It was July 28th: ​​the execution of Robespierre

On July 28, 1794 (10 Thermidor, Year II of the French Revolutionary Calendar), Maximilien Robespierre was guillotined in the Place de la Révolution in Paris, along with 21 of his close supporters, including Louis-Antoine de Saint-Just, Georges Couthon, and his brother Augustin Robespierre. The day before, the National Convention had overthrown him and declared him an outlaw, putting an end to his immense power. This execution marked the end of the Reign of Terror and ushered in a new phase of the French Revolution, known as the Thermidorian Reaction.

The fall of the strongman of the Revolution

For several months, Robespierre had dominated the Committee of Public Safety, the main body of the revolutionary government. Under his influence, the Terror intensified in order to eliminate the real or perceived enemies of the Republic. Executions multiplied, fueling deep anxiety even among the revolutionary deputies.

On 9 Thermidor, Year II (July 27, 1794), several members of the Convention decided to act before they themselves became victims of the purges. Robespierre was interrupted mid-session, arrested along with his principal allies, and then taken to the Paris City Hall, where an attempted insurrection failed during the night. Wounded in the jaw under circumstances that remain debated by historians, he was finally captured by forces loyal to the Convention.

An execution that puts an end to the Terror

Declared outlaws, Robespierre and his companions were executed without trial the following day. In the late afternoon, the condemned men were taken by cart to the Place de la Révolution. When the bandage holding Robespierre's shattered jaw was removed before his execution, he cried out in pain, an event reported by several witnesses.

After the guillotine blade fell, his head was displayed to the crowd, who greeted it with cheers. The bodies of the twenty-two condemned men were then buried in a mass grave in the Errancis cemetery, covered with quicklime to prevent any later identification. In the following days, several dozen other associates of the insurrectionary Commune were also guillotined.

The beginning of a revolutionary new chapter

Robespierre's death brought an end to the Reign of Terror, which had claimed thousands of victims in just a few months. The Thermidorian deputies gradually dismantled the exceptional institutions, closed the Jacobin Club, and reduced the powers of the Committee of Public Safety.

This rupture ushered in a period of political reorganization marked by a gradual return to a more moderate regime, without, however, ending revolutionary tensions. A few years later, in 1799, the coup d'état of Napoleon Bonaparte will definitively close the revolutionary period by establishing the Consulate.