Robespierre

Maximilien Robespierre was most important to that period of time during the French Revolution called "the reign of terror," lasting from 1793-1794. Robespierre encouraged the Revolutionary Tribunal in electing and beheading the seventeen thousand whose deaths have made the French Revolution one of the bloodiest in history. No one was safe during this time, not even those who had supported the Revolution from the beginning. If at all connected to opposition you were a danger to the changes in society and so deemed a threat. Amongst the beheaded were Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, both Lavoisiers, and thousands of others. Despite the purpose of the Revolution, to create an idyllic society, Robespierre ordered his political opponants slaughtered to better pave his way in argument. Paranoid, he did not allow the bloodbath to end even when the Revolution was passably stable and met only by victory. This unnecessary brutality was what put the French people into motion yet again, throwing down Robespierre because the Revolution "was devouring its own children." In its volatile and incensed state, France was easily taken in by potential tyrants or dictators, such as Robespierre.