Robespierre - Fatal Revolutionary Terror Documentary

France 1794 mass crowds gather in Paris around the infamous symbol of the French Revolution the guillotine to see the latest grisly decapitation of an enemy of the state but unlike the hundreds of aristocrats and political enemies who have been purged over the preceding years the latest victim of Frances reign of terror is one of the architects of the downfall of king louis xvi and the Bourbon monarchy none other than maximilien robespierre the latest victim of Madame La guillotine [Music] the man no taste Ria's maximilien robespierre was born in the town of Aris France in the province of Artois on the 6th of May 17:58 his father francois maximilian barthélemy de Robespierre was a lawyer on the Council of Artois in Arras the highest court in the province coming from a long line of lawyers his family having worked in law since the early 17th century maximillian's mother Jacqueline Marguerite Perrault came from a less distinguished lineage than his father being the daughter of the owner of a small brewery although her family was also situated historically in the Artois region of France before he was even born Maximilian's life was shrouded in controversy as his mother had been five months pregnant with him at the time of her marriage to Francois and inevitably this caused considerable scandal in the conservative town of Arras which was at that time dominated by the Catholic Church indeed France was parents refused to attend the wedding ceremony out of shame for their son's actions nevertheless the couple began a marriage they would see Jacqueline give birth to four children maximilien robespierre being the eldest followed by Charlotte on reott and agustí however on a 16th of July 1764 tragedy struck at the heart of the young family when Jacqueline Robespierre died just nine days after delivering her fifth child who died during the birth which doubtless was a terrible blow to the ropes Pierre family and maximillian's grieving father soon began abandoning his family for long periods of time and so soon after their mother's death the ropes Pierre siblings was separated with Maximilian and his brother Augusta aged just 6 and 1 respectively being sent to live with their maternal grandparents at the Carrows brewery many historians have argued did the tragic circumstances surrounding Maximilian's childhood help to shape the man he would later become with the scars of his mother's death and his father's abandonment forging traits such as an intense sensitivity towards treachery and corruption and indeed the memoirs of his sister Charlotte depicts a dramatic change in Rob's Pierre's character following his mother's death from a noisy boisterous and light-hearted child Maximilian became serious and hardworking engaging in only solitary pursuits by the age of 8 Maximilian had already learned to read and write and after spending three years of the local Kuragin our us Robespierre gained a scholarship to the illustrious College louis de grande in paris in 1769 and it was here that maximilian wood received the rest of his education from the age of 11 to the age of 23 throughout his education at the new immigrant rob's Pierre was immersed in classical philosophy with Cicero's ideas on the juxtaposition of virtues and vices becoming embedded in the young robes Pierre who was devoted to his studies and won numerous prizes of the school as a result of his academic ability and dedication indeed in 1775 Robespierre was chosen after the 500 pupils of the college to deliver a speech to the young king louis xvi as he drove through paris following his coronation at Reims Cathedral Robb's Pierre graduated from the Louis lager armed in 1781 as a lawyer and upon leaving the College rob's Pierre received a reward of 600 livre for his academic dedication and excellence a unique Homer worth in excess of the year's living allowance this was a reflection of Maximilian's outstanding abilities as a student and the sincere belief of the school bell Robespierre was a credit to the institution that had formed him during his formative years Robespierre developed a great admiration for the Roman virtues as well as for the work of the philosopher jean-jacques Rousseau as Maximilian became intrigued with Russo's concept of a virtuous self the idea that a man could stand alone accompanied only by his conscience as well as this Russo's political theory based on classical republicanism would have an enormous impact not only on the young Maximilian but later upon France as a whole Rousseau was an Enlightenment thinker and author at his book the social contract published in 1762 was a text which struck at the heart of contemporary French political structure with a monarch held absolute power through divine right the Kings power coming directly from the authority of God whereas Rousseau argued for a system of power whereby the government would attain his legitimacy from the consent of those whom they governed this central power would then rule according to the general will of society with citizens owing obedience to this government which represented their interests however such a system could be open to manipulation by an authority who could define what societies will really was and claim legitimacy by representing it and so Russo's insistence of complete obedience to this representative power in theory could allow this authority to enforce its will through violence and although in his youth Roth's Pierre's interest in Rousseau resembled more of a personal affinity that a strong intellectual connection as his political career advanced Rob's Pierre would become more firmly under the spell of Russo's political thought and this would have immense political and social consequences for France Roth's Pierre returned to our ass in 1781 and found success as a lawyer gaining admission to the bar on the 15th of May 1781 and being appointed as a judge in the criminal court in March 1782 but he soon resigned his position due to the early opposition he felt towards the death penalty as well as this Maximilian also voiced opposition in his early career towards celibacy of the clergy and also opposed slavery Robespierre is perhaps most renowned for his determination to represent the poorest in society as well as for his criticisms of the uncial regime or old regime when arguing his cases and although his income was modest Rob's Pierre would reach the intellectual heights of our US becoming the director of the Academy of Aras for the year of 1786 and joining the exclusive Rosetti society of 1787 a society composed of other enlightened professionals like Rob sphere whose networks of ideas and influence pervaded Harris this membership helped to heighten Maximilian's intellectual repiy nation within the province although he had gained a good reputation within our ass by 1787 there was nothing to suggest that maximilian would become anything more than a prominent barrister within our Toit's legal establishment but political change had been brewing in france throughout the 1780s and in the years following 1787 the Semmering tensions that have been growing within France would erupt utterly transforming the political and social structures of the nation ending the old regime and also transforming the life of maximilien robespierre the fiscal structure of old regime France consisted of the first and second estate the clergy and nobility respectively who were virtually exempt from taxation the revenue of the crown instead being raised from taxes levied on the Third Estate composed of every French citizen it was not a member of the clergy or nobility and these fiscal privileges for the top two estates were granted by the crown in exchange for the support of the powerful social elites in upholding the Monarchs absolute power however this political arrangement which upheld the power of the monarch and the social order of the estates in old regime France was to be undone by the fiscal demands of the Crown's foreign policy as throughout the 18th century France was embroiled in numerous conflicts with the walls of the Spanish polish and Austrian succession in the first half of the 18th century as well as the Seven Years War and the American Revolutionary War in the second half of the century placing a great strain on the Crown's finances as the French monarchy fought to protect its claims to European territory and to weaken the power of their great rivals the Austrian Hapsburgs facing this fiscal emergency in louis xvi attempted to force fiscal and administrative reforms through the polymer with the aim of increasing taxes upon all levels of french society including the first two estates which had historically been exempt from taxation and as a polymer which were composed overwhelmingly of the noble class were the supreme courts of law in france they had the power to impede royal edicts by refusing to register them this caused protracted battles between the monarchy and the Palama who claimed to be defending French liberties against the absolute power of monarch but in reality they were acting in their own interests I made this gridlock there were calls from the polymer and the public to call the estates-general in order to break the impasse and solve the nation's financial crisis this was a national body that represented the three estates and had not met since 1614 but a crown instead called the Assembly of notables in 1788 a body representing the wealthy landed elites of France who also resisted reform as the polymer hat however when this failed louis xvi was forced on the 8th of august 1788 to call a meeting of the estates-general to meet in Versailles in May 1789 as a consequence of this political upheaval maximilien robespierre would have the opportunity in his own words to quote articulate the grievances smoldering within him about a political and social system he believed to be fundamentally unjust I'm in January 1789 Robespierre began his campaign to gain election to the Estates General he first released a pamphlet in which he attacked the provincial estates the regional body composed of the 1st 2nd and 3rd States which was dominated by the social elites asserting that all the social problems which plagued Artois were the fault of this corrupt elite he also argued that the representatives of the Estates General should be elected by the people in this early pamphlet Robb's fires two most prominent political ideas are already present the first of these was his insistence upon representation through elections and a second was his belief that the poor were deserving claimants of justice in a corrupt world in which they were oppressed by a detached and unrepresentative elite traditionally the estates of Artois selected the representatives of the Estates General therefore Robespierre's attempts to portray himself as a champion of the common people during his campaign and his subsequent estrangement from the political elite of Artois boded badly fairs attempted selection but all of this changed when on the 7th of March 1789 the king announced that Artois must select its representatives through popular election rather than through the provincial estates elections for the representatives of a third estate in Artois were held in three stages at Rob's Pierre was elected through the first two stages to attend the provincial assembly on behalf of the Third Estate the gathering where the representatives who would go on to Versailles were chums him and throughout this process Robespierre continued to publish pamphlets with dramatic rhetoric as to the miserable state of the province and the ruling elite whose fault this was and this helped to gain him support especially in rural areas where destitution was most widespread on the 20th of April 1789 more than 1000 representatives of the three estates gathered in Arras between the 24th and the 28th of April 830 Singh deputies were elected with Maximilian being one of them and so the Estates General of France would convene for the first time in a hundred and seventy-five years on the 5th of May meaning Rose Pierre would have only a week to prepare for his departure to Versailles where in this moment of crisis and a people robs Pierre would step out of his provincial backwater and on to the national political stage within weeks of his arrival at Versailles rob's Pierre had associated himself with a radical function of Deputies known as the Breton club who pushed to obtain voting by head in the estates-general other than voting by order to ensure the Third Estate could not be outvoted by the combination of the clergy and nobility voting in the interest of themselves and the king one of the most notable deputies of the Estates General was the clergyman and political writer a base a who believed similarly to the Breton club that it was essential that the Third Estate must not be dominated by the interests of the first two estates and in a pamphlet published in January 1789 say argued that the Third Estate was representative of the nation and of us had a right to reshape the political structure of France independently and so from the 11th of May the representatives of the Third Estate met separately as the communes with say proposing that the members of the first and second order joined the Third Estate and become a unified body representative of the nation as a whole the estates adopted see suggestion and so assumed the authority to represent the nation and in June 1789 they did themselves the National Assembly of France representing 96% of the French population Arabs Pierre joined them as a deputy on the 13th of June ultimately Saenz intention was to promote change in a passive way and to establish a constitutional monarchy and even after 1791 when the monarchy seemed too many to be doomed Saves continued to assert his belief in the monarchy which indicated he had not intended for the revolution to take the course it date by the 9th of July the assembly had moved to Paris and was renamed the National Constituent Assembly and they began a program of tax and constitutional reforms but three days later the delegates of the Third Estate arrived at the Versailles Palace to find their meeting chamber locked and suspicious of a conspiracy to shut down the activities of the new National Assembly the delegates adjourned to a nearby tennis court and took an oath never to separate until they had created a new constitution for France unsurprisingly Robespierre was a keen supporter of these events and was the 45th signatory of the iconic Tennis Court Oath the fervor of revolution was in the air but it was not confined to Versailles however as in early July the people of Paris rose up in protest of the replacement to the finance minister Jacques Necker with the Baron de Poitiers as well as the rising cost of bread and the gathering of the Kings troops around the city which Parisians feared threatened not just themselves but also the National Assembly and so on the 13th of July the Assembly declared the formation of a bourgeois militia and the following day the Marquis de Lafayette was declared their commander-in-chief who himself renamed it the National Guard and proposed their symbol of the red and blue colors of Paris accompanied by the Royal white which was the origin of the French flag with the revolution now firmly established on the 14th of July in research for weapons the citizens of Paris stormed their hotels des on veut lead a complex of museums where they stole cannons and muskets to use later in the day they stormed the imposing symbol of the arbitrary authority and tyranny of the monarchy a Bastille fortress the crowd gathered outside the prison calling for its surrender two representatives were admitted to negotiate but before an agreement was reached the crowd outside stormed the outer courtyard of the Bastille climbing on a roof next to a gate and drawbridge which fell crushing one Vanka de la Bastille or conqueror of the Bastille as they were known then soldiers from the garrison called for the crowd to withdraw but in the confusion their calls were interpreted as a call to enter the building just as gunfire broke out which incited the crowd to more extreme violence feeling they had been trapped and so any attempts to organize a cessation were ignored and when reinforcements arrived for Levon qu governor de Launay ordered a ceasefire and sent out terms to the mob which were refused and as he realized his supplies were too limited to last for any significant time he capitulated and the crowd swept into the Bastille to liberate it at 5:30 p.m. the crowd sees Delauney and dragged him to l'hotel de Ville where they discussed what should be done with him the badly beaten Delauney shouted enough let me die and kicked a pastry cook called delay in the groin it was then that the crowd attacked and repeatedly stamped him until he died and whilst some blame Delauney for the fall of the Bastille other suggests that the blame lies with the 5,000 Royal Army troops stationed on mashanda ma who failed to respond to the attack the shocking news that the working people of Paris had stormed a fortress of the king sent shockwaves around the world and today the 14th of July is celebrated in France as Bastille Day and widely regarded as the day the French Revolution truly began Rob's Pierre's reaction to these events was a mixture of shock and joy and he labeled the Paris protesters as a patriotic army and believed he was witnessing quote the greatest events the history of mankind can reveal however Rob's Pierre's reaction to the more violent aspects of the Paris apprising the brutal murder of the governor of the Bastille as well as the mayor of Paris was foreboding as Maximilian assented that the people who had exact adjusts tastes upon the guilty and that this violence was acceptable as a defense of the revolution against its enemies echoing the rhetoric he would later use to just a by the reign of terror in the weeks following the fall of the Bastille unrest spread across France with looting and violence widespread throughout the provinces and on the 4th of August in order to quell the discontent in the country and prove definitively its leadership of the revolution the National Assembly decided to formally destroy feudalism in France and legislatively killed the ancient regime as the assembly embarked on an all-night session it abolished senora all relations between landlords and tenants special privileges of the polymer and the fiscal privileges of the first two estates and by systematically destroying privilege in France the National Assembly had completely annihilated the social structures of the old regime and further advanced the revolution but Rob's pierre did not play a prominent role in the debates surrounding the August decrees nor the Declaration of the Rights of Man later that month only intervening to insist upon the freedom of the press and progressive taxation on the 4th of October 1789 Paris once again rioted due to a severe bread shortage and on the 5th of October a group of 7,000 women marched from paris - versailles an act that became known as the october march to demand action from the national assembly and the king then the women's action was joined by revolutionary agitators seeking political reform and a constitutional monarchy and the mob broke into the palace of versailles a rampage through the king's home making their demands known to king louis xvi killing his royal guards and insisting the king the queen mary antoinette and their family and most of the french assembly returned with him to Paris the royal family agreed to return to paris and became prisoners of the revolution in all but name inside the twittery palace the residence of the French monarchs in the capital their independence was now gone and power lay in the hands of the revolutionaries who would initiate reform and install a new balance of power favouring the common people displacing the ancient privileged French aristocracy with this defining act of the revolution on the 19th of October the National Assembly reconvened in Paris to discuss drafting a new constitution for France and the issue of the Kings role in the new French Constitution and maximilien robespierre growing in confidence in stature asserted his consistently radical agenda by fiercely opposing the granting of a veto to the king asserting that ultimate sovereignty must reside with the people's representatives in the National Assembly and though the Assembly did currently with a 16th of veto this could only delay legislation rather than scrap it altogether disappointing the pro Royalists deputies and by 1790 Robespierre had become an increasingly frequent participate in the debates and the assemblies leading advocate of democratic principles along with opposing the Kings veto Maximilian passionately combated the Assembly's plan to limit the right to vote to so-called active citizens who paid above a minimum level of Taxation leaving some of the most poor and vulnerable French citizens unable to vote furthermore Rob's Pierre was a strong supporter of a law that allowed people to elect their own local church officials once again demonstrating his commitment to democratic principles and his belief that every institution should be influenced and shaped by the will of the common people of France asserting in a speech of the 25th of January 1790 that quote all Frenchmen must be admissible to all public positions without any other distinction than that of virtue and talents Rob's Pierre's reputation was growing and on the 31st of March 1790 he was elected as president of the Jacobin Club a radical political group founded in 1789 as an offshoot of the informal Breton Club whose members were intellectual radicals and self-appointed guardians of the revolution who meant to define the revolutions objectives and analyze the proceedings of the National Assembly as 1790 progressed Rob's Pierre's profile grew until he became a national political figure as demonstrated by his frequent appearances in the French press and the immense number of letters he was receiving from across the country he also attracted the attention of excluded Sanctus such as French Protestants Jews servants and actors who felt he spoke for them and then in June 1790 he was elected secretary of the National Assembly throughout 1790 Robespierre support among the radical Parisian masses was considerable as shown in May 1790 when Maximilian and his friend and political allies Sharon Patil were cheered and applauded by an immense Parisian crowd outside the twittery Palace following their successful passage of a law blunting the Kings foreign policy powers then Rob's Pierre used his ever increasing influence to spread fear of a plot to destroy the revolution giving numerous speeches throughout 1790 urging the populace to fear the hidden enemies of the revolution who were working to restore aristocratic and monarchic power and though dismissed in much of the press as overcome with paranoia Rose Pierre's message resonated widely amongst the people of France indeed this paranoia over the enemies of the revolution was a political obsession that would only intensify with in rob's Pierre in 1790 Robespierre was also gaining important political allies and no one more so than Louis Antoine Schuster who although nine years Rob's Pierre's junior sent Maximilian an admiring letter praising his ability to stand up for the revolution against its enemies now the two became friends through correspondence this being the beginning of an important political alliance that would last throughout the short lives of Rob's Pierre and Santos on the 5th of December 1791 a speech he was perhaps most remembered for it was a speech on the national guard the police force independent of the army and in it he coined the term quote liberté égalité a fraternity by adding the word fraternity creating the term most synonymous with the French nation to this day the president of the National Assembly an unofficial leader of the Third Estate the Comte de mirabile died on the 2nd of April 1791 he had been a moderate in the assembly a mere oboes oratory genius in charisma helped him gain admiration amongst the deputies of the assembly and the population at large and so there was tremendous grief amongst the people of Paris at the news of his death however the death of such an influential figure created a political vacuum in the National Assembly and in revolutionary France as a whole and an opportunity for Rob's Pierre to step into his vacuum as the unofficial leader of the revolution rob's pierre was very active during this time proposing between May and June that all Frenchmen be declared active citizens and verse eligible to vote that the death penalty be abolished and attacking a beret no for suggesting the return of the Royal Prerogative he also proposed to dismiss officers from the army whilst on 11th of June he was appointed to public prosecutor in Paris but Lambie Dora a royalist pamphlet called Rob's Pierre quote a lawyer for bandits rebels and murderers Rob's Pierre's position was further strengthened however by the events of the 20th of June 1791 with the Kings flight tavar has agitated by their effective imprisonment in the tool of a palace in central Paris and with louis xvi still determined to regain what he believed was his god-given right to rule france as an absolute monarch the royal family attempted to flee Paris but a Franco Austrian border despite making it to within 20 miles of their destination the king was recognized in the town of law and under orders from the National Assembly was returned to Paris in disgrace and the assembly decreed that the king be suspended from all duties until further notice and from this point the idea of an abolition of the monarchy and the formation of a republic became a distinct possibility Robespierre reacted to these events in a speech to the Jacobin Club when he accused all the members of the assembly who defended the king of being counter-revolutionary traitors on the evening of the 21st of June denouncing not just the king but the assembly which had earlier that day defended the actions of the king by claiming that Louie was kidnapped against his well but went between the 13th and the 15th of July the issues of the restoration of the king and his constitutional rights were debated Robespierre declared himself neither monarchist nor Republican however his accusations created a schism within the Jacobins with 264 members in favor of a constitutional monarchy leaving to form a moderate political club called the foyer allowing Rose Pierre to expand his influence over the jacobins as with the departure of the moderate deputies the club became far more radical and aligned with Rob's Pierre's political views then when the assembly agreed that king louie xvi should retain his throne if he agreed to the Constitution uproar broke out the jacobins led the protest against this proposal on the 17th of July 1791 at the Shambhala were a crowd had gathered to sign a petition drawn up by jacques pierre bristle calling for the dethronement of the king the gathered mob became violent and ran under the orders of the Marquis de Lafayette the National Guard attempted to disperse the crowd by firing warning shots and when these were ignored the guards started firing on them leading to the Shan Tamar Massacre in which between twelve and fifteen Emin strangers lost their lives among those calling for the Kings to throw montt we're jean-paul Marat an inflammatory journalist who threw his periodical whip tap radical revolutionary sentiment among Parisians and attacked moderate politicians and yet another involved in calling for Louise dethronement was George danto one of the greatest orators of the revolutionary period and president of the Cordelia Club a populist revolutionary movement named after the Parisian district where it originated and both of these men would come to be key political allies of rob's Pierre sharing his belief in the purity of the revolutionary masses and his fears of anti-revolutionary conspiracies after the massacre at the Shan Tamar the authorities ordered numerous arrests and Robespierre felt unable to return to his lodgings and so on the suggestion of Laura Lacroix he stayed with Maurice to play a cabinetmaker and after a few days Rob's Pierre decided he would live there permanently as it was convenient for both the assembly as well as the meeting place of the Jacobin Club he may even have become engaged to diplays eldest daughter Elinor at this time despite the growing anger towards the Royals the new French Constitution was formally accepted on the 3rd of September 1791 and due to a provision proposed by Robespierre none of the deputies of the assembly could stand for election into the new Legislative Assembly thus Maximilian was to return to his hometown over us on the final day of the assembly Robespierre and his friend Patil emerged on the streets of Paris to a jubilant crowd who crowned them with wreaths of laurel and led them triumphantly through the streets Robespierre had emerged as a relentless defender of the rights of the poorest in French society in his years as a deputy and a consistent radical revolutionary and his unwavering belief in liberty and equality made him one of the most prominent political figures in the nation and a man adored by the Sun : of Paris the term given to the militant working-class Patriots of the city on the 16th of October Robespierre arrived back in Arras and was given a triumphant reception on the 28th of November the Jacobin Club and was given the name the incorruptible in 1790 which reflected his aversion to bribery and his unwavering commitment to revolutionary principles which he placed above personal political interests indeed rob's Pierre developed a purity that marked him out as the primary defender of the revolution Robespierre spent forty six days in Artois and Piketty before returning to Paris on the 28th of November and on his travels Maximilian became convinced that France was woefully underprepared for a potential conflict with Prussia and Austria whose monarchs had publicly denounced the revolution and were massing troops at the French border on his return therefore ROVs Pierre used his position in the Jacobin Club where he was immediately made president to lead an anti-war campaign as well as continuing to give speeches arousing suspicion of internal enemies warning against the threat of dictatorship and promoting trust in the good of the people king louis xvi had pinned all his hopes at this time on foreign intervention hoping that a defeat for france would restore his position as king and prompted by the Queen Marie Antoinette Louie ignored his councilors advice to implement the constitution of 1791 and instead began a covert counter-revolution meanwhile Bristol was lording the possibility of a war stating in December 1791 that it would boost the nation's economy and he urged France to declare war against Austria mutt Robespierre opposed him stating neither victory and dictatorship or loss and restoration of the monarchy would be beneficial to France despite Robespierre's campaign the tide of public opinion both in France and the Jacobin Club was turning in favor of a war with Austria and Prussia to both unite the French people against a common enemy and to defeat what they perceived as an imminent attempt to return louis xvi to the throne and so on the 20th of April 1792 France declared war on the Habsburg King Francis the second with Prussia joining on Austria's side in June the start of the wall went badly for the French losing entire regiments to the enemy in the opening weeks our soldiers abandon their generals and discipline evaporated and fear of the approaching foreign armies caused political division and functionalism to heighten in Paris last Robespierre increasingly isolated from former allies founded his own political journal in May 1792 and used it to attack his rivals in the ascendancy in 1792 was the function led by Robespierre's former friend Jacques Rousseau who is strongly represented in the Legislative Assembly and who in opposition to Rob's Pierre supported the war with Austria but two months into the war rose Pierre's positioned towards the conflict changed as he began to espouse the importance of a war for liberty with France spreading justice and equality to the oppressed peoples of Europe through conquest and in advocating this position Robespierre denounced the French general the Marquis de Lafayette an American Revolutionary War veteran who was supportive of the revolution it was a strong royalist with the advancing armies causing fear and paranoia of a royal conspiracy and with the Kings flight of Iran and the massacre of protesters on the shop Tamar and of the orders of Lafayette still fresh in the memory of Parisians Robespierre sensed an upcoming insurrection in Paris and hoped that when it came it would sweep before it the king his ministry as well as the Legislative Assembly despite his hopes rob's pierre was both afraid and fearful for such an insurrection and it was there for George Stanton the prominent Parisian politician who gave the signal to revolt and on the night of the ninth of August 1792 the 48 sections of Paris formed the insurrectionary commune and overthrew the municipal government of Paris storming l'hotel de Ville where it was based led downtown the insurrectionary commune then formed an armed mob and stormed the Tulare Palace which was heavily guarded on the 10th of August whilst the royal family hid in the Legislative Assembly despite heavy losses with over a thousand killed or wounded the mob with support from the National Guard drove out the royal bodyguards from the twittery palace and the monarch was overthrown and later that evening Rob's Pierre rose at the Jacobin Club to proclaim a new beginning for the revolution like the 1789 fall of the Bastille but wiser better and purer and a Maximilian proclaimed to his audience that the spirit of 1789 had been recaptured with the fall of at willory and that with the downfall of the monarchy at the hands of the people the Revolution had recovered its true course Rob's Pierre then became closely involved with the politics of his own parish sanction and on the 13th of August the day the king was officially arrested and imprisoned in the ancient Paris fortress of the temple Rob's Pierre was elected to the Paris Commune and fortress legitimacy against the Legislative Assembly who sought to shut it down as a rival source of power but as foreign armies approached even nearer to Paris chaos and fear began to reign in the streets leading to the violence known as the September massacres we're on the 2nd to the 6th of September 1792 the mob that brought down the monarchy made up of Guardsmen revolutionaries and some kholat killed over a thousand prisoners throughout Parisian jails to satisfy the people's inpatients for justice rob's pierre demanded the establishment of a Revolutionary Tribunal to investigate counter-revolutionary activities this was achieved and between the 10th of August in the end of 1792 28 people were sentenced to the guillotine by the tribunal also during this period there was at last a piece of good news for the French armies as on 20th of September they defeated the invading Prussian force at Valmy effectively saving the revolution and on the 21st of September the absolute monarchy was formally abolished and the first French Republic was proclaimed by the National Assembly following the fall of the monarchy rob's Pierre began electioneering for the new National Convention that was to be formed draft France's first Republican Constitution Robespierre was top of the list of Paris deputies elected to the convention with fellow Parisian radicals Danton and Merritt also selected and upon the opening of the convention on the 20th of September Robespierre and his radical allies sat on the top left seats of the hall becoming known as the Montaigne yards or the mounted master rival more moderate function became known as the Sharonda led by Maximilian's political rival Jacques Rousseau political warring soon ensued between the two functions with the Sharonda accusing Hobbes Pierre of aspiring to be a tyrant and Maximilian expelling this year on our deputies from the Jacobin Club later coming under severe attacks from this faction in the convention but on the fifth of November Robespierre rose to deliver one of his most important speeches defending himself and his reputation as well as sanctioning the recent violence as indispensable for the Advancement of the revolution her speech was celebrated in the Jacobin Club as a resounding success that helped to shore up Rob's Pierre's position in the convention following the attacks from his rivals on the 13th of November 1792 the faint of king louis xvi began to be debated by the convention and in a speech that mesmerized the convention the 25 year old deputy from Piketty saw juste argued that Louis was an enemy of the people and so must reign or die and robs Pierre followed this two weeks later by insisting that quote Louie must die because the nation must live consequently on the 14th of January 1793 the convention unanimously found the King guilty of high treason and on the 17th of January 361 deputies voted for the execution of Louis now known simply as citizen Louis Kappa achieving a majority by a single vote with Robespierre proclaiming that a great deed had been done having fought zealously to ensure the execution would take place and on the 21st of January 1793 Robespierre achieved his ambition when king louis xvi was executed by guillotine the only king of france ever to be executed although Robespierre was not present at the execution to witness the end of a thousand year period of continuous French monarchy following Louie's death the foreign war escalated with a convention declaring war on Britain and the Dutch Republic on the 31st of January and within France royalist and Catholic revolts in the provinces and continued rioting and destitution convinced donto that the revolution was not yet secured and he with Robespierre's backing called for the re-establishment of the revolutionary tribunal with Robespierre further proposing that capital punishment should be applied to counter revolutionary acts directed against the Republic and so the convention agreed to the tribunal on the 10th of March which consisted of 12 jurors selected by the insurrectionary commune and there was to be no appeal against its judgments however the sending of Marat to the revolutionary tribunal upon sure aren't our orders where he was acquitted by his Jacobin colleagues on the 13th of April angered the Parisian sönke a lot and on the 11th of May the parish sanctions demanded that the convention expelled as yearand our deputies and as this yearand our support resided primarily in the provinces whilst Robespierre's Montana yards were massively popular within Paris this gave Robespierre a decided advantage over his rivals as he could use the force of the Parisian Sanko lot to intimidate and destroy his opponents so it was on the 2nd of June 1793 another Parisian insurrection dramatically altered the face of the revolution once again Arabs vs favour when a crowd of Parisian sungkoo lot marched into the conventions meeting hall and demanded political and administrative changes as well as the expulsion of the Sharonda to which the intimidated deputies in the convention agreed and then this yearand our leaders who had not already fled were arrested in the aftermath of the fall of the Sharonda the jacobean deputies drafted a new constitution by the 10th of june with universal male suffrage and state education for all but it soon had to be suspended as by mid-june 60 of france's 83 departments were an open revolt against the Parisian leadership of the revolution who were embattled and threatened at home and abroad and Robespierre along with son juste Danton and merit had long believed that the only way to save the revolution was through terror and within months they would put this belief into practice on the 27th of July Robespierre was elected to the 12-member committee of Public Safety alongside his allies solaced but after ascending to power Robespierre immediately faced another grave challenge to the Revolutionary Government as with food becoming ever more scarce in the capital News reached Paris on the 2nd of September that counter-revolutionary rebels had surrendered the great naval base at Toulon to the British and once again the potent combination of hunger and fear led to a per se an insurrection as the sungkoo lot took to the streets there was at this point on the 5th of September when the Convention was again confronted by an angry mob that terror was declared the order of the day and in order to protect the Revolutionary Government the Revolutionary Tribunal was then expanded with all jurors to be appointed by the Committee of Public Safety and on the 9th of September paramilitary forces were established to take grain from farmers for government use to fortify this new regime of terror on the 17th of September the lure of suspects was passed with Rob's Pierre's strong support allowing anyone who showed themselves to be an enemy of the revolution to be arrested and executed placing a heavy burden on the prison system then on the 29th of September price-fixing was extended to cover not only grain and bread but also other essential goods and wages furthermore it was decreed on the 10th of October that quote the Provisional Government shall be revolutionary until peace the revolutionary period known to history as the terror had begun and for nine months approximately 16,000 people were condemned to death with thousands more killed in the repression of revolts in Leon the Von D and with Rob's Pierre's influence on the Committee of Public Safety this policy of repression in the provinces had effectively ended the provincial revolt at the end of autumn 1793 one of the 177 people guillotine in Paris between October and the end of 1793 was the Queen Marie Antoinette who was executed on the 16th of October just less than nine months after her husband but Rob's Pierre did not pay much attention to the fate of the Queen as his focus was upon the fate of the Sharonda 21 of whom were put before the tribunal on the 24th of October and in a rushed trial were declared guilty and on the 31st of October with the execution of this yonder Robespierre had not just eliminated a rival ideology supporting a federal political structure in France to weaken the influence of Paris but in their leader Brazil he had eliminated a bitter political rival with whom mutual hatred had been shared since their clashes over the war the work of the National Convention continued and on the 4th of February 1794 it decreed to the abolition of slavery in France and its colonies and the following day robes Pierre's vision for the country once in government was laid out in a significant speech given to the National Convention in which he argued for the development of a society of virtuous individuals and corrupted and patriotic wear frivolous activities were shunned in favour of honorable pursuits and to achieve this he insisted the terror was essential as quote without terror virtue has no power on the 26th of February and the 3rd of March Jews had proposed the Vento's decrees which sanctioned the confiscation of the property of exiles as well as those who opposed the revolution however ropes Pierre could still not escape from functional warfare as divisions had emerged within the Jacobin Club and the extreme revolutionary Jacques Rene herbart who was prominent within the Paris Commune and drew support from the most radical revolutionaries in Paris clashed bitterly with Rob's Pierre over religion as Maximilian denounced his militant atheism in contrast on the other side of the spectrum with the moderates calling for an end to the bloody terror led surprisingly by George Dante who despite being one of the terrors original architects had since retracted his support el bair and his radical Jacobin function declared an insurrection to overthrow Robespierre on the 4th of March 1794 and attempted to rally the people of Paris to their cause but Robb's Pierre remained popular among the Csonka lot and when the revolution failed to materialize Maximilian saw his opportunity to strike against this faction and took it denouncing el bair who was arrested and accused of complicity with foreign powers and along with 18 of his allies was guillotine on the 24th of March with the Parisien extremists full Robespierre was able to greatly enhance his power remodeling the Paris Commune and the National Guard by filling it with our eyes cementing his control over the incredibly influential city whose mobs had so often determined the fate of the revolution and with one rival faction of the Jacobin Club eliminated it was George Danton and his moderate faction who were now vulnerable to Rob's fears following air-beds demise ban Tom made a speech announcing the end of the terror which Rob's Pierre interpreted as an attempt to seize the leadership in a post terror government and so to put a stop to this threat Danton was arrested on charges of conspiracy theft and corruption the trial of Danton and his allies began on the 2nd of April and was cut short when son juste passed a law in the convention banning certain prisoners from pleading their cases before the tribunal despite the vocal protests of Danton and so on the 5th of April George Danton is allies with guillotine and as with the death of king louis xvi Rob's Pierre was not present to watch the execution of his former revolutionary ally consumed with the issue of punishment Robespierre supported son juste s' recommendations to the Convention ten days after danton's death of tightening police laws and so all foreigners or ex Nobles were expelled from the capital and all political trials were to be held in Paris then on the 7th of May the ROPS Pierre turned his attention to the matter of religion as rather unusually for a radical revolutionary he was a staunch opponent of atheism in a speech rob's PA insisted on the existence of a god and an afterlife arguing that a public religion was essential for the good of the revolution and for the development of a virtuous society indeed Robespierre proposed a new public religion approved by the Convention that same day the worship of the Supreme Being and by creating a religion for France Robespierre was attempting to impose his own values the values he believed made up a virtuous Society such as the honor of poverty and a traditional family life onto the nation with a belief in God at its heart on the 8th of June the first festival of the Supreme Being was held in Paris at Rob's Pierre's recent election as president of the convention meant that he would officiate at the inaugural ceremony we're half a million Parisians gathered to witness rubes pierre set fire to a statue of atheism and as the celebrations continued on the sharm Tamar it appeared to Robespierre that the excitement and optimism of the early revolutionary years had been revived even as the festivals were held the Tarot was becoming ever more extreme and the day following the ceremony Rob's Pierre drew up laws to invent a new category of criminals known as enemies of the people this included anyone who spoke ill of patriotism or discredited the National Convention among other vague offenses and the punishment for being found an enemy of the people was death in addition the new laws deprived the accused of any form of defense leaving the French people at the mercy of the Committee of Public Safety from the 10th of June 1794 Robespierre fall on the 27th of July 1794 the terror reached its height with 1376 people guillotine din Paris due to a law proposed by George Kooten we've simplified the judicial process and so speeded up the work of the Revolutionary Tribunal resulting in this period of the revolution becoming known as the Great Terror the French military victory at the Battle of flora on the 26th of June 1794 would mark a turning point in the revolution as the French Republican forces led by General jean-baptiste Judah would defeat the coalition forces of Britain however the Dutch Republic and Ahab's Burgh monarchy in the most significant battle of the French Revolutionary Wars as the victory undermined the argument that the reign of terror was necessary because of the military threat to france's existence and could arguably have been one of the reasons for the subsequent thermidorian reaction a month later during the month of July however a series of actions by Robespierre angered his enemies these included his outburst on the 1st of July that there was a conspiracy against him leading to the exclusion of various members of the Jacobin Club and his insistence that the committee of general security should remain subordinate to the Committee of Public Safety later in the month of July rubs Pierre withdrew from the Committee of Public Safety which was riven with functional divisions and he focused most of his work as a head of the Police Bureau where Maximillian reviewed the reports flooding in from across France of anti-revolutionary behavior and made decisions as to the severity of the crime and the nature of the punishment required then on the 26th of July the incorruptible delivered what would be his final speech to the convention and for two hours Robespierre defended himself and his reputation in a rambling disjointed speech against the hail of accusations he had received in the past months and years in the speech he asserted that his enemies blamed all of the failings of the revolution on him both his excesses and its shortcomings and he defended himself against accusations of both tyranny and dictatorship the incorruptible stated that just like the revolution itself he had remained virtuous and pure and had risen above the various factions that had attempted to destroy him and lay claim to the revolution Robespierre also asserted that the time had almost come to move against the latest set of conspirators but he refused to mention them by name merely alluding to the traitors in his speech this caused a wave of fear and anxiety throughout the convention as every deputy became terrified that they were the enemies of Robespierre and this dread saw the convention and the Committee of Public Safety form a hostile response to Rob's Pierre speech then in contrast the ever-faithful Jacobin Club rallied to Robespierre driving two hostile members of the Committee of Public Safety from the club and robs Pierre's greatest political ally SAR just remained loyal to Maximilian despite favouring a policy of compromise with the committee for 27th of July 1794 according to the French Republican calendar was 9 Thermidor year - and race was the origin of the name thermidorian reaction given to the concerted attack on robs Pierre and his fellow revolutionaries in the National Convention which began on that date when Robespierre and son juste entered a hostile convention their Rob's Pierre's enemies and moderates who had turned against him after his speech the previous day were determined to overthrow the incorrupt Kalama arabs pierre enemy expelled from the Jacobins the previous day was the presiding president of the convention and was determined to stomp Robespierre and Sam juste from speaking and a SAN juice began his speech he was interrupted by deputies and as Robespierre attempted to intervene he was drowned out by chance of down with the tyrant arrest him which echoed around the convention and so Maximilian was unable to make himself heard above the din of the hostile deputies and in the midst of the chaos the convention voted to arrest wrote Pierre Santos and their three allies the Paris Commune then sent troops in an attempted insurrection in support of Robespierre and the prisons of Paris refused to harbor the incorruptible who took refuge in the hotels of you however only thirteen of Paris's 48 sections sent men to fight in support and in the early hours of the 28th of July soldiers sent by the Convention broke into the Hotel de Vere and arrested Robespierre and his allies and as the convention had declared them outlaws they could be executed within 24 hours with no trial during his arrest robes piers jaw was shot either by a Jean doll named murder or in a failed suicide attempt Robespierre was carried back to the Committee of Public Safety where his shattered jaw was bandaged and later that morning Robespierre and his allies stood before the Revolutionary Tribunal and were found guilty and put into cars to be taken to the guillotine and then on the afternoon of the 28th of July 1794 the incorruptible was executed and so with this final act the revolution had now consumed its most prominent child and the reign of terror was over following his execution the convention declared France as saved from the tyrant and the jacobins denounced their most esteemed member as a despot who had deceived them with his words and France welcomed the overthrow of Robespierre as symbolizing the end of mass executions and they rushed had announced what they now called Rob's Pierre's terror maximilien robespierre was vilified in the decades following his death with all the crimes and excesses of the reign of terror attributed to him and as a figure that it so effectively embodied the revolution in life so the bloody costs of the revolution were also symbolized by the incorruptible who became effectively a scapegoat for the guilt that was felt by the many hundreds of people who had encouraged and participated in the reign of terror by the 20th century many more positive views on Rob's Pierre became common among historians who acknowledged his unwavering belief in a democratic and egalitarian principles of the early revolution as well as recognizing his total dedication to his principles rising above corruption or narrow political interests but many of these pull trails neglect to take into account Robespierre's undoubtably prominent role in the persecution of political rivals and the reign of terror itself the dominant perception of the incorruptible is of a man who held admirable principles yet drove them to terrible ends and in many ways life of maximilien robespierre is a reflection of the event which shaped him and his age the French Revolution and at heart both were driven by laudable principles yet the ferocity with which these principles were pursued led France to enjoy a bloody reign of terror and whether or not these principles were worth their immense cost is at the core of the controversy that surrounds Robespierre and the revolution what do you think about maximilien robespierre was he a revolutionary tyrant or a revolutionary hero let us know in the comments section until next time thank you very much for watching [Music] you

Channel: The People Profiles

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Keywords: Biography, History, Historical, Educational, The People Profiles, Biography channel, the biography channel

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Length: 55min 55sec (3355 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 27 2020