Virtue and Terror. Robespierre Maximilien

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ Terror but criticized virulently the Hébertist ultra-revolutionaries and, alongside other ‘Indulgents’, demanded an end to the Terror at the beginning of 1794. Implicated in a scandal, he was condemned to death and executed in April 1794 together with his supporters (including Camille Desmoulins).

      Desmoulins (Camille) 1760–1794: member of the Cordelier Club and Montagnard deputy, he was close to Danton. At the end of 1793–beginning of 1794, he called for a softening of the Terror in his newspaper Le Vieux Cordelier. Condemned and executed in April 1794.

      Dumouriez (Charles François du Périer) 1739–1823: member of the Jacobin Club, he became Minister for Foreign Affairs in March 1792 and then Commander in Chief of the armies of the North, winning the Battle of Valmy on 20 September 1792. During an offensive in March 1793, he was accused of treason and then handed over to the Austrians the agents sent by the Convention to keep an eye on him, before surrendering himself to the enemy.

      Fouché (Joseph) 1759–1820: deputy in the Convention, he sat with the Montagnards. Charged alongside Collot d’Herbois with the repression of the federalists of Lyons, he distinguished himself by his ferocious application of the Terror. He was one of the instigators of the 9 Thermidor plot against Robespierre; thereafter, he became a loyal supporter of Bonaparte.

      Hébert (Jacques René) 1757–1794: famous for his newspaper the Père Duchesne, he was Chaumette’s substitute in the Paris Commune and a key figure in the Cordelier Club. He came into conflict with Robespierre, whom he accused of moderation on social questions, and was arrested and then condemned to death in March 1794.

      La Fayette (Marquis de) 1757–1834: left for America in 1777 to help the insurgents and pushed the French government to support the anti-colonialists in the American War of Independence. Elected as a noble deputy in the Estates-General, he led the National Guard in July 1789. La Fayette wanted to reconcile the king and the Revolution, and was responsible for the shooting of demonstrators at the Champ-de-Mars. He then set up the Feuillants Club which supported a liberal monarchy and opposed the dethronement in 1792.

      Marat (Jean-Paul) 1743–1793: member of the Cordelier Club, he became a deputy for Paris in the Convention and was famous for his newspaper l’Ami du peuple [Friend of the People] founded in September 1789. Sitting with the Montagnards, he became a hate figure for the Girondins who tried unsuccessfully to get him condemned by the Revolutionary Tribunal. He had a role in the sparking off of the September Massacres and especially in the overthrow of the Girondins. Assassinated on 13 July 1793 by Charlotte Corday, he became a cult figure amongst layers of the popular classes.

      Priestley (Joseph) 1733–1804: important English chemist who supported the French Revolution; was accorded French citizenship and membership of the Convention.

      Ronsin (Charles Philippe) 1752–1794: the author of a number of patriotic plays, he was a member of the Cordeliers and became General in Chief of the Parisian revolutionary army in September 1793. Fovourable to Hébert, he was executed alongside him and his supporters in March 1794.

      Saint-Just (Louis Antoine) 1767–1794: deputy in the Convention, he sat alongside Robespierre and the Montagnards. Along with Couthon, Robespierre and Saint-Just formed a ‘triumvirate’ in the Committee of Public Safety. Very active in the factional struggle at the beginning of 1794, he tried to give the Terror a social edge with the ‘Ventôse decrees’. Arrested and guillotined with Robespierre.

       CHRONOLOGY

      6 May 1758: Birth of Robespierre in Arras.

      8 November 1781: Robespierre becomes a lawyer.

      8 August 1788: Robespierre publishes his first political text: A la nation artésienne on the necessity of reform in the Estates of Artois.

      1789

      26 April: Robespierre elected as deputy of the Third Estate of Artois.

      May – June: Robespierre joins the ‘Breton Club’, later known as the ‘Jacobin Club’.

      9 July: The Assembly proclaims itself the National Constituent Assembly.

      14 July: Storming of the Bastille.

      1790

      31 March: Robespierre elected as President of the Jacobin Club for one month.

      1791

      17 July: Repression of the democratic movement on the Champ-de-Mars.

      1 October: Opening of the Legislative Assembly.

      1792

      10 August: Overthrow of the monarchy and formation of the Insurrectionary Commune in Paris, of which Robespierre is a member.

      2–6 September: Massacres in the prisons of Paris.

      6 September: Robespierre elected deputy for Paris in the Convention.

      20 September: Victory for the Republic at the Battle of Valmy.

      21 September: Opening of the Convention. Beginning of the First Republic.

      1793

      21 January: Execution of Louis XVI.

      10 March: Creation of the Revolutionary Tribunal.

      31 May–2 June: Fall of the Girondins.

      23–24 June: Passing of the Constitution.

      27 July: Robespierre enters the Committee of Public Safety.

      September: ‘Terrorist’ measures put on the agenda on 5 September 1793. Law of Suspects (17 September), the general maximum on prices and wages (29 September).

      10 October: Government proclaimed ‘revolutionary until peacetime’.

      18 November (27 Brumaire Year II): Report presented by Billaud-Varenne on the functioning of the Revolutionary Government.

      1794

      4 February (16 Pluviôse Year II): Abolition of slavery in the French colonies.

      26 February–3 March (8 and 13 Ventôse Year II): Saint-Just’s Ventôse decrees.

      14–24 March (24 Ventôse–4 Germinal): Trial and execution of the Cordeliers.

      30 March–5 April (10–16 Germinal): Trial and execution of the ‘Indulgents’.

      8 June (20 Prairial): Festival of the Supreme Being.

      10 June (22 Prairial): Law of the ‘Great Terror’.

      3 July (15 Messidor): Robespierre’s last appearance at the Committee of Public Safety before Thermidor.

      27 July 1794 (9 Thermidor Year II): Convention decrees the arrest of the Robespierrists after refusing Robespierre and Saint-Just the right to speak.

      28 July 1794 (10 Thermidor Year II): Execution of the СКАЧАТЬ