Augustin Robespierre

Augustin Bon Joseph de Robespierre (January 21, 1763 – July 28, 1794) was the younger brother of French Revolutionary leader, Maximilien Robespierre.

He was born in Arras, the youngest of five children of the lawyer Maximilien-Barthelemy-François de Robespierre, and Jacqueline-Marguerite Carraut, the daughter of a brewer. His mother died when he was a year old, and his grief-stricken father abandoned the family to go to Bavaria, where he died in 1777. He was brought up by an aunt and trained as a lawyer. Like his brother, he was a radical during the Revolution.

At the outset of the Revolution, he was prosecutor-syndic of Arras. In 1791, he was appointed Administrator of the Département of Pas-de-Calais. In September 1792, he was elected to the National Convention, where he joined his brother in The Mountain and the Jacobin Club.

Becoming Député-en-Mission to the Army of Italy in 1794, he used his influence to advance General Bonaparte's career after reading Napoleon's Jacobin pamphlet "Souper de Beaucaire". With the fall of Maximilien Robespierre in the coup d'état of 9 Thermidor (27 July 1794) those associated with him were subjected to a witch hunt-like series of attacks from the Thermidorian Reaction. (Napoleon's relationship with Augustin led to Napoleon's imprisonment in the Chateau d'Antibes on 6 August 1794 until he was cleared two weeks later.)

Augustin was one of the five most famous victims of 9 Thermidor. He demanded to be arrested with his brother in the National Convention, saying "I am as guilty as him; I share his virtues, I want to share his fate. I ask also to be charged". After taking refuge in the Hôtel de Ville, he tried to escape capture by leaping out of a window. He failed, however, breaking both his legs, and was beheaded on the same day as his brother.