In 1789 the bloody shadow of the French Revolution became a sequence of events that would mark an equally dramatic rise and fall of one Maximilien Robespierre. A stoic ardent coffee drinker can only be remembered for the blood on his hands. Who was this man? Who was this calm voice of reason and staying hand that could quell a blood-thirsty populace; only to be swept along himself into a maddening story of political reckoning never quite seen in Europe since the days of Sulla of ancient Rome in 81 B.C? The lists! The names! No trial; no mercy! How many opponents of anything deemed republican were betrayed? Still to this very day, the name of Robespierre sends shudders down the spine. Images of people being dragged by their hair screaming as the guillotine came down with a bloody swiftness cannot be erased over many lifetimes! This is the story of Maximilien Robespierre, known to his contemporaries as "the Incorruptible"; a humble and pious man of no extraordinary renown, who suddenly became caught within an extraordinary political setting whose vicissitudes eventually led to the execution of the Monarch of France, Louis XVI, and an eventual personal fall just as dramatic as the rise to political prominence. The voice of quite reason that would control a mob eventually became its own victim.
Portrait of Robespierre by Boilly c.1791 Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille.
Born 6 May 1758 and executed on 28 July 1794 Robespierre together with Danton and Marat became the cornerstones of the French Revolution
The life of Robespierre emerges with a scene of tranquility as a young lawyer in the town of Arras in the province of Artois. His father had been a local lawyer as well as his paternal grand-father. Educated locally and through a scholarship at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris, the young man became an admirer of the Latin speeches of Cicero and Cato and idealized the virtues of the ancient Republic of Rome. Ironically, shortly after the coronation of King Louis XVI, the monarch was invited to Lycée Louis-le-Grand, whereupon a young prize winning student by the name of Maximilien Robespierre, at a mere 17 years of age, was named amongst 500 other students, to give the King's welcoming speech! Robespierre graduated as a lawyer at the age of 23 years and was admitted to the Arras bar and appointed a criminal judge in 1782.
Before the year 1783 and a recording of a legal case which he handed, little is heard of him and nothing known of any revolutionary fervor that he may have held. Meticulous in routine, daily the young Robespierre rose early every day and worked for an hour before taking his morning coffee that was served by his doting sister Charlotte. He was a well groomed man taking precise care for his presentation. Robespierre was “well-combed and powdered, in a spotless dressing-gown, installed before a table laden with fine fruit, fresh butter, pure milk and fragrant coffee.” Furthermore, before eating his breakfast, he would always say grace. With such equanimity and pose Robespierre would compose the order of his day and always with a delightful coffee for inspiration. For dinner as much as he could he would avoid alcohol and if at all would dilute his wine with water if company called for a social drink. Courteous to women, in return he was adored and sought after. But shy and reserved, Robespierre always felt his duty to his legal work and dedicated himself to serve as an exemplary figure of moral excellence. Essential, he was a private man, dedicated to routine and moderately inspired by his passion for coffee and fresh fruit.
Maximilien Robespierre's 30th birthday came in 1788 which was suddenly becoming a year of great social agitation across the nation. Everywhere everything was going wrong and the intensity and excitement was in the air and nobody could fail to notice that changes were about to descend. Needless to say these were turbulent times indeed and a nation was acutely aware of the dangers of social chaos. The Monarchy and the Clergy and the National Convention were all at odds. Thus Robespierre would find himself being dragged into heated and animated discussions from which there was no escape for a man of legal duty.
The beginnings of the French Revolution are hard to determine but the essential causes lay in a great sweep of social and political unrest starting in earnest in discussions and commentaries by French philosophers on the plight of the common man in France and the lack of any voice within an archaic system of governance. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was at once the architect and inspiration of the Revolution. To Robespierre and many of his contemporaries, the famed but deceased writer Rousseau, had laid down the law when he produced the very Bible of the Revolution; The Social Contract, and which began with it's defiant testimony: “Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains.” Everywhere people began to recall the precedent of the English Revolution and Oliver Cromwell and at once new possibilities were emerging for the discussion of France becoming a Republic, free of it's apathetic rulers. Formally many historians mark the assault on the infamous prison; the Bastille in Paris on 14th July 1789 as the tinder-box event that electrified a nation into compounding action.
Robespierre, having been elected as a member of was elected a member of the academy of Arras in 1783, then speedily rose in politics until the point he was elected as 5th deputy of the Third Estate of Artois to the Estates-General in 1789 at the age of only 30 years. The position as an elected member entailed he should move to Paris and shortly he became a representative National Assembly. When Robespierre arrived in Paris the atmosphere was already heated and at once Robespierre took to the cafes of Paris to listen to the opinions of the educated over brews of coffee. One such place Robespierre gravitated towards was the famed;
Café Procope, which opened it's doors in 1686 in Paris located in the street then known as the
Rue des Fossés-Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The establishment started as a more genteel setting, where men of fashion and distinction may gather and enjoy a polite conversation over a café. Also just opposite the street in 1689 the famous theater
Comédie Française was established which brought many clientele for a cup of coffee after the plays were shown. In Paris in the 17th century, coffee was taken at the rowdy taverns. The cafe was made famous as the scene of frequent visits by that startling man of letters Voltaire himself. Even the colossus
Jean-Jacques Rousseau is said to have visited the cafe one day having found boredom in the theater thereby seeking refuge in the company of more philosophical men. Paris in the 18th century was full of men who questioned everything in the new age of Reason. Earlier in the mid-18th century, men of such eloquence such as the famed writers Jean-François de La Harpe, Denis Diderot and the Marquis de Condorcet were all frequent for a night of discussion, philosophy, politics and a brew of coffee. In later years as the politics of Paris grew more heated in the 1780's this cafe house of distinction became the center of gravity for men of more serious intent. As the politics of the day became a serious inquiry into the nature of the Monarchy and Government the famed cafe became the very first meeting place of Robespierre, Danton and Marat who all consumed coffee and then used the cafe to discuss the political action of the day. Few would have realized that the cafe itself would soon become the scene to spark the philosophical birth of Revolution as men of political will and mind sought to seize the moment and shape the new course and destiny of France itself. As a result of his frequent visits to the cafe Robespierre soon found himself attracted to a political group known as the Jacobin Club which initially started as the voice piece of the moderate constitutional ideas of the Parisian bourgeoisie. At this time Robespierre was not against the Monarchy but admitted that great changes need to be made to the constitution. With the dramatic storming of the Bastille the Jacobin Club became extremely alarmed at the extremity and danger of revolution and so they reorganized themselves into a new group in 1791 to be known as the Feuillants.
The famous
Café Procope as it stands today in Paris
Such was the autocracy of the French Monarchy that for the last 175 years there had been no properly organized meeting of the deliberative body of French government that included representatives of three Estates: the First being comprised of the clergy, the Second, the nobility and the Third comprised of the middle and lower classes being the educated and relatively affluent bourgeoisie. With the rise of the commercial classes and degradation of the common man; society was clamoring for a new voice. the failure of the Monarchy to recognize the need for changes indeed became the root cause of a revolution which became the bloodiest political class struggle in European history. The Estates began their first meeting at Versailles on May 5, 1789 with Robespierre in attendance and almost immediately they became rebuffed by the Monarchy. The Third Estate then declared itself the "National Assembly" for which Robespierre became a deputy. Moreover the new National Assembly announced that
it alone was the only legal representative of the people. But in moderate fashion at the outset the new National Assembly clearly let it be known that the other two Estates must be included in all legislative deliberation. The rebuttal of the Monarchy quickly led to a rapid succession of events within the days that followed. Neither Robespierre nor the moderate new National Assembly was prepared for the events that followed on the 14th July 1789..
If a picture could launch a thousand words then surely Eugene Delacroix became the one French painter in 1830 that captured the imagination of a Revolution that led to the execution of it's Monarch. Liberty leading the People can be seen in the famous Louvre in Paris.
In a dramatic turn of events the French Revolution was born of blood. Coincidentally, Thomas Jefferson, America's Minister to France, of the newly liberated United States of America (13 colonies) and independent since 1776, was at Versailles as events unfolded. In his letters to the American secretary of State, John Jay, he wrote a vivid account of how events unfolded over a dramatic 4 day period starting 12th July 1789:
"July 12
In the afternoon a body of about 100 German cavalry were advanced and drawn up in the Place Louis XV. and about 300 Swiss posted at a little distance in their rear. This drew people to that spot, who naturally formed themselves in front of the troops, at first merely to look at them. But as their numbers increased their indignation arose: they retired a few steps, posted themselves on and behind large piles of loose stone collected in that Place for a bridge adjacent to it, and attacked the horse with stones. The horse charged, but the advantageous position of the people, and the showers of stones obliged them to retire, and even to quit the field altogether, leaving one of their number on the ground. The Swiss in their rear were observed never to stir. This was the signal for universal insurrection, and this body of cavalry, to avoid being massacred, retired towards Versailles.
The people now armed themselves with such weapons as they could find in Armourer's shops and private houses, and with bludgeons, and were roaming all night through all parts of the city without any decided and practicable object".
"July 13
The next day the States press on the king to send away the troops, to permit the Bourgeoisie of Paris to arm for the preservation of order in the city, and offer to send a deputation from their body to tranquillize them. He refuses all their propositions. A Committee of magistrates and electors of the city are appointed, by their bodies, to take upon them it's government.
The mob, now openly joined by the French guards, force the prisons of St. Lazare, release all the prisoners, and take a great store of corn, which they carry to the corn market. Here they get some arms, and the French guards begin to form and train them. The City committee determines to raise 48,000 Bourgeois, or rather to restrain their numbers to 48,000".
"July 14
On the 14th, they send one of their members (Monsieur de Corny, whom we knew in America) to the Hotel des Invalides to ask arms for their Garde Bourgeoise. He was followed by, or he found there, a great mob. The Governor of the Invalids came out and represented the impossibility of his delivering arms without the orders of those from whom he received them.
De Corney advised the people then to retire, retired himself, and the people took possession of the arms. It was remarkable that not only the Invalids themselves made no opposition, but that a body of 5000 foreign troops, encamped within 400 yards, never stirred.
Monsieur de Corny and five others were then sent to ask arms of Monsieur de Launai, Governor of the Bastille. They found a great collection of people already before the place, and they immediately planted a flag of truce, which was answered by a like flag hoisted on the parapet. The deputation prevailed on the people to fall back a little, advanced themselves to make their demand of the Governor, and in that instant a discharge from the Bastille killed 4. people of those nearest to the deputies. The deputies retired, the people rushed against the place, and almost in an instant were in possession of a fortification, defended by 100 men, of infinite strength, which in other times had stood several regular sieges and had never been taken. How they got in, has as yet been impossible to discover. Those, who pretend to have been of the party tell so many different stories as to destroy the credit of them all.
They took all the arms, discharged the prisoners and such of the garrison as were not killed in the first moment of fury, carried the Governor and Lieutenant governor to the Greve (the place of public execution) cut off their heads, and set them through the city in triumph to the Palais royal.
About the same instant, a treacherous correspondence having been discovered in Monsieur de Flesselles prevot des marchands, they seize him in the hotel de ville, where he was in the exercise of his office, and cut off his head.
These events carried imperfectly to Versailles were the subject of two successive deputations from the States to the King, to both of which he gave dry and hard answers, for it has transpired that it had been proposed and agitated in Council to seize on the principal members of the States general, to march the whole army down upon Paris and to suppress it's tumults by the sword. But at night the Duke de Liancourt forced his way into the king's bedchamber, and obliged him to hear a full and animated detail of the disasters of the day in Paris. He went to bed deeply impressed.
The decapitation of de Launai worked powerfully thro' the night on the whole Aristocratical party, insomuch that in the morning those of the greatest influence on the Count d'Artois represented to him the absolute necessity that the king should give up every thing to the states. This according well enough with the dispositions of the king, he went about 11 oclock, accompanied only by his brothers, to the States general, and there read to them a speech, in which he asked their interposition to re-establish order. . . Tho this be couched in terms of some caution, yet the manner in which it was delivered made it evident that it was meant as a surrender at discretion.
The demolition of the Bastille was now ordered, and begun. A body of the Swiss guards, of the regiment of Ventimille, and the city horse guards join the people. The alarm at Versailles increases instead of abating. They believed that the Aristocrats of Paris were under pillage and carnage, that 150,000 men were in arms coming to Versailles to massacre the Royal family, the court, the ministers and all connected with them, their practices and principles.
The Aristocrats of the Nobles and Clergy in the States general vied with each other in declaring how sincerely they were converted to the justice of voting by persons, and how determined to go with the nation all it's lengths.
The foreign troops were ordered off instantly".
"July 16
Every minister resigned . . . and that night and the next morning the Count d'Artois and a Monsieur de Montesson (a deputy) connected with him, Madame de Polignac, Madame de Guiche and the Count de Vaudreuil favorites of the queen, the Abbe de Vermont her confessor, the Prince of Conde and Duke de Bourbon, all fled, we know not whither.
The king came to Paris, leaving the queen in consternation for his return . . .the king's carriage was in the center, on each side of it the States general, in two ranks, afoot, at their head the Marquis de la Fayette as commander in chief, on horseback, and Bourgeois guards before and behind.
About 60,000 citizens of all forms and colours, armed with the muskets of the Bastille and Invalids as far as they would go, the rest with pistols, swords, pikes, pruning hooks, scythes &c. lined all the streets thro' which the procession passed, and, with the crowds of people in the streets, doors and windows, saluted them every where with cries of 'vive la nation.' But not a single 'vive Ie roy' was heard.
The king landed at the Hotel de ville. There, Monsieur Bailly presented and put into his hat the popular cockade, and addressed him. The king being unprepared and unable to answer, Bailly went to him, gathered from him some scraps of sentences, and made out an answer, which he delivered to the Audience as from the king.
On their return, the popular cries were 'vive le roy et la nation.' He was conducted by a garde Bourgeoise to his palace at Versailles, and thus concluded such an Amende honorable as no sovereign ever made and no people ever received."
Reference: Jefferson's account: Boyd, Julian (ed.), The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol 15 (1958)
Prise de la Bastille by Jean-Pierre Houël 1789, Louvre, Paris.
As a nation fell into chaos the King and Queen of France made a daring dash for safety on the 20th June 1791. They were arrested at Varrenes and escorted back to Paris. Prosecutors growing weary of accommodating the royal family in Paris started to look for reasons to hold a trial for the King and Queen. At the Jacobin Club Robespierre declared himself to be "ni monarchiste ni républicain". But the opinions of Robespierre were kept close to his heart and as the anti-royalist flames were fanned by the threats of war from Austria, his carefully calculated words would sway with the wind against the Monarchy.
The life of Maximilien Robespierre was now rapidly on the ascendant. On 30 September 1791, the Constituent Assembly was officially dissolved and the people of Paris named both Pétion and Robespierre as the two incorruptible patriots for their honor, modesty and refusal of bribes and offers. Robespierre continued to visit the his favorite Café Procope as life seemed to drift back into a calm which was to become merely a lull before the final storm.
Within a tumultuous political setting whree men fought to shape their ideology, later that year in 1791 the National Assembly, which replaced the Constituent Assembly, was itself replaced by the Legislative Assembly of France. Thereafter, in September 1792, the Legislative Assembly was replaced by The National Convention and the monarchy was finally and officially abolished. The abolition of the Monarchy was the final step towards the trial of the King himself. But Robespierre, who was fast becoming the face of the Jacobin club for the ideals of the Republic, soon came under vicious attack from the Girondists who favored a moderate constitution and the radical revolutionaries. The Girondists denounced the trial of the King and the radicals pressed ahead for a trial in December 1791.
At this stage in the turbulent history of the Revolution, an instrument of public execution appeared for the very first time and which was to become synonymous with the Reign of Terror that was about to be unleashed. The very first victim of the guillotine was a convicted felon by the name of Nicolas-Jacques Pelletier. He was a petty criminal condemned to death who was executed before a jubilant crowd of onlookers at the Place de la Révolution on the 25th April 1792. Thus the Reign of Terror was born! Within months of Pelletier’s execution, the National Convention sent thousands of accused political activists and opposition to the the guillotine. At the height of this terror as many as 300 accused men and women were executed in just 3 days. with such twists of irony even the former royal executioner of King Louis XVI was himself guillotined on 21 January 21, 1793. Once the blood-letting had started in 1792 with the establishment of the Revolutionary Tribunal, the lists of public enemies began to grow faster and faster and Robespierre who headed the 'Mountain" faction in the 'National Convention' because he sat on the top benches, became helplessly swept along as the great purge began.
On 20 November 1792, public opinion against the Monarchy turned sharply after the discovery of a secret cache of some 726 documents consisting of Louis' personal letters to Europe. Austria was prepared to sack Paris and France prepared to wage all out war. The documents were deemed hostile to the French Republic and required a trial of treason. In the war that ensued the Austrians proved utterly disorganized before a citizen army of the French inspired by the eloquence of Georges Danton.
King Louis XVI, Queen Marie Antoniette and family, Palace of Versailles
At the trial of the Monarch, Maximilien Robespierre argued for an execution. Finally, on 15 January 1793, a vote was carried out charging Louis XVI with conspiracy and attacks upon public safety. The vote was in agreement by 691 of the 749 deputies present. On the 19th January 1793, 387 deputies voted for the death penalty, 334 voted for detention or a conditional death penalty, and 28 abstained or were absent.
On January 21, 1793 King Louis XVI at the at the Place de la Révolution.
On July 27, 1793,
Maximilien Robespierre was appointed to the Committee of Public Safety, which replaced the Revolutionary Tribunal, thus consolidating his growing political power. It is from this point in the history of the man that the laurels of 'incorruptible' become lost as the man of former stoicism became the ruthless dictator to sweep aside any shadow of enmity in the ruthless charge to secure his very own position. Although the Committee possessed a collective responsibility to pass decree and judgement effectively all heads were turned to the voice of
Maximilien Robespierre, who thus in turn became pressed to satisfy the thirst of the mob for justice and a complete purge of all enemies of France. Thus arose the unholy alliance of madness between the idealist Robespierre, the fiery Danton and the hated Marat - the mad and unbalanced Swiss doctor. The triumvirate became such a union for vengeance that it's very own zeal for political security became doomed almost at the outset because of the insecurity of it's own leaders.
Queen Marie Antoinette was executed on 16 October 1793 at the at the Place de la Révolution.
By April 1794 had only purged 116 names. But as the Committee of Public Safety quickly descended into a bloody swirl of madness, Georges Danton himself, the staunch ally of Robespierre, was accused of financial corruption, tried and promptly executed on the 5th April 1794 with 14 of his supporters. As he walked to the scaffold Danton exclaimed "not a man of them has an idea of government. Robespierre will follow me; he is dragged down by me. Ah, better be a poor fisherman than meddle with the government of men!" and then he faced his executioner and said his last words ... "Don't forget to show my head to the people. It is well worth seeing". Left with no choice, Robespierre swiftly began his maneuverings to remove any potential threat to his tenuous position of authority. Thereafter 500 more names were executed after the execution of Danton by 1st June 1794. Moreover between 10th June and 27th June records show that a staggering 1,363 names were consumed by the bloody blade of revolution. once the blade had fallen there simply was no way that the purge could be stopped. The man of virtue was now completely paralyzed by the fear of his critics that needed to be silence. They all had to be silenced; all of them! Paris was fast descending into utter bedlam. The murderous rantings of Jean-Paul Marat, the mad Swiss doctor, were growing more extreme as he screamed for the blood of 200,000 heads in his paper L’Ami du Peuple. The killing must not end until all scores were settled. It must be all of them for if one should be left standing then retribution could turn swiftly against Robespierre. without compunction he warned his fellow citizens that for those who would not learn the ideals of his own Virtue, the “Blade of the Republic” awaits. “The Terror is nothing save justice, prompt, severe, inflexible. It is an emanation of Virtue”.
With such tragedy Robespierre "the incorruptible" man of piety became swept into such a political situation of extremities where he would have to follow the mad ravings of Marat and order the execution of many notable French citizens. A path of mutually assured self-destruction eventually led to the impeachment and removal of Danton and murder of Marat in his own bath tub by Marie-Charlotte Corday. At her own examination when pressed for an explanation for the murder of Marat, Marie-Charlotte Corday replied "I told my plans to no one. I was not killing a man but a wild beast who was devouring the French people". Ultimately, the blade of anger would turn on Maximilien Robespierre himself. Accused of tyranny by his own deputies the unrest could only lead to more brutal removals or the death of the instigator himself. In complete fear many deputies who feared for their own lives knew that Robespierre had to be removed and very fast. The man of unquestionable virtue was fast becoming a demagogue of extreme ideology. Many deputies knew that their own days were numbered unless the tyrant can be removed. In a final act of confrontation at the National Convention debating all this maddening blood-letting the deputies who lived in fear found strength and a single voice accused Robespierre of tyranny. With an uproar that followed Robespierre was stunned and his voice drowned out. this was the spark everyone was waiting for. Robespierre was shouted down, over-spoken and accused of being a bloody dictator. Somehow managing to retain his composure he walked out of the National Convention. But in quick action deputies ordered the gendarme police to arrest Robespierre that evening in his home. The man who accused people of flouting the virtues of the revolution was now himself bearing the stigma and mark of a dead man. What followed next is largely unclear. Did Robespierre try to commit suicide or did a gendarme let lose a shot in the face of the man in a scuffle? Whatever the version, the finality of Robespierre was to be laid out in prison on a table with the indignity of being mocked at and sneered at by the very people who were once his strong allies. Robespierre had swept in a reign of terror and was now himself swept to the guillotine without trial.
With the execution of King Louis XVI in 1793, upon viewing the final procession the writer
Saint -Honore
would draw the curtain so that a child of his house would not see that which should not be seen. Yet, when it became the turn of Maximilien Robespierre himself, there were no curtains drawn as onlookers were thrilled to see the back of this man, or rather, the very head of the man who had terrorized France for many years!! With bandages unwrapped from his wounded face Robespierre would scream until the final curtain was drawn.
The difference between the French Revolution and it's inspiration form the American Revolution of 1776 was that whilst the 13 american colonies had a unifying purpose to declare independence from Great Britain and refuse to pay it's taxes, in contrast, the French Revolution became a chaotic force out of control once men's minds were unfettered with the storming of the Bastille. With the removal of the British administration the Americans had a plan to implement civil order immediately; with the French; the very spontaneity of the removal of the Monarchy and its administration paved the path for a power struggle on terrible proportions. Like savages men strove to outdo and remove each other as the vacuum of power became a free-for all where personal conflicts and scores could be settled by a reign of Terror rather than through the education of the populace with the ideals of Rousseau.
It is said that the Reign of Terror instigated by Robespierre arbitrarily executed 17,000 people. On 28th July 1794 Robespierre and 21 of his ardent followers, without trial, were all led to the same guillotine that they would use to install their system of justice. The next few days saw a further 82 of his supporters executed without trial and thus ended the Reign of Terror in a climax that not even a literary genius could have anticipated! The National Convention was now rid of these madmen, for once and for all, as the bloodshed came to an appreciable halt. The extremists of political ideology had decimated each other. The demagogues were gone and political tensions abated as the voice of reason started to descend upon the National Convention.
Could it be said that the congregation of great thinkers in Paris coffee houses became the moral justification for the Revolution? Such towering figures as Rosseau, Diderot, Danton, Robespierre and Marat all held their own position within the Paris coffee houses amidst the some of the most violent political history of the day.
That a morning coffee would inspire a visionary to lead the French Revolution of political and social ideas to the cry of Liberté, égalité, fraternité is one matter of incredulity. Notwithstanding, with the assured demise of Robespierre, through the ensuing chaos and bloodshed of a nation, almost certainly, the copious consumption of our popular beverage paved the path for another visionary of greater renown, quietly waiting in the shadows of power. We speak of none other than an even greater man of destiny himself; Napoleon Bonaparte.
Historical reflections on the world's most popular beverage by Pieter Bergli
For those of my readers that have a penchant for art babble then kindly grab a cup of coffee and turn to:
Thank you.
