Title: Maximilien Robespierre
Headings: Maximilien Robespierre
Maximilien Robespierre
Background
At the Estates-General
Radical views and popularity
Disposing of the Girondons
Rapid fall

Content: As a 16-year-old, Robespierre was chosen to deliver a Latin eulogy to the newly crowned Louis XVI – but the king famously snubbed the young student, remaining in his carriage out of the rain then leaving early. By the early 1780s, Robespierre had graduated with a law degree and returned to Arras where he worked as a defence lawyer. He became one of the region’s best advocates, taking on and winning some high profile cases and frequently working pro bono (‘for the public good’) on behalf of those who could not pay. At the Estates-General
A portrait of the young Robespierre on entering practice as a lawyer
Robespierre’s political life began in 1789 when he was elected to represent the Third Estate of Artois at the Estates-General. Radical in his views, he was one of the first to join the Breton Club (a forerunner to the Jacobin club) and, later, the National Assembly. Robespierre’s influence in the National Constituent Assembly was overshadowed by the oratorical power of men like Honore Mirabeau and Jean-Sylvain Bailly. He was more effective behind the scenes, however, and came to exert considerable influence in the Jacobin club. Robespierre did not sit in the Legislative Assembly (he famously raised the self-denying ordinance that prevented this) but was elected to the National Convention in September 1792. Radical views and popularity
Robespierre was an avid believer in republicanism, democracy, equality and the ideas of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In his first months in the Convention, Robespierre expressed his opposition to slavery in the French colonies, to a declaration of revolutionary war in Europe, to the use of capital punishment and the excessive use of violence.