Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre
Last Updated Friday, 02 September 2011 13:53
Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre
6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) is one of the best-known and most influential figures of the French
Revolution. He largely dominated the Committee of Public Safety and was instrumental in the
period of the Revolution commonly known as the Reign of Terror, which ended with his arrest
and execution in 1794.Robespierre was influenced by 18th-century Enlightenment philosophes
such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Montesquieu, and he was a capable articulator of the
beliefs of the left-wing bourgeoisie. He was described as being physically unimposing yet
immaculate in attire and personal manners. His supporters called him "The Incorruptible", while
his adversaries called him dictateur sanguinaire (bloodthirsty dictator).
Maximilien de Robespierre was born in Arras, France. His family has been traced back to the
12th century in Picardy; some of his direct ancestors in the male line were notaries in the village
of Carvin near Arras from the beginning of the 17th century.[1] He is sometimes rumoured to
have been of Irish descent, and it has been suggested that his surname could be a corruption of
'Robert Speirs'.[2] George Henry Lewes, Ernest Hamel, Jules Michelet, Alphonse de Lamartine
and Hilaire Belloc have all cited this theory although there appears to be little supporting
evidence.
His paternal grandfather, Maximilien de Robespierre, established himself in Arras as a lawyer.
His father, Maximilien Barthélémy François de Robespierre, also a lawyer at the Conseil
d'Artois, married Jacqueline Marguerite Carrault, the daughter of a brewer, in 1758. Maximilien
was the oldest of 4 children and was conceived out of wedlock – his siblings were Charlotte,
Henriette and Augustin.[3] To hide the fact as best they could, his father and mother had a
rushed wedding (which the grandfather refused to attend). In 1764, Madame de Robespierre
died in childbirth. Her husband left Arras and wandered around Europe until his death in Munich
in 1777, leaving the children to be brought up by their maternal grandfather and aunts.
Maximilien attended the collège (middle school) of Arras when he was eight years old, already
knowing how to read and write.[4] In October of 1769, on the recommendation of the bishop, he
obtained a scholarship at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris. Here he learned to admire the
idealised Roman Republic and the rhetoric of Cicero, Cato and other classic figures. His fellow
pupils included Camille Desmoulins and Stanislas Fréron. He also was exposed to Rousseau
during this time and adopted many of the same principles. Robespierre became more intrigued
by the idea of a virtuous self, a man who stands alone accompanied only by his conscience.[5]
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Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre
Last Updated Friday, 02 September 2011 13:53
Shortly after his coronation, Louis XVI visited Louis-le-Grand. Robespierre, then 17 years old,
had been chosen out of five hundred pupils to deliver a speech to welcome the king; as a
prize-winning student, the choice had been clear. On the day of the speech, Robespierre and
the crowd waited for the king and queen for several hours in the rain. Upon arrival, the royal
couple remained in their coach for the ceremony and immediately left thereafter.[5] Robespierre
would become one of those who eventually sought the death of the king
As an adult, and possibly even as a young man, the greatest influence on Robespierre's
political ideas was Jean Jacques Rousseau. Robespierre's conception of revolutionary virtue
and his program for constructing political sovereignty out of direct democracy came from
Rousseau, and in pursuit of these ideals he eventually became known during the Jacobin
Republic as "the Incorruptible."[6] Robespierre believed that the people of France were
fundamentally good and were therefore capable of advancing the public well-being of the
nation.
(He is said to have coined the phrase, "In order to make an omlet, one has to break some
eggs.")
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilien_Robespierre
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