BOOK OF THE WEEK
The Fall Of Robespierre: 24 Hours In Revolutionary Paris
by Colin Jones (OUP £25, 592pp)
Sitting in a Paris jail cell in 1794, halfway by the French Revolution, the attractive younger aristocrat Theresa Cabarrus wrote a despairing — and bitter — letter to her lover, telling him she would quickly be despatched to the guillotine.
The earlier night time she had dreamed that Robespierre — the nation’s most feared chief, who had engineered her arrest as an ‘enemy of the Republic’ — was gone and that the nation’s prisons have been open.
‘However because of your apparent cowardice, there quickly will likely be nobody left in France able to making my dream come true,’ she wrote. But by the next day, after one of the crucial dramatic 24 hours within the historical past of the French Revolution, the omnipotent Robespierre had been deposed in a rebel led by Theresa’s lover.
Maximilien Robespierre an obscure provincial lawyer, had loved a dizzying rise because the early days of the Revolution in 1789. Widespread riots, sparked by excessive meals costs, unemployment and crippling social inequality, had led to a sequence of radical new legal guidelines together with state management of the Catholic Church and the abolition of feudalism.
The Fall Of Robespierre: 24 Hours In Revolutionary Paris explores how the architect of French Revolution, Maximilien Robespierre — the nation’s most feared chief — ended together with his neck on the guillotine
The First French Republic was established in 1792, and the next yr the king, Louis XVI, and his queen, Marie Antoinette, have been executed.
Inside just a few years of his arrival in Paris, Robespierre had change into the main member of a small legislative committee which exerted nearly complete management over the French authorities.
Although not a pure orator, he had the power to thrill and encourage his listeners whereas additionally placing terror into those that opposed him. His stony expression and silent stare might ‘cease grown males of their tracks and induce devastating despair’, in line with historian Colin Jones.
Robespierre loved celeb standing in Paris and had a very sturdy following amongst ladies, though it was rumoured that he was nonetheless a virgin.
He lodged with a carpenter and his household, having fun with a comfy domesticity utterly at odds together with his chilly and distant persona, usually going for walks together with his landlord’s daughters and having fun with picnics within the park with them.
Though he felt nice affinity with the sans-culottes, the working class revolutionaries of their shabby garments, he was a dandy who wore silk stockings and powdered his hair. Like many a tyrant, Robespierre was prickly and thin-skinned about criticism.
Within the Revolution’s early days he had been an ardent advocate of freedom of the Press, however as quickly as he received into energy his views modified.
Maximilien Robespierre (pictured), an obscure provincial lawyer, had loved a dizzying rise because the early days of the Revolution in 1789 and though he felt nice affinity with the working class revolutionaries, he was a dandy who wore silk stockings and powdered his hair
‘Freedom of the Press is just for occasions of tranquillity,’ he declared. ‘We should proscribe writers, as essentially the most harmful enemies of the folks.’
In an echo of twenty first century politics, he steadily fulminated towards ‘false information’ most of which, he was satisfied, was being stirred up by the English.
Beforehand against the loss of life penalty, he quickly grew to become its best fanatic and personally signed greater than 500 arrest warrants. He had pushed by a legislation which allowed juries to cross sentences primarily based on ‘ethical conviction’ slightly than proof, and defendants now not had the suitable to a lawyer.
This ushered within the blood-soaked period of The Terror, the place perceived enemies of the Revolution — primarily aristocrats, clergymen and people accused of hoarding — confronted harsh abstract justice.
Though massive numbers nonetheless turned out to look at executions, by July 1794 unease over the variety of deaths was intensifying, particularly because it was now not simply aristocrats who have been being guillotined. Now folks from humble backgrounds, resembling grocers and chambermaids, have been being loaded into the tumbrils.
In 1794, halfway by the French Revolution, the attractive younger aristocrat Theresa Cabarrus (pictured) wrote a despairing — and bitter — letter to her lover, Jean-Lambert Tallien, from a Paris jail cell, telling him she would quickly be despatched to the guillotine
The execution of 16 nuns earlier within the month had induced specific disquiet. Crowds watched in awe as ‘they prayed collectively on the foot of the scaffold and marched up courageously to the guillotine, one by one, chanting the Veni Creator by to the ultimate swish of the blade’.
The executioners observed that ladies have been significantly courageous, usually smiling as they went to their loss of life.
‘On the highway to the guillotine, the smile had change into a silent weapon of symbolic resistance,’ Jones says.
On July 26, 1794, Robespierre made an extended, emotional speech to the meeting of deputies, often known as the Conference, criticising the federal government and demanding that traitors be rooted out. When challenged, he refused to call names, which was to show a deadly mistake; it meant nearly the entire deputies felt threatened.
His enemies seized their likelihood to strike the next day. Chief amongst them was Jean-Lambert Tallien, an formidable younger deputy who was against Robespierre for political causes and in addition loathed him as a result of Robespierre had been answerable for the arrest of his lover, the soon-to-be-executed Theresa Cabarrus.
The next day, after one of the crucial dramatic 24 hours within the historical past of the French Revolution, the omnipotent Robespierre had been deposed in a rebel led by Theresa’s lover. Pictured: The arrest of Maximilien Robespierre
With a dagger hid beneath his coat, Tallien stormed into the meeting and accused members of the federal government of working towards France, ‘to irritate its troubles, to hurl it into the abyss’. Though he didn’t identify Robespierre, it was clear to everybody who he meant. A couple of deputies, primed by Tallien, cheered loudly; quickly others joined in.
In an exhilarating chapter, Jones reveals how the steadiness of energy ebbed and flowed within the chamber. Robespierre repeatedly tried to talk, however was shouted down, his enemies taking revenge for the occasions he had denied others the suitable to talk.
Probably the most {powerful} man within the nation was seeing his help draining away earlier than his very eyes.
He, his youthful brother, Augustin, and three different supporters have been arrested. Within the following chaotic hours, they have been moved round Paris, and at one level even managed to flee from their jail. Whereas this was occurring Robespierre, who was extra of a back-room plotter than a person of motion, dithered over whether or not to attempt to mount an rebel.
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Within the early hours of the next morning, he was shot within the jaw. Some accounts preserve he was making an attempt to commit suicide, others that he was shot by a policeman.
Nonetheless alive, although in agony from his wound, Robespierre was taken to the Place de la Revolution the place a ‘enormous, enthusiastic crowd’ watched his execution. As he was thrust ahead in direction of the guillotine he emitted a ‘blood-curdling animalistic shriek’.
And the following yr the Revolutionary Tribunal, which had sentenced so many individuals to loss of life, was abolished and freedom of the Press was restored, resulting in the publication of many heart-rending accounts of what folks had suffered in jail.
Two centuries later, nonetheless, individuals are nonetheless arguing over Robespierre’s legacy.
The Fall Of Robespierre: 24 Hours In Revolutionary Paris by Colin Jones (OUP £25, 592pp)
Colin Jones, a professor of historical past at Queen Mary College of London, handles an enormous quantity of fabric with talent and verve.
He creates an awfully vivid minute-by-minute portrait of Paris and its folks on that pivotal day, although the wealth of element can appear overwhelming for anybody who isn’t completely immersed within the historical past of the French Revolution.
Unusually sufficient, Professor Jones by no means reveals what occurred to the aristocratic Theresa Cabarrus, whose jail letter was one of many sparks for Robespierre’s overthrow.
A spot of analysis reveals that, within the nick of time, Tallien succeeded in getting her launched — together with one other famend magnificence, Josephine de Beauharnais, who was to change into Napoleon’s Empress Josephine — they usually married.
The wedding didn’t final lengthy, however whereas it did she was nicely often known as a moderating affect on her husband, all the time able to plead the reason for those that, like her, had been imprisoned and feared the blade of the guillotine.
