Maximilien de Robespierre

Maximilien Robespierre remained a bachelor throughout his life.

Following the Thermidorian Reaction which was triggered by a vote of the National Convention to execute Maximilien Robespierre, he was arrested, declared an outlaw, and condemned without judicial process. He was executed on 28 July 1794 along with several of his close aides. His death ended the most radical phase of the French Revolution.

Maximilien Marie Isidore de Robespierre was born in Arras on 6 May 1758. His father, François Maximilien Barthélémy de Robespierre, was a lawyer at the Conseil d'Artois, and his mother Jacqueline Marguerite Carrault, was the daughter of a brewer. Maximilien was the eldest of the couple’s four children.

He lost his mother when he was just six years old. Unable to cope with the loss of his wife, his father abandoned the children who were then brought up by their paternal aunts Eulalie and Henriette de Robespierre.

At the age of eight, Maximilien went to the collège (middle school) of Arras. The bishop then recommended him to a scholarship to the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris in 1769. There he was trained to be a lawyer and graduated at the age of 23.

As a student, he became greatly influenced by the thoughts of the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau and adopted many of his principles. He also admired the rhetoric of Cicero, Cato and other classic figures.

He was admitted to the Arras bar after the completion of his legal studies, and he was appointed the criminal judge in the Diocese of Arras in March 1782. As a young man he was opposed to the death penalty and thus faced difficulty in ruling on capital cases. Eventually he resigned.

With time he became a successful advocate and often campaigned for the ideals of the Enlightenment and argued for the rights of man.

He ventured into politics and was elected fifth deputy of the Third Estate of Artois to the Estates-General. Soon he became very popular among the masses for his attacks on the French monarchy and his advocacy for democratic reforms.

He became the president of the powerful Jacobin political faction in April 1789. The following year he participated in writing the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, the foundation of the French constitution.

He was very active during the uprising against King Louis XVI in August 1792 following which the monarchy was abolished. At that time Robespierre was elected to head the Paris delegation to the new National Convention.

Maximilien Robespierre is primarily remembered as the architect of the Reign of Terror, the period of bloodshed and violence that occurred at the onset of the French Revolution. Robespierre had several of the “enemies of the revolution” executed through his role on the Revolutionary Tribunal and the Committee of Public Safety, which made him highly unpopular and ultimately led to his downfall.