1.
National Convention
–
The National Convention was the third government of the French Revolution, following the two-year National Constituent Assembly and the one-year Legislative Assembly. Created after the insurrection of 10 August 1792, it was the first French government organized as a republic. The Convention sat as an assembly from 20 September 1792 to 26 October 1795. The National Convention was therefore the first French assembly elected by a suffrage without distinctions of class, although the Convention lasted until 1795, power was effectively stripped from the elected deputies and concentrated in the small Committee of Public Safety from April 1793. After the fall of Robespierre, the Convention lasted for year until a new constitution was written. The election took place from 2 to 6 September 1792 after the election of the colleges by primary assemblies on 26 August. Therefore, the increased suffrage had very little impact, the electorate returned the same sort of men that the active citizens had chosen in 1791. In the whole of France, only eleven primary assemblies wanted to retain the monarchy, of the electoral assemblies, all tacitly voted for a republic – though only Paris used the word. None of the deputies stood as a royalist for elections, out of the five million Frenchmen able to vote, only a million showed up at the polls. The Salle des Machines had galleries for the public who often influenced the debates with interruptions or applause, the members of the Convention came from all classes of society, but the most numerous were lawyers. 75 members had sat in the National Constituent Assembly,183 in the Legislative Assembly, the full number of deputies was 749, not counting 33 from the French colonies, of whom only some arrived in Paris in time. Besides these, however, the newly formed départements annexed to France from 1792 to 1795 were allowed to send deputations, according to its own ruling, the Convention elected its President every fortnight, and the outgoing President was eligible for re-election after the lapse of a fortnight. Ordinarily the sessions were held in the morning, but evening sessions also occurred frequently, sometimes in exceptional circumstances the Convention declared itself in permanent session and sat for several days without interruption. For both legislative and administrative the Convention used committees, with more or less widely extended and regulated by successive laws. The most famous of these included the Committee of Public Safety. The Convention held legislative and executive powers during the first years of the French First Republic and had three periods, Girondin, Montagnard or Jacobin, and Thermidorian. The abolition of the royalty is a matter you cannot put off till tomorrow, the first session was held on 20 September 1792. The following day, amidst profound silence, the proposition was put to the assembly, on the 22nd came the news of the Battle of Valmy
National Convention
–
Autel de la Convention nationale or Autel républicain
François-Léon Sicard Panthéon de Paris, France, 1913
National Convention
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The trial of Louis XVI
National Convention
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Journées des 31 Mai 1er et 2 Juin 1793
National Convention
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Constitution du Peuple Française du 6 Messidor l'an I (24 June 1793)
2.
Reign of Terror
–
The Reign of Terror or The Terror, is the label given by some historians to a period of violence during the French Revolution. Different historians place the date at either 5 September 1793 or June 1793 or March 1793 or September 1792 or July 1789. Between June 1793 and the end of July 1794, there were 16,594 official death sentences in France, but the total number of deaths in France in 1793–96 in only the civil war in the Vendée is estimated at 250,000 counter-revolutionaries and 200,000 republicans. During 1794, revolutionary France was beset with conspiracies by internal, within France, the revolution was opposed by the French nobility, which had lost its inherited privileges. The Catholic Church opposed the revolution, which had turned the clergy into employees of the state, in addition, the French First Republic was engaged in a series of wars with neighboring powers, and parts of France were engaging in civil war against the loyalist regime. The latter were grouped in the parliamentary faction called the Mountain. Through the Revolutionary Tribunal, the Terrors leaders exercised broad powers, the Reign was a manifestation of the strong strain on centralized power. Many historians have debated the reasons the French Revolution took such a turn during the Reign of Terror of 1793–94. The public was frustrated that the equality and anti-poverty measures that the revolution originally promised were not materializing. Jacques Rouxs Manifesto of the Enraged on 25 June 1793, describes the extent to which, four years into the revolution, the foundation of the Terror is centered on the April 1793 creation of the Committee of Public Safety and its militant Jacobin delegates. Those in power believed the Committee of Public Safety was an unfortunate, according to Mathiez, they touched only with trepidation and reluctance the regime established by the Constituent Assembly so as not to interfere with the early accomplishments of the revolution. Similar to Mathiez, Richard Cobb introduced competing circumstances of revolt, counter-revolutionary rebellions taking place in Lyon, Brittany, Vendée, Nantes, and Marseille were threatening the revolution with royalist ideas. Cobb writes, the revolutionaries themselves, living as if in combat… were easily persuaded that only terror, Terror was used in these rebellions both to execute inciters and to provide a very visible example to those who might be considering rebellion. Cobb agrees with Mathiez that the Terror was simply a response to circumstances, at the same time, Cobb rejects Mathiezs Marxist interpretation that elites controlled the Reign of Terror to the significant benefit of the bourgeoisie. Instead, Cobb argues that social struggles between the classes were seldom the reason for actions and sentiments. Widespread terror and a consequent rise in executions came after external and internal threats were vastly reduced, with the backing of the national guard, they persuaded the convention to arrest 29 Girondist leaders, including Jacques Pierre Brissot. On 13 July the assassination of Jean-Paul Marat – a Jacobin leader, georges Danton, the leader of the August 1792 uprising against the king, was removed from the committee. The Jacobins identified themselves with the movement and the sans-culottes
Reign of Terror
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Nine emigrants are executed by guillotine, 1793
Reign of Terror
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Heads of aristocrats, on spikes (pikes)
Reign of Terror
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Maximilien Robespierre had others executed via his role on the
Revolutionary Tribunal and the
Committee of Public Safety
Reign of Terror
–
A
satirical engraving of
Robespierre guillotining the executioner after having
guillotined everyone else in France
3.
French Revolution
–
Through the Revolutionary Wars, it unleashed a wave of global conflicts that extended from the Caribbean to the Middle East. Historians widely regard the Revolution as one of the most important events in human history, the causes of the French Revolution are complex and are still debated among historians. Following the Seven Years War and the American Revolutionary War, the French government was deeply in debt, Years of bad harvests leading up to the Revolution also inflamed popular resentment of the privileges enjoyed by the clergy and the aristocracy. Demands for change were formulated in terms of Enlightenment ideals and contributed to the convocation of the Estates-General in May 1789, a central event of the first stage, in August 1789, was the abolition of feudalism and the old rules and privileges left over from the Ancien Régime. The next few years featured political struggles between various liberal assemblies and right-wing supporters of the intent on thwarting major reforms. The Republic was proclaimed in September 1792 after the French victory at Valmy, in a momentous event that led to international condemnation, Louis XVI was executed in January 1793. External threats closely shaped the course of the Revolution, internally, popular agitation radicalised the Revolution significantly, culminating in the rise of Maximilien Robespierre and the Jacobins. Large numbers of civilians were executed by revolutionary tribunals during the Terror, after the Thermidorian Reaction, an executive council known as the Directory assumed control of the French state in 1795. The rule of the Directory was characterised by suspended elections, debt repudiations, financial instability, persecutions against the Catholic clergy, dogged by charges of corruption, the Directory collapsed in a coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799. The modern era has unfolded in the shadow of the French Revolution, almost all future revolutionary movements looked back to the Revolution as their predecessor. The values and institutions of the Revolution dominate French politics to this day, the French Revolution differed from other revolutions in being not merely national, for it aimed at benefiting all humanity. Globally, the Revolution accelerated the rise of republics and democracies and it became the focal point for the development of all modern political ideologies, leading to the spread of liberalism, radicalism, nationalism, socialism, feminism, and secularism, among many others. The Revolution also witnessed the birth of total war by organising the resources of France, historians have pointed to many events and factors within the Ancien Régime that led to the Revolution. Over the course of the 18th century, there emerged what the philosopher Jürgen Habermas called the idea of the sphere in France. A perfect example would be the Palace of Versailles which was meant to overwhelm the senses of the visitor and convince one of the greatness of the French state and Louis XIV. Starting in the early 18th century saw the appearance of the sphere which was critical in that both sides were active. In France, the emergence of the public sphere outside of the control of the saw the shift from Versailles to Paris as the cultural capital of France. In the 1750s, during the querelle des bouffons over the question of the quality of Italian vs, in 1782, Louis-Sébastien Mercier wrote, The word court no longer inspires awe amongst us as in the time of Louis XIV
French Revolution
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The
August Insurrection in 1792 precipitated the last days of the monarchy.
French Revolution
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The French government faced a fiscal crisis in the 1780s, and King Louis XVI was blamed for mishandling these affairs.
French Revolution
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Caricature of the Third Estate carrying the First Estate (clergy) and the Second Estate (nobility) on its back.
French Revolution
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The meeting of the Estates General on 5 May 1789 at Versailles.
4.
Girondist
–
The Girondins were members of a loosely knit political faction during the French Revolution. From 1791 to 1793, the Girondins were active within the Legislative Assembly and they were part of the Jacobin movement, though not every Girondin was a member of the Jacobin Club. The Girondins campaigned for the end of the monarchy, but then resisted the spiraling momentum of the Revolution and they came into conflict with The Mountain, a radical faction within the Jacobin Club. This conflict eventually led to the fall of the Girondins and their mass execution, Girondin leader Jacques-Pierre Brissot proposed an ambitious military plan to spread the Revolution internationally, thus the Girondins were the war party in 1792–93. Other prominent Girondins included Jean Marie Roland and his wife Madame Roland and they had an ally in the English-born, sometime American activist Thomas Paine. Brissot and Madame Roland were executed and Jean Roland committed suicide when he learned what had transpired, Paine was arrested and imprisoned but narrowly escaped execution. The famous painting Death of Marat depicts the killing of the radical journalist Jean-Paul Marat by the Girondin sympathizer Charlotte Corday. The collective name Girondins is used to describe a a loosely knit group of French deputies who contested the Montagnards for control of the National Convention and they were never an official organization or political party. Other names were employed at the time too, but Girondins ultimately became the term favored by historians, the term became standard with Alphonse de Lamartines History of the Girondists in 1847. Twelve deputies represented the département of the Gironde, and there were six who sat for this département in both the Legislative Assembly of 1791-92 and the National Convention of 1792-95. Five were lawyers, Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud, Marguerite Élie Guadet, Armand Gensonné, Jean Antoine Laffargue de Grangeneuve, the other, Jean François Ducos, was a tradesman. Madame Roland, whose salon became their gathering place, had a influence on the spirit. The group was identified by its enemies at the start of the National Convention, Brissotins and Girondins were terms of opprobrium used by their enemies in a separate faction of the Jacobin Club, who freely denounced them as enemies of democracy. In the Legislative Assembly, the Girondins represented the principle of democratic revolution within France and they supported an aggressive foreign policy and constituted the war party in the period 1792-93, when revolutionary France initiated a long series of revolutionary wars with other European powers. Brissot proposed a military plan to spread the Revolution internationally. The Girondins also called for war against Austria, arguing it would rally patriots around the Revolution, liberate oppressed peoples from despotism, in all of this activity, there was no apparent line of cleavage between La Gironde and The Mountain. Montagnards and Girondins alike were opposed to the monarchy, both were democrats as well as republicans, both were prepared to appeal to force in order to realise their ideals. Despite being accused of wanting to weaken the government, the Girondins desired as little as the Montagnards to break up the unity of France
Girondist
–
The Girondists in the
La Force Prison after their arrest. Woodcut from 1845.
Girondist
–
Madame Roland.
Girondist
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Execution of the Girondists. Woodcut from 1862.
5.
Jacobin
–
Initially founded by anti-Royalist deputies from Brittany, the Club grew into a nationwide republican movement, with a membership estimated at a half million or more. The Jacobin Club was heterogeneous and included both prominent parliamentary factions of the early 1790s, the radical Mountain and the more moderate Girondins, in 1792–93, the Girondins dominated the Jacobin Club and led the country. Believing that revolutionary France would not be accepted by its neighbours, they called for a foreign policy. The Girondins were the dominant faction when the Jacobins overthrew the monarchy, when the Republic failed to deliver the unrealistic gains that had been expected, they lost popularity. The Girondins sought to curb fanatical revolutionary violence, and were accused by the Mountain of being royalist sympathisers. The National Guard eventually switched its support from the Girondins to the Mountain, in May 1793, led by Maximilien de Robespierre, the leaders of the Mountain faction succeeded in sidelining the Girondin faction and controlled the government until July 1794. Their time in government was characterized by radically progressive legislation imposed with very high levels of political violence, in June 1793, they approved the Constitution of Year 1 which introduced universal male suffrage for the first time in history. In September 1793, twenty-one prominent Girondins were guillotined, beginning the Reign of Terror, in October, during the Terror, the new constitution was ratified in a referendum which most eligible voters avoided participating in. In 1794, the Thermidorian Reaction pushed the Mountain out of power, the Jacobin Club was closed and many of its leaders, including Robespierre, were executed. Today, Jacobin and Jacobinism are used in a variety of senses and it was so named because of the Dominican convent where they met, which had recently been located in the Rue St. Jacques, Paris. The club originated as the Club Breton, formed at Versailles from a group of Breton representatives attending the Estates-General of 1789, when the Estates-General was convened in 1789, at Versailles, the club was initially composed exclusively of deputies from Brittany. However, they were joined by deputies from other regions throughout France. At this time, meetings occurred in secret, and few traces remain concerning what took place or where the meetings were convened. By the March on Versailles in October 1789, the club, the group rented for its meetings the refectory of the monastery of the Jacobins in the Rue Saint-Honoré, adjacent to the seat of the Assembly. The name Jacobins, given in France to the Dominicans, was first applied to the club in ridicule by its enemies and it occupied successively the refectory, the library, and the chapel of the monastery. Once in Paris, the club underwent rapid modifications, the first great change was its extension of membership to others besides deputies. All citizens were allowed to enter and even foreigners were welcomed, Jacobin Club meetings soon became a place for radical and rousing oratory that pushed for republicanism, widespread education, universal suffrage, separation of church and state, and other reforms. At the same time the rules of order of election were settled, by the 7th article the club decided to admit as associates similar societies in other parts of France and to maintain with them a regular correspondence
Jacobin
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Seal of the Jacobin Club, 1789–1792.
Jacobin
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The door of the Jacobin Club was in the Rue Saint-Honoré, Paris.
Jacobin
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Engraving "Closing of the Jacobin Club, during the night of 27–28 July 1794, or 9–10 Thermidor, year 2 of the Republic"
6.
Maximilien Robespierre
–
Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre was a French lawyer and politician. He was one of the best-known and most influential figures associated with the French Revolution, as a member of the Estates-General, the Constituent Assembly and the Jacobin Club, Robespierre was an outspoken advocate for the poor and for democratic institutions. He campaigned for universal suffrage in France, price controls on basic food commodities. But although he was an ardent opponent of the penalty, he played an important role in arranging the execution of King Louis XVI. He is perhaps best known for his role in the French Revolutions Reign of Terror and he was named as a member of the powerful Committee of Public Safety launched by his political ally Georges Danton and exerted his influence to suppress the left-wing Hébertists. The Terror ended a few later with Robespierres arrest and execution in July. Robespierres personal responsibility for the excesses of the Terror remains the subject of debate among historians of the French Revolution. Influenced by 18th-century Enlightenment philosophes such as Rousseau and Montesquieu, Robespierre was a capable articulator of the beliefs of the left-wing bourgeoisie and his steadfast adherence and defense of the views he expressed earned him the nickname lIncorruptible. Robespierres reputation has gone through cycles of re-appraisal. During the Soviet Era, Robespierre was used as an example of a Revolutionary figure and his reputation peaked in the 1920s with the influence of French historian Albert Mathiez. In more recent times, his reputation has suffered as historians have associated him with an attempt at a radical purification of politics through the killing of enemies, Maximilien Robespierre was born in Arras in the old French province of Artois. His family has been traced back to the 12th century in Picardy and it has been suggested that he was of Irish descent, his surname possibly a corruption of Robert Speirs. His paternal grandfather, also named Maximilien de Robespierre, established himself in Arras as a lawyer and his father, François Maximilien Barthélémy de Robespierre, was a lawyer at the Conseil dArtois. He married Jacqueline Marguerite Carrault, the daughter of a brewer, Maximilien was the oldest of four children and was conceived out of wedlock. His siblings were Charlotte, Henriette, and Augustin, on 7 July 1764, Madame de Robespierre gave birth to a stillborn son, she died nine days later. Devastated by his wifes death, François de Robespierre subsequently left Arras, the children would visit each other on Sundays. Already literate at age 8, Maximilien started attending the collège of Arras, in October 1769, on the recommendation of the bishop, he received a scholarship at the Collège Louis-le-Grand, University of Paris in Paris. Robespierre studied there until age 23, receiving his training as a lawyer, upon his graduation, he received a special prize of 600-livre for twelve years of exemplary academic success and personal good conduct
Maximilien Robespierre
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Robespierre c. 1790, (
anonymous),
Musée Carnavalet, Paris
Maximilien Robespierre
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Signature
Maximilien Robespierre
–
Portrait of Robespierre by
Boilly, c.1791 (
Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille).
Maximilien Robespierre
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Terracotta bust of Robespierre by
Deseine, 1792 (
Château de Vizille)
7.
Thermidorian Reaction
–
The Thermidorian Reaction was a coup détat within the French Revolution against the leaders of the Jacobin Club who had dominated the Committee of Public Safety. It was triggered by a vote of the National Convention to execute Maximilien Robespierre, Louis Antoine de Saint-Just and this ended the most radical phase of the French Revolution. Thermidorian Reaction also refers to the period until the National Convention was superseded by the Directory. Prominent figures of Thermidor include Paul Barras, Jean-Lambert Tallien, Thermidor represents the final throes of the Reign of Terror. His only real power at this time lay in the Jacobin Club. Many others who conspired against Robespierre did so for practical and personal reasons. The surviving Dantonists, such as Merlin de Thionville, wanted revenge for the death of Georges Danton and, more importantly, among the latter were Joseph Fouché and Pierre-Louis Bentabole, who engineered Robespierres downfall. In the end, it was Robespierre himself who united all his enemies, on 8 Thermidor he gave a speech to the Convention in which he railed against enemies and conspiracies, some within the powerful committees. As he did not give the names of these traitors, all in the Convention had reason to fear that they were the targets, later, he went and enlisted the support of the Jacobin Club, where he denounced Collot and Billaud. These men then spent the night planning the following day’s coup, conspiracies against Maximilien Robespierre who had dominated the Committee of Public Safety came together on 9 Thermidor 1794. Cries went up of Down with the tyrant, Robespierre then made his appeal to the deputies of the Right, Deputies of the Right, men of honour, men of virtue, give me the floor, since the assassins will not. However, the Right was unmoved, and an order was made to arrest Robespierre, troops from the Paris Commune arrived to liberate the prisoners. The Commune troops, under General Coffinhal（French：--）, then marched against the Convention itself, the Convention responded by ordering troops of its own under Paul Barras to be called out. When the Communes troops heard the news of this, order began to break down, Robespierre and his supporters also gathered at the Hôtel de Ville. The Convention declared them to be outlaws, meaning that upon verification the fugitives could be executed within 24 hours without a trial, as the night went on the Commune forces at the Hôtel de Ville deserted until none of them remained. The Convention troops under Barras approached the Hôtel around 2,00 am on 28 July, as they came, Robespierres brother Augustin leapt out of a window in an escape attempt, broke his legs, and was arrested. Couthon, who due to disease was paralysed from the waist down, was found lying at the bottom of a staircase. Robespierre was shot in the face, and his jaw was shattered, there are two accounts of how he received the wound
Thermidorian Reaction
–
Ninth Thermidor by
Valery Jacobi.
Thermidorian Reaction
–
Gendarme Merda shooting at Robespierre during the night of 9
Thermidor.
Thermidorian Reaction
–
The execution of Robespierre on July 28, 1794 marked the end of the first Reign of Terror.
Thermidorian Reaction
–
The Closing of the Jacobin Club, during the night of 27–28 July 1794.
8.
French Revolutionary Calendar
–
The revolutionary system was designed in part to remove all religious and royalist influences from the calendar, and was part of a larger attempt at decimalisation in France. Sylvain Maréchal, prominent anticlerical atheist, published the first edition of his Almanach des Honnêtes-gens in 1788, on pages 14–15 appears a calendar, consisting of twelve months. The first month is Mars, ou Princeps, the last month is Février, the lengths of the months are the same, however, the 10th, 20th, and 30th are singled out of each month as the end of a décade. Individual days were assigned, instead of to the saints, to people noteworthy for mostly secular achievements. Later editions of the almanac would switch to the Republican Calendar, the days of the French Revolution and Republic saw many efforts to sweep away various trappings of the ancien régime, some of these were more successful than others. The new Republican government sought to institute, among other reforms, a new social and legal system, a new system of weights and measures, and a new calendar. Amid nostalgia for the ancient Roman Republic, the theories of the Enlightenment were at their peak, natural constants, multiples of ten, and Latin as well as Old Greek derivations formed the fundamental blocks from which the new systems were built. The new calendar was created by a commission under the direction of the politician Charles-Gilbert Romme seconded by Claude Joseph Ferry and it is because of his position as rapporteur of the commission that the creation of the republican calendar is attributed to Romme. The calendar is called the French Revolutionary Calendar because it was created during the Revolution. Indeed, there was initially a debate as to whether the calendar should celebrate the Great Revolution, which began in July 1789, or the Republic, immediately following 14 July 1789, papers and pamphlets started calling 1789 year I of Liberty and the following years II and III. It was in 1792, with the problem of dating financial transactions. Originally, the choice of epoch was either 1 January 1789 or 14 July 1789, after some hesitation the assembly decided on 2 January 1792 that all official documents would use the era of Liberty and that the year IV of Liberty started on 1 January 1792. This usage was modified on 22 September 1792 when the Republic was proclaimed, the establishment of the Republic was used as the epochal date for the calendar, therefore, the calendar commemorates the Republic, not the Revolution. In France, it is known as the calendrier républicain as well as the calendrier révolutionnaire, the Revolution is usually considered to have ended with the coup of 18 Brumaire in Year VIII. The French Republic ended with the coronation of Napoleon I as Empereur des Français on 11 Frimaire, Year XIII, French coins of the period naturally used this calendar. Many show the year in Arabic numbers, although Roman numerals were used on some issues, Year 11 coins typically have a XI date to avoid confusion with the Roman II. Napoléon finally abolished the calendar with effect from 1 January 1806, however, it was used again during the brief Paris Commune, 6–23 May 1871. These documents have kept their original dates for legal accuracy and citation purposes, years appear in writing as Roman numerals, with epoch 22 September 1792, the beginning of the Republican Era
French Revolutionary Calendar
–
French Republican Calendar of 1794, drawn by
Philibert-Louis Debucourt
French Revolutionary Calendar
–
A copy of the French Republican Calendar in the Historical Museum of Lausanne.
French Revolutionary Calendar
–
L AN 2 DE LA REPUBLIQUE FR. (Year 2 of the French Republic) on a barn near Geneva
French Revolutionary Calendar
–
French Revolutionary pocket watch showing ten-day décade names and thirty-day month numbers from the Republican Calendar, but with duodecimal time. On display at Neuchâtel Beaux-Arts museum.
9.
Girondin
–
The Girondins were members of a loosely knit political faction during the French Revolution. From 1791 to 1793, the Girondins were active within the Legislative Assembly and they were part of the Jacobin movement, though not every Girondin was a member of the Jacobin Club. The Girondins campaigned for the end of the monarchy, but then resisted the spiraling momentum of the Revolution and they came into conflict with The Mountain, a radical faction within the Jacobin Club. This conflict eventually led to the fall of the Girondins and their mass execution, Girondin leader Jacques-Pierre Brissot proposed an ambitious military plan to spread the Revolution internationally, thus the Girondins were the war party in 1792–93. Other prominent Girondins included Jean Marie Roland and his wife Madame Roland and they had an ally in the English-born, sometime American activist Thomas Paine. Brissot and Madame Roland were executed and Jean Roland committed suicide when he learned what had transpired, Paine was arrested and imprisoned but narrowly escaped execution. The famous painting Death of Marat depicts the killing of the radical journalist Jean-Paul Marat by the Girondin sympathizer Charlotte Corday. The collective name Girondins is used to describe a a loosely knit group of French deputies who contested the Montagnards for control of the National Convention and they were never an official organization or political party. Other names were employed at the time too, but Girondins ultimately became the term favored by historians, the term became standard with Alphonse de Lamartines History of the Girondists in 1847. Twelve deputies represented the département of the Gironde, and there were six who sat for this département in both the Legislative Assembly of 1791-92 and the National Convention of 1792-95. Five were lawyers, Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud, Marguerite Élie Guadet, Armand Gensonné, Jean Antoine Laffargue de Grangeneuve, the other, Jean François Ducos, was a tradesman. Madame Roland, whose salon became their gathering place, had a influence on the spirit. The group was identified by its enemies at the start of the National Convention, Brissotins and Girondins were terms of opprobrium used by their enemies in a separate faction of the Jacobin Club, who freely denounced them as enemies of democracy. In the Legislative Assembly, the Girondins represented the principle of democratic revolution within France and they supported an aggressive foreign policy and constituted the war party in the period 1792-93, when revolutionary France initiated a long series of revolutionary wars with other European powers. Brissot proposed a military plan to spread the Revolution internationally. The Girondins also called for war against Austria, arguing it would rally patriots around the Revolution, liberate oppressed peoples from despotism, in all of this activity, there was no apparent line of cleavage between La Gironde and The Mountain. Montagnards and Girondins alike were opposed to the monarchy, both were democrats as well as republicans, both were prepared to appeal to force in order to realise their ideals. Despite being accused of wanting to weaken the government, the Girondins desired as little as the Montagnards to break up the unity of France
Girondin
–
The Girondists in the
La Force Prison after their arrest. Woodcut from 1845.
Girondin
–
Madame Roland.
Girondin
–
Execution of the Girondists. Woodcut from 1862.
10.
Maximin Isnard
–
Maximin Isnard, French revolutionary, was a dealer in perfumery at Draguignan when he was elected deputy for the département of the Var to the Legislative Assembly, where he joined the Girondists. Born in 1755, he was the last son of Maximin Isnard and he became perfumer in Draguignan before opening a factory specializing in silk and soap. Isnard was quickly a revolutionary in accepting new ideas at the beginning of the Revolution, on 9 September 1791, he was elected member of Legislative Assembly by the department of Var, in southeastern of France (district of Draguignan. Isnard was linked to Brissot and sat at the left of the Assembly and he was very violent in his talks. For example, in his opinion, the French State had to all priests who have not accepted the Revolution. He supported the brissotins who wanted a war against foreign countries, attacking the court, and the Austrian committee in the Tuileries, he demanded the disbandment of the kings bodyguard, and reproached Louis XVI for infidelity to the constitution. But on 20 June 1792, when the crowd invaded the palace, he was one of the deputies who went to place themselves beside the king to protect him. Elected to the National Convention in September 1792, he was sent to the army of the North, near Nice, to justify the insurrection, he announced the take of Sospel and went back to Paris in autumn. He voted for the death of Louis XVI in January 1793 and he was elected President of the Convention on 16 May 1793. On 3 October, however, his arrest was decreed along with that of several other Girondist deputies who had left the Convention and were fomenting civil war in the departments. Initially proscribed during the Thermidorian Reaction, he was allowed to return to the Convention on December 4,1794, seating to the Right, he became an adversary of more extremist revolutionaries. In May 1795, he was sent to the département of Bouches-du-Rhône to uncover and prosecute fleeing Jacobins, on 13 October 1795, now regarded as a royalist, he was elected deputy for the Var to the Council of Five Hundred, where he played a very insignificant role. In 1797 he retired to Draguignan and he was a supporter of Napoléon Ier, who named him Baron in 1813. Upon the restoration he professed such royalist sentiments that he was not disturbed, in 1825, he died in Grasse, in a deep anonymity. See FA Aulard, Les Orateurs de la Legislative et de la Convention, French Revolution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed
Maximin Isnard
–
Contents
11.
Georges Danton
–
Georges Jacques Danton was a leading figure in the early stages of the French Revolution, in particular as the first president of the Committee of Public Safety. He was guillotined by the advocates of revolutionary terror after accusations of venality, Danton was born in Arcis-sur-Aube in northeastern France to Jacques Danton and Mary Camus, a respectable, but not wealthy family. As a child, he was attacked by animals, resulting in the disfigurement and scarring of the skin on his face. After obtaining an education he became an Advocate in Paris. He married Antoinette Gabrielle Charpentier on 14 June 1787 at the church of Saint-Germain-lAuxerrois in Paris, Danton was considered a very mischievous boy. Due to this, he went to different schools, also, he had a very high natural IQ. As a result, he was bored and disinterested in his classes. His first teacher was his grandfather and he was able to pass his classes with little effort, when he was 9, he was sent to a boys school. This is where Danton learned Latin and he was later sent to a school in Troyes for a year due to his mother thinking that he hasnt given up his mischievous ways as a child. Later, he attended a boarding house taught by Oratorians until he was 17, here, he learned more Latin and about the Bible, mainly the Acts of the Apostles and about Christian beliefs. He didnt really take to them, however, as early as age 12, he had already acquired the skills to become a leader. He led fellow classmates to either rebel or riot and this showed his leadership skills and how much his classmates already respected him at such a young age. He also consistently questioned authority, which will be seen later during the French revolution when he openly disrespected and called out Lafayette as a traitor during a meeting. At a young age, he had amazing writing and speech skills, as later during a competition, he took all the prizes for French discourse, Latin narration. Was highly influenced by thinkers of the time, such as Montesquieu. Studied at Reim University where he became a lawyer, later become bored of the career and became an orator. Was seen as a man of the people by then because he pleaded for the poor. Both his classmates, teachers and grandfather revered him as a prodigy and his amazing writing and speaking skills later made people give him the nickname “The Thunderer”
Georges Danton
–
Georges-Jacques Danton.
Musée Carnavalet, Paris
Georges Danton
–
Signature
Georges Danton
–
According to a biographer, "Danton's height was colossal, his make athletic, his features strongly marked, coarse, and displeasing; his voice shook the domes of the halls".
Georges Danton
–
Danton addressing the
National Convention.
12.
Revolutionary Tribunal
–
It was composed of a jury, a public prosecutor, and two substitutes, all nominated by the Convention, and from its judgments there was no appeal. Herman as president and Fouquier-Tinville as public prosecutor, the tribunal terrorized the royalists, soon, too, it came to be used for personal ends, particularly by Robespierre, who employed it for the condemnation of his adversaries. Although Robespierre was the principal purveyor of the tribunal, we possess only one of these lists bearing his signature, the Revolutionary Tribunal was suppressed on 31 May 1795. Among its most celebrated victims may be mentioned Marie Antoinette, the Hebertists, » This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed
Revolutionary Tribunal
–
The Tribunal, from La Démagogie en 1793 à Paris by Dauban (H. Plon; 1868)
13.
Days of 31 May and 2 June 1793
–
The Insurrection of 31 May –2 June 1793 marks a significant milestone in the history of the French Revolution. The days of 31 May –2 June resulted in the fall of the Girondin party under pressure of the Parisian sans-culottes, Jacobins of the clubs, and Montagnards in the National Convention. By its impact and importance, the insurrection of 31 May –2 June stands as one of the three great popular insurrections of the French Revolution, following those of 14 July 1789 and 10 August 1792. Since the election of the National Convention eight long months had been squandered in scandalous debates that discredited the national representative body, France was expecting its Constitution, what it got was civil war, invasion and crisis so deep that it was shaking the nation to its foundation. The Gironde remained solidly established in the bureaucracy and the provinces. It was because of the Gironde that the Assembly tempered the rigor of measures that local authorities pretended not to know about, at no other moment—except perhaps in the autumn of 1792—did the government have less influence and authority. The difficulties and dangers of the situation in the spring of 1793 were apparent, the economic situation was deteriorating rapidly, adding to the general unrest. By the end of the winter, grain circulation had stopped completely, despite Saint-Justs advice, vast quantities of assignats were still being put in the circulation. In February 1793, they had fallen to 50 per cent of their face value, the depreciation provoked inflation and speculation. Military setbacks from the First Coalition, Dumouriezs treason and the war of Vendée, the Girondins were forced to accept the creation of the Committee of Public Safety and Revolutionary Tribunal. But authority was imperceptibly passing into hands of the 150 montagnards delegated to the départements, the Gironde saw its influence decline in the interior and the number of anti-Brissot petitions increased by late March. Faced with the threat from inside and outside France, the popular movement imposed the first measures of public safety. Marats case was passed to the Revolutionary Tribunal, where Marat offered himself as the apostle and martyr of liberty, already on the 15, thirty-five of the forty-eight Paris sections had presented a petition to the Convention couched in the most threatening terms against the twenty-two most prominent Girondins. The Gironde turned its attack on the citadel of Montagnard power. A commission of inquiry of twelve members was at once set up and this Commission of Twelve ordered the arrest of Hebert on 24 May for the anti-girondin article in number 239 of the Pere Duchesne. Other popular militants were arrested, including Varlet and Dobsen, the president of the Cite section and these measures brought on the final crisis. On 25 May the Commune demanded that arrested patriots to be released, on the next day, at the Jacobin Club, Robespierre called on the people to revolt. The Jacobins declared themselves in a state of insurrection, on 28 May the Cite section called the other sections to a meeting the following day at the Évêché in order to organize the insurrection
Days of 31 May and 2 June 1793
–
Hanriot confronts deputies of the Convention Pierre-Gabriel Berthault en 1804
Days of 31 May and 2 June 1793
–
Le triomphe de Marat,
Louis-Léopold Boilly, 1794
14.
Camille Desmoulins
–
Lucie Simplice Camille Benoît Desmoulins, a journalist and politician, played an important role in the French Revolution. He was a friend of Maximilien Robespierre and a close friend and political ally of Georges Danton. Desmoulins was tried and executed alongside Danton when the Committee of Public Safety reacted against Dantonist opposition, Desmoulins was born at Guise, Aisne, in Picardy. His father, Jean Benoît Nicolas Desmoulins, was a rural lawyer, through the efforts of a friend, he obtained a scholarship for the fourteen-year-old Camille to enter the Collège Louis-le-Grand in Paris. Desmoulins proved an exceptional student even among such notable contemporaries as Maximilien Robespierre and he excelled in the study of Classical literature and politics, and gained a particular affinity for Cicero, Tacitus and Livy. Thus stymied, he turned towards writing as an outlet for his talents. In March 1789, Jean Benoît Nicolas Desmoulins was nominated as deputy to the Estates-General from the bailliage of Guise, however, due to illness, he failed to take his seat. Camille Desmoulins, himself limited to the role of spectator at the procession of the Estates-General on 5 May 1789, wrote a response to the event, Ode aux Etats Generaux. Owing to his difficulties in establishing a career as a lawyer, Desmoulins position in Paris was a precarious one, however, he was greatly inspired and enthused by the current of political reform that surrounded the summoning of the Estates-General. The sudden dismissal of popular finance minister Jacques Necker by King Louis XVI on 11 July 1789 proved the spark that lit the fuse of Desmoulins fame. On 12 July, spurred by the news of this politically unsettling dismissal, Desmoulins leapt onto a table outside the Cafe du Foy and delivered an impassioned call to arms. The stationing of a number of troops in Paris, many foreign, had led Desmoulins. This was an idea that his audience also found plausible and threatening, the cockades worn by the crowd were initially green, a color associated with liberty, and made at first from the leaves of the trees that lined the Palais Royal. The forces semi-organized under this banner attacked the Hôtel des Invalides to gain arms and, on 14 July, in May and June 1789, Desmoulins had written a radical pamphlet entitled La France Libre, which his publisher at that time had refused to print. The rioting surrounding the storming of the Bastille, however, and especially Desmoulins personal and publicized involvement in it, on 18 July, Desmoulinss work was finally issued. The politics of the pamphlet ran considerably in advance of public opinion, in it, Desmoulins called explicitly for a republic, popular and democratic government is the only constitution which suits France, and all those who are worthy of the name of men. La France Libre also examined and criticized in detail the role and rights of kings, of the nobility, a famous Revolutionary song, the Ça ira, also immortalizes this lantern, in the lines, Les aristocrates à la lanterne. This hard-edged fervor found an audience in Paris, and Desmoulins, as a result of the pamphlet
Camille Desmoulins
–
Portrait of Camille Desmoulins
Camille Desmoulins
–
Camille Desmoulins
Camille Desmoulins
–
Portrait by
Joseph Boze
15.
Le Vieux Cordelier
–
Le Vieux Cordelier was a journal published in France between 5 December 1793 and 3 February 1794. It comprised seven numbers, of six appeared, the seventh remained unpublished for some forty years. French native born March 2,1760, in Guise, France, Desmoulins role as a journalist led him to the production of Le Vieux Cordelier. Primarily because of his unruly temper, nevertheless, he still continued his strife to contribute to a reconstructed government. As a Jacobin radical, Desmoulins was not the one that contributed to these efforts, his close friends Maximilien Robespierre. This friendship lasted up until, both Desmoulins and Danton, were put on trial for their contribution to the revolution, their executions exemplified the reign of terror tumbling down. Desmoulins sought to ally his journals arguments with the less extreme politics of the earlier, old Cordeliers, while simultaneously repudiating the violent, anti-religious Hébertists. In this goal, Desmoulins was supported by Maximilien Robespierre, who viewed the Vieux Cordeliers attacks on the Hébertists as a means of reducing the factions power. However, later numbers of the journal introduced criticisms of the Revolutionary Tribunal, the Committee of Public Safety, fourth Number The fourth number, published 30 Frimaire, argued against the Law of Suspects, saying. in the Declaration of Rights there is no house of suspicion. There are no suspected persons, only convicted of crimes fixed by the law. It also appealed for a Committee of Clemency to counter the excesses of the Committee of Public Safety, so controversial were these views that Desmoulins was expelled from the Cordeliers Club and denounced at the Jacobin Club. Shortly after this appeared, on 21 Nivôse, Desmoulins was expelled from the Jacobin Club. Sixth Number The sixth number, though dated 10 Nivôse, was delayed due to the political concerns of its publisher. Dessenes hesitation to publish this number, then led to his decision to not move further, Seventh Number The seventh number, written in late March, did not appear in Desmoulins lifetime. Early in the morning of March 31, Desmoulin was arrested on a warrant issued by the Revolutionary Tribunal, along with Danton, he was tried on charges of counter-revolutionary conspiracy and, on 5 April 1794, was executed by guillotine. Camille Desmoulins and His Wife, Passages from the History of the Dantonists, london, Smith, Elder, & Co.1876. French Revolutionaries and English Republicans, The Cordeliers Club 1790-1794, rochester, Boydell & Brewer Inc.2005. Giovanni Tarantino, Republicanism, Sinophilia, and Historical Writing Thomas Gordon, fatal Purity, Robespierre and the French Revolution
Le Vieux Cordelier
–
First issue of Le Vieux Cordelier
16.
Tacitus
–
Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a senator and an historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories—examine the reigns of the Roman emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero, and those who reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors. These two works span the history of the Roman Empire from the death of Augustus, in AD14, to the years of the First Jewish–Roman War, There are substantial lacunae in the surviving texts, including a gap in the Annals that is four books long. Tacitus is considered to be one of the greatest Roman historians, details about his personal life are scarce. What little is known comes from scattered hints throughout his work, the letters of his friend and admirer Pliny the Younger, and an inscription found at Mylasa in Caria. Tacitus was born in 56 or 57 to an equestrian family, one scholars suggestion of Sextus has gained no approval. Most of the aristocratic families failed to survive the proscriptions which took place at the end of the Republic. The claim that he was descended from a freedman is derived from a speech in his writings which asserts that many senators and knights were descended from freedmen, but this is generally disputed. His father may have been the Cornelius Tacitus who served as procurator of Belgica and Germania, Pliny the Elder mentions that Cornelius had a son who aged rapidly, which implies an early death. There is no mention of Tacitus suffering such a condition, the friendship between the younger Pliny and Tacitus leads some scholars to conclude that they were both the offspring of wealthy provincial families. The province of his birth remains unknown, though various conjectures suggest Gallia Belgica, Gallia Narbonensis and his marriage to the daughter of Narbonensian senator Gnaeus Julius Agricola implies that he came from Gallia Narbonensis. Tacitus dedication to Fabius Iustus in the Dialogus may indicate a connection with Spain, no evidence exists, however, that Plinys friends from northern Italy knew Tacitus, nor do Plinys letters hint that the two men had a common background. Pliny Book 9, Letter 23 reports that, when he was asked if he was Italian or provincial, he gave an unclear answer, since Pliny was from Italy, some infer that Tacitus was from the provinces, probably Gallia Narbonensis. His ancestry, his skill in oratory, and his depiction of barbarians who resisted Roman rule have led some to suggest that he was a Celt. This belief stems from the fact that the Celts who had occupied Gaul prior to the Roman invasion were famous for their skill in oratory, and had been subjugated by Rome. As a young man, Tacitus studied rhetoric in Rome to prepare for a career in law and politics, like Pliny, in 77 or 78, he married Julia Agricola, daughter of the famous general Agricola. Little is known of their life, save that Tacitus loved hunting. He started his career under Vespasian, but entered political life as a quaestor in 81 or 82 under Titus
Tacitus
–
Modern statue representing Tacitus outside the
Austrian Parliament Building
Tacitus
–
The title page of
Justus Lipsius 's 1598 edition of the complete works of Tacitus, bearing the stamps of the Bibliotheca Comunale in
Empoli,
Italy.
Tacitus
–
The style of the Dialogus follows Cicero's models for Latin rhetoric.
17.
Herault de sechelles
–
Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles was a French judge and politician who took part in the French Revolution. Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles was born in Paris in a noble and his grandfather was René Hérault, who had served as Lieutenant General of Police of Paris between 1725 and 1739. His great-grandfather was Jean Moreau de Séchelles, who had served as Controller-General of Finances between 1754 and 1756 and had given his name to the Seychelles archipelago, Jean Moreau de Séchelless daughter, Hélène Moreau de Séchelles, was the second wife of René Hérault. Most authors, however, consider that René Hérault was not the grandfather of Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles. His biological grandfather was most likely Louis Georges Érasme de Contades, Marshal of France, Contades took care of Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles after the early death of his father. He had arranged to marry his illegitimate son Jean-Baptiste Martin Hérault de Séchelles to his wifes niece, Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles was also the first cousin of the famous Duchess of Polignac, the friend and confidant of Queen Marie Antoinette. The Duchess of Polignac, who would later be the object of deep revolutionary disapprobation, was the daughter of Jeanne Charlotte Hérault, herself the daughter of René Hérault and his first wife. Hérault de Séchelles made his debut as a lawyer at the Châtelet of Paris, at the age of twenty, he became Kings Advocate at the Châtelet, in part due to the aid of the Duchess of Polignac. Associates of the Polignac family presented him to the queen, who pushed his appointment as Advocate General at the prestigious Parlement of Paris, active freemason, he was a member of Les Neuf Soeurs lodge since its creation in 1776. He was also the author of a work published after his death. Despite his upbringing, Hérault became a proponent of Revolutionary ideas. On 8 December 1789 he was appointed judge of the court of the 1st arrondissement in the département of Paris. From the end of January to April 1791, Hérault was absent on a mission in Alsace, on his return he was appointed Commissaire du Roi in the Cour de cassation. He was elected as a deputy for Paris to the Legislative Assembly, in 1792, he was elected to the National Convention as deputy for the département of Seine-et-Oise, and was sent on a mission to organize the new département of Mont Blanc. He was thus absent during the trial of King Louis XVI, Hérault, whose aristocratic background was also accounted a source of suspicion, was accused of treason. He was tried before the Revolutionary Tribunal and condemned alongside Danton, François Joseph Westermann, Camille Desmoulins and they were guillotined on the same day,5 April 1794. Hérault appears in an important supporting role in A Far Better Rest, Hérault also appears as a supporting character in A Place of Greater Safety, a historical novel by Hilary Mantel which chronicles the French Revolution. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
Herault de sechelles
–
Marie Jean Hérault de Séchelles, portrait by Jean-Louis Laneuville.
Herault de sechelles
–
Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles at age 4 (
François-Hubert Drouais)
18.
Louis Antoine de Saint-Just
–
Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just was a military and political leader during the French Revolution. The youngest of the elected to the National Convention in 1792, Saint-Just rose quickly in their ranks. He spearheaded the movement to execute King Louis XVI and later drafted the radical French Constitution of 1793 and he became a close friend of Maximilien Robespierre, and served with him as one of the commissioners of the powerful Committee of Public Safety. Back in Paris, he supervised the consolidation of Robespierres power through a ruthless, in his relatively brief time on the historical stage, he became the enduring public face of the Reign of Terror and was dubbed the Angel of Death by later writers. Saint-Just organized the arrests and prosecutions of many of the most famous figures of the Revolution, Saint-Just was arrested in the violent episode of 9 Thermidor and executed the next day with Robespierre and their allies. In many histories of the Revolution, their deaths at the mark the end of the Reign of Terror. Louis Antoine de Saint-Just was born at Decize in the former Nivernais province of central France and he had two younger sisters, born in 1768 and 1769. A year after the move, Louis Antoines father died leaving his mother with the three children and she saved diligently for her only sons education, and in 1779 he was sent to the Oratorian school at Soissons. After a promising start, Saint-Just acquired a reputation as a troublemaker, augmented by infamous stories of how he led a students rebellion, nonetheless, he earned his graduation in 1786. His restive nature, however, did not diminish, as a young man, Saint-Just was wild, handsome, transgressive. Well-connected and popular, he showed a special affection toward a woman of Blérancourt. She was the daughter of another notary, a powerful and autocratic figure in the town. He is said to have proposed marriage to her, she is said to have desired it, though no hard evidence exists regarding their relationship, official records show that on 25 July 1786, Thérèse was married to Emmanuel Thorin, the scion of a prominent local family. Saint-Just was out of town and unaware of the event, and his venture turned short when his mother had him seized by police and sent to a reformatory where he stayed from September 1786 to March 1787. Chastened, Saint-Just attempted to begin anew, he enrolled as a student at the School of Law, after a year, however, he drifted away from law school and returned to his mothers home in Blérancourt penniless, without any occupational prospects. At a young age Saint-Just had shown a fascination with literature and he published it anonymously more than two years later, in May 1789, at the very outbreak of the Revolution. The 21-year-old Saint-Just thereby added his own touch to the tumult of the times with Organt. The poem, an epic fantasy, relates the quest of young Antoine Organt
Louis Antoine de Saint-Just
–
Saint-Just by
Prud'hon, 1793 (
Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon)
Louis Antoine de Saint-Just
–
Saint-Just's home in
Blérancourt is now a museum and tourist center.
Louis Antoine de Saint-Just
–
Saint-Just became a member of the
Committee of Public Safety on 30 May 1793.
Louis Antoine de Saint-Just
–
Order of the Revolutionary Tribunal condemning the
Hébertists
19.
Law of 22 Prairial
–
The Law of 22 Prairial, also known as the loi de la Grande Terreur, the law of the Great Terror, was enacted on 10 June 1794. It was proposed by Georges Auguste Couthon and supported by Robespierre, by means of this law the Committee of Public Safety simplified the judicial process to one of indictment and prosecution. The immediate background to the introduction of the Prairial Law was the assassinations of Collot dHerbois on 23 May. Under these circumstances, indulgence is an atrocity, the result of these laws was that by June 1794 Paris was full of suspects awaiting trial. On 29 April it was reported that the forty prisons of Paris contained 6,921 prisoners, by 11 June this number had increased to 7,321, no Revolutionary Tribunal could work fast enough to prevent the ship of state sinking under such a sea of crime. Precedents had been created at Lyon, Marseille and elsewhere and they considered Amar, for example, to be suspect. He is required to them as soon as he knows of them. As Couthon explained to the Convention, For a citizen to become suspect it is sufficient that rumour accuses him and it limited trials in the Revolutionary Tribunal to three days. It prevented the Revolutionary Tribunal both from calling witnesses, or from allowing defence counsel to the accused, juries were to come to judgement entirely on the basis of the accusation and the accuseds own defence v. It required the Tribunal to come to one of two possible verdicts - acquittal or death. The law cancelled all previous legislation on the same subject, the Prairial Law had an immediate impact on the tempo of executions under the Terror. From an average of five executions a day in Germinal, the rose to seventeen in Prairial. The law thus inaugurated the period known as The Great Terror, the proposals were met with dismay when they were presented to the Convention. The Committee of Public Safety had not reviewed the text before it was presented, the Committee of General Security had not even been informed that the law was being drafted. Some of the deputies were uneasy, in particular, about the removal of their immunity, Robespierre refused and demanded immediate discussion. At his insistence the entire decree was voted on, clause by clause, the next day,11 June, when Robespierre was absent, Bourdon de lOise and Merlin de Douai put forward an amendment proclaiming the inalienable right of the Convention to impeach its own members. Furious, Robespierre and Couthon returned to the Convention the next day,12 June, Robespierre made a number of veiled threats and during the debate clashed particularly with Jean-Lambert Tallien. The Convention acceded to Robespierres wishes and restored the text of the decree Couthon had drafted
Law of 22 Prairial
–
contemporary cartoon showing Robespierre executing the executioner. The monument in the background carries the inscription 'Here Lies All Of France'
Law of 22 Prairial
–
Revolutionary Tribunal in session
20.
Cult of the Supreme Being
–
The Cult of the Supreme Being was a form of deism established in France by Maximilien Robespierre during the French Revolution. It was intended to become the religion of the new French Republic and a replacement for Roman Catholicism and its rival. The French Revolution had occasioned many radical changes in France, the first new major organized school of thought emerged under the umbrella name of the Cult of Reason. Advocated by radicals like Jacques Hébert and Antoine-François Momoro, the Cult of Reason distilled a mixture of largely atheistic views into an anthropocentric philosophy, no gods at all were worshiped in the Cult—the guiding principle was devotion to the abstract conception of Reason. This rejection of all godhead appalled the rectitudinous Robespierre and its offense was compounded by the scandalous scenes and wild masquerades attributed to its practice. In late 1793, Robespierre delivered a fiery denunciation of the Cult of Reason and of its proponents, devised almost entirely by Robespierre, Le culte de lÊtre suprême was formally announced before the French National Convention on 7 May 1794. Robespierre believed that reason is only a means to an end, and he sought to move beyond simple deism to a new and, in his view, more rational devotion to the Godhead. The primary principles of the Cult of the Supreme Being were a belief in the existence of a god and this type of virtue could only be attained through active fidelity to liberty and democracy. Belief in a god and a higher moral code, he said, were constant reminders of justice. The establishment of the Cult of the Supreme Being represented the beginning of the reversal of the wholesale de-Christianization process that had looked upon previously with official favour. Simultaneously it marked the apogee of Robespierres power, though in theory he was just an equal member of the Committee of Public Safety, Robespierre at this point possessed a national prominence bordering on the imperial. Every locality was mandated to hold an event, but the event in Paris was designed on a massive scale. The festival was organized by the artist Jacques-Louis David and took place around a mountain on the Champ de Mars. Robespierre assumed full leadership of the event, forcefully—and, to many, ostentatiously—declaring the truth, the Cult of the Supreme Being and its festival can be said to have contributed to the Thermidorian Reaction and the downfall of Robespierre. With his death at the guillotine on 28 July 1794, the cult lost all official sanction and disappeared from public view. It was officially banned by Napoleon Bonaparte on 8 April 1802 with his Law on Cults of 18 Germinal, Year X. Cult of Reason Dechristianisation of France during the French Revolution Doyle, the Oxford History of the French Revolution. Historical Dictionary of the French Revolution, the Revolutionary Career of Maximilien Robespierre. A Cultural History of the French Revolution, lyman, Richard W. Spitz, Lewis W. Major Crises in Western Civilization, Vol.2
Cult of the Supreme Being
–
Maximilien Robespierre (6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794).
Cult of the Supreme Being
–
Inscription on the typanum of the
Cathedral of Clermont-Ferrand, saying: "The French people recognize the Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul". Note the traces of the original frieze around the sign.
Cult of the Supreme Being
–
The Festival of the Supreme Being, by
Pierre-Antoine Demachy (1794).
21.
Billaud-Varenne
–
Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne, also known as Jean Nicolas, was a French personality of the Revolutionary period. Though not one of the most well known figures of the French Revolution, Billaud-Varenne climbed his way up the ladder of power during the period of The Terror, becoming a member of the Committee of Public Safety. He was recognized and worked with French Revolution figures Georges Danton and Maximilien Robespierre, no, we will not step backward, our zeal will only be smothered in the tomb, either the Revolution will triumph or we will all die. Billaud-Varenne was born in La Rochelle as the son of a lawyer to the parlement of Paris, since both his grandfather and father were lawyers, and he was the first son in his direct family, Varenne was guaranteed a solid education and the same profession. Billaud-Varenne was educated at the College of Oratorians of Niort and took Philosophy at La Rochelle and his education at Niort was particularly important in shaping his character because its methods of teaching were uncommon to the revolution. At Niort, modernity and tolerance were emphasized, as opposed to overbearing, Billaud-Varenne was also sent to Oratory school at Juilly, where he later became a professor when he felt dissatisfied with practicing law. He then went to Paris, married and bought a position as lawyer in the parlement, in early 1789 he published at Amsterdam a three-volume work on the Despotisme des ministres de la France, and he adopted with enthusiasm the principles of the Revolution. Joining the Jacobin Club, Billaud-Varenne became, from 1790, one of the most violent anti-Royalist orators, after the flight to Varennes of King Louis XVI, he published a pamphlet, LAcéphocratie, in which he demanded the establishment of a federal republic. On 1 July, in speech at the Jacobin Club, he spoke of a republic. But when he repeated his demand for a republic a fortnight later, on the night of 10 August 1792 he was elected one of the deputy-commissioners of the sections who shortly afterwards became the general council of the Paris Commune. He was accused of having been an accomplice in the September Massacres in the Abbaye prison, at the trial of Louis XVI he added new charges to the accusation, proposed to refuse counsel to the king, and voted for death within 24 hours. On 15 July he made a violent speech in the Convention in accusation of the Girondists, sent in August as representative on mission to the départements of the Nord and of Pas-de-Calais, he showed himself inexorable to all suspects. Meanwhile, he published Les Éléments du républicanisme, in which he demanded a division of property among the citizens, becoming concerned about his own safety, he turned against Robespierre, whom he attacked on 8 Thermidor as a moderate and a Dantonist. Surprised by the Thermidorian Reaction, he denounced its partisans to the Jacobin Club and he was then attacked himself in the Convention for his ruthlessness, and a commission was appointed to examine his conduct and that of some other members of the former Committee of Public Safety. After Napoleon Bonapartes 18 Brumaire coup, he refused the pardon offered by the French Consulate, in 1816 he left Guiana, went to New York City for a few months, and finally took refuge in Port-au-Prince, where he died of dysentery. Despotisme des ministres de France, combattu par les droits de la Nation, par les loix fondamentales, Mémoires écrits au Port-au-Prince en 1818, contenant la relation de ses voyages et aventures dans le Mexique, depuis 1815 jusquen 1817. Billaud Varenne membre du comité de salut public, Mémoires inédits et Correspondance, accompagnés de notices biographiques sur Billaud Varenne et Collot dHerbois, Paris, Librairie de la Nouvelle Revue,1893. Attribution This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Billaud-Varenne
Billaud-Varenne
–
Billaud-Varenne portraited by
Jean-Baptiste Greuze, c. 1790 (
Dallas Museum of Art)
Billaud-Varenne
–
Jean Nicolas Billaud-Varenne
22.
Jean-Lambert Tallien
–
Jean-Lambert Tallien was a French political figure of the revolutionary period. He was the son of the maître dhôtel of the Marquis de Bercy, the family of Tallien was originally from Italy, and moved to the Northern France, near Paris. The marquis, noticing his ability, had him educated, supportive of the Revolution, he gave up his desk to enter a printers office, and by 1791 was overseer of the printing department of the Comte de Provence. This enterprise had its expenses paid by the Jacobin Club, and he became even more present in politics after organizing, together with Jean-Marie Collot dHerbois, the great Fête de la Liberté on 15 April 1792, in honour of the released soldiers of Chateau-Vieux. Tallien was one of the most active leaders in the storming of the Tuileries Palace on 10 August. He committed himself to his new mission, and habitually appeared at the bar of the Assembly on behalf of the Commune. He was a participant in the September Massacres of 1792. He announced the September Massacres in terms of apology and praise, at the same time, he had several people imprisoned in order to save them from the violence of the mob, and protected several suspects himself. After a short mission in the provinces he returned to Paris, and took an active part in the coups détat of 31 May and 2 June. For the next few months he kept a low profile, but on 23 September 1793 and this was the month in which the Reign of Terror was organized under the superintendence of the Committees of Public Safety and Committee of General Security. Tallien was of the most notorious envoys sent over to establish the Terror in the provinces, the young Tallien, who was barely 24, became notorious for his administration of justice in Bordeaux through his bloody affinity to “feed ‘la sainte guillotine’. However, after the days of his mission in Bordeaux. This tendency may be due to his involvement with Thérésa Cabarrús. Tallien not only spared her life but fell in love with her, Tallien suggested, “It is better to marry than to be beheaded. ”After Tallien became involved with Cabarrús, there was a notable decline in the number of executions in Bordeaux. Thérésa was an influence, and from the lives she saved by her entreaties she received the name of Notre-Dame de Thermidor after the onset of the Thermidorian Reaction. Tallien was even elected president of the Convention on 24 March 1794, maximillian Robespierre certainly took notice of Talliens “royalist” behavior and recalled him to Paris. Maximilien Robespierres own political ideas implied his readiness to strike at many of his colleagues in the committees, Robespierres rivals were determined to strike first. When Tallien was recalled, Thérésa Cabarrús was recaptured and imprisoned and she was set to face trial and likely would have been executed
Jean-Lambert Tallien
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Tallien as deputy to the
National Convention, 1792.
Jean-Lambert Tallien
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Signature
Jean-Lambert Tallien
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Tallien during the
Parisian Revolt of 1789.
23.
Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier
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Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier was a French politician of the French Revolution. Son of a family in Pamiers, Ariège, he served in the army of the king Louis XV, taking part in the Seven Years War. Elected as deputy to the Third Estate in the Estates-General of France for the County of Foix, Vadier took no prominent part in that assembly. With the overthrow of the one year later, he was elected to the, sat among the Montagnards, joined the Jacobin Club. An opponent of the Girondists, Vadier opposed the proscription of Jean-Paul Marat, on he was named member of the Committee of General Security, soon becoming its President, where he made his deepest mark on the Revolution. Acquitted by the courts, he remained in prison in Cherbourg until 1799. Placed under house arrest in Paris, a deputy during Napoleons Hundred Days, he was compelled to go into exile in Brussels after the Second Restoration, and died in Brussels. Available at The Library of Congress, Washington DC DC146. V2 D871989, The British Library, London HMNTS YA.1990. b.1993, The University of California Library, Berkeley DC146. V2. D81989
Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier
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Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier
24.
Jacobin Club
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Initially founded by anti-Royalist deputies from Brittany, the Club grew into a nationwide republican movement, with a membership estimated at a half million or more. The Jacobin Club was heterogeneous and included both prominent parliamentary factions of the early 1790s, the radical Mountain and the more moderate Girondins, in 1792–93, the Girondins dominated the Jacobin Club and led the country. Believing that revolutionary France would not be accepted by its neighbours, they called for a foreign policy. The Girondins were the dominant faction when the Jacobins overthrew the monarchy, when the Republic failed to deliver the unrealistic gains that had been expected, they lost popularity. The Girondins sought to curb fanatical revolutionary violence, and were accused by the Mountain of being royalist sympathisers. The National Guard eventually switched its support from the Girondins to the Mountain, in May 1793, led by Maximilien de Robespierre, the leaders of the Mountain faction succeeded in sidelining the Girondin faction and controlled the government until July 1794. Their time in government was characterized by radically progressive legislation imposed with very high levels of political violence, in June 1793, they approved the Constitution of Year 1 which introduced universal male suffrage for the first time in history. In September 1793, twenty-one prominent Girondins were guillotined, beginning the Reign of Terror, in October, during the Terror, the new constitution was ratified in a referendum which most eligible voters avoided participating in. In 1794, the Thermidorian Reaction pushed the Mountain out of power, the Jacobin Club was closed and many of its leaders, including Robespierre, were executed. Today, Jacobin and Jacobinism are used in a variety of senses and it was so named because of the Dominican convent where they met, which had recently been located in the Rue St. Jacques, Paris. The club originated as the Club Breton, formed at Versailles from a group of Breton representatives attending the Estates-General of 1789, when the Estates-General was convened in 1789, at Versailles, the club was initially composed exclusively of deputies from Brittany. However, they were joined by deputies from other regions throughout France. At this time, meetings occurred in secret, and few traces remain concerning what took place or where the meetings were convened. By the March on Versailles in October 1789, the club, the group rented for its meetings the refectory of the monastery of the Jacobins in the Rue Saint-Honoré, adjacent to the seat of the Assembly. The name Jacobins, given in France to the Dominicans, was first applied to the club in ridicule by its enemies and it occupied successively the refectory, the library, and the chapel of the monastery. Once in Paris, the club underwent rapid modifications, the first great change was its extension of membership to others besides deputies. All citizens were allowed to enter and even foreigners were welcomed, Jacobin Club meetings soon became a place for radical and rousing oratory that pushed for republicanism, widespread education, universal suffrage, separation of church and state, and other reforms. At the same time the rules of order of election were settled, by the 7th article the club decided to admit as associates similar societies in other parts of France and to maintain with them a regular correspondence
Jacobin Club
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Seal of the Jacobin Club, 1789–1792.
Jacobin Club
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The door of the Jacobin Club was in the Rue Saint-Honoré, Paris.
Jacobin Club
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Engraving "Closing of the Jacobin Club, during the night of 27–28 July 1794, or 9–10 Thermidor, year 2 of the Republic"
25.
9 Thermidor
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The Thermidorian Reaction was a coup détat within the French Revolution against the leaders of the Jacobin Club who had dominated the Committee of Public Safety. It was triggered by a vote of the National Convention to execute Maximilien Robespierre, Louis Antoine de Saint-Just and this ended the most radical phase of the French Revolution. Thermidorian Reaction also refers to the period until the National Convention was superseded by the Directory. Prominent figures of Thermidor include Paul Barras, Jean-Lambert Tallien, Thermidor represents the final throes of the Reign of Terror. His only real power at this time lay in the Jacobin Club. Many others who conspired against Robespierre did so for practical and personal reasons. The surviving Dantonists, such as Merlin de Thionville, wanted revenge for the death of Georges Danton and, more importantly, among the latter were Joseph Fouché and Pierre-Louis Bentabole, who engineered Robespierres downfall. In the end, it was Robespierre himself who united all his enemies, on 8 Thermidor he gave a speech to the Convention in which he railed against enemies and conspiracies, some within the powerful committees. As he did not give the names of these traitors, all in the Convention had reason to fear that they were the targets, later, he went and enlisted the support of the Jacobin Club, where he denounced Collot and Billaud. These men then spent the night planning the following day’s coup, conspiracies against Maximilien Robespierre who had dominated the Committee of Public Safety came together on 9 Thermidor 1794. Cries went up of Down with the tyrant, Robespierre then made his appeal to the deputies of the Right, Deputies of the Right, men of honour, men of virtue, give me the floor, since the assassins will not. However, the Right was unmoved, and an order was made to arrest Robespierre, troops from the Paris Commune arrived to liberate the prisoners. The Commune troops, under General Coffinhal（French：--）, then marched against the Convention itself, the Convention responded by ordering troops of its own under Paul Barras to be called out. When the Communes troops heard the news of this, order began to break down, Robespierre and his supporters also gathered at the Hôtel de Ville. The Convention declared them to be outlaws, meaning that upon verification the fugitives could be executed within 24 hours without a trial, as the night went on the Commune forces at the Hôtel de Ville deserted until none of them remained. The Convention troops under Barras approached the Hôtel around 2,00 am on 28 July, as they came, Robespierres brother Augustin leapt out of a window in an escape attempt, broke his legs, and was arrested. Couthon, who due to disease was paralysed from the waist down, was found lying at the bottom of a staircase. Robespierre was shot in the face, and his jaw was shattered, there are two accounts of how he received the wound
9 Thermidor
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Ninth Thermidor by
Valery Jacobi.
9 Thermidor
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Gendarme Merda shooting at Robespierre during the night of 9
Thermidor.
9 Thermidor
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The execution of Robespierre on July 28, 1794 marked the end of the first Reign of Terror.
9 Thermidor
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The Closing of the Jacobin Club, during the night of 27–28 July 1794.
26.
Augustin Robespierre
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Augustin Bon Joseph de Robespierre was the younger brother of French Revolutionary leader Maximilien Robespierre. He was born in Arras, the youngest of four children of the lawyer Maximilien-Barthelemy-François de Robespierre and Jacqueline-Marguerite Carraut and his mother died when he was one year old, and his grief-stricken father abandoned the family to go to Bavaria, where he died in 1777. He was brought up by an aunt and trained as a lawyer, like his brother, he was a radical during the Revolution. At the outset of the Revolution, he was prosecutor-syndic of Arras, in 1791, he was appointed Administrator of the département of Pas-de-Calais. In September 1792, he was elected to the National Convention, where he joined his brother in The Mountain, becoming Député-en-Mission to the Army of Italy in 1794, he used his influence to advance Napoleon Bonapartes career, after reading Napoleons pro-Jacobin pamphlet titled Le souper de Beaucaire. With the fall of Maximilien Robespierre in the coup détat of 9 Thermidor, Augustin was one of the five most famous victims of 9 Thermidor. He demanded to be arrested with his brother in the National Convention, saying, I am as guilty as him, I share his virtues, I ask also to be charged. After taking refuge in the Hôtel de Ville, he tried to capture by leaping out of a window. He failed, however, breaking both his legs, and was guillotined on the day as his brother. Alexandre Cousin, Philippe Lebas et Augustin Robespierre, deux météores dans la Révolution française, marisa Linton, Choosing Terror, Virtue, Friendship and Authenticity in the French Revolution. Sergio Luzzatto, Bonbon Robespierre, la terreur à visage humain, martial Sicard, Robespierre jeune dans les Basses-Alpes, Forcalquier, A. Crest. Mary Young, Augustin, the Younger Robespierre, lenfance de Maximilien, in L’association Maximilien Robespierre pour l’Idéal Démocratique bulletin n°45
Augustin Robespierre
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Augustin de Robespierre (Album du Centenaire)
27.
Georges Couthon
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Georges Auguste Couthon was a French politician and lawyer known for his service as a deputy in the Legislative Assembly during the French Revolution. Couthon played an important role in the development of the Law of 22 Prairial, Couthon was born on 22 December 1755 in Orcet in the province of Auvergne. His father was a notary, his mother the daughter of a shopkeeper, Couthon, like generations of his family before him, was a member of the lower bourgeoisie. Following in his father’s footsteps, Couthon became a notary, the skills he acquired enabled him to serve on the Provincial Assembly of Auvergne in 1787, his first experience of politics. He was well-regarded by others as an honest, well-mannered individual, as the Revolution grew nearer, Couthon started to become disabled due to advancing paralysis in both legs. His political aspirations took him away from Orcet and to Paris, while in Clermont, he became a fixture at its literary society, where he earned acclaim for his discussion on the topic of Patience. In 1791, Couthon became one of the deputies of the Legislative Assembly, in 1791, Couthon traveled to Paris to fulfill his duty as a deputy in the Legislative Assembly. He then joined the growing Jacobin Club of Paris and he chose to sit on the Left at the first meeting of the Assembly, but soon decided against associating himself with such radicals as he feared they were shocking the majority. He was a proficient speaker, and there is evidence that he exploited his condition as a paraplegic in order to gain the ear of the Assembly on issues he found important. In September 1792, Couthon was elected to the National Convention, at the Trial of Louis XVI in December 1792, he argued loudly against the Girondist request for a referendum. He would go on to vote for the sentence without appeal. On 30 May 1793, Couthon was elected to the Committee of Public Safety, three days after rising to this position, Couthon was the first to demand the arrest of proscribed Girondists. Growing unrest had been occurring in Lyon in late February and early May, Couthon would be the representative that Lyon would surrender to on 9 October 1793. He was suspicious of the unrest in Lyon upon his arrival, on 12 October 1793, the Committee of Public Safety passed a decree that they believed would make an example of Lyon. The decree specified that the city itself was to be destroyed, following the decree, Couthon established special courts that would supervise the demolition of the richest homes in Lyon, leaving the homes of the poor untouched. In addition to the demolition of the city, the decree dictated that the rebels, Couthon had difficulty accepting the destruction of Lyon and proceeded slowly with his orders. Eventually, he would find that he could not stomach the task at hand, Republican atrocities in Lyon began after Couthon was replaced on 3 November 1793 by Jean Marie Collot dHerbois, who would go on to condemn 1,880 Lyonnais by April 1794. Following his departure from Lyon, Couthon returned to Paris, and on 21 December and he contributed to the prosecution of the Hébertists and continued serving on the Committee of Public Safety for the next several months
Georges Couthon
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Signature
Georges Couthon
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Georges Auguste Couthon by Bonneville
Georges Couthon
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Bust of Georges Couthon by
David d'Angers (1844).
28.
Constitution of the Year III
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The Constitution of the Year III is the constitution that founded the Directory. It remained in effect until the coup of 18 Brumaire effectively ended the Revolution and it was more conservative than the abortive democratic French Constitution of 1793. The central government retained power, including emergency powers to curb freedom of the press. The Declaration of Rights and Duties of Mankind at the beginning of the constitution included a ban on slavery. It was succeeded by the Constitution of the Year VIII, which established the Consulate
Constitution of the Year III
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Constitution de la République Française du 5 Fructidor l'an III (22 août 1795)
29.
French Directory
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It gave its name to the final four years of the French Revolution. The Directory was continually at war with foreign coalitions which at different times included Britain, Austria, Prussia, the Kingdom of Naples, Russia and it annexed Belgium and the left bank of the Rhine, while Bonaparte conquered a large part of Italy. The Directory established six short-lived sister republics modelled after France, in Italy, Switzerland, the conquered cities and states were required to send to France huge amounts of money, as well as art treasures, which were used to fill the new Louvre museum in Paris. An army led by Bonaparte conquered Egypt and marched as far as Saint-Jean-dAcre in Syria, the French economy was in continual crisis during the Directory. At the beginning, the treasury was empty, the money, the Assignat, had fallen to a fraction of its value. The Directory stopped printing assignats and restored the value of the money, but this caused a new crisis, prices and wages fell, and economic activity slowed to a standstill. The Jacobin political club was closed and the government crushed an uprising planned by the Jacobins. The Jacobins took two seats in the Directory, hopelessly dividing it. In 1799, after several defeats, French victories in the Netherlands and Switzerland restored the French military position, Bonaparte returned from Egypt in October, and was engaged by the Abbé Sieyès and other moderates to carry out a parliamentary coup détat on 8–9 November 1799. The coup abolished the Directory, put the French Consulate led by Bonaparte in its place, Robespierre and his leading followers were declared outside the law, and on 28 July were arrested, and guillotined the same day. The Terror quickly came to a halt, the Revolutionary Tribunal, which had sent thousands to the guillotine, ceased meeting and its head, Fouquier-Tinville, was arrested and imprisoned, and after trial was himself guillotined. More than five hundred suspected counter-revolutionaries awaiting trial and execution were immediately released, in the wake of these events, the members of the Convention began planning an entirely new form of government. They wished to continue the Revolution, but without its excesses and this executive will have a force concentrated enough that it will be swift and firm, but divided enough to make it impossible for any member to even consider becoming a tyrant. A single chief would be dangerous, each member will preside for three months, he will have during this time the signature and seal of the head of state. By the slow and gradual replacement of members of the Directory, you will preserve the advantages of order and continuity and will have the advantages of unity without the inconveniences. To assure that the Directors would have some independence, each would be elected by one portion of the legislature, the members of this legislature had a term of three years, with one-third of the members renewed every year. The Ancients could not initiate new laws, but could veto those proposed by the Council of Five Hundred, the new Constitution required the Council of 500 to prepare, by secret ballot, a list of candidates for the Directory. The Council of the Ancients then chose, again by secret ballot, the Constitution required that Directors be at least forty years old
French Directory
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Paul Barras, the only Director to serve during the entire term of the Directory
French Directory
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The
War in the Vendée was a royalist uprising that was suppressed by the republican forces in 1796.
French Directory
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Lucien Bonaparte, President of the
Council of 500, who engineered the coup that brought his brother to power.
French Directory
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First Republic (1792–1804)
