Radical journalist and publisher of L’Ami du peuple
A physician and scientific writer before the Revolution, he founded L'Ami du peuple in September 1789. Elected to the National Convention in September 1792, he was acquitted by the Revolutionary Tribunal in April 1793 and helped bring down the Girondins. Corday killed him on 13 July 1793.
Originally a physician and scientific writer, Marat published the newspaper L’Ami du peuple during the Revolution. His fierce attacks on alleged counter-revolutionaries and the Girondins made him a radical voice linked to Parisian popular politics and the Mountain. He was assassinated by Charlotte Corday in July 1793.
Career timeline
1743–1789Worked as a physician and scientific writer, publishing experimental studies on optics, electricity and light and political works such as The Chains of Slavery (1774). He received an MD from the University of St Andrews.
1777Appointed in June as physician to the bodyguard of the Comte d'Artois (later Charles X).
1783Resigned his court appointment in April to concentrate on scientific research.
1789When the King called the Estates General in 1788, he abandoned his scientific and medical career and entered revolutionary polemic, anonymously publishing Offrande à la Patrie in February 1789.
1789Launched his own newspaper, the Publiciste parisien, on 12 September, renaming it L'Ami du peuple four days later.
1791After the Champ de Mars massacre and the ensuing crackdown on the radical press, his paper was seized and its printing formes broken up, yet he kept publishing; about 500 issues appeared in 1791.
1792Elected to the National Convention in September. After the fall of the monarchy on 10 August he was appointed one of the Paris Commune's adjoint administrators on its Committee of Surveillance, signed its September circular, and has been credited with drafting it.
1793Indicted on Girondin initiative, he became the first representative of the people tried before the Revolutionary Tribunal in April; defending himself without counsel, he was acquitted.
1793Played an active part in the insurrection of 31 May–2 June that brought down the Girondins, presiding over the Convention and helping determine which deputies were to be arrested.
1793Assassinated on 13 July: Charlotte Corday, a Girondin sympathiser, stabbed him in the chest while he sat in a medicinal bath.
Hébertist general who commanded the Parisian Revolutionary Army
Appointed commander of the Parisian Revolutionary Army in September 1793, he was arrested with Hébert, Vincent, Momoro and others in March 1794 and executed on 24 March.
Born in Soissons, Ronsin served in the army as a young man and after leaving it lived as a playwright and tutor. During the Revolution he became an orator of the Cordeliers Club; in 1793 he took charge of a department of Bouchotte’s War Ministry, was sent to the Vendée and was rapidly promoted to general. In September that year he became commander of the Parisian Revolutionary Army and in November led a detachment to the repression at Lyon. In the course he appears among the Hébertists arrested in March 1794 with Hébert, Vincent, Momoro and others and executed on 24 March. The charge of a military plot built on the Revolutionary Army was the prosecution’s case and should be read as such. The Revolutionary Army was disbanded days after his execution.
Career timeline
1772Left the army and worked as a playwright and tutor.
1792Appointed supply commissioner to Dumouriez’s army in Belgium.
1793Took charge of a department of Bouchotte’s War Ministry in April, was sent to the Vendée in May and was promoted to general in July.
1793Became commander of the Parisian Revolutionary Army in September and led a detachment to Lyon in November.
1793–1794Arrested on 17 December and released on 2 February after a Cordeliers campaign.
1794Re-arrested with the Hébertists in March and executed on 24 March.
Enragé priest who demanded controls on subsistence prices
The leading spokesman of the Enragés, he demanded action against the wealthy in the name of poor Parisians' survival, presented the Enragés' programme to the Convention in 1793, and was arrested amid Montagnard and Jacobin attacks.
A priest and radical activist in Paris’s Gravilliers section, Roux became a leading figure among the Enragés. He attacked food monopoly and speculation, demanded forceful price controls and economic equality, and presented the Enragés’ programme to the Convention in 1793. Arrested after attacks from Montagnard and Jacobin leaders, he died by suicide in prison.
Career timeline
1791Elected to the Paris Commune.
1793When food-price riots broke out in Paris, he defended such direct action.
1793Presented the Enragés' programme to the Convention: the 25 June address demanding taxation of necessities and punishment of speculators.
1793Arrested in August, released, then rearrested on 5 September and interned at Sainte-Pélagie.
1794On being sent before the Revolutionary Tribunal, he tried twice to kill himself in prison and died on 10 February.
Revolutionary journalist whose Le Père Duchesne spoke to a sans-culotte readership
Founder of Le Père Duchesne, which became the voice of the Parisian sans-culottes, and a leading figure behind the fall of the Girondins in 1793; pressed radical dechristianisation, was arrested with his followers in March 1794 and guillotined on 24 March.
A journalist of the French Revolution and deputy prosecutor of the Paris Commune. The earthy, popular language of Le Père Duchesne, founded in 1790, gave him influence among sans-culotte readers and he became prominent in the Cordeliers Club. In 1793 he attacked the Girondins and supported stronger economic controls and dechristianisation. The “Hébertists” were not a formal party but a label for overlapping newspaper, Cordelier, and Commune networks. After a failed call for insurrection, revolutionary government arrested him and he was executed on 24 March 1794.
Career timeline
1790Founded the popular revolutionary newspaper Le Père Duchesne
1791–1792Prominent Cordelier; deputy prosecutor of the Paris Commune
1793Attacked the Girondins and backed sans-culotte demands and dechristianisation
1794.03Arrested after a failed call for insurrection; executed on 24 March
Jacobin politician who argued for subsistence rights and revolutionary government
On 9 Thermidor, 27 July 1794, Convention deputies arrested him with about 90 others; he was executed without trial.
A lawyer and National Convention deputy during the French Revolution, Robespierre served on the Committee of Public Safety. His 1792 speech on subsistence placed access to necessities first while recognizing legitimate property and trade. His February 1794 report defended virtue and terror as principles of revolutionary government. This was a participant’s justification of repression; decisions made by the Convention and its committees cannot all be treated as his personal orders. He was executed after his defeat at Thermidor.
Career timeline
1789Elected deputy to the Estates-General for Artois
1780Graduated in law and was admitted to the Arras bar
1792Elected deputy to the National Convention
1793–1794Served on the Committee of Public Safety, a leading figure of the revolutionary government
Revolutionary leader associated with the Cordeliers and Indulgents
From Cordeliers orator to minister of justice after the monarchy fell on 10 August 1792, and a disputed figure in responsibility for the September Massacres. He sat on the first Committee of Public Safety in 1793, later led the Indulgents demanding an end to the Terror, and was guillotined in 1794.
A prominent Cordelier, Danton became minister of justice after the monarchy fell in August 1792. He rallied support for defence of the Republic and served on the first Committee of Public Safety in 1793. Later associated with calls to moderate the Terror and stabilize the Revolution, he clashed with the ruling committee and was executed in April 1794.
Career timeline
1789–1792Rose to prominence in the radical politics of the Cordeliers district, earning the nickname 'the Thunderer', and became president of the Cordeliers Club in 1790.
1792Became minister of justice after the fall of the monarchy on 10 August and appealed for resistance in his 2 September 'daring' speech.
1793Backed the creation of the Revolutionary Tribunal in March and was appointed to the first Committee of Public Safety on 6 April.
1793–1794After losing his committee seat in June, he became the leading Indulgent demanding an end to the Terror, and was tried and executed in April 1794 on charges of conspiracy and venality.
Revolutionary journalist associated with both the Bastille rising and Indulgents
Journalist and Convention deputy whose 1789 call to arms at the Palais-Royal helped set off the Bastille rising; he died on the guillotine with Danton after Le Vieux Cordelier demanded clemency and an end to the Terror.
On 12 July 1789 Desmoulins called the Palais-Royal crowd to arms, helping mobilize the unrest that preceded the storming of the Bastille. A Cordelier journalist, he later campaigned against the Girondins, but in late 1793 used Le Vieux Cordelier to call for clemency and an easing of the Terror. He was executed with Danton in April 1794.
Career timeline
1785Admitted as an advocate in the Parlement of Paris, but a stammer and weak connections hampered practice
1789Began radical pamphleteering and journalism with La France Libre, the Discours de la lanterne and the Révolutions de France et de Brabant
1790Joined the Club des Cordeliers and became a prominent member
1792Became Secretary-General to Justice Minister Danton, then was elected deputy for Paris to the National Convention in September
1793Led the attack on the Girondins in the Histoire des Brissotins, then from December published Le Vieux Cordelier demanding clemency and an easing of the Terror
1794Arrested on 31 March, tried as a Dantonist and executed on 5 April
Paris Commune prosecutor prominent in dechristianisation
As the Commune’s procurator he linked social policy to sans-culotte pressure, advanced the Terror and dechristianisation, opposed women’s political activity, and split with Robespierre before his 1794 execution.
As procurator of the Paris Commune, Chaumette was involved in urban policies on prices, relief, and public education as well as radical popular politics. He became a prominent promoter of dechristianisation in 1793 and was close to Hébert and Cordelier networks. He was arrested after the government’s purge of the Hébertists and executed in April 1794.
Career timeline
1790As a member of the Jacobin Club, he edited the radical Revolutions de Paris journal.
1792In August he became chief procurator of the Paris Commune and was delegated to inspect the prisons with power of arrest during the insurrection of 10 August.
1792Elected president of the Commune on 31 October, he defended the municipality before the National Convention and was re-elected on 2 December.
1793He helped lead the attack on the Girondins and in October acted as prosecutor at their trial alongside Hébert.
1793In September, amid the subsistence crisis, he led popular mobilisation and contributed to the establishment of the Terror.
1793He led the dechristianisation campaign, organising the Festival of Reason of 10 November.
1794Arrested on 13 March, after the Hébertists’ arrest on 4 March; convicted over the Luxembourg prison plot and guillotined on 13 April.
Committee of Public Safety member and theorist of revolutionary government
The youngest deputy ever elected to the National Convention and Robespierre's closest ally, he pushed to confiscate the property of the Republic's enemies for poor patriots. He fell with Robespierre on 9 Thermidor.
The youngest deputy in the National Convention, Saint-Just became a leading Montagnard and close ally of Robespierre. On the Committee of Public Safety he served on missions to the armies and delivered reports against the Girondins, Hébertists, and Dantonists. He defended a strongly centralized revolutionary government and was arrested with Robespierre on 9 Thermidor and executed the next day.
Career timeline
1792.09–1794.07Deputy of the National Convention (for Aisne; youngest member)
1792.11–1793Reports condemning the Girondins; speech demanding the King's execution
1793.05–1794.07Member of the Committee of Public Safety
1793.11–1794Representative on mission to the armies, overseeing the Rhine and North armies
