Robespierre’s execution, July 28, 1794

The Coup d'état of 9 Thermidor, also known as the Fall of Maximilien Robespierre, was a series of events that began with Maximilien Robespierre's speech to the National Convention on 8 Thermidor Year II (26 July 1794), and continued with his arrest the next day, and ended with his execution on 10 Thermidor Year II (28 July 1794). Within the Convention and the ruling Committees, Robespierre warned of internal opponents, conspirators, and calumniators in his speech of 8 Thermidor. The deputies were concerned that Robespierre was planning another purging of the Convention because he refused to name them.

This tension in the Convention allowed Jean-Lambert Tallien, one of the conspirators named in Robespierre's condemnation, to turn the Convention against him and order his arrest the next day. Robespierre was killed the next day in the Place de la Revolution, where King Louis XVI had been executed a year before. Like the others, he was guillotined to death.

Dates: July 28, 1794