Stealing Robespierre's wig

they/them, icon drawn by a friend (littlepatchalchemist I'm looking at you) Don't ask about the banner

[sieclesetcieux]

Imagine if Danton or Hérault had taken the family silver in their youth to finance a run to Paris. How do you think the tale would get talked about?

For a high-born noble or a larger-than-life figure, the act would most likely get framed as a "daring escapade", a "spirited display of youthful defiance" or a "classic roguish rebellion." It would become a colorful anecdote that adds to their legend as bold, unstoppable men who love life and pleasure and freedom and take what they felt was rightfully theirs.

So why is it different for Saint-Just?

Because starting with Thermidor, his story became synonymous with stripping him of authority. Invalidating it. Demonizing it. So this desperate flight from a controlling domestic environment gets reframed into a pathetic domestic crime to prove he was always a petty tyrant.

The fact remains that he was a victim of institutional and familial overreach.

The lettre-de-cachet was an extreme, authoritarian exercise of parental control. The only reason it was used was because there was actually no crime to hold him with: as the firstborn son with a deceased father, the silver was his by law.

I think it's telling that people automatically take the side of his poor, sweet, suffering mama in the conflict of a 19yo young man over her authority and his independence.

[edoutft]

sisters

[aft3rdeath]

Voler loin mon oiseau🕊️🕊️🕊️

[secondjulia]

Report on the Report on Robespierre's Blood

This article, previously mentioned, reports the analysis a blood sample that the authors took from the table that Robespierre supposedly lay on during the night of 9-10 Thermidor. Using mass spectrometry, they identify proteins and what tissues/systems they come from; they disregarded those associated with the skin, because of obvious contamination from others using and touching the desk. The analysis confirmed that the stain is, in fact, blood and found proteins associated with, among other places (see the full table at the end):

the central nervous system,

salivary glands,

lachrymal (tear) glands, and

cerebrospinal fluid

indicating a wound of the head and face in line with the surgeons' descriptions of Robespierre's injuries. They also note that this highlights

"the severity of the associated traumatic lesions, which were previously unknown" (p. 446),

which I think means that the surgeons who physically examined him may not have been able to or had no reason to truly ascertain the full extent of his injuries, something that we can now understand with the presence of proteins from, for example, cerebrospinal fluid. The authors conclude that

"These elements make it possible to confirm the identity of the patient at the origin of the bleeding (Robespierre)" (446)

Of course, I wasn't able to confirm that we actually have any of his DNA in order to compare and make a positive ID; I know there's a lock of his hair supposedly at the Carnavalet and there are stories of his teeth being saved, but it doesn't seem as though these have been definitively proven or tested? (Or maybe can't be tested for whatever reason?) Nevertheless, the findings do conform to the story surrounding the table and what is known about Robespierre's wounds.

Also I emailed Peter McPhee to ask if he was aware of the article, because I was curious if there'd been any subsequent research or refutation of the findings, and he said "they seem to be accepted".

Source

From Charlier, P., & Armengaud, J. (2025). Cranio-facial trauma diagnosis using paleo-proteotyping of a blood sample from Robespierre (1794). Annales Pharmaceutiques Françaises, 83(3) 445-448. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pharma.2024.12.011

It's a short article, simply reporting the findings in the blood. The first page and a half are the highlights & abstracts which you can read on the Science Direct link above. This is the important part, p.446:

The following page, p. 447, has the full table of proteins and which systems they're associated with:

Following that is just the disclosures, acknowledgements, etc., as well as the reference list, which is also on the Science Direct page.

[divinetragedia]

robesbird

[picardy-third]

The time is not here where good men can serve their patrie with impunity; the defenders of liberty will only be outcasts, as long as the horde of rogues is in control.

[teddyrocker]

10 thermidor.

the sound you’re hearing is an 18th century execution call on the snare (played by my little brother!). this one is american, but a similar one may have played during the executions. the revolutionaries would, of course, not have been brought before the guillotine in their wigs and nice coats, but i drew them so to make them maybe a tad more recognizable. from left to right, it is georges couthon, augustin robespierre, antoine saint-just, and maximilien robespierre.

[skogsdotter-draws]

The scorching sun of Thermidor

[aramistinguette]

Thermidor sketchbook

[saintjustitude]

Waking up suddenly after 4 hours of sleep with my mind rotating references and analyses to piece together a rebuttal to the cynical revisionist explanation of Thermidor. You gotta love the academic AuDHD brain.

I might elaborate more later but here's the gist of it so I don't forget:

Robespierre's speech on the 8 thermidor is "bad" only if you examine it in terms of basic political self-preservation. Same with Saint-Just's decision not to read his speech to the other members of the Committee(s).

I already talked about this but I didn't elaborate enough on this aspect: these are bad strategies if you're playing the game, but they weren't playing the game. They were running on a completely different script, one the Girondins, the Martyrs of Prairial, and the Babouvists knew as well: it was the Stoic refusal to engage with a world they cannot communicate with, argue with, debate with.

They were raised on Plutarch's tales and Cato the Younger was one of their greatest model of political integrity. When Cato realized the Roman Republic was dead and that living under Caesar's tyranny would require compromising his principles or accepting a counterfeit existence, he chose death. He stabbed himself, but missed. Doctors tried to save him by stitching his wounds. The moment they stopped looking, he tore them open.

It shows that this wasn't just a cold manifestation of clinical depression. It was the passionate answer to existential despair. When all civic space for truth and virtue has been erased, dying on your own terms is the ultimate assertion of political autonomy. It is a deliberate choice to step off the board entirely rather than legitimize a broken, corrupt system by trying to "play politics" within it.

And they believed in that. You might not. But they truly believed in this. It's fundamental to understand this.

Thus I also sincerely believe that Robespierre and Saint-Just went to the Convention on the 8 and 9 to speak the truth and list their honest grievances.

They went to appeal to men speaking the language of moral principles in order to save the Republic from the rot they were witnessing. Instead they found men who devolved into rage and hysteria, acting out of self-preservation, fear, and personal ambition. They were no longer speaking the same language. So Saint-Just simply stopped arguing. There was no debate to be had when the shared moral vocabulary was destroyed and the two sides were no longer inhabiting the same moral reality. It was the principled refusal to engage in a world that chose power, self-preservation and optics.

When you view their actions from Robespierre's speech to the inaction at the Hôtel de Ville from this perspective, you realize none of this was a "disaster"; it went exactly the way they had planned. They didn't go to the Convention to play politics. They went to deliver an ultimatum for the soul of the Republic. When the Convention rejected it, they accepted the answer. They did not fall because their strategy failed; they accepted their fate because they refused to compromise the core principles of their political vision.

(Please classicists, feel free to add your thoughts.)

(This is why I took a minor in classical studies during my undergrad. Because knowing the cold utilitarian bureaucratic politics of the 19th century that rose from the ashes of Thermidor is completely useless to understand 18th century classical idealists raised on Plutarch.)

[saintjustitude]

I would need to sit down and really read Robespierre's speech fully as I'm more familiar with Saint-Just's but I agree: I feel like there was a bit more "politicking" in Robespierre's speech because he was still trying to appeal to the Plaine. On the other hand, Saint-Just was truly speaking to everyone including hopefully the committees, and when they interrupted him, it wasn't shock that stopped him from speaking or because he wasn't trying (Robespierre and Le Bas were still trying to argue back and were shouted down after all); it was a refusal to speak. He offered them the calm language of friendship and wisdom. When he saw they were clearly not interested, he didn't argue.

[saintjustitude]

You get it! :D

They couldn't pull a Saddam or a Stalin because they literally don't have that political language yet. Stalin only did what he did BECAUSE he knows about Thermidor. Everyone else will say they learned specifically from that experience, but Robespierre and Saint-Just would likely still refuse their answer because they truly believed in the Stoic refusal and didn't want to become dictators.

[theorahsart]

Here's a comic breaking down some myths about Robespierre, The Terror, and *why* he died. This explanation is still pretty simplified, but I hope it can show why many of us talk about his downfall with such sadness. It can seem confusing if you've been taught a certain narrative.

In comparison to some of my other non fiction comics, this one is honestly a little more biased... but heck, it's Thermidor, and Robespierre's memory is indeed dear enough to me that I want to defend it.

[vr55555555-deactivated20250319]

“Don’t be alarmed. The majority of the Convention is pure; I have nothing to fear.”

— Maximilien Robespierre’s last words to the Duplays on the morning of 9 Thermidor (via viverobespierre)

[bunniesandbeheadings]

[john-marshall]

[sieclesetcieux]

Reminder that the 10 thermidor was only the beginning of a purge that ended with 105 persons executed in three days and hundreds more arrested. Some committed suicide or were poisoned in jail.

The Commune was almost entirely purged:

there were 140 members on the general council on 9 thermidor

87 were guillotined

40 imprisoned

only 13 remained free

On 11 thermidor, twelve tumbrils carried 71 people to be executed. Here are their names. 12 more people were guillotined on 12 thermidor. Remember this when you read the traitorous CSP members tell you they did this to "prevent bloodshed" - when the execution toll on 11 thermidor was the biggest in one day ever.

Four months later in November the Club des Jacobins would be attacked by a right-wing militia led by Fréron, who broke the windows and doors down, beat the men, and stripped and whipped the women who were there. These women were ridiculed in crass pamphlets the following days. A deputy's wife was among them, whom Fréron had been personally targetting in his rag for weeks. The Convention punished no one but the Jacobins themselves by ordering the Club to be shut down and destroyed. A market was later built there and named to celebrate Thermidor.

The terrible winter came where tons of people starved because the new useless government of corrupt fiends lifted all regulations to "free" the market. This is the winter where Victor Hugo wrote Jean Valjean stealing bread to feed his sister's children. It's not a coincidence.

Less than a year later, in May 1795, the sans-culottes would rise for the last time in an insurrection that was utterly crushed and, with it, the popular spring of the Revolution.

The Revolution had been dying. It was now truly dead.

The next years were just a corpse they pretended was still alive.

[sieclesetcieux]

The links to the ARBR were broken so I updated them. One still didn't work though, so I linked to an archive dot org version.

These links have all the names and short biographies of the victims of 10, 11 and 12 thermidor.

[janellefeng]

I took a little bit of creative liberty in terms of the order of events and Saint-Just's unpronounced last speech. Anyways, Thermidor is upon us again...

[robespapier]

Not gonna lie, I like the idea of Maximilien Robespierre and Eleonore Duplay together because this would mean Lafayette and Bailly accidentally got Robespierre a girlfriend

[leathernlace00]

More vampire au art because I can't stop drawing vampire robespierre, send help (also happy bastille day ❤️‍🩹)

[leathernlace00]

I tried to finish this for marats death anniversary but as you can see I lost motivation quickly.. sorry marat