Maximilien de Robespierre

Life

Childhood and formation

Master Maximilien-Barthelemy-François (known as more simply " François") of Robespierre, lawyer at the Superior council of Artois, and Miss Jacqueline-Marguerite Carraut, met in 1757; they married the January 2nd 1758. Conceived except marriage, Robespierre was born with Arras the May 6th 1758. It was the elder one of a family of old middle-class. By his father, it went down from a family of Artesian legal profession; his/her maternal grandfather was a brewer of Arras. The couple had four other children: Charlotte in 1760, Henriette-Eulalie-Francoise in 1761 and Augustin in 1763. The July 4th 1764, a fifth child was born. But the mother died ten days after, at twenty-nine years, followed closely by the new born one. Robespierre was six years old. As opposed to what affirm the Mémoires of Charlotte, François de Robespierre did not give up his/her children immediately. One finds traces of him in Arras until March 1766, then again in October 1768. Then documents assure us his presence with Mannheim, in Germany in May 1770 and in October 1771. The following year, it was of return to Arras, where it took again its lawyer functions. In March 1778, with died of his/her father-in-law, an ultimate document proves that it was absent from Arras. Thereafter, his trace is lost.

After the death of their mother, the two girls were collected by their paternal aunts, the boys by their maternal grandfather, Jacques Carraut. Maximilien entered, in 1765, with the college of Arras (which did not belong yet to the Oratoriens). Charlotte, in her Memories , affirms that Maximilien had become serious and serious. In 1769, thanks to the intervention of the Aymé canon near the bishop of Arras, it obtained a purse of 450 pounds annual of the Abbaye of Saint-Vaast and entered to the Louis-the-Large college, with Paris.

In spite of its extreme destitution, it made brilliant studies with the Louis-the-Large college (1769 - 1781), where it had as school-fellows Camille Desmoulins and Louis-Marie Stanislas Fréron. According to the Proyart abbot, it was a studious pupil, being devoted only to work, recluse and dreamer, not very expansive. Seen very well by its Masters, in 1775, it was selected to pronounce the compliment in worms of the new king Louis XVI. Receipt graduate in right of the Faculty of Paris the July 31st 1780, it obtained its diploma of license the May 15th 1781 and was registered on the register of lawyers of the Parlement of Paris two weeks afterwards. The July 19th, on report/ratio of the main thing of the college, a reward of 600 pounds was granted to him. In addition, its purse with Louis-the-Large passed to his/her younger brother, Augustin.

A young lawyer of province

Return to Arras, the situation of its family had changed: his/her grandmother had died in 1775, her maternal grandfather in 1778, her Henriette sister in 1780. As for his/her two paternal aunts, they had married one and the other at 41 years, Eulalie the January 2nd 1776 with a former notary become trader, Henriette the February 6th 1777 with the Gabriel-François doctor Of the Rut. Jacques Carraut left: 4000 pounds with its grandchildren. Installed in a small house of the street Salmon with his/her sister Charlotte, Maximilien fitted the November 8th 1781 with the provincial Council of Artois, like his/her father and his paternal grandfather, and started to plead the January 16th 1782. The March 9th 1782, it was named by the bishop, Monseigneur de Conzié, judges with the episcopal Court. After a passage at Of the Rut, fine 1782, it settled with his/her sister street of the Jesuits, fine 1783; it is there that he lived until his departure for Paris. In its functions, it was distinguished, in particular at the time of the business of the lightning conductor of Mr. de Vissery, where it made a plea become famous, in May 1783, and Deteuf business, which opposed it to the Benedictines of Anchin.

The November 15th 1783, Robespierre was accommodated in the Academy of Arras, sponsored by his/her colleague Maître Antoine-Joseph Buissart, with whom he had collaborated in the business of the lightning conductor, and Mr. Dubois de Fosseux, who was his friend, like that of Babeuf. It took part in several academic contests. In 1784, one of its memories, envoy with the Academy of Metz, is worth a medal to him, as well as a price of 400 pounds. Published, this memory was the subject of an article of Lacretelle in the Mercure de France . In the same way, it wrote a Éloge of Gresset for the contest of the Academy of Amiens of 1785, which was not preceded, but that it published him too. The February 4th 1786, the royal Academy of the Humanities of Arras elected it as director; among his colleagues, one counted Louise de Kéralio. In the same way, in December, it was named among the three police chiefs in charge of the examination of the memories sent to the contest. At the same time, Rosati of Arras, small founded poetic coterie in 1778, accommodated it in their rows.

Maximilien de Robespierre remained unmarried. However, with Arras, it cultivated the female relations: it had an outline of idylle with Miss Dehay, friend of her sister, an unknown English young person and certain Miss Henriette, corresponded with a “lady placed very high”, perhaps Mrs. Necker, according to Gerard Walter, was accepted at Mrs. Marchand, future director of the Journal of the Pas-de-Calais , etc According to her Charlotte sister, Miss Anaïs Deshorties liked Robespierre and was loved of him; in 1789, it courted it since two or three years. It Maria with another, while it was in Paris. With Paris, it was known as that it was promised in marriage to the girl of its landlord, Éléonore Duplay.

Political career

The constituent Assembly

Impregnated idealistic ideas of the philosophers of the 18th century, in particular of Rousseau, it took part in the political life in its province the day before the Révolution, making appear a report entitled With the Artesian Nation, on the need for reforming the States d' Artois . Then, supported by its family and her friends, it stood as a candidate to the representation of the Third-State to the General states; the corporation of the minor cobblers, poorest but most, entrusted the drafting of their to him Register of grievances the March 25th 1789.

Elected official the April 26th 1789 among the eight Appointed of the Third state of the Artois, it went to Versailles, where it settled with three colleagues, farmers, with the hotel trade of the Fox, street Holy-Elisabeth. Among his first contacts, one counts Necker, which accepted it with dining at his place in May. However, the minister, to which he had addressed many praises in his report, disappointed it. On the contrary, it tied relations with Mirabeau, of which it was some short while. It also approached Barère, which published a newspaper very read in the political circles. In addition, of the friendly bonds bound it to the count Charles de Lameth.

With the constituent Assembly, Robespierre advanced with insurance and serenity, prosecutor, according to Gerard Walter, “the execution of a plan maturely reflected and carefully studied”. Its first intervention with the parliamentary platform dates from the May 18th 1789; it spoke approximately sixty times from May to December 1789, a hundred times in 1790 and as much January at the end of September 1791. Its speech against the martial Loi of the October 21st 1789 did of it one of the principal organizers of the Révolution and the target of increasingly keen attacks of its adversaries, particularly of its former professor, the abbot Royou, and equips it journalists with the Acts of the Apostles . It was one of the rare defenders of the vote for all and the equal rights, being opposed to marc money, the January 25th 1790 and defending the right to vote of the actors and the Jews. With the second half-year, his interventions with the platform became increasingly frequent: in one year, it had overcome the indifference and the skepticism of his colleagues. From November 1790 at September 1791, it played a leading role in the debates on the organization of the national guards. It took part in the development of the Déclaration of the Human rights and the Citizen like to the first French constitution in 1791. Particularly, the May 16th 1791, it made vote the principle of the not-re-eligibility of the deputies of the constituent Assembly in the following Parliament, which aimed mainly the triumvirate of the patriotic party, Duport, Barnave and Lameth. Always against the triumvirate, it defended the abolition of slavery and the right to vote of the coloured persons and defended the popular Companies. Thereafter, he made a speech for the abolition of the capital punishment, remained celebrates, the May 30th 1791. Four days afterwards, it missed little being elected with the presidency of the Parliament.

The Club of the Jacobins

As of the first months of the constituent Assembly, Robespierre had taken part in the meetings of the Breton Club, with the Amaury coffee. At the time of the installation of the Parliament with Paris, in October 1789, it joined the Company of the Friends of the Constitution, more known under the name of Club of the Jacobins, located close to Tileries, in the convent of the Jacobins Rue Saint-Honore. He even was installed in one furnished, on the third floor, of the n°9 of the Rue of Saintonge, in a district far away from Tileries; in 1790, certain Pierre Villiers (1760 - 1843), officer of dragons and dramatic author, divided his apartment seven months in the capacity as secretary. Increasingly distant from Mirabeau, which had said of him in 1789: It will go far, it believes all that it says , it broke with him at a particularly sharp meeting to the Jacobins, the December 6th 1790. It became soon the principal organizer of the Jacobins, tying invaluable relationships to the patriotic groupings of province.

At the time of the escape of the king in Varennes, on June 20th 1791, Robespierre was in the Friends of the Constitution of Versailles. Named public prosecutor of Paris, it had just resigned of its load of judge to the court of Versailles, which he occupied, theoretically, since the October 5th 1790 and was to explain its reasons to them. Learning the news the following day, he made a speech with the Club of the Jacobins in whom he showed the Parliament to betray the interests of the nation. A few weeks afterwards, the July 14th, in its speech on the escape of the king, pronounced in front of the Parliament, it did not claim the judgment of Louis XVI, but decided in favor of its forfeiture.

The following day, the Club of Cordeliers launched the idea of a petition claiming the Republic, which collected: 6000 signatures and was deposited on the furnace bridge of the fatherland, high place of the Fête of the Federation of 1790, on the Field-of-March. The proclaimed martial law, Fayette made to mitrailler crowd. While repression fell down on the popular Companies, a campaign showed Robespierre to have been the instigator of the demonstration. The day day before, it quasi totality of the deputies - except Robespierre, Pétion, Antoine and Coroller - and the three quarters of the Parisian members (1 800 out of 2.400) had left the Jacobins to found the Club of Breaking into leaf the; the great majority of the affiliated companies of province remained faithful to the club of the Rue Saint-Honore.

Threatened after the Shooting of Field-of-March, it accepted the offer of Duplay, a master joiner, which proposed to him to place at his place, Rue Saint-Honore. He lived in this house until his death.

With the parliamentary session closure, Robespierre returned in the civil life on October 1st 1791. During this month, many addresses flowed Rue Saint-Honore, to pay homage to him. After the inaugural session of the legislative Parliament, it went on a journey towards the Artois, where it was accommodated with enthusiasm by the people.

Returned with Paris the November 28th, it had to be essential within the Club of the Jacobins, where the new deputies of Gironde had been registered. At the time, the question of the emigrated S encouraged the revolutionary leaders to declare the war with German who accommodated them; one of its burning defenders was Brissot, new deputy of Paris. With Billaud-Game preserve, Robespierre denounced the entry in war of the France against the Austria with the platform of the Jacobins the December 18th 1791, then the 2 and the January 11th 1792, considering imprudent such a decision, which made the play of Louis XVI. For him, in particular, the French Army was not ready to carry out the war, which were to reinforce a king and ministers hostile with the Revolution, and besides the true threat was not among the emigrants, with Coblentz, but in France, the war was ruinous for finances of France and it was to better support the rights of the people. Especially, it proposed the threat of a military dictatorship, represented by Fayette, person in charge of the repression of the Swiss of Châteauvieux by Bouillé in 1790 and of the Fusillade of Field-of-March in 1791, and on which Brissot was dependant. Confronted with a combined attack journalists and lampoonists (in particular Sylvain Marshal), it began the edition of its own newspaper the Defender of the Constitution in May 1792, in order to defend its ideas. At the same time, he resigned of the station of public prosecutor (April 14th 1792). Confronted with the question of the political regime, between Brissot and its friends, who said it sold at the Court, and the newspapers of right-hand side, which regarded it as the chief of the “republicans”, he refused to decide, affirming: 1=J' likes better to see a representative assembly popular and citizens free and respected with a king, that people slave and degraded under the rod of an aristocratic senate and a dictator. I do not like more Cromwell that Charles I {{er}}. Judging the legislative Parliament unable to preserve the country of the foreign invasion and a military dictatorship, it took the party of an insurrection. It reproached in particular the Parliament for having reacted when, the June 28th, Fayette had given up its army to denounce in front of her the Jacobins, not being restricted to declare the fatherland in danger. It took part in the insurrectionary Commune of Paris, shortly after the catch of the Tuileries at the time of the day of August 10th.

The insurrectionary Commune of Paris

Various versions exist, on the role of Robespierre at the time of the insurrection of August 10th. In a speech, in May 1793, Vergniaud claims that it was hidden in its cellar. Albert Mathiez, on the contrary, affirms that he is the principal inspirer of the day. As for Gerard Walter, he considers that Robespierre was rather in favor of a legal solution and considered the insurrection with skepticism.

The May 28th 1792, the Ministre for the war of Gironde Servan required in front of the Assemblée that the nation rises very whole to defend the country. Then, one week afterwards, it invited each canton to send five federate vêtus and equipped (either: 20000 men, on the whole) with Paris, in order to lend a civic oath to Paris. Robespierre saw in this measurement an operation to reduce the democratic agitation of the capital, feeling which the intervention of seemed to confirm Fayette in front of the Assemblée, the June 28th. Also proposed he with the Jacobins, the July 11th, a project of Adresse to Federate of the 83 departments fraternally greeting the federate ones and incentive the Parisian ones to accommodate them with friendship. The shortly after the celebrations, the July 15th, it invited the federate ones to be wary of the “emissary and accessory to the Court” and to defend the constitution legally. Rather than to defend the insurrection, he asked for the drafting of petition S; itself wrote that of the July 17th which, well far from calling with the forfeiture of the king, claimed the strict respect of the constitution and denounced those which betray it, he asked the dismissal and the committal for trial, leaving in the blur the fate of the executive power.

In answer to the petitions, the Assemblée voted the July 23rd, on proposal of Brissot, the creation of a charged commission to examine being able to involve an expiry and the drafting of an address to the people preventing it against “unconstitutional and ill-advised measurements”. Hostile with the Parliament, of which he was persuaded of treason, Robespierre retorted, in a speech with the Jacobins, the July 29th, by asking for the behavior of new elections.

The August 10th, in the afternoon, it went to the assembly of its section, the section of the place Vendôme, which named it, the following day, its representative with the insurrectionary Commune, then with the Jacobins, where it outlined, in a speech, the urgent measures to be taken: the people were not to demobilize themselves, but to require the convocation of a national Convention, Fayette was to be declared treacherous with the fatherland, the Commune was to send of the police chief in all the departments to explain the situation to them, the sections were to abolish the distinction between " citizens actifs" and " citizens passifs" and to create popular companies, in order to express the wish of the people to his representatives. For Gerard Walter, “his paramount concern was to discipline the started movement, to remove its chaotic character to him and, by means of a firm and intelligent tactic, to obtain that the provided sacrifice bears fruits. ” In addition, it notes that none of its recommendations was neglected by the Commune.

The August 12th, in the afternoon, Robespierre appeared with the bar of Assemblée, where it obtained the recognition of the insurrectionary Commune. In addition, in front of the decision of the Parliament, the August 11th, to create a martial court to consider the Swiss captured at the time of the attack of the castle of Tileries, it wrote, in the name of the Commune, an address asking for the judgment of all the “traitors” and “conspirators”, initially Fayette, which it presented the August 15th in front of the deputies, very restive in front of a “inquisitorial court” (according to Choudieu) and attentatoire with freedoms (according to Thuriot). After one second delegation of the General advice of the Common , the August 17th, an extraordinary criminal court was created, whose Robespierre refused the presidency. “I could not be the judge of those of which I was the adversary” was it to explain thereafter. However, the Of Gironde, around Brissot and of Roland, Minister of Interior Department, sabotaged this extension of competence. For many historians (and initially Albert Mathiez and Gerard Walter), the unwillingness of the court to judge the causes which one seized it was at the origin of the Massacres of September.

According to Pétion, then mayor of Paris, Robespierre had taken “the ascending one in the Council” and “involved its majority”. If, between the 23 and the August 29th, it took part especially in the pre-election meetings of its section, made up in primary assembly, the August 30th, the 1 {{er}} and the September 2nd, it played a directing part at the General advice of the Commune, being opposed to the decree Législative which summoned the Commune to be dislocated, refusing the reopening of the barriers of the city and denouncing the Girondins.

President of the general meeting of the section of the place Vendôme, made up in primary education assembly the August 27th, Robespierre was elected the following day first voter by his section, then first deputy of Paris, with the first ballot, by the electoral Parliament (by 338 votes out of 525). Then it contributed to the election of Marat, against the scientist Priestley, presented by the Girondins, Panis and Robert, against Tallien. In the same way, his/her younger brother, Augustin, were elected appointed of Paris.

National Convention

At the origin of the national Convention, elected in the vote for all, Robespierre was one of the principal figures of the Montagne with Danton and Marat.

From the start, the Girondins attacked the deputies of Paris, and initially Robespierre, shown to aspire to the Dictature. After a first offensive, the September 25th, carried out by the Marseillais Rebecqui and Barbaroux, Robespierre was held far away from the platform, perhaps sick, and only the October 28th intervened, in front of the Jacobins, to testify to its pessimism: “Remove the word of Republic, I do not see anything of changed. I see everywhere the same defects, same calculations, the same means, and especially same calumny. ” The following day, Roland, charged to present a review of the situation of Paris, made read a letter which implied that Robespierre would have prepared a list of proscription. Gone up with the platform to defend oneself, the Incorruptible one was stopped by Louvet, which benefitted from the occasion to pronounce the indictment that it prepared since of the weeks. Having obtained deadline a eight days, Robespierre retorted, the November 5th, by a speech which reduced to silence its adversaries.

The following day, Valazé presented his report/ratio on “the business Louis Capet”, followed the three following days by five other speakers, of which Saint-Just, the abbot Gregoire and Robert. Robespierre, it, remained quiet, perhaps sick, as let it think the Mémoires of his/her sister, according to Gerard Walter. During November, while the debates on the lawsuit decreased, the people were confronted with a shortage of the subsistence, and disorders burst in many departments. Considering that the Girondins sought to save Louis XVI to restore it on the throne, it intervened at the time of the meeting of the November 30th, in order to bring back the question of the lawsuit ahead. Then, as the Parliament threatened to trail in length on legal questions, he made a new speech, the December 3rd, in which he explained why there was “no lawsuit to make”, that the day of August 10th had already settled the question and that Louis XVI was to be immediately declared treacherous with the French nation. Convention rejected this opinion, but the payment became incredible.

In reaction, of Gironde the Salle proposed the December 27th to return the lawsuit before the primary assemblies. But the “call to the people” was rejected by Convention by 424 votes against 283, the January 15th 1793, and the capital punishment was voted by 366 votes against 355 the following day, then, after complaints, by 361 votes against 360.

Thereafter it contributed to the ousting of Of Gironde (see: Day of June 2nd, 1793) after the treason of Charles-François Dumouriez (April 3rd 1793).

Terror

The fall

Execution

The following day afternoon, the prisoners are led to the revolutionary Tribunal where Fouquier-Tinville makes note the identity of marked which, put outlaw, do not profit from defense.

Thus Robespierre is condemned without lawsuit and guillotine the afternoon even of Thermidor 10, under the acclamations of crowd, in company of twenty and one of his/her political friends of which Saint-Just and Couthon. The twenty-two heads are placed in a trunk out of wooden, and the trunks gathered on a cart. One will throw the whole in a common grave of the Cimetière of Errancis and one will spread lime so that the body of the “tyrant” Robespierre does not leave any trace. The following day, 80 partisans of Robespierre were also guillotines. In 1840, partisans of Robespierre excavated the ground of the cemetery of Errancis, then closed since about thirty years, without discovering any body.

Its fall put an end to the Terreur and broke the democratic dash of the Republic: those which had organized Terror and from of had largely benefitted by putting the hand on the goods from noble and with the bankers carried out Robespierre with all their misdeeds charged, not hesitating to falsify the historical documents.

As of its fall, all Duplay were imprisoned, sometimes for years. Eléonore Duplay Maria never and lived the remainder of its life in the regret of its great man.

Quotations

Anecdotes

Maximilien de Robespierre is only the revolutionist present in the classification very discussed of the “100 larger French of all times”. Danton, Holy Just, Marat and Mirabeau do not appear in it.
Some allot the proverb to him “One does not make omelet without breaking eggs. ”

Works

complete Works of Maximilien Robespierre , 10 volumes, Company of the studies robespierrists, 1910-1967; republication in facsimile (10 volumes) with a new introduction of Claude Mazauric, co-edition SER/Phénix Editions, 2000.

Volume 1: Literary works, prose and about , s.d. Eugene Déprez and Emile Lesueur, 1910.
Volume 2: Legal Robespierre in Arras, works (1782-1786) , s.d. Emile Lesueur and Ernest Leroux, 1913.
Volume 3: Correspondence of Maximilien and Augustin Robespierre , s.d. Georges Michon and F. Almcan, 1926.
Volume 4: newspapers: “the Defender of the Constitution” , s.d. Gustave Laurent, 1939.
Volume 5: newspapers: “Letters with its commettans” , s.d. Gustave Laurent, 1961.
Volume 6: Speech, first part (1789-1790) , s.d. Marc Bouloiseau, Georges Lefebvre and Albert Soboul, 1950.
Volume 7: Speech, second part (January-September 1791) , s.d. Marc Bouloiseau, Georges Lefebvre and Albert Soboul, 1952.
Volume 8: Speech, third part (October 1791 - September 1792) , s.d. Marc Bouloiseau, Georges Lefebvre and Albert Soboul, 1954.
Volume 9: Speech, fourth part (September 1792 - July 27th, 1793) , s.d. Marc Bouloiseau, Georges Lefebvre, Jean Dautry and Albert Soboul, 1959.
Volume 10: Speech, fifth part (July 27th, 1793 - July 27th, 1794) , s.d. Marc Bouloiseau and Albert Soboul, 1967.

Speech , editions the Factory, 2000
Speech on the religion, the Republic and slavery , editions of the paddle, 2006

See too

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