Fall of Maximilien Robespierre

1794 event during the French Revolution

"Fall of Robespierre" redirects here. For the English theatrical play, see The Fall of Robespierre.

Coup of 9–10 Thermidor

Part of the French Revolution

Fall of Robespierre in the Convention by Max Adamo
| Date| 27 July 1794

|

Location|

Paris, France

Result|

Thermidorian victory

* Fall of Montagnards
* End of the Reign of Terror

Belligerents

Thermidorians
Supported by:

* National Convention
* National Guard
* Committee of General Security

Jacobins
Supported by:

* National Guard (loyalists)
* Sans-culottes

Commanders and leaders

* Paul Barras
* Jean-Lambert Tallien
* Joseph Fouché
* Pierre-Louis Bentabole
* Charles-André Merda

* Maximilien Robespierre
* Louis de Saint-Just
* Georges Couthon
* François Hanriot
* Augustin Robespierre

Strength
Unknown|  c. 3,000 loyalists
Casualties and losses
Unknown|

Various people were executed:

* 21 Robespierrists
* 70 Communards
* 78 Montagnard deputies

The Coup d'état of 9 Thermidor or the Fall of Maximilien Robespierre is the series of events beginning with Maximilien Robespierre's address to the National Convention on 8 Thermidor Year II (26 July 1794), his arrest the next day, and his execution on 10 Thermidor (28 July). In the speech of 8 Thermidor, Robespierre spoke of the existence of internal enemies, conspirators, and calumniators, within the Convention and the governing Committees. He refused to name them, which alarmed the deputies who feared Robespierre was preparing another purge of the Convention, similar to previous ones during the Reign of Terror.[1]

On the following day, this tension in the Convention allowed Jean-Lambert Tallien, one of the conspirators whom Robespierre had in mind in his denunciation, to turn the Convention against Robespierre and decree his arrest.[2][3] By the end of the next day, Robespierre was executed in the Place de la Révolution, where King Louis XVI had been executed a year earlier. He was executed by guillotine, like the others.[4] Robespierre's fall led to more moderate policies being implemented during the subsequent Thermidorian Reaction.

## Background[edit]

### Purge of the Hébertists and Dantonists[edit]

On 27 July 1793, Robespierre was elected to the Committee of Public Safety, and would remain a member until his death.[5] During the months between September 1793 and July 1794, the Committee's power increased dramatically due to several measures instated during the Terror, such as Law of Suspects, and the latter Law of 14th Frimaire, becoming the de facto executive branch of the Revolutionary Government, under the supervision of the National Convention.[6][7]

During this time, two different factions rose in opposition to the restructured Revolutionary Government: the left-wing ultra-revolutionaries and the moderate right-wing citra-revolutionaries.[8] The Ultras (also known as Hébertists or Exagérés) gathered around Jacques Hébert, as well as leaders of the Paris Commune and the exagérés of the Cordeliers Club.[9] They pushed for stronger repression measures than those already in place during the Terror, and campaigned for de-Christianization.[10][8]

The Citras (also known as Dantonists or Indulgents), formed around Georges Danton as well as the indulgents members of the Cordeliers Club, including Camille Desmoulins. They were strongly opposed to the machinery of the Terror and policies of the Committee of Public Safety.[11] Both these factions were charged as conspirators against the Revolutionary Government and sentenced to the guillotine: the Hébertists on 24 March (4 Germinal) and the Dantonists on 5 April (16 Germinal).[12]

With these purges, the power of the Committee was reaffirmed. The death of Danton and Desmoulins, both formerly friends of Robespierre, left a deep toll on him. This, combined with the increasing demands of both the Committee on Public Safety and the National Convention washed away Robespierre's mental and physical health to the point he was forced to reduce his presence in the Jacobin Club and the National Convention.[13]

### Division within the Revolutionary Government[edit]

Jacques-René Hébert Georges Danton

Robespierre did not reappear in the National Convention until 7 May (18 Floréal). For this day he had planned a speech addressing the relationship between religion, morality, and the republican principles; and to establish the Cult of the Supreme Being in place of the Cult of Reason promoted by de-Christianizers like the Hébertists.[14] Robespierre led the processions during the Festival in Honor of the Supreme Being celebrated on 8 June (20 Prairial). Although the festival was well accepted by the crowds, Robespierre's prominent position in it was suspicious in the eyes of some deputies, and muttering began about Robespierre's fanaticism and desire for power.[15]

Two days after the Festival, on 10 June (22 Prairial), Robespierre pushed the National Convention to pass a new law drafted by him and Georges Couthon, which accelerated the trial process and extended the death penalty to include a new set of "enemies of the people"; this included those seeking to reestablish the monarchy, interfering with food provisions, discrediting the National Convention, and communicating with foreigners, among others.[16][17] The fear of assassination drove Robespierre to take this measure: two assassination attempts against Robespierre and Collot d'Herbois had taken place on 23 and 24 May (4–5 Prairial), and the memory of Lepeletier's and Marat's murder still roused feelings in the Convention.[18] The law was not universally accepted in the Convention, and critics of Robespierre and Saint-Just would use it against them during the events of 9 Thermidor.[19]

Raymond Quinsac Monvoisin
Le 9 Thermidor

More opposition came from the Committee of General Security, which had not been consulted over the contents of the Law. The Committee of General Security already felt threatened by the Committee of Public Safety's new ability to issue arrest warrants, as well as by the new Police Bureau, which was created by Saint-Just and was being run by Robespierre in his absence, and whose functions overlapped with that of the Committee of General Security.[20] As payment, they presented a report on the ties between the English enemy and the self-proclaimed "Mother of God", Catherine Théot, who had prophesied that Robespierre was a new Messiah. This was done both with the intention of diminishing Robespierre, and to mock his religious positions and the Cult of The Supreme Being.[21]

On 28 June (10 Messidor), Saint-Just returned from the northern front bearing news: the Revolutionary Army had defeated the Austrian army in Belgium at the Battle of Fleurus, securing the road to Paris. This victory signaled the end of the war against the Austrians, and with it, the end of the Terror government. Robespierre, wishing to get rid of both internal and external enemies, objected to the disbandment of the war government.[22] The following day, in a joint meeting of the Committees of Public Safety and General Security, Lazare Carnot allegedly shouted at Saint-Just that both he and Robespierre were "ridiculous dictators". Following this event, Robespierre stopped participating directly in the deliberations of the Committee of Public Safety.[23]

Having abandoned both the Committee and the National Convention, which he stopped frequenting after his presidency ended on 18 June (30 Prairial),[24] Robespierre's absence allowed the breach between him and other members of the revolutionary government to widen. He did not reappear until 23 July (5 Thermidor), when he sat for another joint convention of the two Committees put forward in a failed attempt to resolve their mutual differences.[25]

## Events of the Fall[edit]

### 8 Thermidor (26 July)[edit]

Robespierre à la Société des Jacobins - Auguste Raffet The attack on 9 Thermidor

During his absence from both the National Convention and the Committee of Public Safety through the months of June and July (Messidor), Robespierre prepared a speech to be delivered on 26 July (8 Thermidor).[25] He delivered the speech first to the National Convention, and later that same day at the Jacobin Club.[26] In it, he attempted both to defend himself from the rumors and attacks on his person that had been spreading since the start of the Reign of Terror; and to bring light to an anti-revolutionary conspiracy that he believed reached into the Convention and the Governing Committees.[27]

Although he only accused three deputies by name (Pierre-Joseph Cambon, François René Mallarmé, and Dominique-Vincent Ramel-Nogaret), his speech seemed to also incriminate several others.[1] Moreover, it was precisely because he failed to name the condemned that terror spread through the Convention as the deputies started thinking that Robespierre was planning yet another purge like that of the Dantonists and Hébertists.[26]

Later the same day he presented the speech at the Jacobin Club, where it was received with overwhelming support despite some initial opposition.[28] Both Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne and Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois, who opposed the printing of the speech, were driven out of the Jacobin Club.[29]

### 9 Thermidor (27 July)[edit]

Saint-Just and Robespierre at the Hôtel de Ville of Paris on the night of 9 to 10 Thermidor Year II (July 27 to 28, 1794). Painting by Jean-Joseph Weerts

On Sunday 27 July, the weather was stormy.[30] The workers of Paris organized a demonstration against the Maximum on wages.[31][32][33] At noon Louis Antoine de Saint-Just started addressing the Convention without having shown his speech to the two Committees.[34] He was interrupted by Tallien, who complained that both Robespierre and Saint-Just had broken with the Committees and now spoke only for themselves; and then by Billaud-Varenne, who related how he and Collot had been driven out of the Jacobin Club the previous day, and who accused Robespierre of conspiracy against the Convention.[35] Robespierre attempted to defend himself, but was silenced by the commotion within the Convention and by the screaming deputies condemning him as a tyrant and conspirator.[36]

The Convention then voted to arrest five deputies – Robespierre, his brother, Couthon, Saint-Just, and Le Bas – as well as François Hanriot, and other Robespierrist officials.[37][35] They were taken before the Committee of General Security and sent to different prisons.[37] None of the city prisons wanted to arrest the deputies and officials, and once a deputation from the Paris Commune, which had risen in support of Robespierre, arrived to the city prisons demanding they refuse to take in the arrested, the prison officials complied.[38] A little after midnight, about fifty people, the five rebellious deputies, Dumas and Hanriot consulted on the first floor of the Hôtel de Ville.[38]

### 10 Thermidor (28 July)[edit]

Lying on a table, wounded, in a room of the Convention, Robespierre is the object of the curiosity and quips of Thermidorians, (Musée de la Révolution française)

Upon receiving news that Robespierre and his allies had not been imprisoned, the National Convention, which was in permanent session, declared that Robespierre, Saint-Just, and the other deputies were outlaws, and commanded armed forces to enter the Hôtel de Ville. By 2:30 a.m., they had entered the Hôtel de Ville and made the arrest.[39]

Robespierre was taken out of the Hôtel de Ville with a broken jaw. There are two conflicting accounts of how Robespierre was wounded: the first one puts forward that Robespierre had tried to kill himself with a pistol,[39] and the second one is that he was shot by Charles-André Meda, one of the officers occupying the Hôtel de Ville.[40] He, together with the surviving deputies and seventeen other prisoners considered to be loyal Robespierrists (including Hanriot) were brought to the Revolutionary Tribunal and condemned to death.[41] He was guillotined at the same Place de la Révolution where his enemies King Louis XVI, Georges Danton, and Camille Desmoulins had been executed.[41]

## Public memorials[edit]

Place Robespierre in Marseille with the inscription: "Lawyer, born in Arras in 1758, guillotined without trial on 27 July 1794. Nicknamed fr:L'Incorruptible. Defender of the people. Author of our republican motto: fr:Liberté, égalité, fraternité"

### Street names[edit]

Robespierre is one of the few revolutionaries not to have a street named for him in the center of Paris. At the Liberation of Paris, the municipal council (elected on 29 April 1945 with 27 communists, 12 socialists and 4 radicals out of 48 members), decided on 13 April 1946, to rename the Place du Marché-Saint-Honoré "Place Robespierre", a decision approved at the prefectorial level on 8 June. However, in the wake of political changes in 1947, it reverted to its original name on 6 November 1950. Streets in the so-called "Red belt" bear his name, e.g. at Montreuil. There is also a Metro station "Robespierre" on Line 9 (Mairie de Montreuil – Pont de Sèvres), in the commune of Montreuil, named during the era of the Popular Front. There are, however, numerous streets, roads, and squares named for him elsewhere in France.

### Plaques and monuments[edit]

During the Soviet era, the Russians built two statues of him: one in Leningrad and another in Moscow (the Robespierre Monument). The monument was commissioned by Vladimir Lenin, who referred to Robespierre as a Bolshevik before his time.[42] Due to the poor construction of the monument (it was made of tubes and common concrete), it crumbled within three days of its unveiling and was never replaced.[43] The Robespierre Embankment in Saint-Petersburg across Kresty prison returned to its original name Voskresenskaya Embankment in 2014.[44]

### Arras[edit]

* On 14 October 1923, a plaque was placed on the house at 9 Rue Maximilien Robespierre (formerly Rue des Rapporteurs) rented by the three Robespierre siblings in 1787–1789, in the presence of the mayor Gustave Lemelle, Albert Mathiez and Louis Jacob. Built in 1730, the house has had a varied history as a typing school, and a craftsmen's museum, but is now being developed as a Robespierre Museum.
* In 1994, a plaque was unveiled by ARBR on the façade of the Carrauts' brewery on the Rue Ronville, where Maximilien and Augustin were brought up by their grandparents.
* An Art Deco marble bust by Maurice Cladel was intended to be displayed in the gardens of the former Abbey of Saint-Vaast. A mixture of politics and concerns about weathering led to it being placed in the Hôtel de Ville. After many years in a tribunal room, it can now be seen in the Salle Robespierre. Bronze casts of the bust were made for the bicentenary and are displayed in his former home on Rue Maximilien Robespierre and at the Lycée Robespierre, unveiled in 1990.

### Paris and elsewhere[edit]

* Robespierre is commemorated by two plaques in Paris, one on the exterior of the Duplays' house, now 398 rue Saint-Honoré, the other, erected by the Société des études robespierristes in the Conciergerie.
* In 1909, a committee presided over by René Viviani and Georges Clemenceau proposed erecting a statue in the garden of the Tuileries, but press hostility and failure to garner enough public subscriptions led to its abandonment. However, Robespierre is recognisable in François-Léon Sicard's marble Altar of the National Convention (1913), originally intended for the gardens of the Tuileries and now in the Panthéon.
* A stone bust by Albert Séraphin (1949) stands in the square Robespierre, opposite the theatre in Saint-Denis, with the inscription: "Maximilien Robespierre l'Incorruptible 1758–1794".[45]
* Charles Correia's 1980s bronze sculptural group at the Collège Robespierre in Épinay-sur-Seine depicts him and Louis Antoine de Saint-Just at a table, working on the 1793 Constitution and Declaration of Human Rights.[46] A mural in the school also depicts him.[47]
* In 1986, Claude-André Deseine's terracotta bust of 1791 was bought for the new Musée de la Révolution française at Vizille. This returned to public view Robespierre's only surviving contemporary sculpted portrait. A plaster cast of it is displayed at the Conciergerie in Paris, and a bronze cast is in the Place de la Révolution Française in Montpellier, with bronzes of other figures of the time.[48]

### Resistance units[edit]

In the Second World War, several French Resistance groups took his name: the Robespierre Company in Pau, commanded by Lieutenant Aurin, alias Maréchal; the Robespierre Battalion in the Rhône, under Captain Laplace; and a maquis formed by Marcel Claeys in the Ain.

## See also[edit]

* Thermidorian Reaction

## References[edit]

According to David P. Jordan: "Any comprehensive bibliography would be virtually impossible. In 1936 Gérard Walter drew up a list of over 10,000 works on Robespierre, and much has been done since."[49]

1. ^ a b McPhee 2012, p. 214.
2. ^ Scurr 2007, p. 347.
3. ^ Jordan 1985, p. 218.
4. ^ Jordan 1985, p. 220.
5. ^ Rudé 1976, p. 38.
6. ^ Scurr 2007, p. 284-285, 297.
7. ^ Rudé 1976, p. 40-41.
8. ^ a b Stewart 1951, p. 519.
9. ^ Rudé 1976, p. 41.
10. ^ Rudé 1976, p. 42.
11. ^ Rudé 1976, p. 41-42.
12. ^ McPhee 2012, p. 189-191.
13. ^ McPhee 2012, p. 194-195.
14. ^ McPhee 2012, p. 196.
15. ^ McPhee 2012, pp. 198–199.
16. ^ Rudé 1976, p. 47.
17. ^ Scurr 2007, p. 328.
18. ^ Jordan 1985, p. 204.
19. ^ Rudé 1976, p. 328.
20. ^ Scurr 2007, p. 330-331.
21. ^ McPhee 2012, p. 205.
22. ^ Scurr 2007, p. 340.
23. ^ McPhee 2012, p. 209.
24. ^ McPhee 2012, p. 207.
25. ^ a b McPhee 2012, p. 213.
26. ^ a b McPhee 2012, p. 215.
27. ^ Discours du 8 thermidor an II (Robespierre) – French Wikisource.
28. ^ McPhee 2012, p. 216.
29. ^ Scurr 2007, p. 350.
30. ^ "THE PUBLIC PROSECUTOR OF THE TERROR: ANTOINE QUENTIN FOUQUIER-TINVILLE, p. 118" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 December 2018. Retrieved 9 January 2019.
31. ^ Rude, George (1967) The crowd in the French Revolution, p. 136. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
32. ^ Walter, G. (1961) Le vaincu du neuf Thermidor, p. 17. In: L'œuvre, vol. II, part III. Gallimard.
33. ^ Aftalion, Florin (22 March 1990). The French Revolution: An Economic Interpretation. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-5213-6810-0.
34. ^ Cobb, R. & C. Jones (1988) The French Revolution. Voices from a momentous epoch 1789-1795, p. 230
35. ^ a b Scurr 2007, p. 352.
36. ^ McPhee 2012, p. 217.
37. ^ a b McPhee 2012, p. 218.
38. ^ a b Scurr 2007, p. 253.
39. ^ a b McPhee 2012, p. 219.
40. ^ Scurr 2007, p. 354.
41. ^ a b Scurr 2007, p. 357.
42. ^ Jordan 2013.
43. ^ Bean, Horak & Kapse 2014.
44. ^ Tatlin, V.; Dymshits-Tolstaia, S.; Bowlt, John (1984). "Memorandum from the Visual Arts Section of the People's Commissariat for Enlightenment to the Soviet of People's Commissars: Project for the Organization of Competitions for Monuments to Distinguished Persons (1918)". Design Issues. 1 (2): 70–74. doi:10.2307/1511500. JSTOR 1511500.
45. ^ See René & Peter van der Krogt, Statues – Hither & Thither for photographs: [1]
46. ^ See Seine-Saint-Dénis Atlas de l'architecture et du patrimoinefor photographs by Agnès Paty: [2]
47. ^ See Département Seine-Saint-Dénis Atlas de l'architecture et du patrimoine: [3]
48. ^ "Sculptures à Montpellier : Place de la Révolution Française – Page 2". www.nella-buscot.com.
49. ^ Jordan 1977, pp. 282–291.

### Works cited[edit]

* Bean, Jennifer M.; Horak, Laura; Kapse, Anupama (2014). Silent Cinema and the Politics of Space. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-2530-1507-5.
* McPhee, Peter (2012). Robespierre: A Revolutionary Life. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-3001-1811-7.
* Scurr, Ruth (2007). Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution. Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 978-1-4668-0578-1.
* Jordan, David P. (1977). "Robespierre". Journal of Modern History. 49 (2): 282–291. doi:10.1086/241568. JSTOR 1876343. S2CID 222428259.
* Jordan, David P. (1985). The Revolutionary Career of Maximilien Robespierre. The University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-2264-1037-1.
* Jordan, David P. (2013). Revolutionary Career of Maximilien Robespierre. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4767-2571-0.
* Rudé, George (1976). Robespierre : portrait of a Revolutionary Democrat. New York: Viking Press. ISBN 978-0-6706-0128-8.
* Stewart, John Hall (1951). A Documentary Survey of the French Revolution. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-7581-9211-0.

## Further reading[edit]

* Abbott, John Stevens Cabot, The French Revolution of 1789: As Viewed in the Light of Republican Institutions p. 393
* Andress, David. "Living the Revolutionary Melodrama: Robespierre's Sensibility and the Construction of Political Commitment in the French Revolution." Representations 114#1 2011, pp. 103–128. online
* Belissa, Marc, and Julien Louvrier. "Robespierre in French and English language publications since 2000." Annales Historiques de la Révolution Française, no. 1, pp. 73–93. Armand Colin, 2013.
* Benigno, Francesco. "Never the Same Again: On Some Recent Interpretations of the French Revolution." Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales: English Edition 71.2 (2016): 189–216 online.
* Richard Cobb, Les armées révolutionnaires. Instrument de la Terreur dans les départements. Avril 1793-Floréal An II, Paris-La Haye, Mouton and Co, 1961–1963, 2 volumes in-8°, VIII–1017, présentation en ligne, présentation en ligne.
* Cobban, Alfred. "The Political Ideas of Maximilien Robespierre during the Period of the Convention", English Historical Review Vol. 61, No. 239 (January 1946), pp. 45–80 JSTOR 554837
* Cobban, Alfred. "The Fundamental Ideas of Robespierre", English Historical Review Vol. 63, No. 246 (1948), pp. 29–51 JSTOR 555187
* Dicus, Andrew. "Terror and Self-Evidence: Robespierre and the General Will." European Romantic Review 31.2 (2020): 199–218.
* Eagan, James Michael (1978). Maximilien Robespierre: Nationalist Dictator. New York: Octagon Books. ISBN 978-0-3749-2440-9. Presents Robespierre as the origin of Fascist dictators.
* Hodges, Donald Clark (2003) Deep Republicanism: Prelude to Professionalism. Lexington Books.
* Jones, Colin. "The overthrow of Maximilien Robespierre and the "indifference" of the people". American Historical Review 119.3 (2014): 689–713.
* Koekkoek, René (2020) The Citizenship Experiment Contesting the Limits of Civic Equality and Participation in the Age of Revolutions. Studies in the History of Political Thought
* Linton, Marisa (August 2006). "Robespierre and the Terror". History Today. 56 (8): 23–29. Archived from the original on 13 March 2007. Retrieved 29 August 2006.
* Linton, Marisa (January–March 2013). "Robespierre et l'authenticité révolutionnaire". Annales Historiques de la Révolution Française (in French). 371 (371): 153–173. doi:10.4000/ahrf.12700.
* Linton, Marisa (2015). "The choices of Maximilien Robespierre" (PDF). H-France Salon. 7 (14).
* McPhee, P. (2013). "«Mes forces et ma santé ne peuvent suffire». crises politiques, crises médicales dans la vie de Maximilien Robespierre, 1790-1794". Annales Historiques de la Révolution Française (in French). 371 (371): 137–152. doi:10.4000/ahrf.12695.
* Palmer, Robert Roswell (1941). Twelve Who Ruled: The Year of Terror in the French Revolution. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-6910-5119-2. A sympathetic study of the Committee of Public Safety.
* Parry, Albert. Terrorism: from Robespierre to the weather underground.  Courier, 2013).
* Poirot, Thibaut. "Robespierre and War, a question posed as early as 1789?." Annales Historiques de la Révolution Française, no. 1, pp. 115–135. Armand Colin, 2013.
* Popkin, Jeremy D. A New World Begins: The History of the French Revolution (2018)
* Robespierre, Maximilien; Žižek, Slavoj (2017). Ducange, Jean (ed.). Virtue and Terror. Revolutions. Translated by Howe, John. Verso. ISBN 978-1-7866-3337-8.
* Rudé, George. "Robespierre"History Today (Apr 1958) 8#4 pp 221–229.
* Scott, Otto. Robespierre: The Voice of Virtue (Routledge, 2017).
* Sepinwall, Alyssa Goldstein. "Robespierre, Old Regime Feminist? Gender, the Late Eighteenth Century, and the French Revolution Revisited." Journal of Modern History 82#1 2010, pp. 1–29. online
* Shusterman, Noah C. "All of His Power Lies in the Distaff: Robespierre, Women and the French Revolution." Past & Present 223.1 (2014): 129–160.
* Smyth, Jonathan. Robespierre and the Festival of the Supreme Being: The search for a republican morality (Manchester UP, 2016).
* Soboul, Albert. "Robespierre and the Popular Movement of 1793–4", Past and Present, No. 5. (May 1954), pp. 54–70. JSTOR 649823
* Turner, Michael J. "Revolutionary Connection: 'The Incorruptible' Maximilian Robespierre and the 'Schoolmaster of Chartism' Bronterre O'Brien." The Historian 75.2 (2013): 237–261.

## External links[edit]

* Media related to 9 Thermidor at Wikimedia Commons

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1793|

* Execution of Louis XVI (21 Jan 1793)
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* Anti-clerical laws (throughout the year)

1794|

* Danton and Desmoulins guillotined (5 Apr 1794)
* Law of 22 Prairial (10 Jun 1794)
* Thermidorian Reaction (27 Jul 1794)
* Robespierre guillotined (28 Jul 1794)
* White Terror (Fall 1794)
* Closing of the Jacobin Club (11 Nov 1794)

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* Insurrection of 12 Germinal, Year III (1 Apr 1795)
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* Coup of 18 Fructidor (4 Sep 1797)
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1793|

* First Coalition
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* Expedition to Sardinia (21 Dec 1792 - 25 May 1793)
* Battle of Kaiserslautern
* Siege of Mainz
* Battle of Wattignies
* Battle of Hondschoote
* Siege of Bellegarde
* Battle of Peyrestortes (Pyrenees)
* Siege of Toulon (18 Sep – 18 Dec 1793)
* First Battle of Wissembourg (13 Oct 1793)
* Battle of Truillas (Pyrenees)
* Second Battle of Wissembourg (26–27 Dec 1793)

1794|

* Battle of Villers-en-Cauchies (24 Apr 1794)
* Second Battle of Boulou (Pyrenees) (30 Apr – 1 May 1794)
* Battle of Tourcoing (18 May 1794)
* Battle of Tournay (22 May 1794)
* Battle of Fleurus (26 Jun 1794)
* Chouannerie
* Battle of Aldenhoven (2 Oct 1794)
* Siege of Luxembourg (22 Nov 1794 - 7 Jun 1795)

1795|

* Siege of Luxembourg (22 Nov 1794 - 7 Jun 1795)
* Peace of Basel

1796|

* Battle of Lonato (3–4 Aug 1796)
* Battle of Castiglione (5 Aug 1796)
* Battle of Theiningen
* Battle of Neresheim (11 Aug 1796)
* Battle of Amberg (24 Aug 1796)
* Battle of Würzburg (3 Sep 1796)
* Battle of Rovereto (4 Sep 1796)
* First Battle of Bassano (8 Sep 1796)
* Battle of Emmendingen (19 Oct 1796)
* Battle of Schliengen (26 Oct 1796)
* Second Battle of Bassano (6 Nov 1796)
* Battle of Calliano (6–7 Nov 1796)
* Battle of Arcole (15–17 Nov 1796)
* Ireland expedition (Dec 1796)

1797|

* Naval Engagement off Brittany (13 Jan 1797)
* Battle of Rivoli (14–15 Jan 1797)
* Battle of the Bay of Cádiz (25 Jan 1797)
* Treaty of Leoben (17 Apr 1797)
* Battle of Neuwied (18 Apr 1797)
* Treaty of Campo Formio (17 Oct 1797)

1798|

* French invasion of Switzerland (28 January – 17 May 1798)
* French Invasion of Egypt (1798–1801)
* Irish Rebellion of 1798 (23 May – 23 Sep 1798)
* Quasi-War (1798–1800)
* Peasants' War (12 Oct – 5 Dec 1798)

1799|

* Second Coalition (1798–1802)
* Siege of Acre (20 Mar – 21 May 1799)
* Battle of Ostrach (20–21 Mar 1799)
* Battle of Stockach (25 Mar 1799)
* Battle of Magnano (5 Apr 1799)
* Battle of Cassano (27–28 Apr 1799)
* First Battle of Zurich (4–7 Jun 1799)
* Battle of Trebbia (17–20 Jun 1799)
* Battle of Novi (15 Aug 1799)
* Second Battle of Zurich (25–26 Sep 1799)

1800|

* Battle of Marengo (14 Jun 1800)
* Convention of Alessandria (15 Jun 1800)
* Battle of Hohenlinden (3 Dec 1800)
* League of Armed Neutrality (1800–02)

1801|

* Treaty of Lunéville (9 Feb 1801)
* Treaty of Florence (18 Mar 1801)
* Algeciras campaign (8 Jul 1801)

1802|

* Treaty of Amiens (25 Mar 1802)
* Treaty of Paris (25 Jun 1802)

Military leaders

France|

| French Army|

* Eustache Charles d'Aoust
* Pierre Augereau
* Alexandre de Beauharnais
* Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte
* Louis-Alexandre Berthier
* Jean-Baptiste Bessières
* Guillaume Brune
* Jean François Carteaux
* Jean-Étienne Championnet
* Chapuis de Tourville
* Adam Philippe, Comte de Custine
* Louis-Nicolas Davout
* Louis Desaix
* Jacques François Dugommier
* Thomas-Alexandre Dumas
* Charles François Dumouriez
* Pierre Marie Barthélemy Ferino
* Louis-Charles de Flers
* Paul Grenier
* Emmanuel de Grouchy
* Jacques Maurice Hatry
* Lazare Hoche
* Jean-Baptiste Jourdan
* François Christophe de Kellermann
* Jean-Baptiste Kléber
* Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
* Jean Lannes
* Charles Leclerc
* Claude Lecourbe
* François Joseph Lefebvre
* Étienne Macdonald
* Jean-Antoine Marbot
* Marcellin Marbot
* François Séverin Marceau
* Auguste de Marmont
* André Masséna
* Bon-Adrien Jeannot de Moncey
* Jean Victor Marie Moreau
* Édouard Mortier, Duke of Trévise
* Joachim Murat
* Michel Ney
* Pierre-Jacques Osten [fr]
* Nicolas Oudinot
* Catherine-Dominique de Pérignon
* Jean-Charles Pichegru
* Józef Poniatowski
* Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr
* Barthélemy Louis Joseph Schérer
* Jean-Mathieu-Philibert Sérurier
* Joseph Souham
* Jean-de-Dieu Soult
* Louis-Gabriel Suchet
* Belgrand de Vaubois
* Claude Victor-Perrin, Duc de Belluno

|

French Navy|

* Charles-Alexandre Linois

Opposition|

|  Austria|

* József Alvinczi
* Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen
* Count of Clerfayt (Walloon)
* Karl Aloys zu Fürstenberg
* Friedrich Freiherr von Hotze (Swiss)
* Friedrich Adolf, Count von Kalckreuth
* Pál Kray (Hungarian)
* Charles Eugene, Prince of Lambesc (French)
* Maximilian Baillet de Latour (Walloon)
* Karl Mack von Leiberich
* Rudolf Ritter von Otto (Saxon)
* Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld
* Peter Vitus von Quosdanovich
* Prince Heinrich XV of Reuss-Plauen
* Johann Mészáros von Szoboszló (Hungarian)
* Karl Philipp Sebottendorf
* Dagobert von Wurmser

|

Britain|

* Sir Ralph Abercromby
* James Saumarez, 1st Baron de Saumarez
* Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth
* Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany

Netherlands|

* William V, Prince of Orange

Prussia|

* Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick
* Frederick Louis, Prince of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen

Russia|

* Alexander Korsakov
* Alexander Suvorov
* Andrei Rosenberg

Spain|

* Luis Firmin de Carvajal
* Antonio Ricardos

Other significant figures and factions

Patriotic Society of 1789|

* Jean Sylvain Bailly
* Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette
* François Alexandre Frédéric, duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt
* Isaac René Guy le Chapelier
* Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau
* Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès
* Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord
* Nicolas de Condorcet

Feuillants
and monarchiens

* Grace Elliott
* Arnaud de La Porte
* Jean-Sifrein Maury
* François-Marie, marquis de Barthélemy
* Guillaume-Mathieu Dumas
* Antoine Barnave
* Lafayette
* Alexandre-Théodore-Victor, comte de Lameth
* Charles Malo François Lameth
* André Chénier
* Jean-François Rewbell
* Camille Jordan
* Madame de Staël
* Boissy d'Anglas
* Jean-Charles Pichegru
* Pierre Paul Royer-Collard
* Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac

Girondins|

* Jacques Pierre Brissot
* Jean-Marie Roland de la Platière
* Madame Roland
* Father Henri Grégoire
* Étienne Clavière
* Marquis de Condorcet
* Charlotte Corday
* Marie Jean Hérault
* Jean Baptiste Treilhard
* Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud
* Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve
* Jean Debry
* Olympe de Gouges
* Jean-Baptiste Robert Lindet
* Louis Marie de La Révellière-Lépeaux

The Plain|

* Abbé Sieyès
* de Cambacérès
* Charles-François Lebrun
* Pierre-Joseph Cambon
* Bertrand Barère
* Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot
* Philippe Égalité
* Louis Philippe I
* Mirabeau
* Antoine Christophe Merlin de Thionville
* Jean Joseph Mounier
* Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours
* François de Neufchâteau

Montagnards|

* Maximilien Robespierre
* Georges Danton
* Jean-Paul Marat
* Camille Desmoulins
* Louis Antoine de Saint-Just
* Paul Barras
* Louis Philippe I
* Louis Michel le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau
* Jacques-Louis David
* Marquis de Sade
* Georges Couthon
* Roger Ducos
* Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois
* Jean-Henri Voulland
* Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai
* Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville
* Philippe-François-Joseph Le Bas
* Marc-Guillaume Alexis Vadier
* Jean-Pierre-André Amar
* Prieur de la Côte-d'Or
* Prieur de la Marne
* Gilbert Romme
* Jean Bon Saint-André
* Jean-Lambert Tallien
* Pierre Louis Prieur
* Antoine Christophe Saliceti

Hébertists
and Enragés|

* Jacques Hébert
* Jacques-Nicolas Billaud-Varenne
* Pierre Gaspard Chaumette
* Charles-Philippe Ronsin
* Antoine-François Momoro
* François-Nicolas Vincent
* François Chabot
* Jean Baptiste Noël Bouchotte
* Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Gobel
* François Hanriot
* Jacques Roux
* Stanislas-Marie Maillard
* Charles-Philippe Ronsin
* Jean-François Varlet
* Theophile Leclerc
* Claire Lacombe
* Pauline Léon
* Gracchus Babeuf
* Sylvain Maréchal

Others|

| Figures|

* Charles X
* Louis XVI
* Louis XVII
* Louis XVIII
* Louis Antoine, Duke of Enghien
* Louis Henri, Prince of Condé
* Louis Joseph, Prince of Condé
* Marie Antoinette
* Napoléon Bonaparte
* Lucien Bonaparte
* Joseph Bonaparte
* Joseph Fesch
* Joséphine de Beauharnais
* Joachim Murat
* Jean Sylvain Bailly
* Jacques-Donatien Le Ray
* Guillaume-Chrétien de Malesherbes
* Talleyrand
* Thérésa Tallien
* Gui-Jean-Baptiste Target
* Catherine Théot
* Madame de Lamballe
* Madame du Barry
* Louis de Breteuil
* de Chateaubriand
* Jean Chouan
* Loménie de Brienne
* Charles Alexandre de Calonne
* Jacques Necker
* Jean-Jacques Duval d'Eprémesnil
* List of people associated with the French Revolution

|

Factions|

* Jacobins
* Cordeliers
* Panthéon Club
* Social Club

Influential thinkers

* Les Lumières
* Beaumarchais
* Edmund Burke
* Anacharsis Cloots
* Charles-Augustin de Coulomb
* Pierre Claude François Daunou
* Diderot
* Benjamin Franklin
* Thomas Jefferson
* Antoine Lavoisier
* Montesquieu
* Thomas Paine
* Jean-Jacques Rousseau
* Abbé Sieyès
* Voltaire
* Mary Wollstonecraft

Cultural impact

* La Marseillaise
* Cockade of France
* Flag of France
* Liberté, égalité, fraternité
* Marianne
* Bastille Day
* Panthéon
* French Republican calendar
* Metric system
* Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
* Cult of the Supreme Being
* Cult of Reason
* Temple of Reason
* Sans-culottes
* Phrygian cap
* Women in the French Revolution
* Incroyables and merveilleuses
* Symbolism in the French Revolution
* Historiography of the French Revolution
* Influence of the French Revolution
* Films

Authority control databases: National |

* Germany

|

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