French Revolution

Washington’s French Volunteers

Besides La Fayette, writes Arnold Whitridge, many French volunteers joined the American forces to fight for a freedom they had not yet won in France.

The Siege of Toulon, 1793

At Toulon, writes Stephen Usherwood, the Royal Navy first became deeply involved in the affairs of the French Revolution.

Robespierre

No other leader of the French Revolution held the centre of the revolutionary stage so long as Robespierre. George Rudé portrays him as its personification and guiding spirit — a man of lofty aspirations, though according to the popular legend a fanatical man of blood.

Noel ‘Gracchus’ Babeuf, Prophet of Elitism

The legend that Babeuf had created and the doctrines of Babouvism became a powerful force in nineteenth-century Europe. W.J. Fishman writes how, among those whom it inspired, were the authors of the Bolshevik Revolution.

The Spy in the Committee of Public Safety

Throughout the Terror in 1793-94, writes Vera Watson, the British Government were being supplied with detailed reports on French Cabinet meetings. Who was the Spy among the thirteen members of the Committee of Public Safety?

Louis XVI at Bay: The Tuileries, June 20th, 1792

After the dismissal of popular ministers in 1792, writes M.J. Sydenham, a widespread conviction that the King was bent on thwarting the Revolution led to the invasion of his palace by the Parisian mob.

Chamfort: A Man for Our Time

‘Human society must be begun again’, wrote Chamfort, who, after delighting the Court and the fashionable world, became an eloquent prophet of the Revolution. By Alaric Jacob.

A Page at Versailles

Fourteen years before the French Revolution, writes Felice Harcourt, the son of a Belgian nobleman joined the court of the Bourbons.