who ruled france during the reign of terror
Reign of Terror On 6 April the Committee of Public Safety was created, which gradually became the de facto war-time government.[40]
History of France In August–September 1793, militants urged the Convention to do more to quell the counter-revolution. A delegation of the Commune (Paris city council) suggested to form revolutionary armies to arrest hoarders and conspirators.[65] Bertrand Barère, member of the Committee of Public Safety—the de facto executive government—ever since April 1793,[68] among others on 5 September reacted favorably, saying: let's "make terror the order of the day!"[65] On 17 September, the National Convention passed the Law of Suspects, a decree ordering the arrest of all declared opponents of the current form of government and suspected "enemies of freedom". This decree was one of the causes for 17,000 death sentences until the end of July 1794, reason for historians to label those 10½ months 'the (Reign of) Terror'.[69][70]
Reign of Terror These members of the Enlightenment movement greatly influenced revolutionary leaders; however, cautions from other Enlightenment thinkers were blatantly ignored.  Voltaire’s warnings were often overlooked, though some of his ideas were used for justification of the Revolution and the start of the Terror. He protested against Catholic Dogmas and the ways of Christianity stating, “of all religions, the Christian should of course inspire the most toleration, but till now the Christian's have been the most intolerant of all men.”[19] These criticisms were often used by Robespierre and other leaders as justification for their anti-religious reforms. Voltaire also laid down some warnings. In his Philosophical Dictionary, he states, “we are all steeped in weakness and error; let us forgive each other our follies; that is the first law of nature” and “every individual who persecutes a man, his brother, because he is not of his opinion, is a monster."[20] The importance of forgiveness and understanding the failings of the human conditions were obviously lost on Robespierre and other leaders as they pursued Terror.
Reign of Terror Several historians consider the "reign of terror" to have begun in 1793, placing the starting date at either 5 September,[1] June [2] or March (birth of the Revolutionary Tribunal), while some consider it to have begun in September 1792 (September Massacres), or even July 1789 (when the first beheadings by guillotine took place),[3] but there is a consensus that it ended with the fall of Maximilien Robespierre in July 1794.[1][2]