Maximilien Robespierre was born in Arras, in the old French province of Artois. His family has been traced back to the 12th century in Picardy; some of his direct ancestors in the male line worked as notaries in the village of Carvin near Arras from the beginning of the 17th century.[8] It has been suggested that he was of Irish descent, his surname possibly being a corruption of "Robert Speirs".[9] George Henry Lewes, Ernest Hamel, Jules Michelet, Alphonse de Lamartine, and Hilaire Belloc have all cited this theory although there appears to be little supporting evidence.

His paternal grandfather, also named Maximilien de Robespierre, established himself in Arras as a lawyer. His father, François Maximilien Barthélémy de Robespierre, also a lawyer at the Conseil d'Artois, married Jacqueline Marguerite Carrault, the daughter of a brewer, on 2 January 1758. Maximilien was the oldest of four children and was conceived out of wedlock; his siblings were Charlotte (born 21 January 1760),[10] Henriette (born 28 December 1761),[11] and Augustin (born 21 January 1763).[12] On 7 July 1764, Madame de Robespierre gave birth to a stillborn son; she died nine days later. Devastated by his wife's death, François de Robespierre subsequently left Arras and traveled throughout Europe, only occasionally living in Arras, until his death in Munich on 6 November 1777; the children were brought up by their paternal aunts Eulalie and Henriette de Robespierre.

Already literate at age 8, Maximilien started attending the collège (middle school) of Arras.[13] In October 1769, on the recommendation of the bishop, he received a scholarship at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris. Robespierre studied there until age 23, receiving his training as a lawyer. Upon his graduation, he received a 600-livre special prize for twelve years of exemplary academic success and personal good conduct.[14]

In school he learned to admire the idealised Roman Republic and the rhetoric of Cicero, Cato and other classic figures. His fellow pupils included Camille Desmoulins and Stanislas Fréron. He also read Swiss philosophe Jean-Jacques Rousseau during this time and adopted many of his principles. Robespierre grew intrigued by the idea of a "virtuous self", a man who stands alone accompanied only by his conscience.[15]

Shortly after his 1775 coronation, King Louis XVI visited Louis-le-Grand. Robespierre, then 17 and a prize-winning student, had been chosen out of five hundred pupils to deliver a speech to welcome the king. Perhaps due to rain, the royal couple remained in their coach throughout the ceremony and promptly left at its completion.[15][/LEFT