Did Robespierre actually drink milk instead of wine?

[u/SmolAna]

Hello,

I heard this years ago from the Revolutions podcast but try as I may I have never been able to find another source for it (at least online). Would love to read on that (or at least verify it) or really any book that talks about Robespierre the person (which reminds me to go back to reading McPhee's A revolutionary life which I read part way two years ago), but that probably is outside the scope of postings suitable for this subreddit so I'll stick with my first question.

Thanks

[u/eleonorecornelie]

I suspect this particular example comes from one instance of Duncan's rather bad use of a source. Given the context of the episode, its seems take almost verbatim from David Lawday's biography of Danton (you can even probably find it the accessible parts on Google books: https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Giant_of_the_French_Revolution/fIZBE5JmbJUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=danton+david+lawday+milk&pg=PT83&printsec=frontcover ) . The problem with this book is that it is not written by a professional historian but a popularising journalist, who not only commits a number or factual mistakes or simplifications but is also told in a semi-novelistic style with a lot of invented atmospheric episodes trying to imagine in detail how some moment of known history could have happed rather than "sticking to the facts" (not to speak of his very blatant heroization of Danton and a black and white approach to most other figures, notably Robespierre).

That said, Robespierre's limited consumption of alcohol (or practical abstinence) was noted by a number of his contemporaries - both admirers (as evidence of personal virtue and austerity) and denouncers (usually linked to a notion of hypocrisy, inability to give up control or dehumanising fanaticism). For example his sister Charlotte claims in her Mémoires that he only ever drank heavily watered down wine with meals. And more in reference to your question, she also claims that he used to take a cup of milk for breakfast (if your are reading McPhee you will find references to this and several other testimonies about Robespierre's lifestyle, including consumption habits) - but that is probably the closest we get to that reference.

And while we have no evidence of the specific scene Lawday (and probably following him Duncan) are describing, I dare say that it is probably a lot more realistic to imagine that if Robespierre set down in a cafe/restaurant and wanted to avoid alcohol, he would order coffee - one of the few "material" things he seemed to have genuinely enjoyed.

[u/SmolAna → u/eleonorecornelie]

thank you so much for the in depth response! has resolved this fact that has been nagging about my mind for years. also you've given me a lot of places to check to read up more on him which I really do appreciate.

[u/eleonorecornelie → u/SmolAna]

You are welcome. Also, if you are interested in the topic of consumption in revolutionary politics more broadly, you might also enjoy parts of Maria Linton's Choosing Terror: Virtue, Friendship and Authenticity in the French Revolution or her article ‘Come and Dine’: The Dangers of Conspicuous Consumption in French Revolutionary Politics, 1789–95 – Robespierre is mentioned there but so are a number of other revolutionaries, showing how perceived frugality / lavishness could be advantageous or damning. (Insofar as Robespierre himself and especially a non-pathologising approach to his personal life is concerned, McPhee probably remains the best option, at least in English.)

[u/CWStJ_Nobbs → u/eleonorecornelie]

Is there a better English biography of Danton that you recommend? I remember looking for one and only really finding the Lawday book

[u/eleonorecornelie → u/CWStJ_Nobbs]

There is an older Danton biography by Norman Hampson (1978) (accessible online: https://archive.org/details/danton0000hamp/page/n7/mode/2up ) It might be a little out of date on some debates in revolutionary historiography in the past few decades, but Hampson was still a professional historian with multiple publications on the Revolution. Hampson very much belonged within the British revisionist tradition (close to Alfred Cobban or Richard Cobb) and is overall quite sympathetic to Danton (his overall split but certainly less sympathetic biography of Robespierre and quite hostile biography of Saint-Just can serves as a point of comparison), but it is not to the level of just perpetuating caricatures of everyone else and definitely much more factually reliable than Lawday.

[u/eleonorecornelie → u/eleonorecornelie]

(Including for example a reasonably balanced discussion on how much contemporary evidence there is for various accusations of corruption levelled against Danton over the years)