatives of the king should leave France, but that Marie-Antoinette should be put on trial.

Maximilien Robespierre spoke of vigorous measures to save the Convention, but left the committee within a few days.

Maximilien Robespierre, who was not elected, was pessimistic about the prospects of parliamentary action and told the Jacobins that it was necessary to raise an army of sans-culottes to defend Paris and arrest disloyal deputies.

Maximilien Robespierre was in effect questioning the individual right of ownership, and advocated a progressive tax and fraternity between the people of all the nations.

Maximilien Robespierre said that public squares should be used to produce arms and pikes.

Maximilien Robespierre called on the Jacobin Club "to place themselves in insurrection against corrupt deputies".

Maximilien Robespierre left the Convention after applause from the left side and went to the town hall.

Maximilien Robespierre attacked Charles Jean Marie Barbaroux, but admitted he almost gave up his political career because of his anxieties.

Maximilien Robespierre condemned the initiatives of the Parisian radicals, known as the Enrages, who exploited rising inflation and food shortages to incite unrest among the Paris sections.

French historian Soboul suggests that Maximilien Robespierre opposed its implementation before the rebellious departements had acknowledged it.

Maximilien Robespierre was particularly concerned with ensuring the virtue of public officials.

Maximilien Robespierre defended seventy-three Girondins "as useful", but over twenty were subsequently brought to trial.

Maximilien Robespierre criticised Danton, who had declined a seat on the Committee of Public Safety, advocating instead for a stable government capable of resisting the Committee's directives.

Courtois reportedly discovered Marie-Antoinette's will among Maximilien Robespierre's papers, concealed beneath his bed.

Maximilien Robespierre initiated this change upon discovering that Mirabeau had secretly conspired with the court of Louis XVI in his final months.

Maximilien Robespierre defended Danton, attacked the de-Christianisers, and later compared Robespierre with Julius Caesar as dictator.

Maximilien Robespierre made a counterproposal of setting up a Committee of Justice to examine some of the cases under the Law of Suspects.

Maximilien Robespierre replied to the plea for an end to the Terror, justifying the collective authority of the National Convention, administrative centralisation, and the purging of local authorities.

Maximilien Robespierre said he had to avoid two cliffs: indulgence and severity.

Maximilien Robespierre protested against the various factions that he believed threatened the government, such as the Hebertists and Dantonists.

Maximilien Robespierre strongly believed that the strict legal system was still necessary:.

Maximilien Robespierre would suppress chaos and anarchy: "the Government has to defend itself" [against conspirators] and "to the enemies of the people it owes only death".

Maximilien Robespierre reasoned thus: those who are virtuous are right; error is a corruption of the heart; error cannot be sincere; error is always deliberate.

Maximilien Robespierre can be eloquent but most of the time he is boring, especially when he goes on too long, which is often the case.

Maximilien Robespierre seems to have suffered from acute physical and mental exhaustion, exacerbated by an austere personal regime, according to McPhee.

Maximilien Robespierre managed to acquire a small army of secret agents, which reported to him.

Maximilien Robespierre had personal reasons for disliking the Hebertists for their "bloodthirstiness" and atheism, which he associated with the old aristocracy.

The next day, Maximilien Robespierre denounced a petition demanding that all merchants should be excluded from public offices while the war lasted.

Maximilien Robespierre protected Hanriot, the commander of the Paris National Guards, and Pache.

Maximilien Robespierre was accused of organising a revolt against the patriots and the tribunal to free her husband and Danton.

When Barras and Freron paid a visit to Maximilien Robespierre, they were received in an extremely unfriendly manner.

Payan, even advised Maximilien Robespierre to get rid of the Committee of General Security, saying it broke the unity of action of the government.

Maximilien Robespierre emphasised that slavery contradicted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

Maximilien Robespierre passionately argued in the Assembly against the Colonial Committee, which was composed predominantly of plantation owners and slaveholders in the Caribbean.

Maximilien Robespierre prioritised the rights of free people of color over those of the enslaved.

Maximilien Robespierre criticised the actions of the former governor of Saint-Domingue Sonthonax and Etienne Polverel, who initially had freed slaves in Haiti, but then proposed arming them.

Maximilien Robespierre cautioned the Committee against relying on white individuals to govern the colony.

Maximilien Robespierre refused to reunite dispersed families in different prisons into common detention facilities, citing security concerns after the assassination attempt.

Moderate judges were dismissed; Maximilien Robespierre ensured only his supporters became judges, marking the beginning of the "Great Terror".

Maximilien Robespierre walked through the fields and along the Marne river with his Danish dog.

Maximilien Robespierre had four friends in the revolutionary government, Couthon and Saint-Just in the Committee of Public Safety, and the painter Jacques-Louis David and Joseph Le Bas in the Committee of General Security, with whom he met privately, as they lived under the same roof.

Maximilien Robespierre desired to maintain the Committee of General Security's subordination to the Committee of Public Safety, viewing them as acting as two separate governments.

Maximilien Robespierre was compared to Catiline; he himself preferred the virtues of Cato the Younger.

Maximilien Robespierre defended himself against charges of dictatorship and tyranny and then proceeded to warn of a conspiracy against the Committee of Public Safety.

Collot questioned Maximilien Robespierre's motives, accusing him of seeking to become a dictator.

When called upon to name those whom he accused, Maximilien Robespierre simply refused, except referring to Joseph Cambon, who flew to the rostrum: "One man paralyses the will of the National Convention".

The Convention decided not to have the text printed, as Maximilien Robespierre's speech had first to be submitted to the two committees.

Maximilien Robespierre was surprised that his speech would be sent to the very deputies he had intended to sue.

Barras said they would all die if Maximilien Robespierre did not die.

Maximilien Robespierre contacted Robert Lindet on the 6th, and Vadier on the 7th Thermidor.

Maximilien Robespierre rushed toward the rostrum, appealed to the Plain to defend him against the Montagnards, but his voice was shouted down.

Maximilien Robespierre rushed to the benches of the Left but someone cried: "Get away from here; Condorcet used to sit here".

Maximilien Robespierre soon found himself at a loss for words after Vadier gave a mocking impression of him referring to the discovery of a letter under the mattress of the illiterate Catherine Theot.

Maximilien Robespierre shouted that the revolution was lost when he descended the tribune.

Not long after, Hanriot was ordered to appear in the Convention; he warned the sections that there would be an attempt to murder Maximilien Robespierre, and mobilised 2,400 National Guards in front of the town hall.

Maximilien Robespierre hesitated for legal reasons for possibly two hours.

Maximilien Robespierre landed on some bayonets and a citizen, resulting in a pelvic fracture, several serious head contusions, and an alarming state of "weakness and anxiety".

Le Bas handed a pistol to Maximilien Robespierre, then killed himself with another pistol.

Maximilien Robespierre had strength enough to crawl into a drain where he was found twelve hours later and taken to the Conciergerie.

Maximilien Robespierre spent the remainder of the night at the antechamber of the Committee of General Security.

Maximilien Robespierre lay on the table, his head on a pine box, his shirt stained with blood.

Subsequently, Maximilien Robespierre was confined to a cell in the Conciergerie.

Maximilien Robespierre is best known for his role as a member of the Committee of Public Safety.

Maximilien Robespierre exerted his influence to suppress the republican Girondins to the right, the radical Hebertists to the left and the indulgent Dantonists in the centre.

Maximilien Robespierre described him as the great conspirator against the liberty of France.

For Samuel Coleridge, one of the authors of The Fall of Maximilien Robespierre, he was worse than Oliver Cromwell.

Two contrasting legends around Maximilien Robespierre developed: a critical one that held Maximilien Robespierre as an irresponsible, self-serving figure whose ambitions generated widespread calamity, and a supportive one that held him as an early friend of the proletariat, about to embark on economic revolution when he fell.

Maximilien Robespierre's name peaked in the press in the middle of the 19th century, between 1880 and 1910 and in 1940.

Maximilien Robespierre did not thunder like Danton or scream like Marat.

Maximilien Robespierre's reputation peaked in the 1920s, during the Third French Republic, when the influential French historian Albert Mathiez rejected the common view of Robespierre as demagogic, dictatorial, and fanatical.

Palmer: the easiest way to justify Maximilien Robespierre is to represent the other Revolutionists in an unfavourable or disgraceful light.

For Peter McPhee, Maximilien Robespierre's achievements were monumental, but so was the tragedy of his final weeks of indecision.

Maximilien Robespierre is a major figure in the history of France, and a controversial subject, studied by the favourable Jacobin School and the unfavorable neo-liberal school, by "lawyers and prosecutors".

Maximilien Robespierre then began promoting civilian armament and the creation of a revolutionary army of 23,000 men in his periodical.

Maximilien Robespierre defended the right of revolution and promoted a revolutionary armed force.

Maximilien Robespierre argued against Brissot that, even if victorious, the invading French troops would be welcomed as liberators.

Historians in support of Maximilien Robespierre have been at pains to try to prove that he was not the dictator of France in the year II.

McPhee stated that on several previous occasions, Maximilien Robespierre had admitted that he was worn out; his personal and tactical judgement, once so acute, seem to have deserted him.

Jonathan Israel is sharply critical of Maximilien Robespierre for repudiating the true values of the radical Enlightenment.

Maximilien Robespierre remains as controversial as ever, two centuries after his death.