WHO IS MAXIMILIEN ROBESPIERRE?
Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre or better known simply as Maximilien Robespierre.
(May 6, 1758- July 28, 1794)
He is a well-known Jacobin leader and one of the most prominent figures of the French Revolution.
In the remaining months of 1793 he came to overpower the Committee of Public Safety, the principal organ of the Revolutionary government during the known Reign of Terror, but in 1794 he was overthrown and executed in the Thermidorian Reaction.
As an important member of the Committee of Public Safety in 1793, Robespierre was the main reason of the deadly execution, mostly by guillotine, of more than 17,000 enemies of the Revolution. After the day of his arrest, Robespierre and 21 of his followers were guillotined before a huddle of rejoicing crowd in the Place de la Revolution in Paris.
Maximilien Robespierre was born in Arras, France, in 1758. He studied law through a scholarship and in 1789 was elected to be a representative of the Arras commoners in the Estates General. Robespierre became a prominent member of the Revolutionary body. He took a radical, democratic stance and was known as “the Incorruptible” that time for his dedication to social morality. In April 1790, he took over the Jacobins, a powerful political club that promoted the ideas of the French Revolution. He encourage for King Louis XVI to be put on trial for treason and won many enemies after that.
