The Reign of Terror
After the death of Louis XVI in 1793, the Reign of Terror began. The first victim was Marie Antoinette. She had been imprisoned after she was separated from Louis. The terror was designed to fight enemies of the revolution, to prevent counter-revolution from gaining ground. A man (and his family) might go to the guillotine for saying something critical of the revolutionary government. Robespierre was the mastermind of the Reign of Terror. When Robespierre called for a new purge in 1794, he would threatened the other members of the Committee of Public Safety. Robespierre was arrested and sent to the guillotine the next day, the last of the Reign of Terror.