They say history is written by the winners, and certainly the past’s heroes and villains have almost unanimously been decided by those who have triumphed. But while Hitler, Stalin, Churchill et al have been pigeonholed with relative ease, some of time’s more interesting characters are far trickier to categorise.
I was watching an episode of Chucklevision a few months back, and was somewhat surprised when Barry and Paul’s slapstick nemesis proclaimed himself to be none other than Maximilien Robespierre.
Now, aside from the rather odd situation of a television programme aimed at pre-school kids featuring a relatively obscure historical figure, I was disheartened to see ‘The Incorruptible’ portrayed as the enemy.
Of course, popular culture has long villainised Robespierre. He is principal foe in The Scarlet Pimpernel. Wretched songstress Joni Mitchell sings: “Doctors’ pills give you brand new ills/ And the bills bury you like an avalanche/ And lawyers haven’t been this popular/ Since Robespierre slaughtered half of France!” in Sex Kills. (“Since Robespierre slaughtered one 9000th of France!” would be a more accurate lyric, but doesn’t quite roll off the tongue as well.) One extraordinary attack on former New York major Rudy Giuliani by US chat show host Keith Olbermann sees Olbermann challenge Giuliani to: “Do a Joe McCarthy, do a Lyndon Johnson, do a Robespierre.”
Robespierre’s bad press has tended to be a result of misrepresentation. The Terror, a 15 month period of mass execution aimed at enemies of the Revolution, has been the area most focused upon by his detractors. Few will deny that hideous crimes were committed during this period. One list of victims notes an 18-year-old tailor by the name of Jean Baptiste Henry, who was: “convicted of sawing down a tree of liberty,” and swiftly guillotined.
Of the 40,000 or so men and women who were killed (3000 during the latter period of Robespierre’s ascendancy) the majority were untried. However, this bloodshed has more often than not been framed in the context of Robespierre’s ruthless rise to become dictator of France. J. L. Talmon’s 1952 book The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy went some way to creating this image of Robespierre as a tyrant. The book attacks Robespierre’s hero and role-model, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and argues that elected governments which keep their citizens at arms length can be as dangerous as dictatorships. Robespierre is accordingly framed as a pre-cursor to Hitler, a man people often forget achieved power in Germany through democratic election.
Ruth Scarr’s excellent biography of ‘The Incorruptible’ – Fatal Purity – has gone some way to redressing the balance. Robespierre is portrayed as a man obsessed by virtue, utterly dedicated the cause of the people, and with little selfish interest whatsoever – let alone a desire to rule France. There is much to back up this argument. He lived in a modest house for his entire stay in Paris, was never embroiled in a public scandal like the majority of the Revolution’s other major figures, and in fact held very few positions of actual power during his life. Indeed his influence lay more in the intense loyalty much of Paris (what Edmund Burke described as ‘the swinish multitude’) felt towards him.
Robespierre was without doubt politically ruthless. His betrayal of Danton, a man to whom he wrote: “I love you more than ever, I love you until death. At this moment I am you,” just months before sending him to the guillotine is legendary, but not a move motivated by personal ambition. Instead his utter conviction in the will and virtue of the people of France was always more important than any friendship. Whether or not you agree with Robespierre beliefs, it is ludicrous to suggest his actions were anything other than selfless, albeit perhaps misguided at times.
He was always a very suspicious man, paranoid even, but still it was a paranoia born out of an absolute determination to ensure that the Revolution stuck. And of course there was every chance that it wouldn’t during the 1790s, with Europe’s royalty plotting an invasion of France to restore Louis to the throne. (Robespierre spoke passionately for the execution of Louis for this reason, and it eventually happened in 1793.)
But despite the countless unnecessary deaths of revolutionaries, such as Danton, who still had France’s best interest in their hearts, the Terror did serve a purpose. There were plenty of impostors during this period as well. Mirabeau, an early leader of the Revolution and ironically one of the few Robespierre trusted until his death, was in negotiations with Louis as late as 1791 for a restoration.
But come 1794 the situation had become faintly ridiculous. “You aren’t revolutionary enough’ one-upmanship was sending good men to the guillotine, simply for calling for a degree of moderation, and eventually Robespierre was felled by the Thermidorian Reaction which purged the Jacobins, sent ‘The Incorruptible’ to the guillotine and began a series of infighting which eventually would lead to the emergence of Napoleon.
The importance of Robespierre should not be underestimated. Despite any of his wrongdoings, he always had (at least what he considered to be) the best interests of France’s poor at the top of his agenda. He was determined not to allow the work of the 1789 to go to waste, and grasped the importance of violence during a time of the utmost instability.
Zhou Enlai, one of the senior figures of Chairman Mao’s ruling Communist Party, was asked in the 1970s for his assessment of the French Revolution. His response? “It is too early to say.” Witty quips aside, he makes a very valid point, and whilst the verdict has long been delivered on most of history’s major happenings, the jury is still out not only on the French Revolution, but also its most intriguing participant.
(And if history really does decide Robespierre is one of its primary villains, we at least have the prospect of a bumbling Hitler being outwitted by two endearing simpletons on children’s television in 200 years time.)
(‘Death is the beginning of immortality’ was a line from Robespierre’s last speech to the National Convention before his execution.)
Minus points for labelling Joni Mitchell a ‘ Wretched songstress’.
However, I see can see this sort of thing fitting nicely into subplot….Bartram on Pol Pot, Bartram on Ronald Reagan and possibly Bartram on Robes
the woman sounds like an owl…