I once baked a 17th century cake rather than write a school essay, but I never did anything like that! The death penalty was abolished here (Britain) in the late 60's: it was only a few years before I was born, but it seems like something that belongs in the distant past. I find it very shocking when I get an ebay item from the USA with newspaper packaging discussing executions!
Which Civil War? We had a village Fete here a few years ago, with a Civil War theme - but when the re-enactors turned up, they were in Covered Wagons and dressed as Union and Confederate: the village organisers had booked the wrong Civil War! I suppose we'll get some Napoleonic re-enactments in 2012 and 2015, which I'm looking forward to because I love the uniforms...
Strangely, in the popular image of the Revolution (outside France), the deaths at Nantes and Lyon are ignored - it's always Paris and the guillotine that is emphasised, and with wildly exaggerated death tolls. I presume it is because of the incongruity of the idea that the 'Age of Reason' should produce something as paradoxical as a 'humane' machine for killing human beings! Meanwhile, we seem blasé about deaths by bullet or cannon fire...that's somehow regarded as 'natural'!
I think it's unfair to blame Robespierre for Danton's death: on 9th Thermidor Robespierre was accused of both killing Danton AND of defending him (!!) - he had earlier defended him at the Cordeliers, and tried to defend Desmoulins at the Jacobins, and was reportedly defending Danton against demands for his arrest within the Comité de Salut Public until the last minute - then helped to draft their accusation (!). Danton and co. must have thought he was still inclined towards them, as they called for him twice as a witness at their trial, to no avail. I don't think it was about personal gain - of all the existing members of the CSP at that time, had Danton attempted to defend Fabre and brought the government down (his motives still seem unclear), Robespierre would probably have survived such a coup. I think it was a matter of maintaining government stability, striking Left and then Right, regardless of the human cost to people who were once personal friends. It is very much in the Roman / Spartan civic spirit believed to be 'noble' at the time - like David's painting of Brutus with the bodies of his sons - but from a human point of view, chilling.
I think it's tragic that the Indulgents didn't wait until the spring to launch their campaign: their timing was bad: even friends like Freron were warning Desmoulins that, living in Paris, he failed to appreciate the difficulties on the front line. I know what you mean about Danton and Desmoulins (who I particularly like) being more warmly 'human', but it was perhaps easier to be humane in the semi-retirement, with families, they were both living in at the time, far harder when living the incredibly stressful 24/7 atmosphere of government, when nerves must have been stretched to breaking point - I always wonder how they managed to function at all under so many stresses, national and personal.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: 1790's and guillotine
Date: 2008-10-22 05:48 pm (UTC)Which Civil War? We had a village Fete here a few years ago, with a Civil War theme - but when the re-enactors turned up, they were in Covered Wagons and dressed as Union and Confederate: the village organisers had booked the wrong Civil War! I suppose we'll get some Napoleonic re-enactments in 2012 and 2015, which I'm looking forward to because I love the uniforms...
Strangely, in the popular image of the Revolution (outside France), the deaths at Nantes and Lyon are ignored - it's always Paris and the guillotine that is emphasised, and with wildly exaggerated death tolls. I presume it is because of the incongruity of the idea that the 'Age of Reason' should produce something as paradoxical as a 'humane' machine for killing human beings! Meanwhile, we seem blasé about deaths by bullet or cannon fire...that's somehow regarded as 'natural'!
I think it's unfair to blame Robespierre for Danton's death: on 9th Thermidor Robespierre was accused of both killing Danton AND of defending him (!!) - he had earlier defended him at the Cordeliers, and tried to defend Desmoulins at the Jacobins, and was reportedly defending Danton against demands for his arrest within the Comité de Salut Public until the last minute - then helped to draft their accusation (!). Danton and co. must have thought he was still inclined towards them, as they called for him twice as a witness at their trial, to no avail. I don't think it was about personal gain - of all the existing members of the CSP at that time, had Danton attempted to defend Fabre and brought the government down (his motives still seem unclear), Robespierre would probably have survived such a coup. I think it was a matter of maintaining government stability, striking Left and then Right, regardless of the human cost to people who were once personal friends. It is very much in the Roman / Spartan civic spirit believed to be 'noble' at the time - like David's painting of Brutus with the bodies of his sons - but from a human point of view, chilling.
I think it's tragic that the Indulgents didn't wait until the spring to launch their campaign: their timing was bad: even friends like Freron were warning Desmoulins that, living in Paris, he failed to appreciate the difficulties on the front line. I know what you mean about Danton and Desmoulins (who I particularly like) being more warmly 'human', but it was perhaps easier to be humane in the semi-retirement, with families, they were both living in at the time, far harder when living the incredibly stressful 24/7 atmosphere of government, when nerves must have been stretched to breaking point - I always wonder how they managed to function at all under so many stresses, national and personal.