Recovery > Fall of Robespierre

>  A Summary of what happened...

   By July 27th of 1794, personal hostilities and political differences divided members of the Committees of Public Safety and General Security. These disagreements proved fatal to Robespierre's followers, who were conquered not by a popular rising, but by scheming opposition in the Convention.

   The Montagnard rebels were an assorted alliance. Some deputies feared for their skins because they were already under suspicion. The remaining survivors of Danton formed another dissident group, including Thuriot, who shouted at Robespierre in the clamor of 9 Thermidor: 'Silence, murderer! Danton's blood is running from your mouth, it's choking you!' Robespierre's virtual assumption of the role of high priest at the Festival of the Supreme Being a month earlier had aggravated several deputies: during June, Vadier, a leading member of the Committee of General Security, had tried to ridicule his religious views by arresting an eccentric prophetess, Catherine Théot, who proclaimed Robespierre as the new Messiah. He and his fellow committee-members were annoyed that Robespierre and his group were abusing their powers.

   On the 9th of Thermidor, Robespierre harassed the Committee of General Security, and in doing so, separated the moderates, who feared the despotic tendencies of the Committee of Public Safety.

   A fiery debate in the Convention concluded in the decision to arrest Robespierre and his followers, but the Paris Commune released them from prison. Robespierre was then taken to the Hôtel de Ville of Paris. In the Convention, a few members of the Committee of General Security took control and rallied loyal troops against the Commune. Robespierre was banned.

   A battle now developed for control of the sans-culottes in the Paris sections. Robespierre petitioned to the radicals among them, but he no longer had the support of activists who held him responsible for guillotining their leader, Hébert, in March. In addition, a new Wage Maximum, promulgated on July 23rd, effectively reduced wages in many trades and may have contributed to popular apathy on the night of 9 Thermidor. When the Convention's troops entered the Hôtel de Ville, they met little opposition.

   By 3 a.m. on 10 Thermidor (July 28th), the building was littered with the debris of the Revolutionary Government. Robespierre's younger brother Augustin had thrown himself from a top-storey window; Couthon had either fallen, or hurled himself, from his wheelchair down the great stone staircase, to lie with a gaping wound in his head. Saint-Just surrendered stoically, but Robespierre, who had tried to shoot himself, was in great pain. Both men were executed, along with over 100 supporters, in the next few days.

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The Fall of the Dantonists