The Plain

The Plain (French: la Plaine), also known as the Marsh (French: le Marais), was the majority of independent deputies in the National Convention during the French Revolution. They were the most moderate and the most numerous group (around 400 deputies) of the National Convention, as they sat between the Girondins on their right and the Montagnards (the Mountain) on their left. Their name arises from the fact their benches were by the debating floor, lower down from the Montagnards. Its members were also known as Maraisards, or derogatorily Toads (French: crapauds du Marais) as toads live in marshes.

Coming mostly from the liberal and republican bourgeoisie, the Plain was attached to the political conquests of 1789 and to the work of the French Revolution and wanted the union of all republicans. In practice, this group was very heterogeneous as it included noblemen and clericals like Henri Grégoire, François Antoine de Boissy d'Anglas, Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès, and Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès; at the same time, some of its members like Bertrand Barère, Pierre-Joseph Cambon, Lazare Carnot, and Georges Couthon joined the Montagnards in the spring of 1793.

At the time of the Montagnards' seizure of power (the days of 31 May and 2 June 1793), their centrist position at the National Convention remained ambiguous. While the Plain deputies tried to play the role of mediators, they admitted the merits of the public safety measures voted with their support, or even their impetus, for several months; however, most of them demonstrated their hostility towards Maximilien Robespierre on 9 Thermidor, Year II, by rallying the instigators of the plot who were representatives on a mission recalled to Paris (Paul Barras, Joseph Fouché, Louis-Marie Stanislas Fréron, and Jean-Lambert Tallien).