Final answer:
Maximilien Robespierre, a lawyer, led the Committee of Public Safety and enforced the Reign of Terror in France until he was ousted and executed.
Step-by-step explanation:
During the French Revolution, Maximilien Robespierre rose to leadership of the Committee of Public Safety. Robespierre was a lawyer by profession and a member of the Jacobin club, who would dominate the French political landscape for over a year. Under his rule, France experienced one of its most repressive periods known as the Reign of Terror, during which tens of thousands were executed in the effort to silence dissent and maintain republican ideals. Robespierre himself was eventually ousted and executed as his repressive policies lost support and the external threats to the revolution subsided.