Maximilien Robespierre: A Virtuous Man

Robespierre: A Virtuous Man

Maximilien Francoise Marie Isidore de Robespierre, one of the most misrepresented and vilified men in history, was born in Arras, northern France on 6 May, 1758. Though not himself working class, his father was a lawyer, his early life was one of some poverty. His mother died in childbirth when he was aged just 6, and his father abandoned the family soon after. He, his brother, and two sisters, were raised in separate homes. It would appear that from an early age he acquired an acute awareness of the moral corruption that attended wealth and increased prosperity. Likewise, he was aware, to the point of paranoia, of his own lack of means and low social standing. He had a chip on his shoulder no doubt, but was a quiet, nervous, some might say, timid child. But he worked hard and devoted himself to study.

Eventually, aged 16, he won a scholarship to a college in Paris to study law. He was far and away the poorest of the students and they weren’t slow in letting him know it, and his paranoia only increased as a result. He would claim that those who disagreed with his views were oppressing him. This verbal expression of his sense of inferiority would become a constant refrain in later life.

He was though, an outstanding student, and in 1775, he was chosen to present an address to the newly crowned King of France, Louis XVI, who was passing through Rheims, on his way back to Paris following his coronation. The weather was awful and the King was late. Young Maximilien had been waiting in the rain all day to present his poem to his Sovereign. Louis never emerged from his carriage or so much as glanced out of its window. Maximilien’s presentation was never acknowledged. Seventeen years later that same young student was to be the prime mover in that same King’s execution.

The Sea-Green Incorrupible

“The Revolution speaks through him its most tragic and purest discourse”. (Francoise Furet)

“The greatest man not only of the Revolution but of all history”. (George Sand)

“The most hateful character in the forefront of human history since Machiavelli reduced to a code the wickedness of public men”. (Lord Acton)

Incorruptible

So who was the real Robespierre? It is a question not asked often enough. Was he the abstemious, thin-bloodied, pedantic, blood-thirsty tyrant of popular history? Or the virtuous, incorruptible, freedom loving champion of the people? Was he the man who said “Virtue produces happiness as the sun produces light”. Or the one who stated that a “Nation can only be generated on mountains of corpses”.