The National Convention, the Execution of Louis XVI, and the Terror

The National Convention, elected by universal male suffrage, met for the first time on 20 September 1792, coinciding with the French victory at the Battle of Valmy, which halted the Prussian advance on Paris. It formally proclaimed the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of the Republic on 21 September 1792, and a new republican calendar set 22 September 1792 as the first day of "Year I." The Convention was divided between the Girondins, moderates with a provincial base, and the Montagnards, or Jacobins, more radical figures with strong Parisian support that included Robespierre, Danton, and Marat, while a shifting centrist bloc known as "the Plain" swung its support according to circumstance.