X-Nico

62 unusual facts about Committee of Public Safety


Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel

It is only the following day that the Chief Commissary realises that one person is missing – Félicien Lézennes, chairman of the Club des Fils du Royanne – but where can he have gone and what fate now awaits his family, who are being watched by spies from the Committee of Public Safety?

However, as soon as Sir Percy climbs up the tower and through the window where the priests are being held, he realises that he has fallen into a trap – for waiting for him in the room are a dozen members of the Committee of Public Safety and his arch enemy Chauvelin.

A comic genius on the stage, witty, genial and handsome he is adored by women and respected by men, but his popularity has been noticed by the Committee of Public Safety, for they cannot allow a man to remain in such a position of strength.

Lescar is popular in the area and the crowd in the tavern starts to get uneasy at the treatment of the good Doctor especially when it is revealed that the stranger is none other than Citizen Péret, a member of the Committee of Public Safety.

Ainhoa, Pyrénées-Atlantiques

In 1794, at the height of the Terror and after the desertion of forty seven young people from Itxassou, the Committee of Public Safety (Decree of 13 Ventôse Year II - 3 March 1794) arrested and deported some of the inhabitants (men, women and children) of Ainhoa, Ascain, Espelette, Itxassou, Sare, and Souraïde and decreed that these communes like the other communes of the Spanish border were "infamous communes".

Anacharsis Cloots

When the Committee of Public Safety, under Robespierre's direction, levelled accusations of treason against the Hébertists, they also implicated Cloots to give substance to their charge of a foreign plot.

André Chénier

Two obscure agents of the Committee of Public Safety (one of them named Nicolas Guénot) were in search of a marquise who had fled, but an unknown stranger was found in the house and arrested on suspicion of being the aristocrat they were searching for.

Anne Françoise Elisabeth Lange

--aristocratic subject matter?--> led to this theatre being shut down and the author and actors arrested by the Committee of Public Safety.

Antoine Claire Thibaudeau

Secretary and then president of the Convention for a short period, he served on the Committee of Public Safety and of General Security.

Archibald Hamilton Rowan

While imprisoned, Hamilton Rowan met The Reverend William Jackson, an Irish-born Anglican clergyman who was working as a spy for the French Committee of Public Safety.

Armand de Kersaint

He continued to devote himself to questions concerning the navy and national defense, prepared a report on the British political system and the navy, and caused a decree to be passed for the formation of a committee of general defense, which after many modifications was to become the Committee of Public Safety.

Atlantic campaign of May 1794

With famine imminent, the French Committee of Public Safety looked to France's colonies and the United States to provide an infusion of grain; this was to be convoyed across the Atlantic during April, May and June, accompanied by a small escort squadron and supported by a second, larger squadron in the Bay of Biscay.

Battle of Cholet

Rapidly, the republican prisoners were found and Merlin de Thionville wrote to the Committee of Public Safety that he had told the republican soldiers that they needn't feel any recognition to the Vendéens, "enemies of the Nation", and hoped this episode would be forgotten in history.

Battle of Peyrestortes

D'Aoust, the hero of Peyrestortes, fell afoul of the suspicious Committee of Public Safety and two rival generals in January 1794.

Battle of the Vosges

Following initial setbacks for the Revolutionaries, the war changed in France's favour with the appointment of Lazare Carnot to the post of War Minister (or as the position was formally known - Head of the Committee of Public Safety War Section).

Bertrand Barère

Appointed to the Committee of Public Safety on 7 April 1793, he became involved in foreign affairs, and joined Robespierre's faction, the Jacobin Club, playing an important part in the second Committee of Public Safety after 17 July 1793.

Christian Graf von Haugwitz

After the War of the First Coalition broke out, however, the policy of the Committee of Public Safety made peace impossible, while the strained relations between Austria and Prussia on the question of territorial compensations crippled the power of the Allies to carry the war to a successful conclusion.

Citizen Chauvelin

The former ambassador to the United Kingdom (The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Elusive Pimpernel), Chauvelin is both a representative in the National Assembly and the chief agent of the Committee of Public Safety.

Committee of General Security

The Committee of General Security was a French parliamentary committee which acted as police agency during the French Revolution that, along with the Committee of Public Safety, oversaw the Reign of Terror.

Committee of Safety

Committee of Public Safety, which controlled the French First Republic and initiated the Reign of Terror

Dictatorship of the proletariat

On 1 January 1852, the communist journalist Joseph Weydemeyer published an article entitled "Dictatorship of the Proletariat" in the German language newspaper Turn-Zeitung, where he wrote that "it is quite plain that there cannot be here any question of gradual, peaceful transitions", and recalled the examples of Oliver Cromwell (England) and Committee of Public Safety (France) as examples of "dictatorship" and "terrorism" (respectively) required to overthrow bourgeoisie.

Fabre d'Églantine

On 12 January 1794 Fabre was arrested by order of the Committee of Public Safety on a charge of malversation and forgery in connection with the affairs of the French East India Company.

François Antoine de Boissy d'Anglas

Boissy d'Anglas was then elected a member of the Committee of Public Safety, and charged with the superintendence of the provisioning of Paris.

François Hanriot

On the following morning, 31 May 1793, he was chosen by the Paris Commune to lead the Parisian National Guard to the National Convention and demand the dissolution of the Committee of the Twelve and the arrest of select Girondists.

François René Mallarmé

For Convention he was appointed a member of the committee for finances, and briefly was appointed to the Committee of Public Safety (27 June 1793 - 10 July 1793) by resolution of the National Convention to present his plan for food procurement, but did not join the committee's sessions.

Frédéric Blasius

The composition, ordered by the Committee of Public Safety, was finished in just two days and first performed in the Salle Favart on 26 February 1794.

French Aerostatic Corps

Numerous suggestions had been made for the use of balloons during the French Revolutionary Wars, and in 1793 the Committee of Public Safety began testing their potential.

French Constitution of 1793

Drafted by the Committee of Public Safety which was enlarged with the purpose of producing it, the text was presented to the National Convention on 10 June and subsequently accepted by that body on 24 June 1793.

French East India Company

The Committee of Public Safety had banned all joint-stock companies on 24 August 1793, and specifically seized the assets and papers of the East India Company.

Gustave Lefrançais

On 26 March 1871 he was elected as a member of the Commune but was opposed to the Committee of Public Safety.

Ignaz Pleyel

Pleyel was brought before the Committee of Public Safety a total of seven times due to the following: his foreign status, his recent purchase of a château, and his ties with the Strasbourg Cathedral.

Irreligion in France

The Cult of Reason was finally ended by Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety through their execution of Hébert and several of his followers on March 24, 1794 having ascended just seven months earlier.

Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars

The commanders on the front were unhappy about this decision, but appeals were interrupted by the overthrow of the Committee of Public Safety and its leader, Maximilien de Robespierre (28 July 1794).

Jean Baptiste Noël Bouchotte

The predominant rôle of the Committee of Public Safety during that period did not leave much scope for the new minister, yet he rendered some services in the organization of the republican armies, and chose his officers with insight, among them Kléber, Masséna, Moreau and Bonaparte.

Jean Bon Saint-André

In July 1793 he was president of the Convention, entered the Committee of Public Safety the same month and was sent on mission to the Armies of the East fighting in the Revolutionary Wars.

Jean François Carteaux

Seeing the lack of progress of Carteaux and the ineptitude of his artillery, the officials from the Committee of Public Safety, Augustin Robespierre and Antoine Christophe Saliceti designated the young Artillery captain Napoleon Bonaparte as Carteaux new artillery commander.

Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès

In 1793, Cambacérès became a member of the Committee of General Defence, but was not a member of its famous successor, the Committee of Public Safety, until the end of 1794, during the Thermidorian Reaction after the Reign of Terror had ended.

Jean Pelet

As a result, he asked the surviving members of the former Committee of Public Safety to stand down.

Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai

His influence became considerable: he was elected a member of the Committee of the Constitution, president of the Assembly, and member of the Committee of Public Safety, against the overgrown power of which he had in earlier days protested.

Jean-Baptiste Robert Lindet

Lindet was unique in the demographics of the Committee of Public Safety, in that he was forty-six, where the average age of the members was thirty.

All members of the Committee of Public Safety belonged to bourgeoisie of the ancien regime, were Montagnards, and all had ample experience serving apprenticeships in previous years assemblies or in high offices of state.

Jean-Henri Voulland

He became part of the opposition to Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety and played an important role in the overthrow of Robespierre on 9 Thermidor.

Jean-Jacques Barthélemy

The Committee of Public Safety, however, were no sooner informed by the Duchess of Choiseul of the arrest than they gave orders for his immediate release, and in 1793 he was nominated librarian of the Bibliothèque Nationale.

Jean-Joseph Ange d'Hautpoul

In June 1795, his provisional rank of general of brigade was made permanent by the Committee of Public Safety.

Jérôme Pétion de Villeneuve

He was elected in March 1793 to the first Committee of Public Safety; and he attacked Robespierre, who had accused him of having known and having kept secret Dumouriez's project of treason.

Józef Wielhorski

Tadeusz Kościuszko sent him to revolutionary France with the goal of obtaining help from the Committee of Public Safety, his requests for a French expeditionary corps were however futile.

Law of 22 Prairial

It was one of the ordinances passed during this stage of the French Revolution, by means of which the Committee of Public Safety simplified the judicial process to one of indictment and prosecution.

Law of Frimaire

The Law of Frimaire was passed on 4 December 1793, during the French Revolution, in which power became centralized and consolidated under the Committee of Public Safety.

Le congrès des rois

The composition of the opera was ordered by the Comité du Salut public (Committee of Public Safety) to be completed in two days.

Louis Gustave le Doulcet, comte de Pontécoulant

President of the Convention in July 1795, he was for some months a member of the Council of Public Safety.

Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau

Guyton de Morveau served on the Committee of Public Safety from 6 April 1793 to 10 July 1793, when he resigned in order to devote his time to the manufacture of firearms, and formation of a corps of balloonists for the French Revolutionary Army.

Louis-Guillaume Otto

He returned to France at the end of 1792, and shortly afterwards the Committee of Public Safety made him head of the first political division for foreign affairs.

Marc René, marquis de Montalembert

He also modelled a complete course of fortification (92 models), which he offered to the Committee of Public Safety.

Marc-Antoine Jullien de Paris

Jullien then became a protégé of Robespierre, and was sent by the Committee of Public Safety on a mission to several Atlantic ports, beginning on September 10, 1793.

Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles

As a member of the Reign of Terror's Committee of Public Safety, Hérault was chiefly concerned with diplomacy, and from October to December 1793 was employed on a diplomatic and military mission in Alsace.

Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai

Merlin de Douai was closely allied with his namesake Merlin of Thionville and, after the start of the Thermidorian Reaction which brought about the fall of Robespierre in 1794, he became president of the Convention and a member of the Committee of Public Safety.

Pont Royal

During that period, General Napoléon Bonaparte (future Napoléon I, Emperor of the French) had cannons installed on the bridge in order to protect the Convention Nationale and the Committee of Public Safety, housed in the Tuileries Palace.

Revolutionary committee

The name was borrowed from the history of the French Revolution, where comités révolutionnaires were created, the superior ones being Committee of Public Safety and Committee of General Security.

The City in the Autumn Stars

Von Bek thanks them and, after explaining, to their dismay, that the men they opened fire on were enforcers of the Committee of Public Safety, he leaves them, also taking Montsorbier's horse.

The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel

After speaking out in favour of the Queen in a public place he was denounced by the Committee of Public Safety and would have gone to the guillotine had the Scarlet Pimpernel not saved him.

Frightened by threats that her children will be sent to a House of Correction on the orders of the Committee of Public Safety, she agrees to write a letter to Henri and his father, the Marquis, as dictated by Chauvelin.

Timeline of aviation – 18th century

July 30, Jean-Marie-Joseph Coutelle, Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau, and Laurent Lavoisier complete a military hydrogen balloon ordered by the French Committee of Public Safety.