Maximilien Robespierre 1758-1794
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- Speech on the Convention, 1794
- Speech on France’s new God of Reason/Cult of the Supreme Being (to replace Christianity), 1794
- FRENCH REVOLUTION TIMELINE 1789
M aximilien Robespierre (1758-1794) was one of the leaders and orators of the French Revolution of 1789, best known for his involvement in the Reign of Terror that followed. As a young man, he studied law and had a reputation for honesty and compassion. He sought to abolish the death penalty and refused to pronounce a required death sentence after becoming a judge. But as the revolution approached, Robespierre became head of the powerful Jacobin Club, a radical group advocating exile or death for France's nobility. In 1792, after Paris mobs stormed the palace of the Tuileries and dethroned King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, Robespierre helped organize the new revolutionary governing body, the Commune of Paris. Robespierre now developed great love for power along with a reputation for intolerance, self-righteousness and cruelty. He used his considerable oratory skills to successfully demand the execution of the king and queen, saying Louis XVI "must die that the country may live." In January 1793, the king was executed, followed ten months later by the queen. The Committee of Public Safety then took over the rule of France and began a three year Reign of Terror during which it brutally put down royalist uprisings, conducted wholesale murder of families with royal ancestry and sent thousands to the guillotines without proper trials. At one point during the Reign of Terror, Robespierre sent an atheist, Jacques-Rene Hebert, to the guillotine after Hebert had closed the Catholic churches and started pagan-style worship of the goddess of Reason. Robespierre then introduced the Reign of Virtue and the Festival of the Supreme Being, from which the speech below is taken. Not long after this speech, Robespierre himself was arrested by his political enemies. A rescue attempt followed, during which part of his jaw was shot off. On July 28, 1794, Robespierre and 19 of his comrades were guillotined. After his death, the Reign of Terror subsided, with Robespierre subsequently blamed for much of its horrors. Source: History Place, 2010
Speech on the Convention, 1794: To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to pardon them is barbarity. The rigor of tyrants has only rigor for a principle; the rigor of the republican government comes from charity. Therefore, woe to those who would dare to turn against the people the terror which ought to be felt only by its enemies! Woe to those who, confusing the inevitable errors of civic conduct with the calculated errors of perfidy, or with conspirators' criminal attempts, leave the dangerous schemer to pursue the peaceful citizen! Perish the scoundrel who ventures to abuse the sacred name of liberty, or the redoubtable arms which liberty has entrusted to him, in order to bring mourning or death into patriots' hearts! This abuse has existed, one cannot doubt it. It has been exaggerated, no doubt, by the aristocracy. But if in all the Republic there existed only one virtuous man persecuted by the enemies of liberty, the government's duty would be to seek him out vigorously and give him a dazzling revenge. Speech on France’s new God of Reason/Cult of the Supreme Being (to replace Christianity), 1794:
O generous People, would you triumph over all your enemies? Practice justice, and render the Divinity the only worship worthy of Him. O People, let us deliver ourselves today, under His auspices, to the just transports of a pure festivity. Tomorrow we shall return to the combat with vice and tyrants. We shall give to the world the example of republican virtues. And that will be to honor Him still. Hatred of bad faith and tyranny burns in our hearts, with love of justice and the fatherland. Our blood flows for the cause of humanity. Behold our prayer. Behold our sacrifices. Behold the worship we offer Thee. FRENCH REVOLUTION TIMELINE 1789 - January 24: General unrest occasioned by economic conditions leads to the Summoning of the Estates-General for the first time since 1614 Estates-General and Constituent Assembly - May 5: Meeting of the Estates-General - June 10: The Third Estate (Tiers Etat) (commons) votes for the common verification of credentials, in opposition to the First Estate (the clergy) and the Second Estate (the aristocracy) - June 17: The Third Estate (commons) declares itself as a National Assembly - June 20: Third Estate/National Assembly are locked out of meeting houses by royal decree; the Third Estate chooses to continue despite decree and decides upon a declarative vow, known as the "serment au Jeu de Paume" (The Tennis Court Oath), not to dissolve until the constitution has been established - June 23: Two companies of French guards mutiny in the face of public unrest - June 24: 48 nobles, headed by the Duke of Orleans, side with the Third Estate. A significant number of the clergy follow their example. - June 27: Louis orders the First and Second estates to join the Third. - June 30: Large crowd storms left bank prison and frees mutinous French Guards - July 1: Louis recruits more troops, among them many foreign mercenaries - July 9: National Assembly reconstitutes itself as National Constituent Assembly - July 11: Necker dismissed by Louis; populace sack the monasteries, ransack aristocrats homes in search of food and weapons - July 12: The Prince de Lambesc appears at the Tuilleries with an armed guard. - July 14: Storming of the Bastille; de l'Aulnay, (the governor), Foulon (the Secretary of State) and de Flesselle (the then equivalent of the mayor of Paris), amongst others, are massacred - July 15: Lafayette appointed Commander of the National Guard - July 16: Necker recalled, troops pulled out of Paris - July 17: The beginning of the Great Fear, the peasantry revolt against feudalism and a number of urban disturbances and revolts - August 4: Surrender of feudal rights - August 27: Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen approved by the National Assembly - October 5-6: Outbreak of the Paris mob; Liberal monarchical constitution; - November 2: Church property nationalised and otherwise expropriated - December 12: Assignats are used as legal tender
- February 13: Suppression of monastic vows and religious orders - July 14: Constitution accepted by King Louis XVI; the first Fete of Federation begins, celebrating the fall of the Bastille. - July: Growing power of the clubs (including: Cordeliers, Jacobin Club) - July: Reorganisation of Paris - September: Fall of Necker 1791 - January 30: Mirabeau elected President of the Assembly - February 28: Day of Daggers; Lafayette orders the arrest of 400 armed aristocrats at the Tuileries - March 2: Abolition of trade guilds - April 2: Death of Mirabeau - April 13: Papal bull, Cavitas, condemning the Civil Constitution and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is published - June 14: Le Chapelier law banning trade unions is passed by National Assembly - June 20–25: Royal family's flight to Varennes - June 25: Louis XVI forced to return to Paris - July 10: Leopold II issues the Padua Circular calling on the royal houses of Europe to come to his brother-in-law, Louis XVI's aid. - July 15: National Assembly declares the king to be inviolable and he is reinstated. - July 17: Champ-de-Mars massacre in which the National Guard fire on protestors against the reinstatement of the king - August 27: Declaration of Pillnitz ( Frederick William II and Leopold II) - September 13–14: Louis XVI accepts the constitution formally - September 30: Dissolution of the National Constituent Legislative Assembly - October 1: Legislative Assembly meets - November 9: All emigrés are ordered by the Assembly to return under threat of death - November 11: Louis vetoes the ruling of the Assembly on emigrés. 1792 - January – March: Food riots in Paris - February 7: Alliance of Austria and Prussia - April 20: French declare war against Austria - August 10–13: Storming of the Tuileries Palace. Louis XVI of France is arrested and taken into custody, along with his family - August 19: Lafayette flees to Austria - August 22: Royalist riots in Brittany, La Vendée and Dauphiné - September 2–7: The September Massacres The National Convention - September 20: Battle of Valmy - September 20: Final sessions of the Legislative Assembly and first meeting of the National Convention; unanimous vote for the abolition of the monarchy - September 20: France declared a Republic by the National Convention - October 10: The terms monsieur and madame are banned by decree, to be replaced with citoyen and citoyenne - December 11: Commencement of the trial of Louis XVI before the Convention
- January 14: The Convention votes almost unanimously in affirmation of Louis' guilt - January 17: A sentence of death is imposed on the King by the majority of a single vote - January 21: Execution of Louis XVI - February 1: War declared against Britain, Holland, Spain - February 14: France annexes Monaco - March: Royalist revolt in the Vendée - March 10: Establishment of the Revolutionary Tribunal - April 6: Power centered in the Committee of Public Safety and the Committee of General Security - June 2: Arrest of 31 Girondist deputies - June 24: Ratification of the Constitution of 1793 (the Constitution was never put into effect) - July 12: Royalist revolt in Toulon - July 13: Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat - July 27: Robespierre joins the Committee of Public Safety - August 23: Levy of entire male population, the Levée en masse - September 17: Passing of the Law of Suspects - September 29: Passing of the Law of Maximum Général, a comprehensive program of wage and price controls - October 9: Lyon retaken by republicans from royalists - October 16: Execution of Marie Antoinette - October 31: Execution of Girondist leaders - November 8: Madame Roland executed - November 10: Abolition of the worship of god: Cult of Reason - December: Retreat of the allies across the Rhine - December 19: English evacuate Toulon - December 23: Battle of Savenay crushes the royalist revolt in La Vendée
- January 19: English land in Corsica - February 4: Abolition of slavery in colonies - March 24: Execution of the Hébertists - April 2: Trial of Danton begins - April 6: Execution of the Dantonists - May 7: Beginning of Cult of the Supreme Being - June 8: Festival of the Supreme Being - June 10: Law of 22 Prairial - June 26: Battle of Fleurus (1794) (French victory in Belgium) - July 2-July 13: Battle of the Vosges (French victory on the Rhine) - July 27: Fall of Maximilien Robespierre (9 Thermidor) Notes on Robespierre’s Life (include dates if possible), Source: (_____________________________________________) ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Download 22.91 Kb. Share with your friends:
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