The year is 1793, Louis 16 has just been executed. France is devastated by a civil
war and is now threatened by the first coalition. Paranoia and terror, Oh terror,
grips the country by a stroke as the people demand more and more purges.
As a result almost 17,000 were executed in just over a year. France now lives under
the tyranny of the Committee of Public Safety with at its head,
Maximilien Robespierre
Robespierre was born on the 6th of May 1758, which happens to be my birthday
too, in Arras, France. A model student, he studied law practice at the
prestigious University of Paris in hopes of becoming a lawyer just like his
father and grandfather. There, he came to admire an idealized Roman Republic through
the lecture of Cicero Cato and other classical writers. He was also attracted
to 18th century philosophers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whose ideas he would later
try to emulate in France. He passed the bar of Arrasat the age at 23 as a fervent
supporter of direct democrac, which my friend at house of history recently made
a video about, believing the people of France virtuous enough to ensure the
well-being of the nation. The strength and conviction he showed for these views
would earn him the nickname "L' Incorruptible", and in 1789, French revolutionary
Mirabeau commented, "This man (will go far), he believes everything he says."
With these ideas in mind, he was appointed as criminal judge in 1782 by the Bishop of
Arras, ironically he would quickly resign over his opposition to the death penalty
and instead became a strong advocate for poor clients, whom he would defend through
ideas of enlightenment and rights of men. In 1783, he was elected as a member of
the Academy of Arras, whose meetings he would regularly attend and in 1789, he
campaigned as deputy of the Third Estate to represent the peasants and
bourgeoisie. He was young, relatively poor, unknown and strongly opposed the very
system he was running for, which, he believed, failed to represent the people
of France. Yet, against all odds, thanks to the support he had gained in
the countryside from his "Avis aux habitants de Campagne", Robespierre won
On the 5th of May 1789, for the first time since 1614, Louis 16 assembled the
estates-general to deal with Frances crippling debt,
which had soared during the American Revolution. When Robespierre arrived at
Versailles for the assembly, few deputies had ever heard of him but that won't
last long. Robespierre didn't have the courage of a
statesman, the qualities of a great orator or the belief in himself which
marks a great man. No, he was nervous, timid and suspicious, but his unwavering
faith in Rousseau's ideas, however, would make his name. During the assembly, the
Third Estate, which were twice as many as the other estates, demanded sweeping
political and social reforms and hoped to get it thanks to their higher numbers.
However, they were quickly informed that all voting would be based on (order)
rather than number thus making their superior numbers meaningless. While this
event deserves its own video, it's easy to see why the Third Estate was upset
and flat-out refused to take part of the assembly. Instead, they decided to meet
separately by forming a National Assembly in Paris of which Robespierre
was appointed as one of his representatives on the 13th of July 1789.
After his arrival to the capital from Versailles that same year, he will get
involved with the Society of the Friends of the Constitution,
better known as the Jacobin, where he found a sympathetic audience to his
ideas. Soon Robespierre and his supporters, which had come to idolise him for his
fanaticism, would dominate the club as more moderate right-wing members left
within the same year. By then, the National Assembly had turned into the
National Constituent Assembly, whose membership mostly comprised of lawyers
and wealthy Parisian bourgeois, occupied with drafting a constitution for their
own interests. Robespierre instead favors France's lower
classes, particularly Jews, blacks and actors .Through powerful speeches in front of
the Constituent Assembly, he frequently advocated for a declaration of the
rights of man, often with great success. Above all, he coined the phrase, "Liberté,
"Égalité, Fraternité", which would shape the Republic up until today. He still
fervently opposed the death penalty and campaigned for universal male suffrage,
price controls on basic food commodities and the abolition of slavery in French
colonists. Quickly, he was recognised as one of the leaders of the small body of
extreme left, the thirty voices as Mirabeau would scornfully describe them. On the
13th of September 1791, following the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly and the
creation of the Legislative Assembly, the people of Paris honoured him by naming
him one of the incorruptible Patriots, but these ideals that Robespierre had
fervently defended before would start to falter, when a February 1792. Brissot, leader
of the Girondins, another prominent faction of the Jacobins, urged France to declare
war on Austria. Robespierre fervently opposed this as he feared the rise of a
Caesar like figure during these times of war with great wisdom he reminded his
listeners, "In troubled periods of history, generals often became the arbiters of
the fates of their countries." This conflict started a great divide within
the Jacobins, a divide that would come to set ablaze France for the years to come.
I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, please consider supporting the
channel by leaving a like, sharing, commenting and if you haven't yet,
subscribing. This was barris. I will see you in a couple of weeks but until then,
Merde