 Maximilien de Robespierre, a French lawyer and politician from Arras and one of the best-known and most influential figures of the French Revolution, was elected fifth deputy of the third estate of Artois to the Estates-General in 1789.Robespierre also helped draft the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.During the French Revolution, the city of Arras was first presided over by French reformer Dubois de Fosseux, erudite squire, secretary of the Arras district ("arrondissement" in French) and future president of the Pas-de-Calais department.