After the death
of Louis XVI in 1793, the Reign of Terror began. The first victim was Marie
Antoinette. She had been imprisoned with her children after she was separated
from Louis. First they took her son Louis Charles from her (often called the
lost dauphin, or Louis XVII). He disappeared under suspicious circumstances. Then
she led off a parade of prominent and not-so-prominent citizens to their
deaths. The guillotine, the new
instrument of egalitarian justice, was put to work. Public executions were
considered educational. Women were encouraged to sit and knit during trials and
executions. The Revolutionary Tribunal ordered the execution of 2,400 people in
Paris by July
1794. Across France
30,000 people lost their lives.
The Terror was
designed to fight the enemies of the revolution, to prevent counter-revolution
from gaining ground. Most of the people rounded up were not aristocrats, but
ordinary people.