Men of terror

Leading revolutionaries whose methods were turned on them

Camille Desmoulins

(1760–94)

Desmoulins’ attempts to make a career as a lawyer suffered due to his stammer. In July 1789 he was in a cafe at the Palais Royal, where he urged people to storm the Bastille. He became a talented, volatile journalist and wrote Le Vieux Cordelier, the chief vehicle for the ‘Indulgent’ faction to attack the revolutionary committees and the Terror. He was arrested in March 1794, tried and executed.

Georges Danton (1759 –94)

At the outbreak of revolution, Danton (left) was a lawyer. After the monarchy fell, he became minister of justice. He had undisclosed sources of wealth, and was probably corrupt. He called for a Revolutionary Tribunal, saying: “Let us be terrible to spare the people from being so.” He sat with the Jacobins in the Convention, and supported the use of terror. Yet there were rumours about his commitment. He was executed along with Desmoulins.

Maximilien Robespierre

(1758– 94)

Robespierre was a lawyer who became a radical revolutionary, a deputy in the first National Assembly, and a leader of the Jacobin Club. Popularly known as ‘the Incorruptible’, he only held power in the last year of his life, after joining the Committee of Public Safety. He is seen as an apologist for the Terror,ror, though the extent to which he controlledled it was exaggerated by the men who overthrew and killed him in the 1794 Thermidor coup.

Louis-Antoine Saint-aint-Just

(1767–94)

The youngest member of the Convention, Saint-Just had a meteoric career as a revolutionary leader. In Parisris he gained a chilling reputation for takingng on the role of spokesman for the Committeeittee of Public Safety in denouncing successivecessive political factions: the Girondins, thee Cordeliers, and the Indulgents. He trieded to defend Robespierre in Thermidor, but ended by dying alongside him.