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| 9 thermidor an II | |
|---|---|
| Name | 9 Thermidor Year II |
| Date gregorian | 27 July 1794 |
| Location | Palais du Luxembourg, Paris |
| Significance | Fall of Maximilien Robespierre and collapse of the Committee of Public Safety's dominance |
| Outcome | Arrest of Robespierre and allies; end of the Reign of Terror; start of the Thermidorian Reaction |
9 thermidor an II 9 Thermidor Year II (27 July 1794) marks the parliamentary coup that toppled Maximilien Robespierre during the French Revolution, ending the most radical phase of the Convention nationale's rule and precipitating the collapse of the Committee of Public Safety. The episode brought down prominent figures such as Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, Georges Couthon, and led to the dismantling of the network around the Reign of Terror, altering the course from revolutionary dictatorship toward the Directory and changing French political culture. The event reverberated across Europe, drawing responses from courts like Vienna and influencing debates in assemblies such as the National Convention and later the Council of Five Hundred.
By Year II the French Revolution had institutionalized the Revolutionary Calendar, and political life centered on bodies like the National Convention, the Committee of Public Safety, and the Committee of General Security. Factional struggles between Jacobins, Girondins, and Montagnards had already produced episodes including the Storming of the Bastille, the September Massacres, and the purge of the Girondin faction; wartime pressures from coalitions such as the First Coalition intensified extraordinary measures. Leaders like Robespierre, Jean-Paul Marat, and Camille Desmoulins shaped policies including the Law of Suspects and the Levée en masse, while military successes credited to generals like Napoleon Bonaparte, Lazare Hoche, and Jean-Baptiste Jourdan contrasted with internal terror administered through representatives like Fouché and François Hanriot.
On that afternoon the National Convention sat at the Palais du Luxembourg where deputies such as Thermidorian deputies and opponents including Paul Barras, Joseph Fouché, and Lazare Carnot openly denounced Robespierre. Speeches by figures like Jean-Lambert Tallien and Jean-Baptiste Robert Lindet produced a rapid turn; the Convention voted to arrest Robespierre, Saint-Just, Couthon and allies, relying on forces commanded by municipal actors such as Jacques Hébert's opponents and Nicolas de Bonneville's contacts. In the ensuing hours attempts by Robespierre to rally support at the Hôtel de Ville failed as Paris Commune contingents and the National Guard under leaders like Paul Barras and François Hanriot fragmented; key breaches included the capture of Robespierre’s supporters and the seizure of the town hall, culminating in the isolation of the condemned.
After his arrest Robespierre and his allies were held at places such as the Prison du Luxembourg and the Conciergerie-style detention sites used earlier in the Revolution. Summary proceedings by commissioners of the Convention led to expedited trials similar in speed to earlier revolutionary tribunals like the Revolutionary Tribunal; defendants including Saint-Just and Couthon were tried before an ad hoc commission and sentenced to death. Execution by guillotine at the Place de la Révolution and other public squares mirrored the fate of men such as Louis XVI and Antoine Lavoisier; Robespierre’s death removed the leading advocate of the Republic of Virtue and the most visible architect of the Terror’s machinery.
The fall initiated the Thermidorian Reaction, a political reorientation that purged the Jacobins and curtailed institutions like the Committee of Public Safety and the Committee of General Security. Power shifted to moderates and conservatives including Paul Barras, Lazare Carnot, and deputies who would later shape the Constitution of Year III and the Directory; measures such as the repeal of the Law of 22 Prairial reduced the scope of the Revolutionary Tribunal. The Revolution’s policy toward counter-revolutionaries, economic regulation, and dechristianization pivoted under actors like Pierre Vergniaud-linked currents and municipal elites, setting the stage for post-Thermidorian stability and renewed military assertiveness under generals like Napoleon Bonaparte.
The Thermidor episode altered cultural currents among revolutionary publics, salons, and theaters where figures like Madame Roland had earlier been discussed; popular reactions varied from jubilant processions to clandestine Jacobin sympathies. Artists, writers, and intellectuals—examples include Jacques-Louis David, Antoine-François Callet, and Marat’s pamphleteers—responded with works and pamphlets that reframed martyrdom, virtue, and tyranny. Policies reversing radical dechristianization affected parishes and priests such as Jean-Baptiste de La Salle-linked clergy; urban poor, sans-culottes elements, and provincial elites experienced shifts in relief, requisition, and local policing administered by actors like municipal commissioners and departmental prefects.
Historians have debated whether Thermidor represented a conservative counter-revolution, a bourgeois stabilization, or an internal revolutionary correction; scholars cite interpretations from François Furet, Albert Soboul, and Simon Schama. Marxist readings emphasize class dimensions highlighted by Soboul, while liberal and revisionist accounts by Furet and Schama stress political culture and ideology, invoking comparisons with earlier episodes like the Fall of the Bastille and later events such as the rise of Napoleon. Primary sources include speeches recorded by the Archives parlementaires and memoirs from participants like Germain Causse and Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville; secondary debates focus on Terror metrics, legal continuity, and the role of provincial armies in shaping outcomes.
Commemoration has taken many forms: revolutionary anniversaries debated in National Convention successor institutions, monuments and plaques in Paris and provincial towns, and artistic representations by painters such as Antoine-Jean Gros. The event remains central in French curricula, museum displays like those once at the Musée Carnavalet, and political rhetoric invoked by figures ranging from Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte to 20th-century commentators. Symbolically Thermidor marks a turning point between radical social transformation and restored republican moderation, influencing later constitutional arrangements including the Constitution of Year III and the political memory preserved in archives and historiography.