Who Maximilian Robespierre?

Answer 1

Maximillien Robespierre, nicknamed "the Incorruptible," was the leader of the Jacobins who took over the leadership of France during the French Revolution. He and the other committee members ordered the execution of the King, Louis XVI, for treason in January 1793.

Robespierre, as an enlightened thinker, brought revolutionary ideas of equality, liberty and fraternity to the minds of the French people already put under pressure by poverty, exacerbated by an incapable king and an exorbitant queen.

During the revolution, he also made France a secular state. He attempted to rename the months of the year and make 1794 the first year of French history. This did not catch on though, and his attempt to institute a new "festival of the saint" was also unsuccessful.

Robespierre allowed the death of thousands of French persons - men, women and children - during the course of the revolution.

He died in 1794, the final victim of the revolution - taken by the guillotine to which he had sent thousands.

Robespierre was a lawyer and a politician who was very good at making speeches; at his own trial he delivered a very convincing two hour long speech in his defense. When he was 17, he was chosen out of 500 pupils to deliver a welcome speech to the King (ironically he eventually supported the King's execution later).

He was the eldest of four children; his mother died in child birth when he was young and his father, distressed at the loss of his wife, vanished when Robespierre was eight years old, leaving the four children to be cared for by their paternal grandfather and aunts.

Answer 2

A leading figure in the French Committee of Safety.

Answer 3

He was the leader of the Reign of Terror and the protector of the Revolution.

Answer 4

Maximilien de Robspierre was born in France in 1758. He advocated for against the death penalty and for the abolition of slavery. He also supported equality rights and universal suffrage.

Answer 5

The French Revolution