WEBVTT 1 00:00:20.839 --> 00:00:24.359 Hello, and welcome to Western Siev Episode four hundred and 2 00:00:24.399 --> 00:00:29.239 ninety eight. The Terror. The summer of seventeen ninety three 3 00:00:29.280 --> 00:00:33.000 had already seen France trembling on the edge of collapse. 4 00:00:33.799 --> 00:00:39.479 For an armies pressed on every frontier. Royalist uprisings and 5 00:00:40.039 --> 00:00:46.159 revolts scarred the provinces, particularly in the Vinde region. In Paris, 6 00:00:46.759 --> 00:00:50.560 bread was scarce and anger boiled. And so it was 7 00:00:50.600 --> 00:00:56.799 in this crucible that the revolution turned inward, devouring its 8 00:00:56.920 --> 00:01:01.359 own in what would soon be called the of Terror. 9 00:01:03.159 --> 00:01:08.280 On September seventeenth, seventeen ninety three, the National Convention took 10 00:01:08.319 --> 00:01:11.640 a decisive step that marked the beginning of this terrible 11 00:01:11.680 --> 00:01:16.760 new phase. It adopted the Law of Suspects, which authorized 12 00:01:16.760 --> 00:01:22.439 the arrest of anyone who, quote, by their conduct, relationships, remarks, 13 00:01:22.560 --> 00:01:26.640 or writings, have shown themselves to be partisans of tyranny 14 00:01:27.040 --> 00:01:31.799 or federalism and enemies of liberty end quote. By the 15 00:01:31.799 --> 00:01:37.920 stroke of the pen, suspicion suddenly became synonymous with guilt. 16 00:01:38.159 --> 00:01:42.200 At that same day, revolutionary government was re established in 17 00:01:42.239 --> 00:01:46.640 the region of Bordeaux, where moderates were arrested and imprisoned, 18 00:01:47.239 --> 00:01:53.159 and so the machinery of repression continued to grind in Paris. 19 00:01:53.560 --> 00:01:59.120 The revolution now had eyes everywhere. The neighborhood committees became 20 00:01:59.799 --> 00:02:05.719 ors of denunciation. Snz Used declared, we must not only 21 00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:11.520 punish the traders, must punish the indifferent. He who is 22 00:02:11.759 --> 00:02:16.840 passive in the Republic is an accomplice of the monarchy. 23 00:02:18.199 --> 00:02:22.680 Three days later, on September the twenty first, all women 24 00:02:22.759 --> 00:02:27.680 were required to wear the cockard Trochylaer, the red, white 25 00:02:27.719 --> 00:02:33.159 and blue emblem of the Republic, pinned conspicuously to their camps. 26 00:02:34.120 --> 00:02:40.599 Even fashion was policed for patriotism. The convention next move 27 00:02:40.680 --> 00:02:45.039 against the chaos that had engulfed the economy. On September 28 00:02:45.080 --> 00:02:49.120 twenty ninth, it passed the Law of General Maximum, which 29 00:02:49.159 --> 00:02:53.759 fixed the prices of basic goods and wages. The measure 30 00:02:53.960 --> 00:02:58.439 was designed to calm inflation and reassure the Parisian poor, 31 00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:02.879 but it also struck merchants and farmers, who saw their 32 00:03:02.919 --> 00:03:09.719 livelihoods constrained by revolutionary decree. Robespierre later defended the law 33 00:03:09.800 --> 00:03:14.280 as an act of social justice. Quote, the people are 34 00:03:14.319 --> 00:03:18.360 not cannibals who wish to devour the rich. They only 35 00:03:18.520 --> 00:03:25.080 ask that the rich devour them. No longer Meanwhile, the 36 00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:32.159 guillotine was ready and waiting. On October II, the Convention 37 00:03:32.439 --> 00:03:36.800 ordered that Marie Antoinette, the Widow Cape, as she was 38 00:03:36.840 --> 00:03:42.159 now officially known, be tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal. That 39 00:03:42.319 --> 00:03:46.719 same day, more moderate deputies were purged. One hundred and 40 00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:52.319 thirty six Girondins were excluded from the Assembly. The revolutions 41 00:03:52.360 --> 00:03:57.960 had now effectively had its center collapse. There were only 42 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:02.039 now radicals on the stage both sides, and they had 43 00:04:02.199 --> 00:04:07.120 radical policies. Two days later, on October the fifth, the 44 00:04:07.199 --> 00:04:11.319 Convention adopted the Republican calendar, which was meant to erase 45 00:04:11.599 --> 00:04:16.959 the last vestiges of medieval Christian time. Sundays, Saints and 46 00:04:17.040 --> 00:04:21.199 Holy Days were all abolished. Each month would now have 47 00:04:21.759 --> 00:04:26.160 three ten day weeks, and year one was declared to 48 00:04:26.199 --> 00:04:30.040 have begun on September the twenty second, seventeen ninety two, 49 00:04:30.720 --> 00:04:35.160 the day the monarchy was overthrown. A deputy was hard 50 00:04:35.160 --> 00:04:39.439 to exclaim, quote, we have broken the last chain that 51 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:44.399 bound us to tyranny and superstition. As you can imagine 52 00:04:44.519 --> 00:04:49.800 out in the countryside, this didn't land particularly well, only 53 00:04:50.160 --> 00:04:54.720 fueling the fires of revolt and rebellion from those who 54 00:04:54.759 --> 00:05:00.000 took solace in the old ways, and as I mentioned, 55 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:04.519 and the civil war continued to rage throughout the provinces. 56 00:05:05.399 --> 00:05:09.800 On October the ninth, the Convention's armies recaptured Lyon, which 57 00:05:09.839 --> 00:05:14.839 had risen against the Jacobins months before. This victory only 58 00:05:14.920 --> 00:05:19.920 emboldened the radicals in Paris. On October the tenth, the Convention, 59 00:05:20.040 --> 00:05:23.120 at the urging of Saint Just, declared that the new 60 00:05:23.199 --> 00:05:26.120 Constitution of seventeen ninety three, which they had gone through 61 00:05:26.120 --> 00:05:30.680 so much effort to pass, would be suspended. The decree 62 00:05:30.759 --> 00:05:35.480 read the government of France is revolutionary until the peace. 63 00:05:37.160 --> 00:05:42.319 The constitution, ratified by the people but never implemented, was 64 00:05:42.360 --> 00:05:48.399 now put aside in favor of a revolutionary dictatorship. Then, 65 00:05:48.759 --> 00:05:54.279 on October the twelfth, the Convention passed yet another chilling decree. Lyon, 66 00:05:55.079 --> 00:06:00.000 recently captured, was to be destroyed, was to be leveled 67 00:06:00.600 --> 00:06:04.879 as a punishment for its rebellion. The city was to 68 00:06:04.920 --> 00:06:10.160 be renamed the Age, the Liberated City. Now, of course, 69 00:06:10.839 --> 00:06:13.560 if you've been there, you know Lyon still exists. So 70 00:06:13.879 --> 00:06:17.600 luckily this didn't come to pass, but it was nonetheless 71 00:06:18.160 --> 00:06:22.800 a stark reminder of just how revolutionary things had become 72 00:06:23.279 --> 00:06:27.079 just how vicious things had become. I mean, we on 73 00:06:27.120 --> 00:06:29.759 this podcast haven't really seen a total leveling of a 74 00:06:29.759 --> 00:06:33.759 city since the Romans did it to Corinth matt was 75 00:06:34.319 --> 00:06:40.720 fifteen hundred years earlier. Columns of prisoners, nevertheless, were executed 76 00:06:41.079 --> 00:06:46.360 by cannon fire or mass shootings that same day, on 77 00:06:46.399 --> 00:06:51.839 October the twelfth, Marie Antoinette was summoned before the Revolutionary Tribunal, 78 00:06:52.600 --> 00:06:58.639 accused of treason, conspiracy with foreign powers, and even incest 79 00:06:59.199 --> 00:07:02.920 with her son, a charge that she still met with 80 00:07:03.040 --> 00:07:07.720 dignified silence. By the way, there's absolutely no evidence whatsoever 81 00:07:08.040 --> 00:07:11.920 that this was the case, but she finally responded quote 82 00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:16.000 nature refuses to answer such a charge made against a mother. 83 00:07:17.720 --> 00:07:21.800 On October sixteenth, seventeen ninety three, the Queen of France, 84 00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:26.720 once the symbol of royal splendor, was condemned and led 85 00:07:26.759 --> 00:07:30.759 to the guillotine. Her hair was cut short, her hands bound. 86 00:07:31.759 --> 00:07:35.680 Witnesses said that she faced death with composure, asking only 87 00:07:35.720 --> 00:07:40.240 that the executioner not let her suffer. She was executed 88 00:07:40.279 --> 00:07:44.240 in the Palaesse de Revolution, where her husband had died 89 00:07:44.639 --> 00:07:49.680 nine months earlier. The crowd, once so fascinated by her, 90 00:07:50.480 --> 00:07:53.959 watched in silence. Quote, she was no longer a queen 91 00:07:54.600 --> 00:07:59.920 but a woman condemned. The same day, far to the north, 92 00:08:00.399 --> 00:08:03.879 the army of the Convention actually defeated the Austrians at 93 00:08:03.920 --> 00:08:10.120 the Battle of Watnees, giving the French a badly needed victory. Unfortunately, 94 00:08:10.560 --> 00:08:14.839 this triumph on the borders didn't do ease anything for 95 00:08:14.920 --> 00:08:19.480 the tensions that were broiling within France already. You would 96 00:08:19.519 --> 00:08:22.480 think that the victory would make people breathe a sigh 97 00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:28.160 of relief, but it didn't. Instead, the Jacobins only continued 98 00:08:28.600 --> 00:08:35.080 the ferocious assault against the Moderates. On October seventeenth, Republican 99 00:08:35.159 --> 00:08:40.759 forces crushed the Vende Royalists at Chillette, and now the 100 00:08:40.799 --> 00:08:44.039 war in the West became less a war and more 101 00:08:44.039 --> 00:08:49.799 of a campaign of extermination and revenge. General Westerman would 102 00:08:49.840 --> 00:08:55.679 later declare, quote, the Vende must become a cemetery, and 103 00:08:55.720 --> 00:09:01.120 so it did in Paris, Robes and the Committee of 104 00:09:01.159 --> 00:09:05.600 Public Safety turned next against the ultra revolutionaries known as 105 00:09:05.639 --> 00:09:10.600 the Enrajiz, who demanded still more executions in class war, 106 00:09:11.600 --> 00:09:15.600 and so on October twentieth, instead, the Convention ordered their repression, 107 00:09:16.519 --> 00:09:19.639 establishing that it was the Committee, not the mob on 108 00:09:19.679 --> 00:09:23.720 the streets that would now define the revolution's limits, though 109 00:09:23.759 --> 00:09:28.639 spoiler alert, it wouldn't have a lot of those. Religion 110 00:09:28.799 --> 00:09:32.759 continued to be a popular target. On October the twenty eighth, 111 00:09:32.799 --> 00:09:37.000 the Convention forbade religious instructions by cleric, deepening the de 112 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:42.639 Christianization movement that swept France. The Girondins met their final 113 00:09:42.679 --> 00:09:47.440 fate soon after. On October the thirtieth, the revolutionary Tribunal 114 00:09:47.480 --> 00:09:51.759 sentenced twenty one Girondin leaders to death, and on October 115 00:09:51.799 --> 00:09:56.799 the thirty first, all of them were guillotined. Their spokesman, 116 00:09:57.200 --> 00:10:00.399 a man by the name of Valets, stabbed himself to 117 00:10:00.480 --> 00:10:05.759 death before the blade could fall. Another shouted angrily to 118 00:10:05.840 --> 00:10:10.120 the mob before his execution, quote, we die pure and 119 00:10:10.200 --> 00:10:16.279 we leave crime behind on earth. Quickly, the terror widened 120 00:10:16.600 --> 00:10:21.320 it's net. On November third, Olympia Deguche, the playwright who 121 00:10:21.320 --> 00:10:23.799 had written the Declaration of the Rights of Women and 122 00:10:23.840 --> 00:10:29.399 the Female Citizen, was executed for her supposed Jirondin sympathies. 123 00:10:30.240 --> 00:10:34.240 She wrote quickly before her death, liberty must be the 124 00:10:34.279 --> 00:10:40.840 portion of all or of none. Then came Philippe Egali Tee, 125 00:10:41.639 --> 00:10:44.759 formerly the Duke of Orleon, cousin to the late king, 126 00:10:45.480 --> 00:10:50.799 who had actually voted for louisse execution and now could 127 00:10:50.799 --> 00:10:55.480 not escape his own. He was guillotined on November seventh. 128 00:10:56.399 --> 00:10:59.840 Whether he regretted the execution of his cousin or not, 129 00:11:00.679 --> 00:11:05.120 history doesn't tell us. I think he probably did. The 130 00:11:05.159 --> 00:11:09.600 next day, Madame Roland, wife of the former minister and 131 00:11:09.639 --> 00:11:13.279 a brilliant writer herself, met the same fate. As she 132 00:11:13.399 --> 00:11:16.360 mounted the scaffold, she turned to the statue of nearby 133 00:11:16.399 --> 00:11:21.360 Liberty and cried out, Oh, Liberty, or crimes are committed 134 00:11:21.360 --> 00:11:28.240 in your name. Repression reached even the revolutionary's early heroes. 135 00:11:29.279 --> 00:11:33.559 On November the tenth, Notre Dame Cathedral was rededicated as 136 00:11:33.559 --> 00:11:37.120 a Temple of Reason, celebrating a new civic faith stripped 137 00:11:37.159 --> 00:11:41.000 of Christianity. In place of the Virgin Mary stood a 138 00:11:41.000 --> 00:11:46.039 woman representing liberty, and hymns to reason replace the mass one. 139 00:11:46.120 --> 00:11:50.759 Jacobin declared, we shall replace the mysteries of superstition with 140 00:11:50.879 --> 00:11:57.919 the truths of philosophy. Soon afterwards, November the twelfth Jean 141 00:11:58.120 --> 00:12:02.399 Sylvian ballet the Estra, the first mayor of Paris, who 142 00:12:02.399 --> 00:12:05.919 had actually led the tennis court oath back in seventeen 143 00:12:05.960 --> 00:12:10.399 eighty nine, was executed because he had ordered troops to 144 00:12:10.440 --> 00:12:15.240 fire on protesters in the count de Mars two years before, 145 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:20.840 and so now the revolution turned and devoured its founding fathers. 146 00:12:22.320 --> 00:12:26.279 Even the leaders of the revolution were no longer safe. 147 00:12:26.399 --> 00:12:31.200 On November the seventeenth, supporters of George Danton were arrested 148 00:12:31.200 --> 00:12:36.679 by Robespierre's allies. Danton, returning to Paris on November the twentieth, 149 00:12:36.799 --> 00:12:42.000 urged indulgence in national reconciliation. His friend Camille des Mouion 150 00:12:42.480 --> 00:12:45.799 in Le Vu Courier pleaded for clemency, saying, we are 151 00:12:45.879 --> 00:12:49.559 making a terrible use of our power. The revolution is 152 00:12:49.600 --> 00:12:54.879 frozen and all virtue is on the scaffold, but the 153 00:12:54.879 --> 00:13:00.320 Committee of Public Safety would not heed mercy. No November 154 00:13:00.360 --> 00:13:04.080 the twenty third, the Paris Commune ordered all the churches closed, 155 00:13:04.759 --> 00:13:08.120 declaring that the people no longer needed temples but those 156 00:13:08.480 --> 00:13:12.039 of reason and liberty. Two days later, on November the 157 00:13:12.039 --> 00:13:16.039 twenty eighth, the Convention removed the reins of Mirrabou from 158 00:13:16.039 --> 00:13:19.279 the pantheon, once this man had been revered as a 159 00:13:19.320 --> 00:13:24.200 hero in seventeen eighty nine. Instead, they replaced his remains 160 00:13:24.200 --> 00:13:28.279 with those of murat the slain radical jurist. The ashes 161 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:32.720 of the trader make room for the martyr, A deputy 162 00:13:32.799 --> 00:13:40.799 proclaimed December brought both triumph and terror. On December the twelfth, 163 00:13:41.159 --> 00:13:45.440 the rebel Vende army was defeated at Lemon, slaughtered as 164 00:13:45.480 --> 00:13:50.039 they fled. A week later, on December nineteenth, British forces 165 00:13:50.120 --> 00:13:54.679 withdrew from Toulon after a brilliant plan executed by a 166 00:13:54.840 --> 00:14:01.720 young artillery officer, Napoleon Bonaparte, whose name will soon start 167 00:14:01.759 --> 00:14:07.080 to dominate our story. The Convention celebrated the news with 168 00:14:07.200 --> 00:14:12.720 a thunderous applause. Four days later, on December the twenty third, 169 00:14:13.240 --> 00:14:18.039 General Westerman crushed the last Venden army at seven A. 170 00:14:18.200 --> 00:14:24.600 Six thousand prisoners were summarily executed. Quote no more bendet, 171 00:14:25.240 --> 00:14:28.879 he wrote to Paris. It is dead beneath our sabers. 172 00:14:29.440 --> 00:14:32.759 I have buried it in the swamps and woods of 173 00:14:32.840 --> 00:14:38.519 seven A. And finally, on December the twenty fourth, the 174 00:14:38.559 --> 00:14:43.000 Convention renamed Toulan Porte la main port of the Mountain 175 00:14:43.559 --> 00:14:48.240 in honor of the Jacobin faction the Montagnards. The Republic 176 00:14:48.440 --> 00:14:55.639 was victorious, but blood drenched every triumph. The last weeks 177 00:14:55.639 --> 00:15:00.879 of seventeen ninety three had seen the Republic cover itself 178 00:15:01.000 --> 00:15:05.879 in victory and gore. France's enemies had been driven from 179 00:15:05.919 --> 00:15:09.840 Toulon and Leon and lay in ruins, But within the 180 00:15:09.879 --> 00:15:14.600 walls of the Convention, triumph brought no peace. The guillotine, 181 00:15:14.639 --> 00:15:21.360 sharpened by paranoia and principle, still demanded more victims. Robespierre 182 00:15:21.480 --> 00:15:25.799 in the Committee of Public Safety, were determined that no faction, 183 00:15:26.320 --> 00:15:32.200 however patriotic, would rival the Revolution's authority. The new year 184 00:15:32.320 --> 00:15:36.600 began with an ominous betrayal. On January the eighth, seventeen 185 00:15:36.679 --> 00:15:41.519 ninety four, Robespierre rose before the Jacobin Club to denounce 186 00:15:41.799 --> 00:15:45.960 Fabre and Aente, the witty poet and playwright who had 187 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:50.039 co created the Republican calendar and who had once shared 188 00:15:50.080 --> 00:15:58.120 a table with Danton. Robespierre now shockingly accused him of quote, corruption, intrigue, 189 00:15:58.360 --> 00:16:02.600 and fraud against the state end quote. Febra had been 190 00:16:02.600 --> 00:16:08.200 implicated in a financial scandal involving falsified decrees and misappropriated 191 00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:12.279 funds from the liquidation of the East India Company. Five 192 00:16:12.360 --> 00:16:17.600 days later he was arrested. Robespierre sneered, quote, the Republic 193 00:16:17.679 --> 00:16:22.480 has no need of actors who play virtue upon the stage. 194 00:16:22.919 --> 00:16:26.840 The message was clear. Now your past service didn't matter. 195 00:16:27.399 --> 00:16:30.200 It didn't matter how witty you were, it didn't matter 196 00:16:30.240 --> 00:16:34.480 how close you were to Danton or anything else. If 197 00:16:34.519 --> 00:16:40.440 the Revolution aka Robespierre wanted you dead, the dead you were. 198 00:16:42.159 --> 00:16:45.559 But in the West, war actually did still rage in 199 00:16:45.639 --> 00:16:48.960 the Vendet. It turned out that it hadn't been totally 200 00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:53.120 stamped out after all. On January the twenty ninth, the 201 00:16:53.120 --> 00:16:57.519 young Royalist commander Alried de re la Quin, barely twenty 202 00:16:57.559 --> 00:17:01.679 one years old, was killed fighting at Nonuel. His death 203 00:17:01.759 --> 00:17:05.200 marked the symbolic but not real end of the Vendet 204 00:17:05.359 --> 00:17:11.039 dream of restoring the monarchy. February continued to bring both 205 00:17:11.079 --> 00:17:15.759 more reform and more doctrine. On February the fourth, the 206 00:17:15.839 --> 00:17:22.640 National Convention voted unanimously to abolish slavery in all French colonies, 207 00:17:23.000 --> 00:17:28.799 a revolutionary act unmatched in Europe. Dan Ton thundered made 208 00:17:28.839 --> 00:17:35.039 the colonies perish rather than a principle. The decree, however, 209 00:17:35.240 --> 00:17:40.559 was unevenly enforced, and it wouldn't reach critically Haiti until 210 00:17:40.640 --> 00:17:44.359 months later. Where someone will introduce next time to Saint 211 00:17:44.400 --> 00:17:49.640 louve Tour and his African soldiers were already fighting for freedom. 212 00:17:51.440 --> 00:17:54.839 The next day, on February the fifth, Robespierre gave one 213 00:17:54.880 --> 00:17:58.880 of his most famous speeches before the Convention, a chilling 214 00:17:59.079 --> 00:18:04.559 justification the terror itself. The foundations, he declared, of a 215 00:18:04.599 --> 00:18:09.799 popular government and revolution are virtue and terror. Terror without 216 00:18:09.880 --> 00:18:15.440 virtue is disastrous. Virtue without terror is powerless. The government 217 00:18:15.519 --> 00:18:20.279 of the revolution is the despotism of liberty against tyranny. 218 00:18:22.240 --> 00:18:27.640 The applause was thunderous, but the logic was terrifying. From 219 00:18:27.680 --> 00:18:31.079 now on, every execution could be dressed up in the 220 00:18:31.200 --> 00:18:36.759 robes of moral necessity. The same week, a name barely 221 00:18:36.839 --> 00:18:41.039 noticed outside the army took its first step towards immortality. 222 00:18:41.960 --> 00:18:46.240 On February sixth, Napoleon Bonaparte was promoted to general for 223 00:18:46.279 --> 00:18:50.480 his role at Toulon at twenty four. The Corsican officer 224 00:18:50.640 --> 00:18:54.400 who had written revolutionary pamphlets in a Marseilles attic, was 225 00:18:54.440 --> 00:18:59.240 now in command of artillery. Yet amid the glory, there 226 00:18:59.279 --> 00:19:03.519 was horror. On the same day, the Convention recalled Jean 227 00:19:03.599 --> 00:19:08.359 Baptiste Carrier from Nance, where he ordered mass drownings of 228 00:19:08.400 --> 00:19:15.079 prisoners Republican baptisms. He called them thousands of men, women 229 00:19:15.440 --> 00:19:19.839 and children had been sealed in barges and sunk on 230 00:19:19.880 --> 00:19:25.400 the La River. Even the Jacobins this time recoiled at 231 00:19:25.400 --> 00:19:30.640 the scale of the slaughter. On February tenth, the radical 232 00:19:30.680 --> 00:19:35.640 priest Jacques Roue Wants, the voice of the enraged san Culau, 233 00:19:36.160 --> 00:19:41.680 committed suicide in prison. His death symbolized the vanishing of 234 00:19:41.680 --> 00:19:47.039 the revolution's early popular spirit beneath the new centralized dictatorship 235 00:19:47.240 --> 00:19:53.039 of the Committee's. Tensions within the revolution now hardened into 236 00:19:53.079 --> 00:19:58.839 open hostility. On February the twenty second, the journalist Jacques Ebert, 237 00:19:59.359 --> 00:20:02.599 leader of the Cour Club and fiery editor of Les 238 00:20:02.599 --> 00:20:09.519 Pierre Duchane, delivered a blistering attack against both d'Antin and Robespierre. 239 00:20:10.640 --> 00:20:16.119 He accused them of hypocrisy, Robespierre for his piety, Dantine 240 00:20:16.240 --> 00:20:20.079 for his luxury. His words fanned the flames among the 241 00:20:20.079 --> 00:20:26.200 Parisian sections, where bread was scarce an anger plentiful. By 242 00:20:26.279 --> 00:20:30.559 early March, Abart and his followers, the Albertists, were calling 243 00:20:30.640 --> 00:20:35.799 for insurrection. On March the fourth, Jean Bautiste Carrier, himself 244 00:20:36.000 --> 00:20:40.480 recently recalled from Nance, demanded a new explosion of the 245 00:20:40.480 --> 00:20:45.720 people's wrath, but the committees had been listening. On March 246 00:20:45.759 --> 00:20:49.319 the eleventh, they denounced the courtier's planned uprising as a 247 00:20:49.359 --> 00:20:54.519 conspiracy against the Republic. Two days later, on March thirteenth, 248 00:20:54.519 --> 00:20:57.920 Saint just now president of the Convention, declared that a 249 00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:03.160 conspiracy exists to destroy liberty. That very night, Abert and 250 00:21:03.200 --> 00:21:10.160 his allies were all arrested. Robespierre told the convention bluntly quote, 251 00:21:10.680 --> 00:21:16.799 all factions must perish from the same blow. Their trial 252 00:21:16.960 --> 00:21:21.640 began on March the twenty first. Justice under the Terror 253 00:21:22.119 --> 00:21:27.000 moved quickly to discredit them. The Advertists were tried alongside 254 00:21:27.079 --> 00:21:31.400 foreign bankers and royalist agents. They were accused not only 255 00:21:31.480 --> 00:21:35.640 of conspiracy, but of plotting to restore the monarchy under 256 00:21:35.680 --> 00:21:39.920 the guise of revolution. Just three days later, the verdict 257 00:21:40.039 --> 00:21:46.839 came death. Abert, ron Sin and other courtiers were guillotined 258 00:21:47.039 --> 00:21:51.559 That same evening. Their bodies were thrown into unmarked pits. 259 00:21:51.920 --> 00:21:57.599 Their followers cowed into silence. The parents Commune, once the 260 00:21:57.640 --> 00:22:02.359 heart of the people's very revolution u the spirit of France, 261 00:22:03.240 --> 00:22:09.759 was now totally obedient to Robespierre's will. But Robespierre's triumph 262 00:22:09.799 --> 00:22:13.960 was fleeting. Having destroyed the radicals, he next turned to 263 00:22:13.960 --> 00:22:19.559 the moderates the indulgence, whose mercy now seemed subversive. On 264 00:22:19.640 --> 00:22:23.799 March the twenty seventh, the mathematician and philosopher Concordett, once 265 00:22:23.839 --> 00:22:28.240 a champion of reason and rits, was arrested. Two days later, 266 00:22:28.440 --> 00:22:31.119 he was found dead in his cell, likely by suicide, 267 00:22:31.920 --> 00:22:36.079 and the Enlightenment, quite frankly, seemed to die with him. 268 00:22:36.480 --> 00:22:41.480 On March the thirtieth, the Committee struck again. This time Danton, 269 00:22:42.160 --> 00:22:48.440 Camille des Moyen, and their friends were all arrested. Danton thundered, 270 00:22:48.839 --> 00:22:51.599 they will show by head to the people. It will 271 00:22:51.680 --> 00:22:56.839 be worth showing. His trial began on April the second. 272 00:22:57.480 --> 00:23:02.160 He mocked the proceedings, turning the courtroom into a stage. 273 00:23:02.319 --> 00:23:05.920 The judgeons were quick, actually to silence him, and on 274 00:23:05.960 --> 00:23:09.480 April the fourth, the Convention decreed that any defendant who 275 00:23:09.519 --> 00:23:12.440 insulted the tribunal would be barred from speaking in their 276 00:23:12.440 --> 00:23:18.920 own defense, and so D'Anton, once the darling of the extremists, 277 00:23:19.559 --> 00:23:25.599 found himself gagged literally by law. Two days later, on 278 00:23:25.640 --> 00:23:31.279 April the fifth, seventeen ninety four, Danton, Desmoyennes and their 279 00:23:31.319 --> 00:23:38.519 companions all went to the guillotine. My only regret, said Desmouyennes, 280 00:23:38.559 --> 00:23:42.720 as he embraced his friend is dying before my mother. 281 00:23:43.960 --> 00:23:49.759 D'anton's last words to the executioner were defiant. Show my 282 00:23:49.880 --> 00:23:53.039 head to the people. He said, it is worth it. 283 00:23:54.759 --> 00:24:01.359 The Revolution had now condemned its loudest voices, reason and pity. 284 00:24:02.640 --> 00:24:08.799 As one Parisian observer wrote, liberty was left standing, but 285 00:24:08.960 --> 00:24:16.960 she was splashed with blood. Robespierre now stood unchallenged. On 286 00:24:17.000 --> 00:24:21.559 April the eighth, he denounced Joseph Fouquet at the Jacobins 287 00:24:22.119 --> 00:24:25.960 as a man of intrigue and ambition. On April the tenth, 288 00:24:26.039 --> 00:24:29.359 the Conspiracy of Luxembourg, a group of supposed followers of 289 00:24:29.400 --> 00:24:33.759 both Danton and Herbert were all put on trial. Nineteen 290 00:24:33.839 --> 00:24:38.839 were speedily condemned and executed on April the tenth. Among 291 00:24:38.880 --> 00:24:44.039 them was Lucy des Mullen's, Camille's young widow, and the 292 00:24:44.079 --> 00:24:48.240 widow of Herbert, then several others who were just too 293 00:24:48.319 --> 00:24:52.680 close to the men who died before them. Lucy Desmullen's, 294 00:24:52.720 --> 00:24:56.119 by the way, went calmly to her death, merely whispering, 295 00:24:56.680 --> 00:25:00.880 I am happy to die like my husband. The same week, 296 00:25:00.920 --> 00:25:05.799 on April the fourteenth, Robespierre requested that Jean Jacques Rousseau's 297 00:25:05.839 --> 00:25:10.400 ashes be transferred to the pantheon. The philosopher of virtue 298 00:25:10.480 --> 00:25:15.440 is to become now the revolution's spiritual ancestor. On April 299 00:25:15.440 --> 00:25:20.640 the fifteenth, Saint Jus urged greater centralization of police power 300 00:25:20.759 --> 00:25:23.920 under the Committee of Public Safety, and the machinery of 301 00:25:23.960 --> 00:25:29.240 surveillance now quickly reached into every neighborhood. But not amazingly, 302 00:25:30.079 --> 00:25:34.359 not everyone was cowed. On April the nineteenth, the Treaty 303 00:25:34.359 --> 00:25:37.480 of the Hague bound Britain and Prussia together in a 304 00:25:37.519 --> 00:25:43.079 renewed war against France. On April the twentieth, Deputy Billard 305 00:25:43.160 --> 00:25:47.480 Varen issued a veiled warning quote, all people jealous of 306 00:25:47.519 --> 00:25:51.559 their liberty should be on guard, even against the virtues 307 00:25:51.920 --> 00:25:56.960 of those who occupy eminent positions end quote. He did 308 00:25:57.000 --> 00:26:02.400 not name Robespierre, but everybody under stood his meaning. Two 309 00:26:02.480 --> 00:26:06.680 days later, on April the twenty second, several other figures 310 00:26:06.960 --> 00:26:11.440 of the early Revolution were all guillotined, relics of a 311 00:26:11.759 --> 00:26:16.079 more moderate age, swept away by the very terror that 312 00:26:16.119 --> 00:26:20.160 they had helped to unleash. On April the twenty third, 313 00:26:20.240 --> 00:26:24.240 Robespierre established a new Bureau of Police under his own 314 00:26:24.359 --> 00:26:28.640 private control, rivaling the existing police of the Committee of 315 00:26:28.680 --> 00:26:34.759 General Security. This new network of spies, informers, and agents 316 00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:39.079 reported directly to him, and he could pick and choose 317 00:26:39.519 --> 00:26:46.000 what information he wanted to pass on. By spring, Robespierre 318 00:26:46.240 --> 00:26:50.559 decided to cleanse the Revolution of both atheism and corruption. 319 00:26:51.559 --> 00:26:54.240 He wanted to replace the cult of reason with a 320 00:26:54.319 --> 00:26:59.200 faith in civic morality. On May seventh, he proposed that 321 00:26:59.559 --> 00:27:03.839 quote the French people recognize the existence of a supreme 322 00:27:03.920 --> 00:27:09.599 being and the immortality of the soul. Religion would no 323 00:27:09.640 --> 00:27:13.519 longer belong to the Catholic priests. It would belong to 324 00:27:13.599 --> 00:27:23.680 the patriots. The convention unsurprisingly proved unanimously. The next day, 325 00:27:24.200 --> 00:27:29.519 on May the eighth, twenty seven former tax farmers, including 326 00:27:29.559 --> 00:27:34.640 the scientist Antoine Lavesier, were all guillotined. The judge is 327 00:27:34.680 --> 00:27:39.359 said to have sneered, the republic has no need of savants, 328 00:27:40.640 --> 00:27:45.839 and looked on as the man who founded modern chemistry 329 00:27:46.920 --> 00:27:52.000 went to his death. The same day, the Revolutionary Tribunal 330 00:27:52.039 --> 00:27:56.880 of Paris was expanded to absorb jurisdiction from the provincial courts, 331 00:27:57.000 --> 00:28:01.799 now bringing almost every case in France under the control 332 00:28:02.599 --> 00:28:07.240 of the Committee of Public Safety and Robespierre. The terror 333 00:28:07.680 --> 00:28:12.759 now touched every part of the nation. Two days later, 334 00:28:13.240 --> 00:28:17.799 on May tenth, Madame Elizabeth, the devout sister of Louis 335 00:28:17.799 --> 00:28:23.960 the sixteenth, was executed. Witnesses said that she prayed calmly 336 00:28:24.039 --> 00:28:28.240 on the scaffold before the blade fell. That same day, 337 00:28:28.559 --> 00:28:32.400 the former mayor was arrested and replaced by a close 338 00:28:32.440 --> 00:28:36.359 ally of Robespierre, and the government of France now bore 339 00:28:36.480 --> 00:28:42.799 in every department and every way the unmistakable stamp of 340 00:28:42.839 --> 00:28:47.640 his power. War and famine continued to batter France, but 341 00:28:47.680 --> 00:28:50.920 by June seventeen ninety four, the Republic had survived the 342 00:28:50.960 --> 00:28:55.039 storms of invasion and insurrection. On June the second, a 343 00:28:55.119 --> 00:28:58.880 French grain convoy from the United States safely reached Breast, 344 00:28:58.920 --> 00:29:03.759 despite losing devan ships to the British, another proof that providence, 345 00:29:03.839 --> 00:29:07.640 or maybe the Supreme Being I guess, favored the Republic. 346 00:29:08.799 --> 00:29:14.359 Two days later, on June fourth, Maximilian Robespierre was unanimously 347 00:29:14.400 --> 00:29:19.039 elected president of the National Convention. He was now in 348 00:29:19.200 --> 00:29:24.400 all but name, the ruler of France. Harris prepared for 349 00:29:24.440 --> 00:29:27.240 the Great Festival of the Supreme Being to be held 350 00:29:27.279 --> 00:29:31.720 that month. Liberty and virtue were to be enthroned reason 351 00:29:31.799 --> 00:29:37.759 and rebellion buried. Yet behind the painted smiles and rehearsed hymns, 352 00:29:38.559 --> 00:29:43.880 many whispered what Destonte had once foreseen, that the revolution 353 00:29:44.119 --> 00:29:49.279 was now truly devouring itself. By the summer of seventeen 354 00:29:49.359 --> 00:29:55.119 ninety four, the revolution seemed both triumphant and exhausted. France's 355 00:29:55.279 --> 00:29:59.640 armies were victorious on nearly every front, its internal revolts 356 00:29:59.640 --> 00:30:05.240 crushed and its enemies divided. But inside Paris, suspicion reigned. 357 00:30:06.240 --> 00:30:09.599 The revolution had conquered its foes, but it couldn't conquer 358 00:30:10.079 --> 00:30:15.599 the ever present fear. On June the eighth, seventeen ninety four, 359 00:30:15.680 --> 00:30:19.319 which according to the new calendar, was year two, Harris 360 00:30:19.319 --> 00:30:23.720 awoke to a spectacle unlike any it had seen. A 361 00:30:23.839 --> 00:30:28.640 vast amphitheater rose on the Camp de Mars, crowned with 362 00:30:28.720 --> 00:30:32.960 garlands and flowers. Crowds filled the terraces, dressed in white 363 00:30:33.000 --> 00:30:37.559 and blue, while musicians played hymns composed for the occasion. 364 00:30:38.599 --> 00:30:41.200 At the center of it all, dressed in a sky 365 00:30:41.279 --> 00:30:44.359 blue coat and bearing a bouquet of lilies and wheat, 366 00:30:44.440 --> 00:30:49.839 stood Maximilian Robespierre. It was the Festival of the Supreme 367 00:30:49.960 --> 00:30:55.839 being a civic celebration of virtue and moral renewal. He 368 00:30:55.920 --> 00:31:00.759 announced triumphantly, the day forever marks the triumph of humanity 369 00:31:01.480 --> 00:31:05.720 over atheism. He led the convention in a slow procession 370 00:31:06.119 --> 00:31:09.799 up an artificial mountain, crowned by the statue of Wisdom, 371 00:31:09.920 --> 00:31:15.319 triumphing over weis. Deputies followed, but many muttered under their breath, 372 00:31:15.680 --> 00:31:19.559 and look, one whispered, the Tyrant of France is celebrating 373 00:31:19.880 --> 00:31:26.240 his coronation. Though the crowd cheered, the deputy's faces remained 374 00:31:26.559 --> 00:31:35.359 ashen and cold. Robespierre's exalted tone apparently alarmed them. One 375 00:31:35.440 --> 00:31:41.920 man later sneered, he thinks himself a new messiah. The festival, 376 00:31:42.599 --> 00:31:46.720 meant to unite France in a new moral purpose, instead 377 00:31:46.799 --> 00:31:53.480 simply isolated Robespierre from his colleagues. Two days later, on 378 00:31:53.720 --> 00:31:57.240 the tenth of June, the mask of virtue fell away 379 00:31:57.599 --> 00:32:02.000 to reveal terror in its purest form. The Convention, at 380 00:32:02.039 --> 00:32:07.640 Robespierre's urging, passed the law of twenty two pararial drafted 381 00:32:07.839 --> 00:32:15.039 by his ally. Trials would now be almost instantaneous. Witnesses 382 00:32:15.519 --> 00:32:20.839 were no longer required. Verdicts were essentially in either or 383 00:32:21.599 --> 00:32:27.680 acquittal or death. According to San juist the people have 384 00:32:27.799 --> 00:32:33.319 no need of lawyers. From June the eleventh to July 385 00:32:33.599 --> 00:32:38.960 the twenty seventh, the revolutionary Tribunal condemned one thousand, three 386 00:32:39.079 --> 00:32:43.839 hundred and seventy six people to death, more than had 387 00:32:43.920 --> 00:32:49.359 perished in the previous fourteen months combined. Not a single person, 388 00:32:50.200 --> 00:32:56.920 not one, was acquitted. The prisons overflowed. The guillotine stood 389 00:32:56.920 --> 00:33:02.720 permanently on the police des Revolution, it's blade rising and 390 00:33:02.759 --> 00:33:07.359 falling with a mechanical rhythm. The law also stripped the 391 00:33:07.400 --> 00:33:11.920 Convention of its own immunity. Deputies could now be arrested 392 00:33:12.200 --> 00:33:15.480 only by the vote of the entire body. The gesture 393 00:33:15.519 --> 00:33:17.960 meant to protect them did nothing to calm their dread. 394 00:33:18.920 --> 00:33:24.279 Murmured one, we are all on the list. On June 395 00:33:24.319 --> 00:33:28.519 the twelfth, Robespierre rose in the Convention and, without naming names, 396 00:33:28.799 --> 00:33:31.920 announced that he would soon be demanding the heads of 397 00:33:32.079 --> 00:33:37.599 quote traders who conspire within these walls. No one was safe. 398 00:33:39.079 --> 00:33:44.079 Fearing the worst, Carnaut, an army organizer, quietly set much 399 00:33:44.119 --> 00:33:46.920 of the Parisian artillery to the front on June the 400 00:33:46.960 --> 00:33:52.279 twenty fourth, depriving the capital of its guns. Two days later, 401 00:33:52.599 --> 00:33:57.480