Maximilien de Robespierre

French lawyer and politician (6 May 1758, Arras - 28 July 1794, Paris), figurehead of the French Revolution after 1789. Best known as a leading member of the Committee of Public Safety (Comité du Salut public) and as such one of the most powerful men in the country during the so-called Reign of Terror (1793–1794), who eventually ended under the guillotine himself.