The Revolutionary Tribunal

What it is

This engraving shows the interior of a courtroom of the Revolutionary Tribunal, a court established by the National Convention to try political offenders during the French Revolution. Judges sit at a raised bench, a clerk works below them, and spectators fill the gallery. The image appeared in a later 19th-century history book about 1793 in Paris.

Why it matters

Danton, with Robespierre's support, pushed for the Tribunal's revival in March 1793, arguing that organized justice was needed to prevent uncontrolled mob violence, famously saying the people should 'be terrible' so ordinary citizens would not have to take justice into their own hands. The Tribunal became one of the main instruments of the Terror and, within a year, condemned Danton himself to death. It shows how revolutionary tools could turn on their own creators.

Look closer

• Why might Danton have argued that a formal court was better than allowing the people to 'make their own justice'?
• This image was made decades after the events it depicts—what might that mean for its accuracy?
• What does it mean that the court Danton helped create later tried and condemned him?