Title: Who was Maximilien Robespierre? - Answers
Headings: Who was Maximilien Robespierre
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Who was Maximilien Robespierre?
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Who was Maximilien Robespierre?

Content: During the revolution, he also made France a secular state. He attempted to rename the months of the year and make 1794 the first year of French history. This did not catch on though, and his attempt to institute a new "festival of the saint" was also unsuccessful. Robespierre allowed the death of thousands of French persons - men, women and children - during the course of the revolution. He died in 1794, the final victim of the revolution - taken by the guillotine to which he had sent thousands. Robespierre was a lawyer and a politician who was very good at making speeches; at his own trial he delivered a very convincing two hour long speech in his defense. When he was 17, he was chosen out of 500 pupils to deliver a welcome speech to the King (ironically he eventually supported the King's execution later). He was the eldest of four children; his mother died in child birth when he was young and his father, distressed at the loss of his wife, vanished when Robespierre was eight years old, leaving the four children to be cared for by their paternal grandfather and aunts.