preview

The Death Of Robespierre, Leader Of The Jacobins Essay

Better Essays

Marat was sitting in his bathtub, he received a visitor by the name of Charlotte Corday, who had been refused admittance earlier in the day. She claimed to have vital information on escaped Girondins and proceeded to list off the names of the missing Girondins. After he had finished writing out the list, Corday claimed that he told her, "It will not be long before they are guillotined", a statement she later changed at her trial to, "I will shortly have them all guillotined in Paris". With that statement, Corday retrieved a knife she had brought and plunged it into his chest. Marat cried out in agony saying "Aidez-moi, ma chère amie!" ("Help me, my dear friend!") and died. After Marat 's death, Maximilien Robespierre, leader of The Jacobins, was appointed as the head of The Committee of Public Safety on July 27, 1793. Although Robespierre was a bourgeoisie, he identified with the plight of the sans-culottes and would become their voice as the revolution progressed. It was because of this representation that he would become a prominent figure at the most radical point in the revolution. He defended the principle that the "rights of man" should extend to all men – including the poor, and the slaves in the colonies. Beginning in the spring of 1792 and forward, France was in an upheaval. The country was involved in foreign wars, civil war and revolt. While revolutionaries were planning a new government without the king, counter-revolutionaries were plotting the

Get Access