the National Convention (and the CPS)

why did the Legislative Assembly need to end

they were tarnished with the reputation of supporting Louis for so long

France need a National Convention with more radical people who will be able to remove any traitors to the revolution

how is the National Convention split

Committee of Public Safety (CPS)

• formed between July and September 1793

• 12 members, (including Robespierre, Saint-Just, Couthon) all were young and there was no chairman

• these men were tired, and so discussions often became messy

Committee of General Security (CGS)

• a police committee also consisting of 12 people

• responsible for the protection of the Revolutionary Republic from internal enemies

the National Convention itself

• the main legislative body

• passed laws and voted on major decisions

Law of Suspects

September 1793

said that anyone who was ‘an enemy of the people’ could be arrested and then later killed

this gave the CPS enormous amounts of power

Marie Antoinette

executed in 1793 October

suspension of the constitution

Robespierre suspends the constitution due to the extreme crisis that France is facing at the time (due to both internal and external war)

Robespierre and the CPS argued that France needed a temporary revolutionary government rather than a permanent constitutional one

the constitution was suspended on the 10th October 1793

key characteristics of the structure of the National Convention

• Centralised but Competitive - power flowed from the Convention downward, but the two main committees often competed for authority

• Overlapping Jurisdiction: Multiple bodies had authority over arrests and terror, creating redundancy and paranoia

• Local Autonomy: Representatives on Mission had broad discretionary power in their regions, sometimes acting independently

• Rapid Escalation: Each level could initiate arrests and terror; suspects moved quickly through the system

• Accountability Gap: Lower bodies (Watch Committees, Revolutionary Armies) had minimal oversight, leading to abuses

other revolutionary bodies (not sure if we need to know this)

• The Revolutionary Tribunal

  • A  court to decide who was guilty and should be executed

  • Members appointed by CPS

• The National Convention

  • The supreme governing body

  • Overtime they lost power as all of it had been delegated

• Watch Committees

  • Established in March 1793 and was given responsibility for monitoring all foreign and suspicious individuals

  • They gained power after the Law of Suspects

  • They had the authority to arrest anyone they thought was a danger to the Republic and imprison them without a trial

• Representatives on mission

  • They had the power to arrest rebels bearing royalist insignias or bearing arms

  • The Law of Suspects (September 1793) gave them the power to arrest anyone who showed themselves to be against the revolution

  • The law of Frimaire gave them the power to arrest local officials whose loyalty was questionable.

• The revolutionary armies

  • There were about 6,000 in this army plus 1,200 artillery men

  • The army was initially given the task of requisitioning grain, but soon it was also hunting down enemies of the Republic

the fall of the Girondins

• In January 1793 they disagreed with the Jacobins over the execution of the King. This supposed sympathy for the King provoked hostility among the people of Paris

• The Girondin attempt in March 1793 to arrest the radicals Marat and Hebert failed, and there was a wave of condemnation by the radical press.

• General Dumouriez, a famous former Girondin, fled to Austria

• The Girondins received news of successes by Catholic rebels in Vendee, and information that Lyon had been occupied by a royalist coup

• Marat’s murder by a Girondin - Charlotte Corday

• On 31st May sans-culottes from poorer areas launched mass demonstrations

• 2 June 1793 8,000 National Guardsmen surrounded the Convention and arrested the leading Girondins, who were guillotined on 31 October