23 Prairial
An CCXXXIV
9 Thermidor II
The 9th of Thermidor is the most famous date of the Revolutionary calendar. On that day in Year II of the Republic, Robespierre was overthrown. The French Revolution passed its climax. The Incorruptible fell victim to a parliamentary revolt. A simple but deadly tactic: the deputies shouted him down, while the presiding officer stubbornly refused him the floor. Because the conspirators knew that the power of persuasion was Robespierre’s greatest weapon, they stopped him from speaking. The coup succeeded. The victory belonged to the fearful, the indifferent and the scoundrels. They sent him to the guillotine without trial. Then they rewrote history. The shared Terror of the committees became the tyranny of Robespierre.
1794
- July 1794 · Among the deputies of the Convention, a group forms that plans Robespierre’s fall. It includes, among others, Fouché, Tallien, Fréron, Lecointre and Barras. For their plan, they exploit the fear already felt by many deputies, who have feared for their lives at least since the Law of Prairial.
- July 23, 1794 · At a joint meeting of the Committee of Public Safety and the Committee of General Security, the members agree on settling many disputes over authority. But the discord remains. Even within the committees, a front forms against Robespierre.
- July 26, 1794 · Robespierre speaks in the Convention. He presents himself as the victim of slander and conspiracies, but names no one. That same evening, at the Jacobin Club, he says that this speech is
his testament
. - July 27, 1794 · Parliamentary session of 9 Thermidor. Saint-Just is interrupted after only a few words by Tallien. As presiding officers, Collot d'Herbois and Thuriot refuse to let Robespierre speak. Saint-Just, Robespierre, Couthon, Lebas and Robespierre’s brother are arrested. But the prisons controlled by the Commune refuse to admit them. Robespierre and his supporters gather at the Hôtel de Ville. The Convention declares the insurgents outlawed.
- July 28, 1794 · Shortly after midnight, troops of the Convention storm the Hôtel de Ville. In the early evening, Robespierre and 21 of his supporters are executed, to the cheers of the people, after their identities are merely established and without a verdict.
- July 29, 1794 · Execution of 71 men from Robespierre’s circle, mainly from the Paris Commune. Never before had so many people been guillotined in a single day.
- July 30, 1794 · Execution of another 12 Robespierrists.
- August 1794 · The Convention repeals the Law of Prairial. The Committee of Public Safety and the Committee of General Security are partly stripped of their powers and reorganised.
Quotes
I am made to fight crime, not to govern it.
Robespierre in his final speech before the Convention, 8 Thermidor.
Down with the tyrant!
Cries of the deputies on 9 Thermidor.
Are you Maximilien Robespierre?
Question by Judge Scellier on 10 Thermidor. He only had to establish the identity of the gravely wounded man on the stretcher so that he could be executed. Robespierre answered with a nod.
Le Moniteur
The bloody triumph of the Thermidorians over Robespierre
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