The Spring of 1793 is a period of great political tension in Paris as the radical voices in the Commune and the Montagnards in the Convention become more overtly hostile to the ruling Girondist faction.

The authorities' decision to arrest Jean-Paul Marat in April had brought matters to a head, and precipitates the Fall of the Girondists, in which François Hanriot plays a major part.

On May 30, 1793 the Commune had appointed Hanriot to the position of "Commandant-General" of the Parisian National Guard, and ordered him to march his troops the next day to the Palais National.

The purpose of this move is to force the Convention to dissolve the Committee of the Twelve and the arrest of twenty-two select Girondists.

Hanriot's troops surrounds the Convention with cannon while it is in session and throngs of sans-culotte soldiers enter the building and disrupt the sessions.

The President of the Convention, Herault de Sechelles, comes out to appeal to Hanriot to remove his troops, but he refuses.

There is no violence, but the Convention votes the arrest of twenty-nine Girondist deputies, effectively removing this faction from power.

Hanriot was born to poor parents in Nanterre, a western suburb of Paris.

His parents were servants to a Parisian bourgeoise, which most likely helped influence his support of the Revolution later in life.

Not a man of any specific profession, Hanriot has held a variety of different jobs.

He took his first employment with a procureur doing mostly secretarial work, but lost his position due to reasons of dishonesty.

Next, he obtained a clerkship in the Paris octroi in 1789 doing tax work.

His position here was also ill-fated, as he was again fired after leaving his station the night of July  12k1789, when angry Parisians attempted to burn the building down.

After his string of unfortunate professions, Hanriot remained unemployed and subsequently very poor.

His next string of occupations is known only vaguely; many people of the time connect him to a variety of professions including a shopkeeper, a peddler, and a stint as a soldier in America serving under Lafayette (whom he will later speak against to other patriot sans-culottes).

He is eventually an orator for a local section of sans-culottes.

After generating a more substantial fortune and moving to Rue de la Clef, a Parisian quarter inhabited by royalists and sans-culottes alike, in January 1792, Hanriot had soon become well known for his anti-aristocratic outlook.

He is strongly in favor of imposing taxes on the aristocracy, presenting them "with a bill in one hand and a pistol in the other."

With this attitude he had gained a loyal following of local sans-culottes, who had adopted him as their section leader in the September Massacres later that year.

His involvement in the September Massacres had secured his place as a soldier in the National Guard in Paris, gradually rising to the rank of captain.