Montagnard, any of the radical Jacobin deputies in the National Convention during the French Revolution. Noted for their democratic outlook, the Montagnards controlled the government during the climax of the Revolution in 1793–94. They were so called because as deputies they sat on the higher benches of the assembly. Collectively they were also called Le Montagne (“The Mountain”).
The Montagnards emerged as the opponents of the more moderate Girondins in the National Convention in the fall of 1792. Composed of deputies elected from Paris and other cities, the Montagnards depended on the support of the petty bourgeoisie and the sansculottes (extreme radical revolutionaries, initially from the poorer classes of Paris) and were closely associated with the Jacobin Club of Paris. After the overthrow of the Girondins by the popular insurrections of May 31 to June 2, 1793, the Montagnards dominated the Convention, and they composed the majority of the Committee of Public Safety, which in effect ruled France in 1793–94. With the Thermidorian reaction of 1794–95, many of the Montagnards were either executed or purged from the Convention, where they were reduced to a minority group called the crête (the “crest”) and ceased to be influential.