Robespierre, Maximilien François Marie Isidore de

French politician in the French Revolution. As leader of the Jacobins in the National Convention (1792), he supported the execution of Louis XVI and the overthrow of the right-wing republican Girondins, and in July 1793 was elected to the Committee of Public Safety. A year later he was guillotined; many believe that he was a scapegoat for the Reign of Terror since he ordered only 72 executions personally.

Robespierre, a lawyer, was elected to the National Assembly from 1789 to 1791. His defence of democratic principles made him popular in Paris, while his disinterestedness won him the nickname of ‘the sea-green Incorruptible’. His zeal for social reform and his attacks on the excesses of the extremists made him enemies on both right and left; a conspiracy was formed against him, and in July 1794 he was overthrown and executed by those who actually perpetrated the Reign of Terror.