Commission of Twelve

During the French Revolution, the Extraordinary Commission of Twelve (Commission extraordinaire des Douze) was a commission of the French National Convention charged with finding and trying conspirators. It was known for short as the Commission of Twelve and its formation led to the revolt of 2 June 1793, the fall of the Girondins and the start of the Reign of Terror.

Since the Convention's formation, the Girondists and Montagnards had competed to dominate it. The Montagnards had been able to set up the Extraordinary criminal tribunal on 10 March 1793 and the Committee of Public Safety on 6 April the same year. Attacked on all sides by a majority of the 48 revolutionary sections of Paris, by the Paris Commune and by the Club des Jacobins, the Girondist assembly feared for its safety and on 18 May decreed the creation of an extraordinary committee of twelve men known as the Commission of Twelve to contain the attacks.

This new commission had been requested by Barère and was put in charge of looking into all decisions taken over the past month by the conseil général of the Commune and sections of Paris and unmasking all plots against liberty within the Republic. The minister of the interior, the minister of foreign affairs, the Committee of Public Safety and the Committee of General Security were all to pass on information about plots menacing the national assembly to the Commission of Twelve and the Commission was to take all necessary measures to find proof of these conspiracies and to arrest the conspirators.

On 21 May the Commission was elected, with a very strong Girondin majority: Jean-Baptiste Boyer-Fonfrède, Jean-Paul Rabaut Saint-Étienne, Kervélégan, Charles Saint-Martin-Valogne, Louis-François-Sébastien Viger, Jean-René Gomaire, Bertrand de la Hosdinière, Jacques Boilleau, Étienne Mollevaut, Henry-Larivière, François Bergoeing and Jean-François Martin Gardien. On 23 May it announced it had begun work and the following day Viger reported to the National Convention on the Commission's means of guaranteeing the Convention's safety by foiling the plots which threatened it. It presented a draft decree which was adopted after a very long discussion between the Montagnards and Girondins.

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