Editing Conciergerie (section)

==The Conciergerie and the Reign of Terror==
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File:Conciergerie in 1790.jpg|Conciergerie in 1790
File:Conciergerie la rue de Paris 2 lpdp.jpg|"Rue de Paris" passage into the prison during the Revolution 
File:Marie-Antoinette sortant de la Conciergerie, le 16 octobre 1793.jpg|Marie Antoinette leaves the Conciergerie on the way to her execution 
</gallery>

The Palais de la Cité and the Conciergerie played a central role in the [[French Revolution]]. On May 5, 1788, The [[Parlement of Paris]], meeting in the Great Hall in 1788, refused to accept King [[Louis XVI]]'s order to turn over two of its members for questioning and refused to leave the building. As the Revolution unfolded, The Parlement itself soon became unpopular. It was dismissed in 1790 by the new [[National Constituent Assembly (France)|Constituent Assembly]], and the gates of the Palais de la Cité were locked.{{Sfn|Delon|2000|p=27}}

The first [[Paris Commune (1789–1795)|Paris Commune]] and [[Sans-culottes]] seized the [[Tuileries Palace]] on August 10, 1792, and took charge of the government and the Conciergerie. During the [[September Massacres]], the Communard militants entered the city's prisons and in four days killed more than 1300 prisoners, including priests and others suspected of being upper class or hostile to the revolution. The victims included a large group executed in the Women's Courtyard of the Conciergerie on September 2–3, 1792.{{Sfn|Delon|2000|p=27}}
Of the 488 prisoners of the Conciergerie, 74 women and 36 men were released by the mob and 378 was killed, of whom [[Marie Gredeler]] was the only female victim.<ref>Lenotre, G., Lees, F. (1909). The Tribunal of the Terror: A Study of Paris in 1793-1795. Storbritannien: W. Heinemann. p.38</ref> 

The [[Revolutionary Tribunal]] was created on March 10, 1793, by the more radical [[Montagnard (French Revolution)|Montagnard]] faction over the opposition of the more moderate [[Girondins]]. The Tribunal met in the Grand Chamber of Palace, on the upper floor between the Silver and Caesar towers. It was renamed the "Hall of Liberty." [[Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville]], a Montagnard, was named public prosecutor, and installed his office and residence next to the Chamber. In September 1793, the Terror intensified. The [[National Convention]], controlled by the Montagnards, enacted the [[Law of Suspects]] on September 17, 1793. This act declared that anyone considered a counter-revolutionary or enemy of the republic was guilty of treason and, thus, condemned to death. The Tribunal had five judges and twelve selected jury members. Trials were public and rapid, and attracted large crowds. Verdicts could not be appealed. The number of monthly executions grew from eleven a month before the Law of Suspects to one hundred twenty-four a month.{{Sfn|Delon|2000|p=30-31}}

The Queen, [[Marie Antoinette]], was arrested on August 3, 1792, and first held in the [[Square du Temple|Temple Prison]] with her family. The King [[Trial of Louis XVI|was tried]] between December 3 and December 26, 1792, and [[Execution of Louis XVI|executed 21 January 1793]]. The Queen was transferred from the Temple to the Conciergerie on the night of August 1–2, 1793. She was confined in a single-bed cell on the ground floor overlooking the Women's Courtyard. She was not allowed any writing instruments, and was continually watched by two gendarmes. After several unsuccessful plots to free her were discovered, she was transferred to a different cell, where the current memorial chapel is located, and held there for forty-four days. She was questioned in her cell on October 12, and was charged with three crimes: collusion with [[Habsburg monarchy|Austria]], excessive expenditure, and opposing the Revolution. Another charge, having incestuous relations with her son, was added during the trial.{{Sfn|Delon|2000|p=30-31}} Her trial began on October 14, 1793, in the former Great Hall of the Palace. She had two court-appointed lawyers, but they were only allowed less than a day to prepare their case. The trial lasted for two days, in which forty-one witnesses testified. The trial concluded on 16 October 1793; she was, as expected, sentenced to death, and taken in a cart later that day to the guillotine, set up on Place de la Revolution, now [[Place de la Concorde]].{{sfn|de Parseval|Mazeau|2019|pp=36-38}}

During the period of 1793–94, at the height of the [[Reign of Terror]], the prison held some six hundred prisoners. Most prisoners were transferred to the Conciergerie from other prisons, and spent only a few days before their trial and sentencing, or at most a few weeks. Political and criminal prisoners were mixed together.{{Sfn|Delon|2000|p=32}} Poorer prisoners were confined in collective cells on the lowest level, with straw-covered floors. These prisoners were called "Pailleaux", or "Straw sleepers." Others were confined to a square cell six feet wide and six feet long, with a narrow barred window. A small number of wealthier prisoners were able to bribe guards to have cells with two folding beds. These prisoners could send and receive mail, have their clothes washed, and sometime have visitors. These prisoners were called "Pistoliers," because they bribed the guards with pistole coins. However, these privileges ceased as the prison became more crowded and the Terror reached its peak.{{sfn|de Parseval|Mazeau|2019|p=36-38}}

In the spring of 1794, the tribunal began judging the moderate revolutionary leaders, including [[Danton]] and [[Camille Desmoulins]]. In May they tried and sentenced [[Élisabeth of France]], sister of Louis XVI, "For belonging to the Family of the Tyrant." On June 10, 1794, the court procedure was modified to allow speedier trials; witnesses were no longer needed, and the definition of "suspect" was enlarged. By the end of June, an average of thirty-eight persons a day were being tried, sentenced, and sent to the guillotine. Between 1793 and 1795, two-thirds of prisoners tried were sentenced to death. At the peak of the Reign of Terror, four out of five prisoners were sentenced to death,{{sfn|de Parseval|Mazeau|2019|p=41}}{{Sfn|Delon|2000|p=33}}

By the end of July 1794, the more moderate revolutionaries, fearing their own safety, turned against [[Robespierre]] and the other radical leaders. On July 27, a majority of the Convention voted for the arrest of Robespierre. Robespierre tried to commit suicide, was wounded, and was taken to the Conciergerie, where he was given the former cell of [[Marie Antoinette]]. On July 28 he was condemned to death by the Tribunal and guillotined on the Place de la Revolution.{{Sfn|Delon|2000|p=33}}

In August, the head of the tribunal, Fouquier-Tinville, was arrested and tried. He argued that "the execution of the laws, justice and humanity were always my sole rules of conduct", but he was confined for nine months in the Conciergerie, and went to the guillotine on May 7, 1795. The tribunal was abolished on May 31, 1795. In seven hundred eighty days, the tribunal had sentenced and executed 2,780 prisoners.{{Sfn|Delon|2000|p=33}}

The early revolutionary period continued the prison's tradition of interning prisoners based on wealth, such that wealthier prisoners could rent a bed for 27 [[French livre|livres]] 12 sous for the first month, 22 livres 10 sous for subsequent months. Even when the price was decreased to 15 livres, the commanders of the prison made a fortune; as the Terror escalated, a prisoner could pay for a bed and be executed a few days later, freeing the bed for a new inmate who would then pay as well. One memoirist termed the Conciergerie "the most lucrative furnished lodgings in Paris".<ref>Riouffe, Honoré, ed. ''Revolutionary Justice Displayed: Or, An inside View of the Various Prisons of Paris, under the Government of Robespierre and the Jacobins''. Philadelphia: Printed for Benjamin Davies, No. 68, High-Street, by Richard Folwell, No. 33, Mulberry-Street, 1796. Print.</ref> For most prisoners, the cramped cells were infested with rats, and the stench of urine permeated every room. As the Terror reached its peak, the special privileges for wealthy prisoners were largely reduced and ceased.

The prisoners, except those locked in the dungeons, were allowed to walk about the prisoners' gallery from 8 a.m. to an hour before sunset. Roll call was always a tortuous proceeding because many of the jailers were illiterate and it could take hours for them to confirm that all of the prisoners were accounted for. A principal jailer, who sat by the door, determined whether visitors would be allowed inside the prison. His decision depended more on his mood than any set proceedings. He was also in charge of resolving disputes between jailers and their charges.

Each evening, the prisoners gathered in the courtyard outside the Tour Bonbec to hear the reading of the list of prisoners who would be tried the following day.{{sfn|de Parseval|Mazeau|2019|p=41}} Once prisoners were tried and sentenced, they were taken to Salle de la Toilette, where their personal belongings were confiscated. They were put onto carts in the May Courtyard and taken to guillotines at sites throughout Paris. Some of the prisoners held at the Conciergerie were the poet [[André Chénier]], [[Charlotte Corday]], Madame Élisabeth, [[Madame du Barry]], and the 21 [[Girondins]], a group of moderate deputies, arrested and executed in the early beginning of the Reign of Terror.