The French Revolution changed Europe forever, as centuries of oppression under an absolute monarchy saw France’s ‘Third Estate’ rise in violent protest in July 1789. On July 14, Parisians took to storming the Bastille, the fortress that was a symbol of royal oppression, and would eventually execute King Louis XVI and his Queen Marie Antoinette a few years later.
Influenced by Enlightenment thought, the Revolution’s ideals of “liberty, equality, fraternity” led to the abolition of feudalism, male suffrage, and state control over the Catholic Church. But the revolutionaries were by no means united in their vision of this new republic, and increasingly draconian measures aimed at eradicating “suspects” and “traitors” led to a reign of terror, when thousands of people across the country were executed as “counter-revolutionaries”.
WATCH: The origins of the French Revolution
Only the inexorable rise of Napoleon Bonaparte will end the Revolution a decade after it began. It was a time when ordinary people suddenly did extraordinary things. Here are some of the key figures of the time.
Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes
A portrait of Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes.
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Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès was a liberal clergyman who, shortly before the Revolution, wrote a highly influential pamphlet entitled “What is the Third Estate? His argument that the Third Estate (98% of the population) should have real representation in government became the de facto manifesto of the Revolution.
In May 1799, Sieyès was appointed director of the Republic, but did not agree with his corruption. In November 1799, Sieyès and his allies overthrew the Directory, allowing the popular military leader Napoleon to seize power in the coup d’etat of 18 Brumaire, which effectively sounded the death knell for the Revolution. Bonaparte, Sieyes and Roger Ducos were named as Consuls of the French Republic after the coup.
Marquis de Lafayette
The Marquis de Lafayette led French forces during the American Revolution.
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A liberal aristocrat, The Marquis de Lafayette led French forces during the American Revolution and was revered in France as a military hero and supporter of freedom. In consultation with Thomas Jefferson and Abbé Sieyès, Lafayette wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
After the storming of the Bastille, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard. However, when the royal family attempted to flee France during the Flight from Varennes in June 1791, Lafayette was accused of involvement. Its reputation suffered even more when in 1791 the National Guard opened fire on demonstrators on the Champ de Mars.
Lafayette’s moderate stance against growing Jacobin radicalism resulted in a warrant for his arrest. He fled France, but was captured by Austrian troops, spent five years in prison, and only returned once Napoleon took power.
Jean Paul Marat
A portrait of Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793), circa 1793 by artist Joseph Boze.
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Jean-Paul Marat was the most influential journalist of the Revolution. Its periodic The friend of the people (The People’s Friend) took a radical and intransigent position towards the leaders of the revolution, especially the more conservative ones. Marat was a vigorous defender of the working class sans culottes.
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As head of the commune’s surveillance committee, Marat is said to have been involved in organizing the massacres of September 1799 when more than 1,200 “suspicious” people were massacred. Marat also played an important role in the purge of moderate Girondins.
He was murdered by Charlotte Corday, a Gironde sympathizer, while he was in a medicated bath for his skin condition. The entire National Convention attended Marat’s funeral, and he was hailed as a revolutionary martyr.
Jacques-Pierre Brissot
Portrait of Jacques-Pierre Brissot de Warville (1754-1793), circa 1790, by the artist François Bonneville. Found in the collection of the Musée Carnavalet, Paris.
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Jacques Pierre Brissot was the most prominent leader of the Girondins, the most conservative faction in the National Convention. This group was made up of businessmen, traders and financiers and supported the idea of a constitutional monarchy, as opposed to the more radical Montagnards, who championed the needs of the urban working class. His influence was such that the Girondins were often known as the Brissotins.
Following Louis XVI’s arrest for treason, Brissot opposed his execution, calling for a citizen referendum on the issue. When Austria and Prussia warned of reprisals if Louis XVI was injured, Brissot urged the Legislative Assembly to declare war on Austria in 1792, initially a disaster for the French.
On June 2, 1793, armed Parisians surrounded the Convention building and forced the expulsion of the Girondins. Brissot and his allies were declared enemies of the revolution and guillotined in October of the same year.
Olympe de Gouges
An anonymous portrait of Olympe de Gouges (1748-1793) from the Carnavalet Museum in Paris.
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Olympe de Gouges was a playwright and Gironde who campaigned for the abolition of slavery and women’s rights in the new republic. His 1791 Declaration of the Rights of Woman and Citizen asserted that if women had the right to mount the scaffold, they had the right to mount the speaker’s platform.
Gouges wrote to the National Assembly offering to defend Louis XVI at his trial, causing outrage. His 1793 pamphlet “Les Trois Urnes” pleads for a constitutional monarchy, which is a capital crime: she is guillotined three days after the execution of the other Girondins. Her execution was used to warn other politically active women to speak out.
George Danton
Portrait of Georges Jacques Danton by Constance-Marie Charpentier of the Hotel Carnavalet, Paris.
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Georges Danton was a Jacobin and leader of the Club des Cordeliers, one of the political clubs of the French Revolution. In 1792, he was Minister of Justice and delivered a speech on September 2 which launched the September massacres. He was the first president of the Committee of Public Safety, but after the expulsion of the Girondins, he began to campaign against the use of force.
His old friend Robespierre would accuse Danton of being a counter-revolutionary, claiming he profited financially from the Revolution, and Danton met the guillotine on April 5, 1794.
Maximilien Robespierre
Arrest of Maximilien Robespierre on July 28, 1794, engraving, Carnavalet Museum, France.
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Renowned lawyer and speaker, Maximilien Robespierre was the leader of the radical Jacobins in the National Assembly. He campaigned from the Estates General for universal male suffrage, the abolition of slavery and the rights of sans-culottes.
Upon the expulsion of the Girondins in June 1793, Robespierre’s faction, the Montagnards, formed the Committee of Public Safety, the de facto executive government in France, with Robespierre at its head.
Under the Committee’s reign of terror, approximately 40,000 people were executed or massacred. In July 1794, growing paranoia around who would be guillotined next led to the coup of 9 Thermidor which saw Robespierre arrested and guillotined the next day.
