Editing Reign of Terror (section)

== Thermidorian Reaction ==
{{Main|Thermidorian Reaction}}
[[File:Execution robespierre, saint just....jpg|right|thumb|The execution of [[Maximilien Robespierre]]]]

The [[Fall of Maximilien Robespierre|fall of Robespierre]] was brought about by a combination of those who wanted more power for the Committee of Public Safety (and a more radical policy than he was willing to allow) and the moderates who completely opposed the revolutionary government. They had, between them, made the Law of 22 Prairial one of the charges against him, so that after his fall, to advocate terror would be seen as adopting the policy of a convicted enemy of the republic, putting the advocate's own head at risk.

Between his arrest and his execution, Robespierre may have tried to commit suicide by shooting himself, although the bullet wound he sustained, whatever its origin, only shattered his jaw. Alternatively, he may have been shot by the gendarme [[Charles-André Merda]]. A change in orientation might explain how Robespierre, sitting in a chair, got wounded from the upper right in the lower left jaw.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.academia.edu/25444943|title=Robespierre (Paris, Fayard, 2014; rééd. Pluriel, 2016) – extraits|first=Hervé|last=Leuwers|via=www.academia.edu|pages=366–367|access-date=30 April 2024|archive-date=2 June 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602141720/https://www.academia.edu/25444943|url-status=live |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Aulard|first=Alphonse|title=Études et leçons sur la Révolution Française|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zMhsG1Ul4JEC&pg=PA292|date=2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-03497-5|page=292|access-date=30 April 2024|archive-date=27 May 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240527070956/https://books.google.com/books?id=zMhsG1Ul4JEC&pg=PA292#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live|language=fr}}</ref><ref name="Biard2015">{{cite book|last=Biard|first=Michel|title=La liberté ou la mort, mourir en député, 1792–1795|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S7hSCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT119|date=2015|publisher=Tallandier|isbn=979-1-02-100844-1|page=119|access-date=30 April 2024|archive-date=27 May 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240527070957/https://books.google.com/books?id=S7hSCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT119|url-status=live |language=fr}}</ref>) According to Bourdon, Méda then hit Couthon's adjutant in his leg.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nZ4PAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA394|title=Précis historique inédit des événemens de la soirée du 9 Thermidor An II|first=C. A.|last=Méda|date=12 March 1825|publisher=Baudouin|via=Google Books|access-date=30 April 2024|archive-date=27 May 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240527070958/https://books.google.com/books?id=nZ4PAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA394#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live |language=fr}}</ref><ref>[[Louis Blanc|L. Blanc]] (1861) Histoire de la Révolution Française, Vol. 11, book 12, ch. 7, p. 256</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/memoirsofsansons02sansuoft|title=Memoirs of the Sansons, from private notes and documents, 1688–1847 / edited by Henry Sanson|first1=Henri|last1=Sanson|first2=Charles Henri|last2=Sanson|first3=Henri|last3=Sanson|first4=d'|last4=Olbreuze|date=12 March 1876|publisher=London : Chatto and Windus|via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>E. Hamel, pp. 337–38</ref> Couthon was found lying at the bottom of a staircase in a corner, having fallen from the back of his adjutant. Saint-Just gave himself up without a word.{{sfn | Linton | 2013 | p=283}} According to Méda, Hanriot tried to escape by a concealed staircase to the third floor and his apartment.<ref>C.A. Méda, p. 385</ref> The great confusion that arose during the storming of the municipal Hall of Paris, where Robespierre and his friends had found refuge, makes it impossible to be sure of the wound's origin. A group of 15 to 20 conspirators were locked up in a room inside the Hôtel de Ville.<ref>Richard T. Bienvenu (1968) The Ninth of Thermidor, p. 219</ref> In any case, Robespierre was guillotined the next day, together with Saint-Just, Couthon and his brother [[Augustin Robespierre]].<ref>Merriman, John (2004). "Thermidor" (2nd ed.). ''A history of modern Europe: from the Renaissance to the present'', p. 507. W.W. Norton & Company Ltd. {{ISBN|0-3939-2495-5}}</ref> The day following his demise, approximately half of the Paris Commune (70 members) met their fate at the guillotine.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VcJWDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT82|title=OCR A Level History: The French Revolution and the rule of Napoleon 1774–1815|first=Mike|last=Wells|date=2018|publisher=Hodder Education|isbn=978-1510415829|via=Google Books|access-date=30 April 2024|archive-date=17 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231017233940/https://books.google.com/books?id=VcJWDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT82|url-status=live}}</ref>

According to Barère, who just like Robespierre never went on mission: "We did not deceive ourselves that Saint-Just, cut out as a more dictatorial boss, would have finished by overthrowing [Robespierre] to put himself in his place; we also knew that we who stood in the way of his projects, he would have us guillotined; we overthrew him."<ref>{{cite book |last=Barère |first=Bertrand |url=https://archive.org/details/mmoiresdebbar01bar |title=Mémoires de B. Barère: membre de la Constituante, de la Convention, du Comité de salut public, et de la Chambre des représentants |publisher=J. Labitte |year=1842 |page=[https://archive.org/details/mmoiresdebbar01bar/page/118 118] |language=fr}}</ref>