The year is 1793, Louis 16 has just been executed. France is devastated by its civil war
and is now threatened by first coalition. Paranoia and terror, oh, terror
grips the country by its throat as the people demand more and more purges.
As as a result, almost 17,000 are executed in just over a year. France now lives under
the tyranny of the Committee of Public Safety with at its head,
Maximilien Robespierre.
On April 1792, the largely Girondin Legislative Assembly declared war on
Austria thus starting the war of the first coalition. Unprepared and weakened by the
revolution, France quickly suffered disastrous defeats. And Robespierre along with
Danton, a revolutionary who later that year became the chief force behind the
overthrowing of the monarchy and the establishment of the first Republic,
feared a military coup d'état. They were especially concerned by Le Marquis de
Lafayette who had openly advocated for the dissolution of the Jacobin club.
During that time, in June 1792, Robespierre had proposed an end to the monarchy and
the subordination of the assembly to popular will. And in September, despite
the insults and accusations of the Girondins, he was elected as first deputy
of Paris to the National Convention, which had now replaced the Legislative
Assembly. There, he and his closest, supporters sat on the highest benches of
the assembly thus acquiring the nickname "Les Montagnards". Later that year, following
the early success of the Austrians and the captures of two fortresses, the
Parisians were afraid the city would soon be captured and its aristocratic
prisoners freed to take part in the city's sacking. As a result more than
fourteen hundred prisoners, most common criminals, were massacred in what would
later be known as The September Massacre. The Girondins quickly accused Robespierre of
failing to stop this massacre as well as trying to install a dictatorship along
with Marat, a radical journalist turned politician, and Danton - a Roman
triumvirate much like Caesar, Pompey and Crassus. Robespierre turned these accusations
back to them as it delivered some of the most famous lines of the revolution:
"Citizens! Do you want a revolution without a revolution? What is the spirit
of persecution which has directed itself against those
who freed us from chains?" These words marked a profound divide between the
two Jacobin factions, the Montagnards and the Girondins, which along the fall of Louis 16,
the September Massacre and the invasion of France tilted the balance towards
further extremism in the country. And on the 14th of January 1793, Louis 16 was
voted guilty of conspiracy and attacks upon public safety after the discovery
of compromising documents in his chambers. At his trial, in direct
contradiction to his past stance on the death penalty,
Robespierre strongly pushed for the Kings execution through a famous speech
that he finished by stating: "With regret, I pronounced this fatal truth -
Louis must die so the nation may live."
On the 21st at 5:00 in the morning, Louis 16 was woken up in his cell. At 10
a.m. he arrived at the place of the execution. The first political execution
of the revolution, a drop in the bucket against the 16,594 more that would
come the following year as the sharp sound of the guillotine echoed in la Place de
la Révolution announcing a new reign, the Reign of Terror.
Following the execution of the King, the people of Paris became increasingly
restless. France's economic situation was rapidly deteriorating and the Girondins,
who controlled the National Convention, were blamed for failing to deliver the
gains the revolution had promised. As a result, their influence wavered further
and further to the benefit of radicals such as Robespierre and Danton. This
was further exacerbated by accusations of Royalism following their "Appel au Peuple",
a referendum to let the people decide the King's fate. As an example of
France's violent shift towards extremism, the Girondins,
which had been considered radicals just a couple of years ago, were now accused
of being too conservative. One of these accusers was Marat who denounced them for
bringing France to its ruins as he decried: "Nous sommes trahis!" A chant that was
picked up all over Paris, which now largely supported the Montagnards thanks
to their revolutionary zeal. Eventually, the Capital's hostility towards the
leading party was such that riots arose in retaliation of the foolish arrest of
Marat on the 18th of May 1791. His exoneration a few days later did little
to calm public outrage and when on the 25th, Maximin Isnard, (a) leader of the Girondins,
threatened to march France upon Paris, the Parisians responded by marching
themselves to the Tuileries Palace, where the National Convention was held. There,
they demanded the removal of 22 leading Girondins from the Convention as Robespierre
advocated for moral insurrection against the corrupt deputies of the Jacobin Club.
These insurrections would start on the 27th of May and culminate on the 2nd of
June, when François Hanriot, at the head of 80,000 sans-culottes, lower-class Parisians that
could not afford to wear "la culotte" like as the bourgeois and nobles did, surrounded
and aim 160 cannons at the Tuileries. When the president of the National Convention,
Marie-Jean Hérault sent a messenger to demand that Hanriot stops his intimidations,
Hanriot replied: "Tell your fucking president that I don't give a fuck about
him and his assembly. And that if in one hour, you don't deliver me the 22, I will blow
you up." As a result, the convention attempted to escape only to be pushed
back by Hanriot's order to man the guns. Finally, the situation was solved after the
convention voted in favor of the suspension and arrest of 29 Girondins,
including their leader, Brissot. On the 24th of October, 22 of them were
trialed by the Revolutionary Tribunal and seven days later, they were guillotined.
It took only 36 minutes to execute them all. The National Convention was now purged of
its Girondin majority. Giving full rein to the Montagnards. Giving full rein to
the Committee of Public Safety, Danton and Robespierre.
Hello everyone, I hope you enjoyed this video. If you did, please consider leaving
a like, sharing, commenting, and if you haven't yet, subscribing. This was Barris. I
will see you next week but until then,
Merde!