Off With Their Head! Personalities of the French Revolution

Personalities of the Revolution Most of the time, textbooks go too heavy on “personalities” and leave the details behind If books didn’t center so much on King Louis XVI, this may not be a problem…but many other personalities get barely a glance

Dr. Joseph Ignace Guillotin Dr. Guillotin was a professor of literature who sought to banish the death penalty The poor were consistently treated as worth less than the rich, even in death The “guillotine” did not claim its first political victim until August 1792

Storming the Bastille Launay ordered his troops to surrender…Historians differ on whether he was ignored or he didn’t issue it…what we do know is 98 of the attackers died Marquis Bernard de Launay

Popular Remembrances Victor Hugo  The fall of the Bastille touches off a half century of revolution, a period that includes Hugo’s classic tale of love and loss…Les Miserables

Common People of France  The basic cell of the Revolution for men, especially in Paris but also in the provinces, was the club or secret society…the model of the revolutionary clubs was the Jacobin Club  Here the masses debated the issues of the day, to listen to leaders, to cheer and hiss, to argue and decide…through their clubs, the masses put pressure on the elected deputies  By the end of 1790 the Jacobin Club in Paris had 1,100 middle-class members…at the height of its influence, its membership was estimated at 500,000 in 5,500 local clubs throughout France

Maximilien de Robespierre Once Jacobins controlled the National Assembly, Robespierre was actually out of office from September 1791 to September 1792 During that year, he became the uncontested leader of the Jacobins, earning the nickname “The Incorruptible”

Jean-Paul Marat  Marat was the leader of one of the two Parisian newspapers that had a great influence on the course of the Revolution, L'Ami du Peuple  “When a man lacks everything, he has the right to take by force the superfluities on which another is feasting…”

Louis Saint-Just  When his relations with Robespierre became known, Saint-Just was dubbed the "St. John of the Messiah of the People“  Suspecting the enemy without was being aided by treason within, Saint- Just's remedy was to organize the Reign of Terror

Georges Danton  Danton stands out as a master of commanding phrase and also easily sympathized with  “Il nous faut de l'audace, et encore de l'audace, et toujours de l'audace”  Before long, Robespierre (Jacobins) and Danton (Cordeliers) did battle as leaders of their respective clubs

The Girondist Movement  The Girondists represented the principle of democratic revolution…originally, they were all-powerful within the Jacobin Club  The Girondists were idealists…once King Louis XVI was overthrown, they were satisfied and called for a halt to the Reign of Terror  Robespierre, Danton, and Marat all realized that their influence depended on keeping the Revolution going as long as possible

Jacques Pierre Brissot  The strength of the Girondins was due in large part to the personality and power of Brissot, as he threw himself heart and soul into the Revolution  Brissot was quick, eager, impetuous, and a man of wide knowledge…however, he was indecisive

Comte de Mirabeau  Mirabeau was highly critical of King Louis’ relationship with Marie Antoinette, seeing her as the controlling partner  He eventually began conducting secret negotiations with the king in order to reconcile the monarchy and the revolution

Marquis de Lafayette  Using what he learned during his stay in America, he drafted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen  Lafayette wanted to be a French George Washington, but the French didn’t want a George Washington

Charlotte Corday  Corday testified that she had carried out the assassination alone, saying “I killed one man to save 100,000”

Marie Antoinette  Anti-female sentiments now turned the Revolution full force on the king's imprisoned widow  Contrary to popular belief, Marie Antoinette never uttered the phrase “Let them eat cake”

Fall of “The Incorruptible”  On the 9th of July (Thermidor), Robespierre denounced the full Convention…on the 11 th, he and 71 others were put to death

Remembering the Revolution  We must try to put aside these images of the French Revolution and remember that in 1790 and 1791 Paris was the brilliant and prosperous capital of the most powerful nation in Europe  The French Revolution was something not dreamed of by the philosophers of the Enlightenment…the Enlightenment, like a parent baffled by his own children, could not explain the Revolution it had sired