Robespierre Born: Architect of the Reign of Terror
He was a lawyer who became the architect of the Reign of Terror, and he didn't survive it. Maximilien de Robespierre was born in Arras in 1758, orphaned young, and educated on a scholarship. He rose through the French Revolution on the strength of his conviction that virtue required violence. He sent thousands to the guillotine. Then his colleagues decided he'd become the thing they were fighting against. On July 27, 1794, they arrested him. He was executed the next day. The Terror ended. Nobody mourned.
May 6, 1758
268 years ago
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