The Ventôse Decrees were decrees proposed on February 26 and March 3, 1794 (8 and 13

Ventôse Ventôse (; also ''Ventose'') was the sixth month in the French Republican Calendar. The month was named after the Latin word ''ventosus'' 'windy'. Ventôse was the third month of the winter quarter (''mois d'hiver''). It started between 19 an ...

, An II in the French Republican Calendar) by the French revolutionary leader

Louis de Saint-Just Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just (; 25 August 176710 Thermidor, Year II 8 July 1794, sometimes nicknamed the Archangel of Terror, was a French revolutionary, political philosopher, member and president of the French National Convention, a ...

. Saint-Just proposed to confiscate the property of exiles and opponents of the Revolution, and redistribute it to the needy. Saint-Just and other radicals argued that the enemies of the revolution had forfeited their civil rights, including the right to own property.

Robespierre Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (; ; 6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) was a French lawyer and statesman, widely recognised as one of the most influential and controversial figures of the French Revolution. Robespierre fer ...

supported the Decrees in theory, but realized that he lacked the support to implement them, and efforts to enforce the Decrees ended within a few months.

External links

David Andress, ''The Terror:The Merciless War for Freedom in Revolutionary France'' (2005), p. 302
Google Books excerpt

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070513074251/http://www.sociumas.lt/Eng/Nr5/justas.asp Asta Maskaliunaite, "Social ideas of Louis Antoine Saint Just", ''Sociumas'' magazine (1998)br> Encyclopædia Britannica entry (subscription required for full entry)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ventose Decrees 1794 events of the French Revolution Decrees Property law Law in French Revolution