ROBESPIERRE
K 50
by the same author
The Crowd
in the
French Revolution (1959)
Wilkes and Liberty (1962)
Revolutionary Europe (1964)
The Crowd
in History (1964)
Captain Swing (with E.J.
Paris
Hobsbawm,
1969)
and London in the Eighteenth Century (1970)
Hanoverian London (1971)
Debate on Europe, 1815-1850 (1972)
Europe
in the Eighteenth
Century (1972)
ROBESPIERRE
Portrait of a Revolutionary
Democrat
GEORGE RUDE
THE VIKING PRESS NEW YORK
•
Archbishop Mitty High School
Library
5000 Mitty
Way
San Jose, CA. 951 29
Copyright
(g)
1975 by George
Rude
All rights reserved
Published in 1976 by
625 Madison Avenue,
The Viking
New
Press. Inc.
York, N. Y. 10022
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA
Rude, George
Robespierre
:
Bibliography:
portrait
of a Revolutionary Democrat.
p.
Includes index.
1.
Robespierre, Maximilien Marie Isidore de,
DC146. R6R83 1975
ISBN 0-670-60 1 2 8-4
Printed in U.S.A.
944.04'i''0924[b]
1
758-1 794.
75-2448
CONTENTS
Introduction
PART
I.
MAN AND THE EVENTS
THE
Youth
15
I789
18
Constituent Assembly
21
Jacobin Club
Fall
26
of the Monarchy
Struggle for
28
Power
32
Revolutionary Government
38
Thermidor
45
PART
II.
THE CHANGING IMAGE
After Thermidor
57
The Restoration
1
59
A New Age of Revolution
83 0-1848:
English Tories and
Whigs
Taine and the Paris
67
Empire
Historians of the Second
61
Commune
71
72
The Third Republic and Danton
73
Rehabilitation
76
Since 1945
82
PART
III.
Chapter
1.
The
Political
Chapter
2.
The
Social
PART
IV.
THE IDEOLOGUE
Democrat
Democrat
95
129
THE PRACTITIONER OF REVOLUTION
Chapter
1.
The
Chapter
2.
The Popular Leader
179
3.
The Revolutionary Leader
196
Chapter
Politician
155
Contents
Appendices
Chronology of Main Events
of Robespierre
in the
Revolution and
in the
Life
216
Revolutionary Calendar
222
Glossary
225
Bibliographical
Note
231
Notes
235
Index
249
ILLUSTRATIONS
(Following page 192)
The
Jacobin Club
Interior
The Tennis Court Oath
Robespierre, two portaits
Couthon
Saint-Just
The
Festival
The
attack
of the Supreme Being
on the Hotel de
Robespierre lying
The
arrest
Ville
wounded
of Robespierre
The execution of Robespierre
INTRODUCTION
It
is
one of the hazards of the author of a book on the French
his intention to write something entirely fresh or
Revolution that
original
is
liable to
be overtaken by events. For the Revolution
of those episodes in
human
for exploration; and,
is
one
history that offers an inexhaustible field
even today,
after
more than a century and a
book appears on the
half of Revolutionary studies, as soon as one
lists at least another dozen - and I speak only of France,
and the U.S.A. - are already in the course of preparation. It
is true that the hazard of having the ground cut from under his feet
is not so great when an author chooses to focus on one single figure even one as eminent as Robespierre - rather than on the Revolu-
publishers'
Britain
tionary period as a whole; and when, four years ago,
I began to plan
was comforted by the fact that no major study of him had
appeared in English since J. M. Thompson wrote his great 2-volume
biography over 35 years before. Yet fashions inevitably change and
interest in Robespierre, for so many years at a low ebb in the Englishspeaking world, has revived, no doubt under the impact of recent
world events; and, where the field was relatively open a couple of
years ago, two biographies have now appeared in English, of which
the first was published in 1972 and the second has been announced
this
book,
I
for publication this year.
it marks a welcome addition to
of course, as a bit of a shock to an
author who thought he had the field to himself. Yet I am a little
reassured by the fact that mine is not, according to some definitions
at least, a biography at all. It is not one, for example, in the sense
recently given to the term by Mr John Brooke, who, in offering his
own biography of George III to the public, writes that "the technique
of the biographer is like that of the detective of fiction no fact,
however trivial, is without value in reconstructing the life of his
subject \ And, to illustrate the point, he proposes not merely to
present his subject "warts and all", but to find answers to such questions as: what time did he get up in the morning? did he shave
himself or was he shaved by his valet? what did he have for break-
Such
a
development, while
Robespierrist studies, comes,
:
,
Introduction
fast ?
when
how
did he spend his day
casual attention
Mr
?
what did he
like for
did he go to bed? As the reader will
is
paid to such matters in this
Brooke may occasionally be thought
pursuing
his subject into the
bed-chamber,
dinner
?
and
no more than a
volume; and while
see,
to be over-zealous in
my
fault
is
no doubt
the
opposite one of leaving such intimacies almost strictly alone.
confess, too, that
some
readers
even on the subject of "warts"
may
appear unduly selective for
;
I
I
I
have been what to
have not been
much
concerned, as some earlier English historians and biographers of
Robespierre appear to have been, whether he would have been an
agreeable dinner-companion or a suitable match for
So, while not attempting to hide them,
portance to certain of his
less attractive
of a sense of humour,
I
my
have attached
daughter.
little
im-
personal characteristics, such
and personal vanity,
contemporary put it), and his indifference to, or contempt for, the common pleasures of life. Such a
failing in social graces is not calculated to "make friends and in-
as his lack
his priggishness
,
his "irascible sensitivity
'
(as a
fluence people" and, as the reader will see in the second part of this
book, they
won him many
enemies both in
yet they have not seemed to
me
to be
his lifetime
and
since;
more than of marginal
relevance to the study of a political leader and practitioner of
revolution and of the impact he
This, in fact,
is
made on
the history of his times.
a political portrait rather than a personal biography,
though the one does not always exclude the other. It is divided into
four parts, of which the first is narrative-descriptive and the other
three are thematic and analytical. In the first part, I have attempted to
present Robespierre in the context of the major events of the preRevolutionary and Revolutionary years. This is intended to provide
the non-specialist reader with a brief outline of the facts of the case,
though he must not suppose that even such a bald presentation is
entirely untouched by the author's personal prejudices, choices and
whims.
In the second part, I have thought it useful to present the "changing
image" of Robespierre as it has evolved, over the 180 years that have
passed since his death, from the opinions expressed about him by
succeeding generations of opponents and supporters. These are
mainly historians and the reader will note that while there have been
wide divergences in the views of historians of every generation,
;
10
Introduction
of
there has been a distinct tendency for the collective opinion
to
posterity
change with the times and that the reputation of
Robespierre today (for reasons that
I
have
tried to explain) stands
considerably higher in the Pantheon of Revolutionary leaders than
it
did in the generation following his death.
Parts
first
III
and IV
a different aspect
tioner
into a
somewhat
is
of Robespierre
of revolution, whether
a politician, a
here
fall
Unlike the
different pattern.
two, they are divided into chapters, and each chapter presents
to
as
an "ideologue" or
as a political
as a practi-
or social democrat, or as
popular leader or a leader of revolution. The intention
go over some of the
perspective and,
earlier
ground again from
hoped, to enable the reader to
it is
of the judgments of others and to arrive
of his own.
at
test
a different
the validity
some general conclusions
It will be seen, then, that this is more of a work of synthesis than
one of basic, original research, though some of my own investigations into the Revolutionary crowd has gone into its preparation.
far more on the original
by J. M. Thompson in England
and by Gerard Walter, Jean Massin and Marc Bouloiseau in France;
on Albert Mathiez' numerous pieces on the Incorruptible, on Albert
Soboul's great monograph on the popular movement in Paris, and more generally - on the never-failing guidance to be found in the
But, as will be
amply
work of others on
:
evident,
I
have drawn
the biographies
works of Georges Lefebvre. In addition
to these, the real bricks
mortar of the book are provided by Robespierre's
writings,
of which the most useful and complete edition
published by the Societe des Etudes Robespierristes in Paris.
ri
and
own speeches and
is
that
PART
The
Man
I
and the Events
YOUTH
Maximilien -Francois-Marie-Isidore de Robespierre was born
at
of Artois, in northern France, on
6 May 1758. It was within a year or two of the fall of Quebec, of
Rousseau's Lettre a d'Alembert and Voltaire's Essai sur les moeurs and the
Arras, the small provincial capital
year that
Louis
Damiens was torn apart on the Place de Greve for stabbing
XV with
Francois,
was
a
a pocket-knife.
His father, Maximilien-Barthelemy
lawyer and the son and grandson of lawyers,
been admitted to the bar
at
who had
Arras in 1756 and had married Jacqueline-
Marguerite Carraut, the daughter of a well-to-do brewer, a few
months before the birth of their son. Two girls followed, Charlotte
and Henriette (who died young), and a second son, Augustin, born
in July 1763, only eighteen months before the mother died giving
birth to a fifth child
his practice
who
barely survived her.
prospered, had a
off two years later, leaving his
by
first
their maternal grandfather
Maximilien was
The
father,
although
and unstable character and made
young family of four to be cared for
restless
left a virtual
and
orphan
later
at the
by
aunts.
So young
age of eight.
This inauspicious beginning to the revolutionary leader's career
has provided ample scope for the reflections and speculations
biographers, novelists and specialists in "psycho-history".
these
last,
of
Among
Max Gallo has suggested that his life henceforward became
dominated by a deep sense of his father's guilt. 1 How far this can
be verified is open to question; but it seems reasonable to suppose
that his father's desertion following so
left
deep
scars
on
soon
after his
mother's death
him
to
assume family
may
well account for
his early childhood, forcing
responsibilities unsuited to his years;
and
this
the precocious development of a deep seriousness and a passion for
and silent study that never left him. What is even more
and perhaps more significant for his future career, is that,
from an early age, he became acutely and personally aware - far
more than any of the other revolutionary leaders, with the possible
exception of Marat - of what it meant to be poor.
solitude
certain,
So
that
it
was
as a
poor
scholar, supported
he attended school
first
by
charitable foundations,
in his native Arras
15
and
later in Paris.
The
The
Man
and the Events
Arras was a former Jesuit institution, governed in Robesday by a local committee appointed by the bishop. He
stayed there for four years before moving on, with a scholarship
from the Artesian Abbey of Saint- Vaast, to the far more illustrious
college at
pierre's
College of Louis-le-Grand of the University of
Paris.
He was
then
eleven and he remained there until he was twenty-three. Here he
Law under Oratorian teachers, began to read
Rousseau, and became acquainted - though never on terms of in-
studied Classics and
timacy - with two future
and eventual opponents,
It is remarkable that
neither they nor his teachers later retained any vivid impression of
him; yet it may be accounted for by his lack of sociability and by the
simple fact that he was poor. But, in other ways, he left his mark: he
political associates
Camille Desmoulins and Louis-Marie Freron.
became the
of his year and was chosen to
of welcome to the young Louis XVI when the
King and Queen passed through the capital on their return from the
star classical scholar
deliver a Latin address
coronation ceremony at Rheims in 1775.
was intended by his
but for the young scholar
It
mark of distinction;
proved to be a humiliating rather than a rewarding experience, as
the rain was falling in buckets and the royal couple, having heard
the address drove on without even an approving nod or a word of
reply. It has been suggested that the encounter left Robespierre with a
deep resentment against royalty; it seems unlikely as he continued,
for some years, to treat Louis with reverence and respect. 2 What is
reasonably certain is that the impression of the event was eclipsed by
the far more memorable one of a few years later when he caught a
glimpse of Rousseau (or was it also an encounter ?), then a recluse at
Ermenonville in the Montmorency forest and near the end of his
teachers to be a signal
it
life.
8
In 1780,
young Robespierre was awarded
University of Paris; and, the year
after,
a degree in
he was admitted
law by the
an advo-
as
he rounded offhis career at Louis-leof 600 livres and was allowed to pass on his
scholarship to his younger brother, Augustin, then in his nineteenth
year. He returned to Arras and began to practise law. It was not a
particularly brilliant or eventful career and it was attended by few
highlights. He lived modestly as a poor man's advocate, generally
handling cases that allowed him to display his regard for virtue and
cate before the Paris Parlement;
Grand with
a prize
16
Youth
many other young lawyers of his
of
the Enlightenment (of Montesday, assimilated the main ideas
quieu and Rousseau, in particular), wrote verse and joined the local
He
respect for justice.
also, like so
debating society, the Rosati, where he met Lazare Carnot, a young
who was
mining engineer,
Committee of Public
petitions
to
become
his colleague
entered essays for literary
on the
com-
a 4.00-livres prize
time - Marat, with his Chains of Slavery,
an obvious example - were already exercising their talents and
Certain writers of
is
He
from the Academy of Mctz, was
and
became its director in 1786.
Arras
Academy
the
and
elected to
won
one day
Safety.
this
sharpening their knives in preparation for the revolution that lay
ahead; Robespierre was not one of these. There are evident signs in
these early writings
and equity, of a
and pleadings of a deep concern for greater justice
acutely sensitive to poverty and outraged by
man
the abuses of power and one convinced that virtue alone was the basis
of happiness but there was no sign that he had any inclination to
strike at the social order itself; in fact, he wrote as late as 1788 that "a
;
it would be unYet the point must not be
sudden overnight conversion
general revolution" in France might be harmful as
necessary for dealing with her
ills.
4
though he had a
to overthrow this order in 1789; and it has been said of him with
some justice that while he was not "a revolutionary before the
Revolution", he already had potentiality for revolution that needed
laboured too much,
time to mature. 5
as
What is more than likely is that the Arras authorities
sensed something of the kind.
They
did not take altogether kindly
to the vigour with which he championed the poor and humble and
denounced the rich and mighty; and it is perhaps significant, as one
of his biographers has pointed out, that whereas he had been given
thirteen causes to plead as a novice in 1782, the number had dropped
to ten in 1788. 6
Meanwhile, since early
had been
convulsed by an "aristocratic revolt", which proved to be the
curtain-raiser to the even more momentous events of 1789. Robespierre contributed to the spate of writing; it provoked his first
published work of importance, the Appel a la nation artesknne. In it
he called for a more just and more equal representation of the
people; above all, he deplored that the parish clergy, whose interests
bound them so closely to the menu peuple, should play so humble a
in the previous year, France
17
The
Man
and the Events
role in the First Estate and that poverty should prevent the poor from
winning the rights that were lawfully theirs. It was his first political
manifesto and anticipated much of what he later said in the revolutionary Assemblies and Jacobin Club. So it was as a local notable of
an already established reputation - as a politician, a lawyer and a
man of letters represent the
General
that
he was elected
commons, or Third
when
it
was summoned
to
one of the eight deputies to
of Artois at the Estates
meet at Versailles in May 1789.
as
Estate,
1789
The
met at Versailles on 5 May against a background
and popular unrest. In Paris the price of bread was
normal level, and there had been bloody riots in
Estates General
of mounting
crisis
at nearly twice
its
the faubourg Saint-Antoine and, in the provinces, a peasant revolt,
which was
assume vast proportions, was already under way. As
the great assembly opened, nothing was done to spare the commons'
susceptibilities they were ordered to wear the traditional black, to
to
:
enter the meeting hall
aware of
by
a side
their inferior status.
door and,
The
in every
way, made
royal Council, though
to feel
it
had
commons double representation, refused to
further demand to deliberate in common. The
agreed to accord the
concede
their
meet in separate assemblies and only to engage in
invited to do so. The commons naturally
protested as it was only by debates in common that they could hope
to outvote the combined forces of the "privileged" orders, the
nobility and clergy. So a long tussle ensued, which was only resolved when, on 17 June, the commons took the bull firmly by the
horns and declared themselves to be the National Assembly and
invited members of the other estates to join them. Three days later,
when locked out of their usual meeting place, the deputies, by now
joined by a number of parish priests, marched into a tennis court
nearby and took a solemn oath not to disperse until they had given
France a constitution. It was the first open act of defiance
against monarchy and aristocracy and marked the opening round in
estates
were told
joint discussion
to
when
the "bourgeois" revolution.
Robespierre had played a certain part in these events and had thus,
18
i
like so
many
revolution
7 8g
others of his colleagues in the
by
a
tiers,
been drawn into
combination of circumstance and personal choice.
developing into a
he had joined the newly formed
composed of the deputies of Brittany but soon
national pressure group which included the most
active elements in
all
Soon
after arriving at Versailles,
Breton Club,
at first
wider public
the provincial delegations. Little
at this time,
he was
first
known
to the
recorded in the journals as
"Robes-pierre", "Robesse-Pierre", and even
as
"Roberts-piesse", or
more simply as "Robert Pierre." But, after a hesitant start, he soon
began to make his mark as a frequent contributor to debates in fact,
he spoke no fewer than 68 times in the year 1789 alone. He made his
:
maiden speech barely ten days
16
May, when he proposed an
after the Estates
General opened, on
alternative tactical device (which
was
not adopted) for bringing the clergy into closer association with the
commons. His second intervention, on 6 June, was more characteristic and made a deeper impression. The Archbishop of Rheims had
appeared before the commons to invite them to a joint discussion on
how to alleviate the sufferings of the poor. In view of the existing
relations
between the
estates,
the
commons
sensed a trap; and
Robespierre, while voicing their fears, chose the occasion to de-
nounce the wasteful luxury of bishops. "All that is necessary," he
declared, "is that the bishops and dignitaries of the church should
renounce that luxury which is an offence to Christian humility; that
they should give up their coaches, and give up their horses; if need
be, that they should sell a quarter of the property of the church,
and give to the poor." His words, we are told, were received in
stunned, but approving, silence. 7 And, a couple of weeks later, we
find him prominently displayed, and in characteristic pose (with
hands clasped to his chest), in David's portrayal of the Tennis Court
Oath.
The
first
act
tion inspired
of revolution was quickly met by a counter-revolu-
by
a
Court party centred on Marie-Antoinette and the
King's younger brother, the
Comte
d'Artois.
At
first
the King,
Assembly to
it. Then,
prodded by the Queen and her advisers, he ordered troops to Versailles to intimidate the deputies and cut them off from Paris, dismissed Necker, his popular chief minister, and installed the Baron de
having
failed
to persuade the self-styled National
disperse quietly, ordered the
two other
19
estates to join
The
Man
and
the Events
nominee of the Queen, in his place. The news reached
on 12 July and touched off a popular insurrection in
Paris which culminated in the assault and capture of the Bastille and
the withdrawal of the army. Thus a popular revolution in Paris came
to the rescue of the bourgeois revolutionaries at Versailles. The King
had no option but to dismiss his new ministry, recall Necker from
exile and recognize the National Assembly. Moreover, as a token of
his acquiescence in the turn of events, he drove to Paris, donned the
new tricolour cockade, and made his peace with the victors who had
set up their local revolutionary government, or Commune, at the
City Hall. He was accompanied by fifty deputies; and it is proof that
Robespierre was already making some impression that he was
elected to be one of them.
But the provinces had yet to have their say. As the news from
Paris filtered through to the villages, provincial capitals and market
Brctcuil, a
the capital
towns,
touched off or intensified
it
a chain-reaction
of municipal
upheavals and peasant revolts to which the Assembly - somewhat
half-heartedly - had to give recognition
took the
first,
by
its
August Decrees which
but impressive, steps to dismantle the whole feudal
and seigneurial regime.
It
proceeded to deny the King any
also
by the new Assembly
and to issue a Declaration of the Rights of Man. These measures
provoked a second attempt by the Court to undo what had already
been done by carrying through a second coup. Troops were once
more summoned to Versailles and there was more talk of dispersing
the Assembly by force of arms. So Paris, in what have been called the
October "days", intervened again. This time, it was the women of
the markets who took die lead; followed by the armed battalions of
the newly formed National Guard, they marched to Versailles,
absolute right to annul or veto the laws enacted
dispersed the royal guards defending the chateau, and brought the
King and Queen as prisoners back to Paris. They were followed, ten
days later, by the National Assembly which came to meet at
the Archbishop's Palace before moving, soon after, to the old
riding school, a stone's throw from the new royal residence in the
Tuileries.
In these August and October "days" Robespierre played a very
modest
role.
Assembly.
Yet he continued
to build himself a reputation in the
He intervened several
times in the debate on the Declara-
20
Constituent Assembly
above all, in a speech on 24 August, he opposed all
on the liberty of the press; for "freedom of the press
goes hand in hand with freedom of speech". Two weeks later, he
invoked Rousseau's law of the General Will to support his view that
the King should have no right to oppose or delay the legislative
measures proposed by the Assembly. He supported the majority in
tion of Rights;
restrictions
rejecting the absolute veto; but
he
also
argued that even a "sus-
would leave "an open
door for despotism and aristocracy". 8 On 5 October, when the
women marchers noisily invaded the Assembly, he spoke to their
pensive" veto (which the Assembly adopted)
leaders
and helped
to restore calm.
CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY
Returning to Paris with the Assembly
went
in
mid-October, Robespierre
Rue Saintonge in the Marais quarter; he stayed
two years. It was a period of relative peace after the
to live in the
there for nearly
turbulence of the earlier months of 1789; and the National (or
Constituent) Assembly
law-making
that
now
settled
down
to a prolonged spell
provided France with her
Constitution in September 1791.
The
first
of
Revolutionary
Constituents, or Constitutional
Monarchists, were essentially the bourgeois - the lawyers, merchants,
former government
original
Third
officers
Estate,
and untitled landed proprietors - of the
shorn of a small number of monarchiens (such
Mounier and Malouet) and reinforced by the addition of some
bishops and 200 parish clergy.
Though they expressed themselves in the current language of
"philosophy", they were men of property who knew which side of
their bread was buttered. Owing to circumstances not entirely of
their own volition and largely outside their control, the Old Regime
of aristocratic privilege and royal absolutism had collapsed, and
something had to be put in its place. They looked to new leaders in the event, to the triumvirate of Barnave, Duport and Charles
Lameth, the spokesmen for the Centre and moderate Left in the
as
fifty "patriot" nobles, forty-four
former Third Estate - and, under
their direction, they enacted a long
of constitutional laws (ranging over government, suffrage,
land, industry, war and peace, land, church and property rights) that,
series
21
ARCHBISHOP MITTY HIGH SCHOOL
Library
San Jose,
California
The
Man
and the Events
which they were couched, were conclass whose common
interest it was to erect barriers against the triple danger of royal
despotism, aristocratic privilege and popular "anarchy".
Within this Assembly, Robespierre formed with Jerome Petion
and a small group of other more-or-less constant supporters (sometimes reinforced by the volatile Mirabeau) an extreme Left of liberal
democrats, who, while sharing the general "philosophical" principles of the majority, acted as consistent champions of democratic
and liberal ideas, as watchdogs against bureaucratic abuse and
government "tyranny", as vigorous critics of ministerial and royal
encroachments on the rights of the Assembly or on local initiative,
and as spokesmen for the rights of the people to express themselves
by all possible legal (or even "revolutionary") means. Robespierre
was an assiduous attender and sought every possible occasion to air
his views. This did not endear him to all and he was often abused or
shouted down; but he often succeeded in winning the Assembly's
attention, if not its approval, and made 125 recorded speeches in
1790 and 328 in the first nine months of 1791. With such a record he
could hardly have been seen as the sort of clownish performer that
both Michelet and Aulard made him out to be. He was taken
seriously enough, though the majority did their best to keep his
for
all
the "philosophy" in
ceived in the image of a property-owning
influence within reasonable bounds.
He
was, in
fact,
never admitted
any of its committees; he served only once as secretary and, while
Petion was on one occasion elected to the presidency, it was never
to
offered to Robespierre.
As
a speaker,
he lacked presence and colour and the conventional
graces and oratorical tricks: Carlyle
ineffectual-looking
man
saw him
in spectacles, his eyes
as
an "anxious,
slight,
(were the glasses off)
troubled, careful; with upturned face, snuffing dimly the uncertain
future times". Yet he spoke with a quiet passion and intense con-
and expounded, and repeated, principles that remained
remarkably consistent and forced even his opponents to accord him
a grudging respect. Many of his critics conceded the point; and
Mirabeau, who was often among them, said of him: "That man will
go far; he believes all he says." An Englishman who closely watched
him in the Assembly in March 1791 wrote of him as "a stern man,
rigid in his principles, plain, unaffected in his manners, no foppery in
viction
;