| Coup of 9–10 Thermidor | |||||||
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| Part of theFrench Revolution | |||||||
 Fall of Robespierre in the Convention by Max Adamo | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Unknown | c. 3,000 loyalists | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | Various people were executed:
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During theFrench Revolution,Maximilien Robespierre addressed theNational Convention on 26 July 1794, was arrested the next day, and executed on 28 July. In his speech on 26 July, 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 anotherpurge of the Convention, similar to previous ones during theReign of Terror.[1]
On the following day, this tension in the Convention allowedJean-Lambert Tallien, one of the conspirators whom Robespierre had in mind in his denunciation, to turn the Convention against Robespierre and decree his arrest.[2][3] By the end of 28 July Robespierre was executed byguillotine in thePlace de la Révolution.[4] Robespierre's fall led to more moderate policies being implemented during the subsequentThermidorian Reaction.
On 27 July 1793, Robespierre was elected to theCommittee of Public Safety and would remain a member until his death.[5] Between September 1793 and July 1794, the Committee's power increased dramatically through several measures instated during theReign of Terror, such as theLaw of Suspects and theLaw of 14th Frimaire, becoming thede facto executive branch of the revolutionary government, under the supervision of theNational Convention.[6][7]
During this time, two different factions rose in opposition to the restructured revolutionary government: the left-wingultra-revolutionaries and the moderate right-wingcitra-revolutionaries.[8] The left (known asHébertists orexagérés) gathered aroundJacques Hébert, as well as leaders of theParis Commune and theexagérés of theCordeliers Club.[9] They pushed for stronger repression measures than those already in place during the Terror and campaigned fordechristianization.[10][8] The right (known as Dantonists orIndulgents) formed aroundGeorges Danton as well as theindulgents members of the Cordeliers Club, includingCamille 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 deaths 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 theJacobin Club and the National Convention.[13]
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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 theCult of the Supreme Being in place of theCult 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 thetribunals 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.[16] Two days after the festival, Robespierre pushed the National Convention to pass theLaw of 22 Prairial drafted by him andGeorges Couthon, which accelerated the trial process and extended the death penalty to include a new set of "enemies of the people"; this included those seeking to reestablish the monarchy, interfering with food provisions, discrediting the National Convention, and communicating with foreigners, among others.[17][18] The fear of assassination drove Robespierre to take this measure: two assassination attempts against Robespierre andCollot d'Herbois had taken place on 23 and 24 May (4–5 Prairial), and the memory ofLepeletier's andJean-Paul Marat's murder still roused feelings in the Convention.[19] The law was not universally accepted in the Convention, and critics of Robespierre andLouis Antoine de Saint-Just would use it against them during the events of 9 Thermidor.[20]
More opposition came from theCommittee 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 Police Bureau, which had been 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 theBattle 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]
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 accused three deputies by name (Pierre-Joseph Cambon,François René Mallarmé, andDominique-Vincent Ramel-Nogaret), his speech seemed to 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.[29] BothJacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne andJean-Marie Collot d'Herbois, who opposed the printing of the speech, were driven out of the Jacobin Club.[30]
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On 27 July, the weather was stormy.[31] The workers of Paris organized a demonstration against the wage restrictions imposed by the Law of theGeneral Maximum.[32][33][34] At noon Saint-Just started addressing the Convention without having shown his speech to the two Committees.[35] He was interrupted byJean-Lambert Tallien who complained that both Robespierre and Saint-Just had broken with the Committees and 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 andLe Bas – as well asFrançois 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 50 people, the five rebellious deputies, Hanriot andRené-François Dumas consulted on the first floor of theHôtel de Ville.[39]
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,[40] and the second one is that he was shot byCharles-André Meda, one of the officers occupying the Hôtel de Ville.[41] Robespierre was taken out of the Hôtel de Ville with a broken jaw and spent the remainder of the night at the antechamber of theCommittee of General Security.
The next day, according theFrench Revolutionary calendar a day of rest and festivities, he was brought to the Revolutionary Tribunal around 2 p.m. together with 21 Robespierrists (including Hanriot) and condemned to death.[42] In the early evening the convicts were taken in three carts to thePlace de la Révolution. A mob screaming curses accompanied the procession. His face still swollen, Robespierre kept his eyes closed. He was the tenth called to the platform and ascended the steps of the scaffold unassisted.[43] When clearing Robespierre's neck, executionerCharles-Henri Sanson tore off the bandage that was holding his shattered jaw in place, causing him to produce an agonised scream until his death.[44] He was guillotined at the same place where KingLouis XVI, Danton and Desmoulins had been executed.[42]
Robespierre is one of the few revolutionaries not to have a street named for him in the center of Paris. At theLiberation of Paris, the municipal council (elected on 29 April 1945 with 27 communists, 12 socialists and 4 radicals out of 48 members), decided on 13 April 1946, to rename the Place du Marché-Saint-Honoré "Place Robespierre", a decision approved at the prefectorial level on 8 June. However, in the wake of political changes in 1947, it reverted to its original name on 6 November 1950. Streets in the so-called "Red belt" bear his name,e.g., atMontreuil. There is also aMetro station "Robespierre" on Line 9 (Mairie de Montreuil – Pont de Sèvres), in the commune of Montreuil, named during the era of thePopular Front. There are, however, numerous streets, roads, and squares named for him elsewhere in France.
During the Soviet era, the Russians built two statues of him, one in Leningrad and another in Moscow (theRobespierre Monument). The monument was commissioned byVladimir Lenin, who referred to Robespierre as a Bolshevik before his time.[45] Due to the poor construction of the monument (it was made of tubes and concrete), it crumbled within three days of its unveiling and was never replaced.[46] The Robespierre Embankment in Saint-Petersburg acrossKresty prison returned to its original name Voskresenskaya Embankment in 2014.[47]
In the Second World War, severalFrench Resistance groups took his name: the Robespierre Company inPau, commanded by Lieutenant Aurin, alias Maréchal; the Robespierre Battalion in theRhône, under Captain Laplace; and amaquis formed by Marcel Claeys in theAin.[citation needed]
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help){{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help) A sympathetic study of theCommittee of Public Safety.
Media related to9 Thermidor at Wikimedia CommonsAuthority control databases: National |
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