The French Revolution

Dogged by charges of corruption, the Directory collapsed in a coup led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1799. Napoleon, who ended and became the hero of the Revolution, established the Consulate and later the First French Empire.

The French Revolution

Who is the father of the French Revolution?

Jean-Jacques Rousseau”Jean-Jacques Rousseau – Father of the French Revolution.” Summary of a lecture by Grace Denison.

Who were the leaders of the French Revolution?

The three main leaders of the French Revolution for the rebels were Georges-Jacques Danton, Jean-Paul Marat, and Maximilien Robespierre. The first, Georges-Jacques Danton was very involved in different powerful groups in France.

Who led the French Revolution?

Napoleon BonaparteExecutive power would lie in the hands of a five-member Directory (Directoire) appointed by parliament. Royalists and Jacobins protested the new regime but were swiftly silenced by the army, now led by a young and successful general named Napoleon Bonaparte

Why the French Revolution was bad?

The french revolution was bad, because it led to Napolean gaining power and so indirectly caused the deaths of millions. Many of the most evil leaders ever to spring up came from economic crises in one way or another.

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Did Louis XVI cause the French Revolution?

Louis XVI approved French military support for the American colonies in their successful struggle against the British, but the expense nearly bankrupted the country. Louis convened the Estates-General in an effort to solve his budget crisis, but by doing so he unwittingly sparked the French Revolution.

10 Major Causes of the French Revolution

• #1 Social Inequality in France due to the Estates System.

The first group was the clergy, the second estate was made up of nobles, and the third estate was the vast majority of the people living in France. One inequality dealt with taxation. … Another inequality was that the peasants had to pay feudal dues. These dues, along with dues to the Church, were crushing the peasants.

• #2 Tax Burden on the Third Estate.

1788. The tax system in pre-revolutionary France largely exempted the nobles and the clergy from taxes. The tax burden therefore devolved to the peasants, wage-earners, and the professional and business classes, also known as the Third Estate.

• #3 The Rise of the Bourgeoisie.

The bourgeoisie emerged as a historical and political phenomenon in the 11th century when the bourgs of Central and Western Europe developed into cities dedicated to commerce. This urban expansion was possible thanks to economic concentration due to the appearance of protective self-organisation into guilds.

• #4 Ideas put forward by Enlightenment philosophers.

Enlightenment thinkers wanted to improve human conditions on earth rather than concern themselves with religion and the afterlife. These thinkers valued reason, science, religious tolerance, and what they called “natural rights”—life, liberty, and property.

• #5 Financial Crisis caused due to Costly Wars.

The crisis came about primarily because of an inefficient and unfair tax structure, outdated medieval bureaucratic institutions, and a drained treasury which was the result of aiding the Americans during the American Revolution, long wars with England, overspending, and an inequitable tax system which placed the burden .

Why was France in so much debt?

Causes of debt

The French Crown’s debt was caused by both individual decisions, such as intervention in the American War of Independence and the Seven Years’ War, and underlying issues such as an inadequate taxation system.

• #6 Drastic Weather and Poor Harvests in the preceding years.

WEATHER CONDITIONS BEFORE 1789 The fourth major cause of the French Revolution was the impact that weather conditions had on the French crops in the years immediately before the outbreak of the revolution. … France itself experienced another series of poor harvests in 1787 and 1788 with extreme winters.

How did food shortages cause French Revolution?

Food Scarcity

These problems were all compounded by a great scarcity of food in the 1780s. Different crop failures in the 1780s caused these shortages, which of course led to high prices for bread. Perhaps no cause more motivated the Paris mob that was the engine of the revolution more than the shortage of bread

• #7 The Rise in the Cost of Bread.

Because there was less supply than there was demand, the price of bread increased by 200% by 1789. Since the 3rd Estate, which was made up of most of France’s population, was being taxed heavily, most people could not afford to pay double the money for bread in addition to high taxes.

• 8 INEFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP OF LOUIS XV AND LOUIS XVI

King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette continued to spend lavishly and live a life of luxury during the difficult economic times.  Their spending habits increased the French debt.  The king tried to impose taxation on the Second Estate, but was unable to influence changes because he was not a strong leader.

How was Louis XVI a weak leader?

 

Other factors that led to the French Revolution was that Louis XVI weak leadership had caused him to spent too much money . … The fact that Louis was having poor advice from his ill-informed members of his court, his wife Marie Antoinette was unpopular with the French.

 

• 9 PARLEMENTS’ SUCCESSFUL OPPOSITION TO REFORMS

King and parlements

In 1770 the conflict with the parlements had reached such a level that Louis XV was finally goaded into a burst of absolutist energy. The Paris Parlements, which had dared to attack Terray’s financial reform, were dissolved on January 19, 1771. Maupeou was then authorized to create an altogether different set of parlements with appointed judges shorn of administrative and political power.

• 10 THE EXTRAVAGANT LIFESTYLE OF THE FRENCH MONARCHY

The extravagant expenditure on luxuries, first by Louis XV and then by Louis XVI, compounded the economic crisis facing the nation and was one of the primary reasons behind the revolution. The  construction and remodeling of the Palace of Versailles throughout the 17th and 18th centuries incurred a huge cost to the country. These large expenditures by the French monarchy caused dissatisfaction among the people who began to view its leaders as wasteful while they suffered due to the poor economic state of the nation. This in turn led to national unrest and ultimately the Revolution.

Which estate had an extravagant lifestyle?

The third estate

 

Downfall of the French Monarchy and the beheading of the King and Queen. – It was the first assertion of revolutionary authority by the third estate. Marie Antoinette led an extravagant lifestyle. She had an eye for fashion and set fashion trends throughout France and Europe.

 

 

Do the French still have a monarchy?

In Revolutionary France, the Legislative Assembly votes to abolish the monarchy and establish the First Republic. The measure came one year after King Louis XVI reluctantly approved a new constitution that stripped him of much of his power

 

1788 – The royal treasury is empty; Prelude to the Revolution

Date	5 May 1789 – 9 November 1799 (10 years, 6 months and 4 days)
Location	Kingdom of France
Outcome	Abolition of the French monarchy Establishment of a secular and democratic republic that became increasingly authoritarian and militaristic Radical social change based on liberalism and other Enlightenment principles Rise of Napoleon Bonaparte Armed conflicts with other European countries

                     The Causes of the revolution

Many problems in France led up to the Revolution:

1. Under the Kings Louis XV and Louis XVI, France had fought against Prussia and the British Empire in the Seven Years’ War. They fought against Britain again in the American Revolution. They borrowed much money to pay for the wars, and the country became poor.
2. The high price of bread and low wages of workers caused the ordinary people to suffer from hunger and malnutrition. This made them dislike the rich nobles, who had the money to eat well and build huge mansions.
3. The Roman Catholic Church, which owned the most land in France, put a tax on crops called the dime (tithe) which hurt the poorest and hungriest people as they were not able to afford the tax.
4. Ideals of Enlightenment. Many people disliked absolute rule by the royalty and the nobility. They could see that in other countries, such as in the United States, which had recently been formed, people like them had more power over the government. They also wanted freedom of religion.
5. The first and the second estate i.e., the Clergy and the Nobility, enjoyed all the privileges and rights but the Third Estate (everyone else, middle class, city workers and peasants) had to pay tithes and taille (taxes paid to Church and the court).

Louis XVI did not like the revolution, but did not want to get help from other countries or run away from France like the émigrés. General Bouille held the same views and wanted to help the king leave Paris. He said that he would give the King and his family help and support in his camp at Montmédy. The escape was planned for June 20, 1791.

Dressed as servants, the royal family left Paris. However, their escape was not well planned, and they were arrested at Varennes on the evening of June 21. The royal family was brought back to Paris. The Assembly imprisoned Louis and his wife Marie Antoinette, and suspended the king from his duty.

In July 1793, a Jacobin called Maximilien de Robespierre and eight other leading Jacobins set up the Committee of Public Safety. It was the most powerful group in France. This group and Robespierre were responsible for the Reign of Terror. Robespierre believed that if people were afraid, the revolution would go better. The Reign of Terror lasted from the spring of 1793 to the spring of 1794.

It was not only the nobility who died in the Reign of Terror. Anyone who broke the Jacobins’ laws, or was even suspected of breaking their laws or working against them, could be arrested and sent to the guillotine, most without a trial. Even powerful people who had been involved in the Jacobin coup were executed. Prisoners were taken from the prisons to “Madame Guillotine” (a nickname for the guillotine) in an open wooden cart called the tumbrel.

According to records, 16,594 people were executed with the guillotine. It is possible that up to 40,000 people died in prison or were killed during the Reign of Terror.

Maximilien de Robespierre

By July 1794, people began to turn against Maximilien de Robespierre. He and his Revolutionary Tribunal had killed 1,300 people in six weeks. On 27 July, the National Convention and the Committee of Public Safety turned against him. Robespierre tried to get help from the Convention’s right-wing members, but he failed.

A day later, Robespierre and many of his supporters in the Paris Commune were sentenced to death by guillotine without any kind of trial. This reaction against Robespierre is called the Thermidorian Reaction.

Now that the terror was over, the National Convention started to make a new Constitution, called the Constitution of the Year III. On 27 September 1794, the constitution came into effect

French Revolution Timeline

1661 –> Louis XIV spends $100 million to build
palace at Versailles
1715 –> Louis XIV dies leaving France in debt
1750s –> Enlightenment or Age of Reason reaches
its height
1770 –> Louis XVI marries Austrian Marie
Antoinette
1774 –> Louis XV dies also leaving France in debt
from wars fought during his reign; Louis XVI takes
over.
People of France are poor and hungry
1776 –> Declaration of Independence is written
and the colonists win American Revolution in 1781
1789 –> Peasants mad about new tax plan; Louis
calls first meeting of Estates-General in 175 years
1789 –> The Third Estate declared themselves the
National Assembly and made the Tennis Court
Oath
1789 –> Fearing Louis would use force to dismiss
the National Assembly, the people of Paris stormed
the Bastille; tore it down
The Great Fear starts shortly after
August 1789 –> Declaration of Rights of Man
written guaranteeing freedoms of equality, press,
religion, & justice
June 1791 –> Royal family attempts to escape but
are caught and arrested
1792 –> Guillotine is introduced
1793 –> Jean-Paul Marat, member of radical
political group Jacobins, is stabbed in bathtub by
Charlotte Corday
1793 –> Jacobin leader Maximillien Robespierre
is slowly gaining power- wants to erase France’s
past; becomes leader of Committee of Public
Safety and rules France for next year like a dictator
-His rule was known as the Reign of Terror

 

French Revolution of the  Important People
Reine Audu	Participant in The Women’s March on Versailles and the 10 August (French Revolution).
Charles Augereau, duc de Castiglione	Officer throughout the Revolutionary era and Empire; later a general and Marshal of France.
Jean-Pierre-André Amar	Deputy to the National Convention from Isère; member of the Committee of General Security.
François-Noël Babeuf	Proto-socialist, guillotined in 1797 after an attempted coup d’etat.
Jean Sylvain Bailly	President of the Third Estate who administered the Tennis Court Oath; made Mayor of Paris after the storming of the Bastille; guillotined during the Reign of Terror.
Antoine Barnave	Constitutional monarchist and Feuillant; guillotined.
Paul Nicolas, vicomte de Barras	A Montagnard, then Thermidorian; ultimately the Directory régime’s executive leader.
Madame du Barry	Mistress of King Louis XV and famous victim of the guillotine during the Reign of Terror.
François-Marie, marquis de Barthélemy	Briefly a Director; exiled to French Guiana; returned to France during the Empire.
Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte	General, Ambassador to Vienna and Minister of War; later King of Sweden and Norway.
Joséphine de Beauharnais	Empress; wife of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Louis Alexandre Berthier	General; effectively Napoleon Bonaparte’s chief of staff.
Jacques Nicolas Billaud-Varenne	Committee of Public Safety member; survived 9 Thermidor; later deported to French Guiana.
Joseph Bonaparte	Eldest Bonaparte brother; supported his brother Napoleon; later made King of Naples and then Spain.
Lucien Bonaparte	Younger brother of Napoleon; President of the Assembly during the Directory; later fell out with Napoleon.
Napoleon Bonaparte	General; seized power as First Consul in the 18 Brumaire coup. Made virtual dictator as Consul for Life in 1802. Declared Emperor of the French in 1804. Founded the First French Empire.
Louis Antoine de Bourbon, duc d’Enghien	Prince of the Blood; son of the Duc de Bourbon; kidnapped and executed by Napoleon.
Louis François de Bourbon	Prince of the Blood; briefly emigrated from 1789–1790, but returned to France; expelled by Directory; died in exile.
Louis Henri, duc de Bourbon	Prince of the Blood, son of the Prince de Condé and father of the Duc d’Enghien; emigrated.
Louis Joseph de Bourbon	Prince of the Blood; composed the Brunswick Manifesto.
Charles de Bouvens	Orator who had to flee the French Revolution due to his conservative views.
Louis de Breteuil	Royalist; briefly supplanted Necker in the royal cabinet.
Cardinal Étienne Charles de Brienne	Royalist; President of the Royal Council of Finances shortly before the Revolution.
Jacques Pierre Brissot de Warville	Girondist (Brissotin); guillotined.
Guillaume Marie Anne Brune	Political journalist; Jacobin; friend of Georges Danton; appointed a general, then Marshal of France; murdered by royalists during the White Terror.
Edmund Burke	English philosopher and politician; author of famous 1790 polemic against the Revolution.
Charles Alexandre de Calonne	French Controller-General of Finances from 1783 to 1787, whose discovery of the perilous state of French finances in 1786 precipitated the crisis leading to the Revolution.
Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès	Moderate; Second Consul under Bonaparte; chief contributor to the Napoleonic Code.
Pierre Joseph Cambon	Legislative and the Convention member; directed French financial policy and aided in the Thermidor coup.
Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot	Mathematician; physicist; Committee of Public Safety member; “Organizer of Victory”; turned against Robespierre on 9 Thermidor; a Director; ousted in 18 Fructidor coup.
Louis Philippe, duc de Chartres	Eldest son of the Duke of Orleans; defected to Austria with Dumouriez in 1793; later King of France.
Pierre Gaspard Chaumette	Cult of Reason devotee; guillotined, as was fellow devotee Jacques Hébert.
André Chénier	Poet; guillotined.
Jean Chouan	Royalist counter-revolutionary.
Étienne Clavière	Girondist; finance minister 1792; died in prison by suicide 1793.
Anacharsis Cloots	Philosopher and writer; guillotined.
Jean Marie Collot d’Herbois	Actor; Paris Commune member; belated Montagnard; Committee of Public Safety member; deported to French Guiana after 9 Thermidor revolt, where he died.
Marquis de Condorcet	Philosopher; mathematician; Girondist associate; died in prison.
Charlotte Corday	Assassinated Marat; guillotined.
Charles-Augustin de Coulomb	Scientist; metric system pioneer.
Georges Couthon	Montagnard; Committee of Public Safety member; guillotined following 9 Thermidor.
Georges Danton	Writer; Jacobin, but neither a Girondist nor a Montagnard; Committee of Public Safety member; guillotined.
Pierre Claude François Daunou	Historian; loosely associated with the Girondists faction; served both Directory and Empire.
Jacques-Louis David	Painter; Montagnard; Committee of General Security member; survived fall from power following 9 Thermidor.
Louis Charles Antoine Desaix	General; killed while leading the French to victory during the Battle of Marengo (1800).
Camille Desmoulins	Journalist; Montagnard; Danton associate; guillotined.
Denis Diderot	Enlightenment author; atheist philosopher; influenced Revolutionary theory.
Jacques François Dugommier	General; National Convention deputy.
Charles François Dumouriez	General; sometime Girondist and Foreign Minister in the Girondist cabinet; eventually defected to Austria.
Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours	Constitutional monarchist; National Constituent Assembly president; eventually exiled.
Roger Ducos	Deputy from Landes; member of the Council of Five Hundred; vice-president of the Consulate Senate.
Grace Elliott	Scottish courtesan; former mistress of Louis Philippe II, duc d’Orléans; resident in Paris throughout the Revolution.
Antoine Joseph Marie d’Espinassy	Politician, Knight, General and Deputy; Royal of Signes and Revolutionary.
Fabre d’Églantine	Author of the French Revolutionary Calendar; guillotined.
Joseph Fesch	Cardinal; closely associated with Napoleon Bonaparte.
Joseph Fouché	Jacobin deputy; Thermidorian; Minister of Police under Napoleon.
Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville	Public Prosecutor during the Reign of Terror; subsequently guillotined (1795).
Olympe de Gouges	Writer; advocate of gender equality; guillotined.
Henri Grégoire	Revolutionary priest; supported Civil Constitution of the Clergy.
Jacques Hébert	Polemicist; editor of Le Père Duchesne; guillotined.
Marie Jean Hérault	Committee of Public Safety member; revised Condorcet’s Constitution of 1793; Danton associate; guillotined.
Lazare Hoche	Soldier rapidly promoted to General during early years of Revolution.
Pierre-Augustin Hulin	Ex-royal soldier and one of the first revolutionaries to enter the Bastille; later general under Bonaparte.
Jean-Baptiste Jourdan	General; victor at the battles of Wattignies and Fleurus.
François Christophe Kellermann	Promoted to General early in the Revolution; Battle of Valmy hero; Marshal of France; army administrator during Empire years.
Jean-Baptiste Kléber	Revolutionary general; assassinated in 1800.
Pierre Choderlos de Laclos	Bonapartist general; author of Les Liaisons dangereuses.
Marie Thérèse, princesse de Lamballe	Friend of Marie Antoinette; victim of the September Massacres.
Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette	General; constitutional monarchist, co-wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
Claire Lacombe	Feminist revolutionary, founder of the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women.
Alexandre-Théodore, comte de Lameth	Leading Feuillant; formed “Triumvirate” with Barnave and Duport; eventually emigrated.
Charles Malo François Lameth	Brother of Alexandre de Lameth; Feuillant; emigrated.
Jean Lannes	Soldier rising through ranks to become general; Marshal of France; close to Bonaparte.
Arnaud de Laporte	High royal government official, headed up antirevolutionary activities; second political victim of the guillotine.
Marquis de Launay	Royalist governor of the Bastille; killed after its storming.
Antoine Lavoisier	Scientist; metric pioneer; tax collector; guillotined.
Charles Leclerc	General; close to Bonaparte; served in Haiti.
Philippe-François-Joseph Le Bas	Deputy to the National Convention from Pas-de-Calais; Robespierrist and close ally of Saint-Just; committed suicide at Robespierre’s downfall.
Louis Michel le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau	Former noble; voted to execute Louis XVI; assassinated one day before the execution of Louis XVI.
Louis Legendre	Deputy for the Seine, present at various events. Eventual President of the Convention, member of the Council of Ancients and Council of Five Hundred.
Jacques-Donatien Le Ray	Promoted French support for the American Revolution.
Jean-Baptiste Robert Lindet	Committee of Public Safety member; opposed Girondist faction.
Toussaint L’Ouverture	Commander of Haitian rebels fighting against French occupying forces; captured and imprisoned by Napoleon’s government.
Louis XVI of France	French king at outbreak of Revolution; deposed; guillotined.
Louis XVII of France	The “Lost Dauphin“
Nicolas, Comte Luckner	German-born Marshal of France; commanded troops for the First Republic; guillotined during the Reign of Terror.
Guillaume-Chrétien de Malesherbes	Louis XVI’s defense counsel at his trial, although not known as a royalist; guillotined.
Jean-Paul Marat	Radical journalist; Montagnard; assassinated by Charlotte Corday.
François-Séverin Marceau	Soldier who participated in the storming of the Bastille; later a general.
Marie Antoinette	Queen consort of France; deposed, guillotined.
André Masséna	General; victor at the Battle of Zürich.
Jean-Sifrein Maury	French cardinal; Archbishop of Paris; royalist.
Théroigne de Méricourt	Radical agitator, organizer.
Philippe-Antoine Merlin (“Merlin de Douai”)	Director; later a Bonapartist.
Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau   (“Mirabeau”)	Represented the Third Estate in the Estates-General of 1789, despite being a noble; remained a major political figure throughout the rest of his life.
Antoine-François Momoro	Printer, publisher, and section leader; Hébertist; originator of the phrase Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité; guillotined.
Charles, baron de Montesquieu (“Montesquieu”)	Enlightenment political philosopher; influenced Revolutionary thinking
Jean Victor Marie Moreau	General; victor at the Battle of Hohenlinden.
Gouverneur Morris	American minister to France; witness and diarist of the early Revolution, 1792–94.
Jean-François-Auguste Moulin	General; member of the Directory.
Jean Joseph Mounier	Monarchist deputy; president of the National Constituent Assembly, 1789.
Joachim Murat	Prominent cavalry general; became Napoleon’s brother-in-law; later made King of Naples.
Jacques Necker	Liberal royalist; Director-General of Finance whose dismissal precipitated the storming of the Bastille.
Louis Philippe II, duc d’Orléans	First Prince of the Blood; supported the Revolution, taking the name Philippe Egalité; voted to execute his cousin the King; later guillotined on suspicion of plotting to become King.
Thomas Paine	American revolutionary writer; moved to France during French Revolution but subsequently fell out of favor; arrested, imprisoned and sentenced to death during Reign of Terror, but survived.
Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve	Insurrectionary mayor of Paris; member of first Committee of Public Safety; associated with Girondists; committed suicide during Reign of Terror.
Pierre Philippeaux	Montagnard; Danton associate; guillotined.
Philippe Egalité	See Orléans, Louis Philippe II, duc d’ above.
Charles Pichegru	General; member of the Council of Five Hundred; conspirator in the Coup of 18 Fructidor.
Claude Antoine, comte Prieur-Duvernois (“Prieur de la Côte-d’Or”)	Engineer; Committee of Public Safety member; Carnot associate; turned against Robespierre on 9 Thermidor; Council of Five Hundred member during Directory.
Pierre Louis Prieur (“Crieur de la Marne”)	National Constituent Assembly secretary; Committee of Public Safety member; exiled following Bourbon Restoration.
Louis, comte de Provence	Louis XVI’s younger brother; emigrated 1791; declared himself Louis XVIII, King of France in 1795, but did not actually assume the throne until 1814.
Jean-François Rewbell	Deputy; Feuillant; member of the Directory.
Maximilien Robespierre	Montagnard; Committee of Public Safety member; prominent during Reign of Terror; guillotined after 9 Thermidor.
Comte de Rochambeau	Senior general and former commander of French troops during the American Revolution, commander of the Armee du Nord for the Republic; imprisoned during the Reign of Terror but not executed.
Jean-Marie Roland de la Platière	Girondist; interior minister in 1792; committed suicide in 1793 following his wife’s condemnation.
Madame Roland (Manon-Jeanne Roland, née Philpon)	Jean-Marie Roland’s wife; author of influential Revolutionary writings under Roland’s name; salonière; guillotined.
Gilbert Romme	Initially a Girondist politician, then Montagnard; designed French Republican Calendar; condemned after Girondists’ return to power; committed suicide before execution.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau	Enlightenment political philosopher; influenced Revolutionary thinking.
Jacques Roux	Hébertist leader of the Enragés faction; member of Paris Commune; arrested during Reign of Terror; committed suicide before trial.
Marquis de Sade	Author of erotica and philosophy; imprisoned on charges of sodomy and poisoning at the outbreak of the Revolution; released 1790; elected to the National Convention; escaped execution during the Reign of Terror.
Jean Bon Saint-André	Montagnard; Committee of Public Safety member; later became a naval officer and administrator.
Louis Antoine de Saint-Just	Committee of Public Safety member; Montagnard; close associate of Robespierre; prominent in Reign of Terror; guillotined after 9 Thermidor.
Joseph Servan	General; Minister of War.
Abbé Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès	Although a cleric, entered the Estates-General of 1789 as a representative of the Third Estate; author of pamphlet What is the Third Estate?; instigated the 18 Brumaire coup, but outflanked by Bonaparte.
Madame de Staël	Daughter of Jacques Necker; salonière and writer; adopted moderate Revolutionary position; opposed Napoleon.
Jean Lambert Tallien	Montagnard; later a leading Thermidorian.
Madame Tallien (Thérésa Tallien, née Teresa Cabarrús)	Her moderating influence on her husband Jean Lambert Tallien saved lives in the wake of 9 Thermidor, earning her the moniker Notre-Dame de Thermidor (“Our Lady of Thermidor”).
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (“Talleyrand”)	Clergyman and diplomat; initially a royalist, then revolutionary; co-wrote the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and the Civil Constitution of the Clergy; survived 9 Thermidor to become Foreign Minister under Directory, Bonaparte and the Bourbon Restoration.
Gui-Jean-Baptiste Target	Lawyer and politician; deputy of the Third Estate in the Estates-General of 1789; survived Reign of Terror to become Directory politician.
Jean Baptiste Treilhard	Deputy from Paris; held multiple high-ranking offices including Director.
Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud	Girondist leader; guillotined.
Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac	Girondist, then Montagnard; Committee of Public Safety member; drew up 9 Thermidor report outlawing Robespierre; later a Bonapartist.
Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet)	Enlightenment author and philosopher whose writings influenced Revolutionary thinking.