Robespierre, Maximilien François Marie Isidore de

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French politician in the French Revolution. As leader of the Jacobins in the National Convention (1792), he supported the execution of Louis XVI and the overthrow of the right-wing republican Girondins, and in July 1793 was elected to the Committee of Public Safety. A year later he was guillotined; many believe that he was a scapegoat for the Reign of Terror since he ordered only 72 executions personally.

Robespierre, a lawyer, was elected to the National Assembly from 1789 to 1791. His defence of democratic principles made him popular in Paris, while his disinterestedness won him the nickname of ‘the sea-green Incorruptible’. His zeal for social reform and his attacks on the excesses of the extremists made him enemies on both right and left; a conspiracy was formed against him, and in July 1794 he was overthrown and executed by those who actually perpetrated the Reign of Terror.

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