Player�s name:
Kitana
Other characters written for by this player:
E-mail:
Favorite Quote:
"Pity is treason." - Robespierre
Birthday:
May 6, 1758
Character's Full name:
Maximilien Marie Isidore de Robespierre, The Incorruptable
Occupation:
A lawyer and the leader of the Jacobin radical political club
Physical Description:
He is shorter than average, and sensitive about it. He has mysterious green
eyes that often have a lonely or far-off look, and beautiful, wavy
reddish brown hair that is always hidden beneath the powder. He has
glasses, but only needs to wear them while reading. Although he is only
36 years of age at the time of his death, he looks at least a decade
older than he actually is. Frequent illness and constant worrying have
taken their toll. He is quite pale, and thin enough for anyone who sees
him to realize just how frail he is. He is meticulous about his
appearance, always overly formal, neat, well groomed, keeping his
fingernails in short and in an exemplary state of cleanliness. Even when
sans-culotte clothing comes into fashion, he retains the attire of an
Ancien Regime lawyer.
Friendships/Relationships:
Louis-Antoine Saint-Just, prot�g�
Couthon
fellow Jacobians, though he doesn't even trust them fully
Personal History:
Maximilien Marie Isidore de Robespierre was born, of
Irish origin, at Arras, May 6, 1758. He was admitted avocat in
1781, and was elected to the Estates General in 1789 by Artois. He
attached himself to the extreme left wing, and soon commanded attention.
His influence grew daily, and the mob frantically admired his earnest
cant and his boasted incorruptibility.
In 1791 he carried the motion that no member of the
present Assembly should be eligible for the next, and was appointed
public accuser. Next followed the flight to Varennes (June 21),
Lafayette's last effort to control the right of insurrection on the
Champ-de-Mars (July 17), the abject terror of Robespierre, his
hysterical appeal to the Club, the theatrical oath taken by every member
to defend his life, and his conduct home in triumph by the mob at the
close of the Constituent Assembly (September 30). The Girondist leaders
in the new Legislative Assembly were eager for war. Robespierre offered
a strenuous opposition in the Jacobin Club.
In April 1792 he resigned his post of public accuser. In
August he presented to the Legislative Assembly a petition for a
Revolutionary Tribunal and a new Convention. It does not appear that he
was in any way responsible for the September massacres. He was elected
first deputy for Paris to the national Convention, where the bitter
attacks upon him by the Girondists threw him into closer union with
Danton.
Robespierre vigorously opposed the Girondist idea of a
special appeal to the people on the king's death, and Louis's execution
on January 21, 1793, opened up the final stages of the struggle, which
ended in a complete triumph of the Jacobins on June 2.
The first Committee of Public Safety was decreed in
April 1793, and Robespierre, elected in July, was now one of the actual
rulers of France (along with the rest of the Twelve). Next came the dark
intrigues and desperate struggles that sent H�bert and his friends to
the guillotine in March 1794, and Danton and Camille Desmoulins in
April. The next three months Robespierre reigned supreme. he nominated
all the members of the Government Committees, placed his men in all
places of influence in the commune of Paris, and assumed complete
control of the Revolutionary Tribunal.
However, as his power increased, his popularity waned.
On May 7 Robespierre, who had previously condemned the Cult of Reason,
advocated a new state religion and recommended the Convention to
acknowledge the existence of God; on June 8 the inaugural Festival of
the Supreme being took place. Meanwhile, the pace of the guillotine grew
faster; public finance and government generally drifted to ruin, and
Saint-Just demanded the creation of a dictatorship in the person of
Robespierre. On July 26, the dictator delivered a long harangue
complaining that he was being accused of crimes unjustly. The
Convention, after at first obediently passing his decrees, next
rescinded them and referred his proposals to the committees. That night
at the Jacobin Club his party again triumphed. At the Convention the
following day, Saint-Just could not obtain a hearing, and Robespierre
was vehemently attacked (the 9th of Thermidor). Tallien proposed his
arrest; at the fatal word, Robespierre's power came to an end.
He flew to the Common Hall, whereupon the Convention
declared him an outlaw. The National Guard under Barras turned out to
protect the Convention, and Robespierre had his lower jaw broken by a
shot fired by a gendarme. The next day (July 28, the 10th of Thermidor),
he was sent to the guillotine along with Saint-Just, Couthon, and
nineteen others.
For a provocative account of Robespierre, please see
Norman Hampson's, The Life and Opinions of Maximilien Robespierre
(London: Duckworth, 1974).
Character's connection to the League:
Has sent Chauvelin to seek out and put an end to the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel.
The Revolution:
He is the revolution.
The Pivotal Questions:
What is your favorite word?
Terreur
What is your least favorite word?
�tranger
What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
D�mocratie, Libert�, �galit�, Fraternit�
What turns you off?
religion.
What is your favorite curse word?
By Satan!
What sound or noise do you love?
The wheels of progress.
What sound or noise do you hate?
The English language
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Emperor.
What profession would you not like to do?
Ambassador.
If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
"Heaven?" It is a creation of the rich to subjugate the people.
