who were executed during the french revolution

Full Answer

How many people were executed in the French Revolution?

17,000In less than a year, 300,000 suspected enemies of the Revolution were arrested; at least 10,000 died in prison, and 17,000 were officially executed, many by guillotine in the Place de la Revolution.

Who was guillotined during French Revolution?

During the French Revolution, the guillotine became the primary symbol of the Reign of Terror and was used to execute thousands of people, including King Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette.

Why were people executed during the French Revolution?

The Reign of Terror (French: la Terreur) was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the First Republic, a series of massacres and numerous public executions took place in response to revolutionary fervour, anticlerical sentiment, and accusations of treason by the Committee of Public Safety.

Who was the first person executed in the French Revolution?

Nicolas Jacques PelletierNicolas Jacques PelletierDied25 April 1792 (aged 35–36) Hôtel de Ville, Paris, FranceNationalityFrenchOccupationHighwaymanKnown forFirst person to be executed by guillotine1 more row

Who was the youngest person guillotined?

Hannah OcuishCause of deathExecution by hangingResting placeLedyard Center Cemetery Ledyard, Connecticut, U.S. (Plot unknown)Known forYoungest person executed in United States historyCriminal statusExecuted11 more rows

Who died because of guillotine?

From 1793 the guillotine claimed numerous victims, most famously Louis XVI, Charlotte Corday, Marie Antoinette, Georges Danton and Maximilien Robespierre.

When did France last execute someone?

10 September 1977On 10 September 1977, Hamida Djandoubi was guillotined and became both the last person executed in France as well as the last person executed by beheading in the Western world, and by any means in Western Europe.

Who was the last person executed in the French Revolution?

Hamida DjandoubiHamida DjandoubiHamida Djandoubi, 1977Born22 September 1949 French TunisiaDied10 September 1977 (aged 27) Baumettes Prison, Marseille, FranceCause of deathExecution by guillotine13 more rows

What did the French use to execute people?

The guillotine remained France's state method of capital punishment well into the late 20th century.

How many people were guillotined in French Revolution?

During the Reign of Terror (June 1793 to July 1794) about 17,000 people were guillotined, including former King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette who were executed at the guillotine in 1793 and 1794 respectively.

When was the last person to be guillotined in France?

10, 1977: Heads Roll for the Last Time in France. 1977: France stages its last execution using the guillotine. A Tunisian immigrant living in Marseilles, Hamida Djandoubi, was executed for the torture-slaying of his girlfriend.

Was Marie Antoinette guillotine?

Marie-Antoinette was guillotined in 1793 after the Revolutionary Tribunal found her guilty of crimes against the state. The royal family had been compelled to leave Versailles in 1789 and live in captivity in Paris.

What is the estate general of 1789?

The Estates-General was divided into three parts; the First for members of the clergy, Second for the nobility, and Third for the "commons".

What happened in 1790?

By December 1790, the Brabant revolution had been crushed and Liège was subdued the following year. During the Revolutionary Wars, the French invaded and occupied the region between 1794 and 1814, a time known as the French period. The new government enforced new reforms, incorporating the region into France itself.

What country did the French invade?

The French invaded Switzerland and turned it into the " Helvetic Republic " (1798–1803), a French puppet state. French interference with localism and traditions was deeply resented in Switzerland, although some reforms took hold and survived in the later period of restoration.

What was the most controversial thing about the French Revolution?

One of the most heated controversies during the Revolution was the status of the Catholic Church. In 1788, it held a dominant position within society; to be French meant to be a Catholic. By 1799, much of its property and institutions had been confiscated and its senior leaders dead or in exile. Its cultural influence was also under attack, with efforts made to remove such as Sundays, holy days, saints, prayers, rituals and ceremonies. Ultimately these attempts not only failed but aroused a furious reaction among the pious; opposition to these changes was a key factor behind the revolt in the Vendée.

What colors did the French wear in 1789?

Cockades were widely worn by revolutionaries beginning in 1789. They now pinned the blue-and-red cockade of Paris onto the white cockade of the Ancien Régime. Camille Desmoulins asked his followers to wear green cockades on 12 July 1789. The Paris militia, formed on 13 July, adopted a blue and red cockade. Blue and red are the traditional colours of Paris, and they are used on the city's coat of arms. Cockades with various colour schemes were used during the storming of the Bastille on 14 July.

What was the most notable example of slave uprisings in French colonies?

The Revolution in Saint-Domingue was the most notable example of slave uprisings in French colonies. In the 1780s, Saint-Domingue was France's wealthiest possession, producing more sugar than all the British West Indies islands combined.

What was the Revolution?

The Revolution initiated a series of conflicts that began in 1792 and ended only with Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo in 1815. In its early stages, this seemed unlikely; the 1791 Constitution specifically disavowed "war for the purpose of conquest", and although traditional tensions between France and Austria re-emerged in the 1780s, Emperor Joseph cautiously welcomed the reforms. Austria was at war with the Ottomans, as were the Russians, while both were negotiating with Prussia over partitioning Poland. Most importantly, Britain preferred peace, and as Emperor Leopold stated after the Declaration of Pillnitz, "without England, there is no case".

What was the name of the region where the Revolutionaries used the Guillotine?

One of the big locations for counter-revolutionary insurgency was the region known as the Vendée. A rebellion in that area led to the deaths of nearly a quarter of the population at the hands of the revolutionary armies. Many were massacred, shot, drowned, or otherwise killed. But the revolutionaries also used the guillotine to great effect. People were, in fact, guillotined with such regularity that a shortage of guillotines emerged. Some towns had to share guillotines, with schedules being developed to determine when a town could use the guillotine and on which days.

How long did the hung gibbets last?

To complete the ritual, his body, along with two of his fellow reformers, was hung in a gibbet from the church tower for the next fifty years. Although the bodies were removed, the gibbets remained in place into the twentieth century. Commoners were typically hanged.

What was the symbol of the French Revolution?

Overall, the French Revolution was characterized with more than its share of executions, so much so, in fact, that the guillotine emerged as one of the defining and most enduring symbols of the revolution. Joseph Guillotin, a medical doctor and member of the revolutionary National Assembly, championed the guillotine, ...

Why was the guillotine used?

The guillotine purported to eliminate human error from the equation. It was also seen as egalitarian in that it could be used on nobles and commoners alike. With the guillotine, death could now be nearly instantaneous, with considerably less pomp and circumstance.

How many Frenchmen were arrested in 1793?

As many as 300,000 Frenchmen and women (1 in 50 Frenchmen and women) were arrested during a ten month period between September 1793 and July 1794. Included in these numbers were, of course, the deaths of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

What happened at the end of the long procession?

At the end of the long procession, the prisoners’ fates were announced and the sentences were carried out. Everyone in the community was expected to attend events of this type. Those who did not could be seen as potentially suspect themselves. In general, executions were designed to fit the crime.

What was the purpose of the regicide ceremony?

Regicides were tortured and then drawn and quartered. This occurred during an extended ceremony designed to emphasize the particularly awful nature of the crime. François Ravaillac, who assassinated the French King Henri IV in 1610, had molten lead and boiling oil poured on him.

How many Girondins were executed?

6 Girondins Executed. France’s new government had two main groups: the Girondins and the Montagnards. The Girondins were moderates: they wanted to build a free, capitalist, democratic country where everyone had a say in how they were ruled—regardless of who they were.

What decree was issued in October to destroy Lyon?

In October, the National Convention issued a decree calling for Lyon to be destroyed. Everyone who lived in Lyon was to have their weapons taken away. They would be given to revolutionaries. Any building “inhabited by the wealthy” was to be torn down, leaving only the homes of the poor, factories, and some monuments.

How many people died in the Nantes boat?

Jean-Baptiste took his job very seriously. In around five months, between 12,000 and 15,000 people were killed by his order. Nantes lies on the Loire, which Jean-Baptiste called “the national bathtub”. He and his men built special boats called lighters which were specifically designed for drowning prisoners. The captives would be shackled to each other, often naked, and herded onto the boats—which had trap doors on the bottom. The boats were then sunk with the prisoners on board. The elderley, pregnant women and children were all drowned without distinction.

Why did the Vendee people rebel?

In the Vendee, however, the people rose up to protect their priests and churches from the new revolutionary government. When the government ordered them to form a conscript military unit, they rebelled, joining together in local militias which were collectively known as the Catholic and Royal Army. This alarmed the new government, who sent the army to tackle the problem. After a series of pitched battles, the Catholic and Royal Army was defeated.

Why did people around Louis take advantage of his weakness?

People around him took advantage of his weakness to seize more power. Louis was little more than a figurehead. It was no surprise when the new government voted to abolish the monarchy shortly after. Some revolutionaries argued against executing Louis, but the revolution was in full swing and the public hated him.

What was the biggest event of the French Revolution?

The beheading of Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette was one of the biggest events of the French Revolution, but it didn’t have to happen. Before he was king, Louis XVI was quiet, dedicated to his studies and painfully shy. It took him seven years to consummate his marriage to the beautiful and intimidating Hapsburg heiress. When he became king he was cautious and indecisive, eager to be loved. In another age he would have been a great king, but he was entirely unsuited to the political crisis of the time.

Why did people join the Rebellion?

One of the biggest reasons people joined the rebellion in the first place was because food was too expensive, but by 1793 even the basics were going back up in price. The enrages, a collection of anti-elite protestors who might today be called Marxists, argued that the nobility had been replaced by greedy merchants.

How did freemasonry influence the French Revolution?

Cochin. Sorel has brought out the connection between the diplomacy of the Revolution and that of the old regime . His works prove that the Revolution did not mark a break in the continuity of the foreign policy of France. The radically inclined historical school, founded and led by M. Aulard, has published numerous useful documents as well as the review, “La Révolution Française”. Two years since, a schism occured in this school, M. Mathiez undertaking opposition to M. Aulard the defence of Robespierre, in consequence of which he founded a new review “Les Annales Révolutionaires”. The “Société d’histoire contemporaine”, founded under Catholic auspices, has published a series of texts bearing on revolutionary history. Lastly the works of Abbé Sicard have revealed in the clergy who remained faithful to Rome various tendencies, some legitimist, others more favourable to the new political forms, a new side of the history of the French clergy being thus developed.

How much did the Bishop of Paris make?

Title III, Salary of ministers of Religion: The Constitution fixed the salary of the Bishop of Paris at 51,000 livres (about $10,200), that of bishops of towns whose population exceeded 50,000 souls at 20,000 livres (about $4000), that of other bishops at 12,000 livres (about $2400), that of curés at a sum ranging from 6000 (about $1200) to 1200 livres (about $240). For the lower clergy this was a betterment of their material condition, especially as the real value of these sums was two and one-half times the present amount.

What were the three orders of the French Revolution?

They comprised three orders, nobility, clergy, and the third estate , the last named being permitted to have as many members as the two other orders togethe r. The electoral regulation of 24 January, 1789, assured the parochial clergy a large majority in the meetings of the bailliages which were to elect clerical representatives to the States General. While chapters were to send to these meetings only a single delegate for ten canons, and each convent only one of its members, all the curés were permitted to vote. The number of the “order” of clergy at the States General exceeded 300, among whom were 44 prelates, 208 curés, 50 canons and commendatory abbots, and some monks. The clergy advocated almost as forcibly as did the Third Estate the establishment of a constitutional government based on the separation of the powers, the periodical convocation of the States General, their supremacy in financial matters, the responsibility of ministers, and the regular guarantee of individual liberty. Thus the true and great reforms tending to the establishment of liberty were advocated by the clergy on the eve of the Revolution. When the Estates assembled 5 May, 1789, the Third Estate demanded that the verification of powers should be made in common by the three orders, the object being that the Estates should form but one assembly in which the distinction between the “orders” should disappear and where every member was to have a vote. Scarcely a fourth of the clergy advocated this reform, but from the opening of the Estates it was evident that the desired individual voting which would give the members of the Third Estate, the advocates of reform, an effectual preponderance.

What were the victories of the Republican armies?

The victories of the Republican armies, especially that of Fleurus (July, 1794), reassured the patriots of the Convention; those of Cholet, Mans, and Savenay, marked the checking of the Vendean insurrection. Lyons and Toulon were recaptured, Alsace was delivered, and the victory of Fleurus (26 June, 1794) gave Belgium to France. While danger from abroad was decreasing, Robespierre made the mistake of putting to vote in June the terrible law of 22 Prairial, which still further shortened the summary procedure of the Revolutionary tribunal and allowed sentence to be passed almost without trial even on the members of the Convention. The Convention took fright and the next day struck out this last clause. Montagnards like Tallien, Billaud-Varenne, and Collot d’Herbois, threatened by Robespierre, joined with such Moderates as Boissy d’Anglas and Durand Maillane to bring about the coup d’état of 9 Thermidor (27 July, 1794). Robespierre and his partisans were executed, and the Thermidorian reaction began. The Commune of paris was suppressed, the Jacobin Club closed, the Revolutionary tribunal disappeared after having sent to the scaffold the public accuser Fouquier-tinville and the Terrorist, Carrier, the author of the noyades (drownings) of Nantes. The death of Robespierre was the signal for a change of policy which proved of advantage to the Church; many imprisoned priests were released and many émigrépriests returned. Not a single law hostile to Catholicism was repealed, but the application of them was greatly relaxed. The religious policy of the Convention became indecisive and changeable. On 21 December 1794, a speech of the constitutional bishop, Grégoire, claiming effective liberty of worship, aroused violent murmurings in the Convention, but was applauded by the people; and when in Feb., 1795, the generals and commissaries of the Convention in their negotiations with the Vendeans promised them the restoration of their religious liberties, the Convention returned to the idea supported by Grégoire, and at the suggestion of the Protestant, Boissy d’Anglas, it passed the Law of 3 Ventôse (21 Feb., 1795), which marked the enfranchisement of the Catholic Church. This law enacted that the republic should pay salaries to the ministers of no religion, and that no churches should be reopened, but it declared that the exercise of religion should not be disturbed, and prescribed penalties for disturbers. Immediately the constitutional bishops issued an Encyclical for the Establishment of Catholic worship, but their credit was shaken. The confidence of the faithful was given instead to the non-juring priests who were returning by degrees. These priests were soon so numerous that in April, 1795, the Convention ordered them to depart within the month under pain of death. This was a fresh outbreak of anti-Catholicism. With the fluctuation which thenceforth characterized it the Convention soon made a counter-movement. On 20 May, 1795, the assembly hall was invaded by the mob and the deputy Féraud assassinated. These violences of the Extremists gave some influence to the Moderates, and 30 May, at the suggestion of the Catholic, Lanjuinais, the Convention decreed that (Law of 11 Prairial) the churches not confiscated should be place at the disposal of citizens for the exercise of their religion, but that every priest who wished to officiate in these churches should previously take an oath of submission to the laws; those who refused might legally hold services in private houses. This oath of submission to the laws was much less serious than the oaths formerly prescribed by the Revolutionary authorities, and the Abbé Sicard has shown how Emery, Superior General of St. Sulpice, Bausset, Bishop of Alais and other ecclesiastics were inclined to a policy of pacification and to think that such an oath might be taken.

What were the measures taken against the non-juring clergy?

Increasingly severe measures were taken chiefly against the non-juring clergy. On 18 Feb., 1793, the Convention voted a prize one hundred livres to whomsoever should denounce a priest liable to deportation and who remained in France despite the law. On 1 March the émigrés were sentenced to perpetual banishment and their property confiscated. On 18 March it was decreed that any émigré or deported priest arrested on French soil should be executed within twenty-four hours. On 23 April it was enacted that all ecclesiastics, priests or monks, who had not taken the oath prescribed by the Decree of 15 August, 1792, should be transported to Guiana; even the priests who had taken the oath should be treated likewise if six citizens should denounce them for lack of citizenship. But despite all these measures the non-juring priests remained faithful to Rome. The pope had maintained in France an official internuncio, the Abbé de Salamon, who kept himself in hiding and performed his duties at the risk of his life, gave information concerning current events, and transmitted orders. The proconsuls of the Convention, Fréron and Barras at Marseilles and Toulon, Tallien at Bordeaux, Carrier at Nantes, perpetuated abominable massacres. In Paris the Revolutionary Tribunal, carrying out the proposals of the public accuser, Foquier-Tinville, inaugurated the Reign of Terror. The proscription of the Girondins by the Montagnards (2 June, 1793), marked a progress in demagogy. The assassination of the bloodthirsty in demagogue Marat, by Charlotte Corday 913 July 1793) gave rise to extravagant manifestations in honour of Marat. But the provinces did not follow this policy. News came of insurrections in Caen, Marseilles, Lyons, and Toulon; and at the same time the Spaniards were in Roussillon, the Piedmontese in Savoy, the Austrians in Valenciennes, and the Vendeans defeated Kleber at Torfou (Sept., 1793). The crazed Convention decreed a rising en masse; the heroic resistance of Valenciennes and Mainz gave Carnot time to organize new armies. At the same time the Convention passed the Law of Suspects. (17 Sept., 1793), which authorized the imprisonment of almost anyone and as a consequence of which 30,000 were imprisoned. Informing became a trade in France. Queen Marie Antoinette was beheaded 16 October, 1793. Fourteen Carmelites who were executed 17 July, 1794, were declared Venerable by Leo XIII in 1902.

What was the first national convention?

The constitutional bishop, Grégoire, proclaimed the republic at the first session; he was surrounded in the assembly by fifteen constitutional bishops and twenty-eight constitutional priests. But the time was at hand when the constitutional clergy in turn was to be under suspicion, the majority of the Convention being hostile to Christianity itself. As early as 16 November, 1792, Cambon demanded that the salaries of the priests be suppressed and that thenceforth no religion be subsidized by the State, but the motion was rejected for the time being. Henceforth the Convention enacted all manner of arbitrary political measures: it undertook the trial of Louis XVI, and on 2 January, 1799, “hurled a kings head at Europe “.

How did madness spread through France?

Madness spread through France caused by the threatened danger from without; arrests of non-juring priests multiplied. In an effort to make them give way. The Assembly decided ( 15 August) that the oath should consist only of the promise to uphold with all one’s might liberty, equality, and the execution of the law, or to die at one’s post”. But the non-juring priests remained firm and refused even this second oath. On 26 August the Assembly decreed that within fifteen days they should be expelled from the kingdom, that those who remained or returned to France should be deported to Guiana, or should be liable to ten years imprisonment. It then extended this threat to the priests, who, having no publicly recognized priestly duties, had hitherto been dispensed from the oath, declaring that they also might be expelled if they were convicted of having provoked disturbances. This was the signal for a real civil war. The peasants armed in La Vendée, Deux Sèvres, Loire Inférieure, Maine and Loire, Ile and Vilaine. This news and that of the invasion of Champagne by the Prussian army caused hidden influences to arouse the Parisian populaces hence the September massacres. In the prisons of La Force, the Conciergerie, and the Abbaye Saint Germain, at least 1500 Women, priests and soldiers fell under the axe or the club. The celebrated tribune, Danton, cannot be entirely acquitted of complicity in these massacres. The Legislative Assembly terminated its career by two measures against the Church: it deprived priests of the right to register births etc., and authorize divorce. Laicizing the civil state was not in the minds of the Constituents, but was the result of the blocking of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. The Legislative Assembly was induced to enact it because the Catholics faithful to Rome would not have recourse to Constitutional priests for registering of births, baptisms, and deaths.

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Crisis of the Ancien Régime

Constitutional monarchy (July 1789 – September 1792)

First Republic (1792–1795)

Directory (1795–1799)

French Revolutionary Wars