Tom Holland

speaker

53,930 appearances 202 recordings 9 series first heard Sep 2024 last heard yesterday

Tom Holland’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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The Rest Is History · 708. The Terror: The Reign of Robespierre (Part 2) · 23 Sep 2026 podcast

I mean, that is one way of looking at it. matched

On the other hand, I mean, a lot of people are killed in the terror. matched

So something like 17,000 people across the whole of France get to be executed as traitors and enemies of the revolution. matched

And then you were talking yesterday about the Vendée. matched

I mean, a huge scale of slaughter there. matched

Some French historians compare it to genocide. matched

And certainly in Paris, the center of the revolution, matched

There is a kind of hideous melodrama to the displays of executions that are going on. matched

This is why the guillotining is so memorable. matched

The guillotine was designed to be merciful, to be an enlightened way of killing people. matched

But the speed with which the blade drops onto the neck results in great fear. matched

of blood welling out. matched

It is a really spectacular, terrifying sight. matched

So much blood ends up flowing over the course of the terror into the water supply that it becomes poisoned and they have to move the guillotine because the blood is getting into the water system. matched

And I think to his enemies, Robespierre comes to seem the embodiment of everything that is making this happen. matched

A kind of a monster who is threatening to turn the whole of France into a cemetery. matched

And there is a famous cartoon which was published towards the end of the terror, which illustrates this. matched

And it shows Robespierre, to quote the caption, guillotining the executioner after having had all the French guillotined. matched

This sense of the terror is something that will end up consuming the entire country. matched

You mentioned the word terrorist. matched

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