Title: 5 Surprising Facts about Robespierre - Discover Walks Blog
Headings: 5 Surprising Facts about Robespierre
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5 Surprising Facts about Robespierre
5 Surprising Facts about Robespierre
1. Robespierre did not agree with the death penalty
2. Robespierre was never officially head of state
3. He let his best friend Camille Desmoulins be guillotined
4. Robespierre wanted to start a cult
5. Robespierre became the scapegoat for his colleagues
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Content: It is because of his progressive ideas that he was elected deputy of the new national assembly in 1789. In 1791, he made a speech in front of this same assembly to defend the abolition of the death penalty. At this moment, this opinion seemed very advanced. In fact, France will wait until 1981, 190 years after Robespierre’s speech, to abolish it and to send the guillotine to the museums. In this speech, Robespierre warned against the risk of judicial error. He also pointed out that it was difficult to present murders as something horrible when the law considers death as a possible punishment. For him, an inmate is defeated, powerless, and a society would be barbaric to kill a man that presents no threat to it. It seems that Robespierre made a difference to how society treated common criminals, but also violences committed on the political level; ensuing a deadly fight which ended the tyranny of the monarchy and brought about democracy. He accepted the people’s violence in its battle for liberty, like the storming of the fortress of La Bastille the 14 th of July 1789.