Fall of Maximilien Robespierre (July 26-28, 1794)
Tony Barber, “The Fall of Robespierre by Colin Jones - A Revolutionary End,” Financial Times, October 18, 2021, https://www.ft.com/content/12f33c91-5b7b-45fa-a295-afdfea735eec.
After the creation of the first French Republic there came a period of atrocities and suffering for the people of Paris that would begin to climax on July 26, 1794. While the war against Europe was going better for France, the public executions and massacres were not stopping. This prompted the people to begin to increase their opposition towards Maximilien Robespierre, who had a prominent position with the Committee of Public Safety (CPS).¹ Through a series of political executions, Robespierre essentially ended up becoming the man that ran France through the Reign of Terror.
On July 26, Robespierre came into the National Convention and gave a harrowing speech where he threaten his peers with a purge claiming that there were internal enemies and conspirators among them.² He would later repeat this in the evening at the Jacobin Club in front of members where he would again decline to name the individuals. With this in mind, being led by Martyn Lyons, the members of both entities that were feeling targeted traveled around the city recruiting other likeminded members for a coup d'état.
That following morning the conspirators would confront Robespierre in the morning debates during which the rest of the Convention would join in on. At the conclusion of the confrontation Robespierre and his four closest allies would be rounded up and sent to prisons within the city.³ While this transition was occurring, the Convention went on a late lunch during which the people around Paris began to find out about the detainment of Robespierre. This caused outrage among the people still loyal to him that posed a danger to the coup d'état and the conspirators. So therefore, Robespierre and his allies were not imprisoned and were moved to the Hotel de Ville.
Once the convention, that was in permanent assembly, found out about this they dispatched armed forces to go seized Robespierre and his allies.⁴ From there he would come out with a gunshot wound on his jaw and be detained until the following morning of July 28, when he would be executed.⁵
That morning he would make an appearance at the Revolutionary Tribunal from which he would be sentenced to death. Thereafter, he would be taken to the Place de Revolution for the execution. Once there he would traverse to the guillotine scaffold from the Palais de Justice walking along the Rue Saint-Honore.⁶ All along the way he would be mauled and mocked by people. Once at the scaffold he would be executed along with his allies just as his enemies before him, putting an end to the Reign of Terror.
1.Colin, Jones. “The Overthrow of Maximilien Robespierre and the ‘Indifference’ of the People.” The American Historical Review 119, no. 3 (2014): xxiv–713. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23784773.
2. Jones, The Overthrow of Maximilien Robespierre
3. Jones, The Overthrow of Maximilien Robespierre
4.Jones, The Overthrow of Maximilien Robespierre
5. E. L. Higgins, “Durand de Maillane on the Ninth of Thermidor (July 28, 1794),” Durand de Maillane on the ninth of thermidor (July 28, 1794), accessed September 12, 2023, https://web.archive.org/web/20220806111630/http:/www.historyguide.org/intellect/thermidor.html.
6. Higgins, Durand de Maillane on the Ninth of Thermidor (July 28, 1794)
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