Jean-Lambert Tallien

Overview

Jean-Lambert Tallien was a National Convention deputy and former representative on mission who became a leading parliamentary attacker of Robespierre on 9 Thermidor.

Current Profile

The source presents Tallien as a politically exposed former practitioner of provincial violence whose own survival and concern for his imprisoned lover, Thérésa Cabarrus, drew him into the anti-Robespierre coalition. He spent the night before 9 Thermidor encouraging deputies to resist, interrupted Saint-Just in the Convention, denounced Robespierre as a tyrant, and displayed a dagger as a theatrical sign that he would act if the assembly did not.

Key Characteristics

• His provincial record made a new purge personally dangerous.
• Thérésa Cabarrus’s imprisonment added a close personal motive for action.
• He helped organize moderate and threatened deputies before the decisive sitting.
• He used interruption, accusation, and theatrical threat to break Robespierre’s control of debate.
• His role exemplifies coalition through survival rather than shared innocence of terror.

Evidence

Exposure and organizing

• 712. The Terror: The Fall of Robespierre (Part 6) connects Tallien’s provincial record, Cabarrus’s pressure, and overnight organizing to the coalition against Robespierre.

Convention intervention

• 712. The Terror: The Fall of Robespierre (Part 6) records his interruption of Saint-Just, denunciation of Robespierre, and display of a dagger during the 9 Thermidor sitting.

Qualifications

• The source supplies Tallien’s role in Thermidor rather than a full biography or audited account of his earlier mission.
• Personal rescue, political survival, factional rivalry, and opposition to Robespierre can coexist; the source does not isolate one motive.
• Reported dialogue, private organizing, and the precise effect of the dagger display remain source-scoped.

What Changed

• A canonical profile now records Tallien’s exposure, coalition work, and decisive Convention intervention.

Relationships

• Maximilien Robespierre / 罗伯斯庇尔 - leader Tallien denounced as a tyrant and helped overthrow.
• Louis Antoine de Saint-Just - speaker whose report Tallien interrupted on 9 Thermidor.
• Thermidorian Coup - confrontation in which Tallien became a leading parliamentary actor.
• National Convention - assembly he mobilized to resist and arrest the Robespierrists.
• Revolutionary Purge Security Dilemma - survival mechanism explaining his alliance with otherwise divided deputies.