Why did Robespierre fall?
In June 1794 Robespierre looked like the most powerful man in France. Seven weeks later he was dead. No single mistake brought him down. By July he had frightened or angered almost every group whose support he needed.
😱 Fear in the Convention
After the Law of 22 Prairial no deputy felt safe. The most frightened were representatives on mission whom Robespierre had called back to Paris for their brutality or corruption, such as Fouché, Tallien and Barras. They expected to be next, so they began to plot against him.
🏆 Victory made terror look pointless
The Terror had been excused as an emergency measure for a country in danger. After the victory at Fleurus in June 1794 the danger of invasion had gone, yet the executions in Paris were speeding up. Many deputies now asked why.
🙏 The Supreme Being
Robespierre wanted a new state religion based on belief in a god and in goodness. On 8 June 1794 he led the Festival of the Supreme Being in Paris, walking at the head of the Convention. Catholics disliked the new religion. So did deputies who wanted no religion at all. Some muttered that he was acting like a dictator, or even a pope.
💔 Lost allies
Robespierre quarrelled with other members of the Committee of Public Safety, including Carnot. For about four weeks he stayed away from its meetings and from the Convention, so his enemies could organise. He had also lost the sans-culottes. Their hero HĂ©bert had been executed, and on 23 July a new wage Maximum cut the pay of many Paris workers.
Key terms:
- Thermidor: the summer month in the revolutionary calendar in which Robespierre fell. 9 Thermidor was 27 July 1794.
- Outlaw: a person placed outside the protection of the law, who could be executed without a trial.
- Thermidorians: the deputies who overthrew Robespierre and then ran France.
- Thermidorian Reaction: the period after Robespierre's fall (July 1794 to 1795) when the Terror was taken apart and the Jacobins lost power.
- White Terror: revenge attacks on former Jacobins in 1795.
The two days that ended Robespierre
- 26 July (8 Thermidor). Robespierre returned to the Convention and made a long speech. He said there was a conspiracy against the Republic, and that its members sat in the Convention and on the committees. He refused to give any names. This was a fatal mistake. Every deputy could now fear that he was on the list, so the plotters won many new allies overnight.
- 27 July (9 Thermidor). When Robespierre's ally Saint-Just began to speak, Tallien interrupted him. Robespierre tried to reply but was drowned out by shouts of 'Down with the tyrant!' The Convention voted to arrest Robespierre, his brother Augustin, Saint-Just, Couthon and Le Bas.
- That night. The Paris Commune stayed loyal. It freed the prisoners, took them to the HĂ´tel de Ville (the city hall) and called on the sections to rise. Only a minority sent men, and with no clear orders they drifted home. The Convention declared Robespierre and his friends outlaws. In the early hours, troops led by Barras marched into the HĂ´tel de Ville. Robespierre was found with his jaw shattered by a pistol shot.
- 28 July (10 Thermidor). Robespierre was guillotined without trial, along with Saint-Just, Couthon and 19 others. Around 80 more of his supporters, mostly members of the Commune, followed in the next two days.
The Thermidorian Reaction
The Thermidorians were not gentle men. Several had been keen terrorists themselves. But they had blamed the Terror on Robespierre, and public opinion wanted it over. So, step by step, they dismantled it.
- The law. The Law of 22 Prairial was repealed on 1 August 1794. Thousands of suspects were let out of prison. The Revolutionary Tribunal was first reformed, and in May 1795 it was abolished. Its prosecutor, Fouquier-Tinville, was himself guillotined that month. Carrier had already gone to the guillotine in December 1794.
- The government. From the end of July 1794 a quarter of the Committee of Public Safety's members had to be replaced every month, and in August it was limited to war and foreign affairs. The Paris Commune was abolished.
- The Jacobins. The Jacobin Club was closed in November 1794. In December the surviving Girondin deputies were allowed back into the Convention. In the streets of Paris, gangs of well-dressed young men called the jeunesse dorée (gilded youth) beat up Jacobins and sans-culottes.
- The economy. The Maximum was abolished in December 1794. Prices shot up, the assignat lost most of its value, and the winter of 1794-95 was bitterly cold. Hungry Parisians invaded the Convention in the risings of Germinal (April 1795) and Prairial (May 1795), demanding bread. This time the Convention did not give way. Germinal was broken up quickly. After Prairial it sent in the army, crushed the rising and disarmed the sans-culottes. They never again decided events in Paris.
- Religion. In February 1795 freedom of worship was restored, so Catholics could legally hold services again, though the state gave the Church no money.
The White Terror
In 1795 the hunters became the hunted. The White Terror was a wave of revenge against people who had taken part in the Terror. It is called 'white' because white was the colour of the royal family's flag.
- Where? Mainly in the south-east, in and around Lyon, Marseille and the RhĂ´ne valley, where repression after the federalist revolts had been harsh.
- Who did it? Relatives of people killed in the Terror, royalists, and returned émigrés. Some formed gangs with names like the Companies of Jesus and the Companies of the Sun.
- Who were the victims? Former Jacobins, members of watch committees, and sometimes people who had bought Church land.
- What happened? Murders in the streets and massacres of Jacobin prisoners. About 100 prisoners were killed in Lyon in May 1795 and about 100 more in Marseille in June. Probably around 2,000 people were killed in the south-east during 1795.
The White Terror was not ordered by the government. There were no special laws or courts. But local officials often looked the other way, and few of the killers were punished.
Common mistakes
- Saying the people of Paris overthrew Robespierre. He was removed by deputies in the Convention, many of them former terrorists who feared for their own lives.
- Thinking the White Terror was a government policy like the Terror. It was unofficial local revenge.
- Saying the violence ended in July 1794. The official Terror ended, but revenge killings and the crushing of the Paris risings followed in 1795.
Exam-style question
Explain two effects of the fall of Robespierre on France in the years 1794-95. [8 marks]
Model answer
One effect was that the Terror was dismantled. Robespierre was guillotined on 28 July 1794, and on 1 August the Convention repealed the Law of 22 Prairial. Thousands of suspects were released, and in August the Committee of Public Safety was limited to war and foreign affairs. His fall led to this because the deputies who removed him had acted out of fear for their own lives. Having blamed the Terror on Robespierre, they could only keep public support, and stay safe themselves, by taking it apart.
A second effect was a violent backlash against the Jacobins. The Jacobin Club was closed in November 1794. In 1795 the White Terror spread across the south-east, where gangs such as the Companies of Jesus murdered former Jacobins, including about 100 prisoners in Lyon in May. Robespierre's fall led to this because the Jacobins lost their protection. They no longer controlled the government, the courts or the watch committees, so royalists and the families of the Terror's victims could take revenge with little fear of punishment.
What lifts it to the top level: each paragraph names one effect, backs it with precise dates and names, and then shows how the fall of Robespierre produced it.
Exam tip
One effect alone cannot score more than half marks, however well you explain it. Here, do not tell the story of 9 Thermidor. Start each paragraph with what changed after Robespierre fell, then use 'this was because' to link it back to his fall.