In 1793 Georges Danton had his late wife exhumed at night so a sculptor could make a cast of her face. This episode explores the larger-than-life lawyer from Arcis-sur-Aube whose childhood bull attack and smallpox scars, along with his booming voice, became political weapons. We trace his journey from schoolboy debater to the cafes of the Left Bank and the crowds at the Palais-Royal, where he earned the nickname the Thunderer.

We then look at his time as Minister of Justice, his “dare, dare again, always dare” speech, and the disputed question of his responsibility for the September Massacres. We cover his part in creating the Revolutionary Tribunal and the Committee of Public Safety, his later turn toward moderation with the Indulgents, the French East India Company scandal, and the rigged trial that led to his execution in 1794 at the hands of Robespierre’s faction.

• How physical trauma and early rhetorical victories shaped Danton’s commanding presence
• Why the moderate Girondins needed Danton as a bridge to the radical Paris Commune
• The September Massacres and the debate over whether failing to stop violence makes a leader culpable
• How Danton helped institutionalize the Terror and then tried to end it, clashing with Robespierre’s republic of virtue
• His trial before the tribunal he helped create, his final words at the guillotine, and the historical irony of Thermidor