Charlotte Robespierre (1760–1834)

Charlotte Robespierre was born in Arras, France, one of several children of a successful lawyer and his wife. The sudden death of her mother in childbirth in 1764 led to the breakdown of the family; her father abandoned his young children to relatives and left for Germany. Charlotte and her younger sister Henriette were adopted by their aunts. In 1768, the girls were sent to a convent for poor girls in Tournai to be educated. When her brother Maximilien began his law practice in Arras in 1782, Charlotte moved in to keep house for him and their younger brother Augustin. During this time, she became engaged to her brother's friend Joseph Fouché, but the marriage never happened.

By 1789, Maximilien's flourishing career had led to his election to the national Estates-General in Paris, and he quickly emerged as one of the key leaders of the French Revolution. Charlotte was an enthusiastic supporter of her brother's increasingly radical ideas.

In 1792, after Augustin was elected to the National Convention, he and Charlotte finally joined Maximilien in Paris, where they set up a household together. As the sister of the de facto ruler of France, Charlotte was a witness to the politics of the innermost circle of the Revolution.
In July 1794, at the height of the Reign of Terror, the other revolutionary leaders turned against Maximilien's tyranny and he and Augustin were arrested and executed. Charlotte also was arrested but released in a general pardon two weeks later and survived for another 36 years. With the help of Albert Laponneraye, another former revolutionary, she wrote her memoirs and recollections of her brothers. The book was published in 1837 and is considered a prime source of information on Maximilien Robespierre's formative years.