Featured writing

Robespierre, Desmoulins and the Trial of the Indulgents

Camille Desmoulins and Robespierre had been friends for years. By April 1794, one was dead and the other had helped send him to the Revolutionary Tribunal. What did Camille think of Robespierre in his final days, and did Robespierre ever regret what happened?

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Essay

Henri de La Rochejaquelein at the Tuileries

Henri de La Rochejaquelein was at the Tuileries on 10 August 1792, among the men called in to defend Louis XVI. He survived the attack, escaped across the Seine, and then spent weeks trying to get safely out of Paris.

Essay

Marceau: The Republican General Mourned by His Enemies

François-Séverin Marceau was one of the most capable generals of the French Revolution, but what made him exceptional was the restraint and humanity he showed in a war defined by extraordinary violence. He protected civilians, showed mercy where he could, and died at twenty-seven surrounded and mourned by the very enemies he had been fighting.

Travel Diary

The revolution in Rouen

Rouen was one of the quietest major French cities during the Terror, with no executions in Year II. Today, however, the city remembers a very different execution: that of Joan of Arc

Translations

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Translation · Duodi germinal, 3 a.m. (1st April 1794)

The Last Letter of Camille Desmoulins

April 5th, 1794: Camille Desmoulins went to the Place de la Révolution to die. There was no journal left to write, no crowd to stir, no chance to rewrite the last page. He had already said too much. The Revolution had eaten through its own flesh, and Camille, once its poet, was now just another name on the list. He left behind one final letter. Not quite a manifesto. Just a man, waiting to die, writing to his wife.

Book · Chapter 1

Memoirs of the Marquise de La Rochejaquelein

The Memoirs of the Marquise de La Rochejaquelein is a stark, firsthand account of the Vendean War during the French Revolution, written by a woman who…

Translation

Saint-Just Hyping up Robespierre’s Speech

Saint-Just, ordinarily rather reserved at the Jacobin Club, made an exception on January 1, 1793. Despite presiding over the session, he didn’t share personal views or push his own agenda. Instead, he invited his colleagues to fund the printing and nationwide distribution of Robespierre’s second speech on Louis XVI’s trial (delivered on December 28, 1792)