ABSTRACT
The National Convention then met and declared France a republic with the slogan “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.” The king was tried for treason and executed in January 1793; the queen, Marie Antoinette, was executed for the same crime later that year. The murder of a king shocked the other states of Europe. Prussia, Spain, and Great Britain formed a coalition to keep revolutionary ideals from spreading to their countries, declaring war on France. Efforts to raise armies led to civil war throughout an already-divided France. The radical Jacobin party used the unrest as an opportunity to seize power from the liberal Girondins in June 1793, executing many Girondins in the process. In retaliation, a Girondin sympathizer, Charlotte Corday, murdered one of the Jacobin leaders, Jean-Paul Marat, in July 1793. Jacobin leaders established strict authority, organizing an army, drafting soldiers, and setting up a Committee of Public Safety to take control of France.
