Mountain

Mountain

https://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/1100/

1100

Name of a political faction during the Terror. The Mountain, or Montagnards, competed during the Terror against the Girondins, with both trying to attract the Plain. The Mountain was a group of deputies from Paris to the National Convention who sat together on the high benches to the left of the chair’s podium. During the fall of 1792 and particularly during the trial of the King, this group emerged as a faction allied with the Commune of Paris and the popular movement that demanded radical measures, among them the death of the King. The Montagnards fought the Girondins for power in Paris and in the Convention. In between the two factions in the meeting hall of the Convention sat the uncommitted “Plain,” who comprised the majority of deputies. During the trial of the King in which the Mountain led the fight to put the King to death, the Montagnards slowly won influence from the Girondins, and over the course of the spring of 1793, they became the dominant group in the Convention. The term has since been applied to anyone willing to use political terror in the name of a revolutionary cause.