Louis Antoine de Saint-Just

Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just (French pronunciation: [sɛ̃ʒyst]; 25 August 1767 – 10 Thermidor, Year II [28 July 1794]), sometimes nicknamed the Archangel of Terror, was a French revolutionary, political philosopher, member and president of the French National Convention, a Jacobin club leader, and a major figure of the French Revolution. The youngest person elected to the National Convention, he was a member of the Mountain faction and a steadfast supporter and close friend of Robespierre. He was swept away in Robespierre's downfall on 9 Thermidor, Year II.

Renowned for his eloquence, he stood out for his uncompromising nature and inflexibility of his principles advocating equality and virtue, as well as for the effectiveness of his missions during which he rectified the situation of the Army of the Rhine and contributed to the victory of the republican armies at Fleurus. Politically combating the Girondins, the Hebertists, and then the Indulgents, he pushed for the confiscation of the property of the enemies of the Republic for the benefit of poor patriots. He was the designated speaker for the Robespierrists in their conflicts with other political parties in the National Convention, launching accusations and requisitions against figures like Danton or Hébert. To prevent the massacres for which the sans-culottes were responsible in the departments, particularly in Vendée, or to centralize repression (a point still unclear), he had the departmental revolutionary tribunals abolished and consolidated all procedures at the Revolutionary Tribunal of Paris.

He was also a political theorist, and notably inspired the Constitution of Year I, and the attached Declaration of the Rights of the Man and of the Citizen of 1793. He also authored works on the principles of the French Revolution.

On the 9th Thermidor, he defended Robespierre against accusations made by Barère and Tallien. Arrested alongside him, he remained silent until his death the following day, when he was guillotined on the Place de la Révolution with the 104 Robespierrists executed, at the age of 26. His body and head were thrown into a mass grave.

Saint-Just, and Robespierrists in general, were long perceived by historians as cruel, bloodthirsty, and having a wild and violent sexuality. This began to change in the second half of the 20th century.