Description
Maximilien Robespierre—” The Incorruptible“to his allies; dictateur sanguinaire to his opponents—was a French lawyer and statesman: arguably the most influential, and inarguably the most controversial, figure of the French Revolution. He supported radical leftist policies like universal suffrage, the right to petition, the right to bear arms,
and abolition of the Atlantic slave trade. In 1793, he was appointed to the Committee of Public Safety. From there, he managed to defend France from invaders from all sides. But he also seized dictatorial powers and enacted the Reign of Terror, in which tens of thousands of Frenchmen were put to death by guillotine. He was arrested and subsequently beheaded in 1794.
Assignat notes like this one, originally bonds backed by seized Church property, circulated as legal tender from 1789-96. Their value cratered during a hyperinflationary period brought on by excessive printing, which led to riots. The economy did not stabilize until Napoleon introduced the franc in 1803.