Fall of Maximilien Robespierre

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"Fall of Robespierre" redirects here. For the English theatrical play, see The Fall of Robespierre.
Coup of 9–10 Thermidor
Part of the French Revolution

Fall of Robespierre in the Convention by Max Adamo
Date27 July 1794
Location
Paris, France
Result

Thermidorian victory

Belligerents

Thermidorians
Supported by:

Jacobins
Supported by:

Commanders and leaders
Strength
Unknown c. 3,000 loyalists
Casualties and losses
Unknown

Various people were executed:

  • 21 Robespierrists
  • 70
    Communards
  • 78 Montagnard deputies

The Coup d'état of 9 Thermidor or the Fall of Maximilien Robespierre is the series of events beginning with Maximilien Robespierre's address to the National Convention on 8 Thermidor Year II (26 July 1794), his arrest the next day, and his execution on 10 Thermidor (28 July). In the speech of 8 Thermidor, Robespierre spoke of the existence of internal enemies, conspirators, and calumniators, within the Convention and the governing Committees. He refused to name them, which alarmed the deputies who feared Robespierre was preparing another purge of the Convention, similar to previous ones during the Reign of Terror.[1]

On the following day, this tension in the Convention allowed

King Louis XVI had been executed a year earlier. He was executed by guillotine, like the others.[4] Robespierre's fall led to more moderate policies being implemented during the subsequent Thermidorian Reaction
.

Background

Purge of the Hébertists and Dantonists

On 27 July 1793, Robespierre was elected to the

Law of 14th Frimaire, becoming the de facto executive branch of the Revolutionary Government, under the supervision of the National Convention.[6][7]

During this time, two different factions rose in opposition to the restructured Revolutionary Government: the left-wing ultra-revolutionaries and the moderate right-wing citra-revolutionaries.

Cordeliers Club.[9] They pushed for stronger repression measures than those already in place during the Terror, and campaigned for de-Christianization.[10][8]

The Citras (also known as Dantonists or Indulgents), formed around Georges Danton as well as the indulgents members of the Cordeliers Club, including Camille Desmoulins. They were strongly opposed to the machinery of the Terror and policies of the Committee of Public Safety.[11] Both these factions were charged as conspirators against the Revolutionary Government and sentenced to the guillotine: the Hébertists on 24 March (4 Germinal) and the Dantonists on 5 April (16 Germinal).[12]

With these purges, the power of the Committee was reaffirmed. The death of Danton and Desmoulins, both formerly friends of Robespierre, left a deep toll on him. This, combined with the increasing demands of both the Committee on Public Safety and the National Convention washed away Robespierre's mental and physical health to the point he was forced to reduce his presence in the Jacobin Club and the National Convention.[13]

Division within the Revolutionary Government

Jacques-René Hébert
Georges Danton

Robespierre did not reappear in the National Convention until 7 May (18 Floréal). For this day he had planned a speech addressing the relationship between religion, morality, and the republican principles; and to establish the Cult of the Supreme Being in place of the Cult of Reason promoted by de-Christianizers like the Hébertists.[14] On 21 May 1794 the revolutionary government decided that the Terror would be centralised, with almost all the tribunals in the provinces closed and all the trials held in Paris.[15]

Robespierre led the processions during the Festival in Honor of the Supreme Being celebrated on 8 June (20 Prairial). Although the festival was well accepted by the crowds, Robespierre's prominent position in it was suspicious in the eyes of some deputies, and muttering began about Robespierre's fanaticism and desire for power.

Collot d'Herbois had taken place on 23 and 24 May (4–5 Prairial), and the memory of Lepeletier's and Marat's murder still roused feelings in the Convention.[19] The law was not universally accepted in the Convention, and critics of Robespierre and Saint-Just would use it against them during the events of 9 Thermidor.[20]

Raymond Quinsac Monvoisin
Le 9 Thermidor

More opposition came from the Committee of General Security, which had not been consulted over the contents of the Law. The Committee of General Security already felt threatened by the Committee of Public Safety's new ability to issue arrest warrants, as well as by the new Police Bureau, which was created by Saint-Just and was being run by Robespierre in his absence, and whose functions overlapped with that of the Committee of General Security.[21] As payment, they presented a report on the ties between the English enemy and the self-proclaimed "Mother of God", Catherine Théot, who had prophesied that Robespierre was a new Messiah. This was done both with the intention of diminishing Robespierre, and to mock his religious positions and the Cult of The Supreme Being.[22]

On 28 June (10 Messidor), Saint-Just returned from the northern front bearing news: the Revolutionary Army had defeated the Austrian army in Belgium at the Battle of Fleurus, securing the road to Paris. This victory signaled the end of the war against the Austrians, and with it, the end of the Terror government. Robespierre, wishing to get rid of both internal and external enemies, objected to the disbandment of the war government.[23] The following day, in a joint meeting of the Committees of Public Safety and General Security, Lazare Carnot allegedly shouted at Saint-Just that both he and Robespierre were "ridiculous dictators". Following this event, Robespierre stopped participating directly in the deliberations of the Committee of Public Safety.[24]

Having abandoned both the Committee and the National Convention, which he stopped frequenting after his presidency ended on 18 June (30 Prairial),[25] Robespierre's absence allowed the breach between him and other members of the revolutionary government to widen. He did not reappear until 23 July (5 Thermidor), when he sat for another joint convention of the two Committees put forward in a failed attempt to resolve their mutual differences.[26]

Events of the Fall

8 Thermidor (26 July)

Robespierre à la Société des Jacobins - Auguste Raffet
The attack on 9 Thermidor

During his absence from both the National Convention and the Committee of Public Safety through the months of June and July (Messidor), Robespierre prepared a speech to be delivered on 26 July (8 Thermidor).[26] He delivered the speech first to the National Convention, and later that same day at the Jacobin Club.[27] In it, he attempted both to defend himself from the rumors and attacks on his person that had been spreading since the start of the Reign of Terror; and to bring light to an anti-revolutionary conspiracy that he believed reached into the Convention and the Governing Committees.[28]

Although he only accused three deputies by name (Pierre-Joseph Cambon, François René Mallarmé, and Dominique-Vincent Ramel-Nogaret), his speech seemed to also incriminate several others.[1] Moreover, it was precisely because he failed to name the condemned that terror spread through the Convention as the deputies started thinking that Robespierre was planning yet another purge like that of the Dantonists and Hébertists.[27]

Later the same day he presented the speech at the Jacobin Club, where it was received with overwhelming support despite some initial opposition.

Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne and Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois, who opposed the printing of the speech, were driven out of the Jacobin Club.[30]

9 Thermidor (27 July)

Saint-Just and Robespierre at the Hôtel de Ville of Paris on the night of 9 to 10 Thermidor Year II (July 27 to 28, 1794). Painting by Jean-Joseph Weerts

On Sunday 27 July, the weather was stormy.[31] The workers of Paris organized a demonstration against the Maximum on wages.[32][33][34] At noon Louis Antoine de Saint-Just started addressing the Convention without having shown his speech to the two Committees.[35] He was interrupted by Tallien, who complained that both Robespierre and Saint-Just had broken with the Committees and now spoke only for themselves; and then by Billaud-Varenne, who related how he and Collot had been driven out of the Jacobin Club the previous day, and who accused Robespierre of conspiracy against the Convention.[36] Robespierre attempted to defend himself, but was silenced by the commotion within the Convention and by the screaming deputies condemning him as a tyrant and conspirator.[37]

The Convention then voted to arrest five deputies – Robespierre, his brother, Couthon, Saint-Just and Le Bas – as well as François Hanriot, and other Robespierrist officials.[38][36] They were taken before the Committee of General Security and sent to different prisons.[38] None of the city prisons wanted to arrest the deputies and officials, and once a deputation from the Paris Commune, which had risen in support of Robespierre, arrived to the city prisons demanding they refuse to take in the arrested, the prison officials complied.[39] A little after midnight, about fifty people, the five rebellious deputies, Dumas and Hanriot consulted on the first floor of the Hôtel de Ville.[39]

10 Thermidor (28 July)

Arrestation de Robespierre
Lying on a table, Robespierre is the object of the curiosity and quips of Thermidorians, (Musée de la Révolution française)

Upon receiving news that Robespierre and his allies had not been imprisoned, the National Convention, which was in permanent session, declared that Robespierre, Saint-Just, and the other deputies were outlaws, and commanded armed forces to enter the Hôtel de Ville. By 2:30 a.m., they had entered the Hôtel de Ville and made the arrest.[40]

There are two conflicting accounts of how Robespierre was wounded: the first one puts forward that Robespierre had tried to kill himself with a pistol,

antechamber of the Committee of General Security
.

The next day, according the

King Louis XVI, Danton and Desmoulins had been executed.[42]

Public memorials

Place Robespierre in Marseille with the inscription: "Lawyer, born in Arras in 1758, guillotined without trial on 27 July 1794. Nicknamed fr:L'Incorruptible. Defender of the people. Author of our republican motto: fr:Liberté, égalité, fraternité"

Street names

Robespierre is one of the few revolutionaries not to have a street named for him in the center of Paris. At the

Metro station "Robespierre" on Line 9 (Mairie de Montreuil – Pont de Sèvres), in the commune of Montreuil, named during the era of the Popular Front
. There are, however, numerous streets, roads, and squares named for him elsewhere in France.

Plaques and monuments

During the Soviet era, the Russians built two statues of him: one in Leningrad and another in Moscow (the

Kresty prison returned to its original name Voskresenskaya Embankment in 2014.[47]

Arras

Paris and elsewhere

Resistance units

In the Second World War, several French Resistance groups took his name: the Robespierre Company in Pau, commanded by Lieutenant Aurin, alias Maréchal; the Robespierre Battalion in the Rhône, under Captain Laplace; and a maquis formed by Marcel Claeys in the Ain.

See also

References

According to David P. Jordan: "Any comprehensive bibliography would be virtually impossible. In 1936 Gérard Walter drew up a list of over 10,000 works on Robespierre, and much has been done since."[52]

  1. ^ a b McPhee 2012, p. 214.
  2. ^ Scurr 2007, p. 347.
  3. ^ Jordan 1985, p. 218.
  4. ^ Jordan 1985, p. 220.
  5. ^ Rudé 1976, p. 38.
  6. ^ Scurr 2007, p. 284-285, 297.
  7. ^ Rudé 1976, p. 40-41.
  8. ^ a b Stewart 1951, p. 519.
  9. ^ Rudé 1976, p. 41.
  10. ^ Rudé 1976, p. 42.
  11. ^ Rudé 1976, p. 41-42.
  12. ^ McPhee 2012, p. 189-191.
  13. ^ McPhee 2012, p. 194-195.
  14. ^ McPhee 2012, p. 196.
  15. ^ The French Revolution: From Enlightenment to Tyranny by Ian Davidson, p. xiv
  16. ^ McPhee 2012, pp. 198–199.
  17. ^ Rudé 1976, p. 47.
  18. ^ Scurr 2007, p. 328.
  19. ^ Jordan 1985, p. 204.
  20. ^ Rudé 1976, p. 328.
  21. ^ Scurr 2007, p. 330-331.
  22. ^ McPhee 2012, p. 205.
  23. ^ Scurr 2007, p. 340.
  24. ^ McPhee 2012, p. 209.
  25. ^ McPhee 2012, p. 207.
  26. ^ a b McPhee 2012, p. 213.
  27. ^ a b McPhee 2012, p. 215.
  28. ^ Discours du 8 thermidor an II (Robespierre) – French Wikisource.
  29. ^ McPhee 2012, p. 216.
  30. ^ Scurr 2007, p. 350.
  31. ^ "THE PUBLIC PROSECUTOR OF THE TERROR: ANTOINE QUENTIN FOUQUIER-TINVILLE, p. 118" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 December 2018. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
  32. ^ Rude, George (1967) The crowd in the French Revolution, p. 136. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  33. ^ Walter, G. (1961) Le vaincu du neuf Thermidor, p. 17. In: L'œuvre, vol. II, part III. Gallimard.
  34. ISBN 978-0-5213-6810-0
    .
  35. ^ Cobb, R. & C. Jones (1988) The French Revolution. Voices from a momentous epoch 1789-1795, p. 230
  36. ^ a b Scurr 2007, p. 352.
  37. ^ McPhee 2012, p. 217.
  38. ^ a b McPhee 2012, p. 218.
  39. ^ a b Scurr 2007, p. 253.
  40. ^ a b McPhee 2012, p. 219.
  41. ^ Scurr 2007, p. 354.
  42. ^ a b Scurr 2007, p. 357.
  43. ^ Sanson, Henri (12 March 1876). "Memoirs of the Sansons: From Private Notes and Documents (1688–1847)". Chatto and Windus – via Google Books.
  44. ^ Schama 1989, pp. 845–46.
  45. ^ Jordan 2013.
  46. ^ Bean, Horak & Kapse 2014.
  47. JSTOR 1511500
    .
  48. ^ See René & Peter van der Krogt, Statues – Hither & Thither for photographs: [1]
  49. ^ See Seine-Saint-Dénis Atlas de l'architecture et du patrimoinefor photographs by Agnès Paty: [2]
  50. ^ See Département Seine-Saint-Dénis Atlas de l'architecture et du patrimoine: [3]
  51. ^ "Sculptures à Montpellier : Place de la Révolution Française – Page 2". www.nella-buscot.com.
  52. ^ Jordan 1977, pp. 282–291.

Works cited

Further reading

External links
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