The CordeliersLed by Danton and Marat,it was most radical of the Paris clubs. Where the

Jacobins attracted ‘active’ citizens, the Cordeliers charged no fees and admitted

any citizen, including women.

The Cordeliers: founded April 1790

• Was the most democratic of the clubs, with unrestricted admission to men and women.

• Believed in popular democracy and opposed the concept of ‘passive’ and ‘active’ citizens.

• Insisted that all citizens constituted the sovereign people

• Supported by the working class and the Commune of Paris

• Wanted Louis’ trial and execution; France as a republic.

• Behind the Champ de Mars demonstration and the demonstration at the Tuileries 20 June, 1792

The Champ de Mars journee

• Petition to the Assembly 17 July 1791• ‘ … take into consideration that Louis XV1’s

crime is proven, that the King has abdicated; … receive his abdication, and call for a new constituent body so as to proceed in a truly national fashion with the judgement of the guilty party, and especially with the replacement and organisation of a new executive power.

June 20, 1792: The attack on the Tuileries forces Louis

XV1 To put on the bonnet rouge and

drink to the revolution

10 August 1792, the mob attacks the Tuileries and massacres the

Swiss Guard

The September Massacres 1792

Georges Danton 1759-1794• He trained as a lawyer, but

bought a venal office as a royal advocate.

• In July 1789, he joined the National Guard.

• He was a joint founder of the Cordeliers Club.

• He planned the August 10 journee and was named Minister of Justice following it.He failed to stop the September massacres.

• Elected to the Convention, he sickened of the revolution.

• He was guillotined in 1794.

Jean-Paul Marat 1743-1793• Born in Sardinia, he became a

journalist in Paris, founding a newspaper L’Ami du Peuple.

• He became an elector for one of the Paris districts, then to the Covnention.

• He promoted popular violence, was anti-Girondin, and in favour of Terror against counter-revolution.

• Stabbed to death by Charlotte Corday, he became a revolutionary martyr.

David’s Death Of Marat

Camille Desmoulins 1760-1794• Born in Picardy, he went to

school with Robespierre and became a journalist in Paris

• Active in the revolution from 1789, one of the leaders in bringing the King to Paris in Oct. 1789.

• In 1791, he submitted a petition at the Champ de Mars.

• Founding member of the Cordeliers Club, elected to the National Convention in September 1792..

• He was executed with Danton for conspiring with foreign interests on April 5 1794..

Desmoulins and popular sovereignty

• In his newspaper Les Revolutions de France et de Brabant in 1790, Desmoulins condemned the division into ‘active’ and ‘passive’ citizens for electoral purposes:

• “But what is this much repeated word ‘active citizen’ supposed to mean? The active citizens are the ones who took the Bastille.”

Jacques-Rene Hebert 1757-94

• Born of a poor family in Alencon, he moved to Paris about 1785.

• Here he wrote pamphlets and published a magazine Le Pere Duchesne

• A member of the Paris Commune and a Cordelier leader, he wanted to maintain and extend the Terror

• Guillotined 1794, with other Cordelier leaders