French Revoultion Course Notes

French Revolution

AOS 1
Revs Revision Notes – Part I

AOS 1 – French Revolution

Index: 1. PRE REVOLUTION FRANCE a. France in the 18th Century b. Power and Limitations of the King c. Privilege and its Spread d. Frances Taxes (How and What) e. The Estates

2. IDEAS, INPUTS AND CAUSES f. Very Short List of Causes of the Revolution g. Shift to Sensibility h. American Revolution Input i. The Liberal Economic Theory (Physiocracy) j. The Philosophes

3. FINANCIAL CRISIS AND MANAGEMENT k. Frances Financial Crisis l. Frances Finance Ministers (Comptroller-General) m. Compte Rendu n. Parlements and Their Role o. Assembly of Notables and Their Role

4. EVENTS PRECEEDING AND DURING EXILE AND RECALL OF PARLEMENTS p. Ségur Ordinance q. Diamond Necklace Affair r. Eden Treaty s. Calling of the Assembly of Notables t. The Dutch Crisis (Spring 1787) u. Last Chance with the Notables v. Notables Dissolved w. Attempts to Pass Reforms at the Parlements x. Exile and Recall of the Parlements y. Society of Thirty

5. EVENTS PRECEEDING CALL OF ESTATES GENERAL z. The Reduction of Parlement’s Rights {. The Day of Tiles (Grenoble) |. The Famine of 1788 }. The Calling of the Estates-General

6. ESTATES-GENERAL ~. Issues Before 5th May . Abbé Sieyès: Qu'est-ce que le tiers état? . The Réveillon Riot . The Composition of the Estates-General . Cahiers De Doléances . Convening of the Estates-General

7. THE FORMING OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY . Credentials and Commons . Tennis Court Oath . Séance Royale

8. BASTILLE . Preceding Bastille . Storming of the Bastille

9. AUGUST DECREES . August Decrees

10. ETCETERA . Important Dates . Important People . Historians Views . Books used/read / Bibliography . Afterword

: PRE REVOLUTION FRANCE
THE BACKGROUND

France in the 18th Century: * 26,000,000 people, about 21,000,000 lived by farming * Over ¼ of the land was for peasants but it still wasn’t enough to support them * Lack of technology for agriculture * Many were unable to farm themselves and instead worked or hired farming gear * Clergy made up less than 100,000 people but owned 1/10 of the land * Majority of priests were NOT rich, only bishops and the organization itself * Nobles made up 400,000 and owned 1/5 of the land * Literacy rates were nearing 50% (many revolutions happened when the literacy rate was at 50%)

‘18th Century France was a land of mass poverty in which most people were vulnerable to harvest failures’ – Mcphee
‘18th Century France was a society of corporations, to which privilege was integral to social hierarchy, wealth and identity’ - McPhee

Power and Limitations of the King: * King was answerable to no one but God * However the King had to consult his ministers to make laws (considerable power with the ministers) * Intendants acted as mini-kings to their provinces (34 areas in France) * The King had no power over some organizations, like the Assembly of Clergy who had rights and privileges granted by law

To most contemporaries the monarchy of Louis XVI appeared the most stable and powerful of the regimes. While protest was endemic – this was almost always within the system, that is, against threats to idealized ways in which the system was believed to have once worked.’ – Peter McPhee
‘The King bore the fiscal responsibility for everything the state did – or did not do.’ – William Doyle

Privilege and its Spread: * ¼ of the entire French nobility were ennobled during the 18th Century * Rich nobles dipped their hands into business (line blurred between bourgeois and nobility) * About 70,000 offices that could be bought, sold and inherited * Official theatres for nobles gave way to popular theatres etc.

‘The closing decade of the old regime were remarkable for the number of cultural phenomena in which popular and elite tastes converged.’ – Simon Schama
‘Prominent contributions of nobles to capitalist ventures and the strong presence of bourgeois on land show that from the point of view of economic function, the two groups were a single class.’ – Donald Sutherland

Frances Taxes (How and What): * Citizens disliked Finance Contractors who were labeled as ‘blood suckers fattening themselves off the substance of people’
Farmers General: * Contracted by the Crown to ‘farm’ indirect taxes every Six Years in return for a fixed sum to the Treasury * Gave 1/3 of all revenues * Largest employer in France after the army * Had the right to search, enter and seize property or household deemed suspicious * Had a monopoly over goods such as salt and tobacco, they bought goods at a fixed price and distributed and sold them with tax
Taxes in France: * Taille – Land tax – Direct – Third Estate * Vingtieme – 5% on income – Direct – Everyone * Capitation – Poll Tax – Direct – Everyone * Gabelle – Salt Tax – Indirect – Everyone * Aides – Food and Drink Tax – Indirect – Everyone * Octrois – Customs Tax – Indirect – Everyone * Corvée – compulsory labour service * Tithes – Fee paid to Churches yearly by landowners

‘By 1788 the government had no alternative but to abandon fiscal fine-tuning and turn instead to drastic political solutions for its problems. These solutions turned out to be revolutionary.’ – Simon Schama

The Estates:

First Estate:
Disliked because: * Plurality and Absenteeism * Tithes * Tax exemption * Power over people (wealth and resentment of change)

Provided: * Education/aid * Mass/marriage/deaths/divorce * Don gratuit to the government (free gift) in return for a monopoly over public worship, education and relief

‘Throughout rural France, the parish clergy were at the hearts of the community.’ – Peter McPhee

Second Estate: * 4000 court nobility -> noblesse de robe (legal and admin nobles -> rest lived in various ranges of prosperity * However, for every noble factory owner there were TEN who ‘vegetated on their country estates in a condition of genteel shabbiness’ * Few privileges common and many varied in their impact

‘The entrenched hostility of most nobles towards fiscal and social reform was generated by two long term factors: first, the long term pressures of royal state-making which reduced the nobility’s autonomy; and secondly, by the challenge from a wealthier, larger and more critical bourgeoisie and an openly dissatisfied peasantry towards aristocratic conceptions of property, hierarchy and social order.’ – Peter McPhee
‘The Old Regime aristocracy was comparatively young and in a constant state of renewal.’ – Donald Sutherland

Privileges: * Special courts * Except from military * Exempt from gabelle * Exempt from corvée * Received signeurial dues * Exclusive rights to hunt and fish * Held monopoly to operate mills, ovens etc.

The nobility has become colonized by what modern historians think of as ‘bourgeois’ values: money, public service and talent.’ – Simon Schama
‘Like the First Estate, the nobility was characterized by great internal diversity.’ – Peter McPhee
‘What all the nobles had in common, was a vested interest in a highly complex system of status and hierarchy which came material privilege and preferment.’ – Peter McPhee
‘Nobles were richer and relatively more privileged.’ – Donald Sutherland
‘the ‘révolte nobiliaire’ is presented as a prelude or curtain raiser… not only did it pave the way directly for the triumph of the Third Estate but by drawing the urban masses into activity, it ended the period of social peace.’ – George Rudé
‘Nobility was a club which every wealthy man felt entitled, indeed obliged, to join. Not all nobles were rich, but sooner or later, all the rich ended up noble.’ – William Doyle

Third Estate:
Bourgeoisie:
* Mainly those who live in town and made a living through intellectual of business skills * 2.7 million * Felt that their power and wealth should be reflected in political system * Used by Marxist historians as the beneficiaries of the revolution
‘There was no Parisian bourgeoisie in the eighteenth century.’ – David Garrioch

Urban Workers: * Small property owners * Artisans in Paris were known as sans-culottes

Peasantry: * 85% of population * Top end were farmers who owned copious amounts of land and employed workers * ½ were share-croppers who owned no land but farmed by renting it * ¼ were landless laborers * Taxes took between 5-10% of their income * Penniless comprised about 40% of the population

‘The typical rural community then, was a hierarchy, not an unrelieved lump of destitute cultivators.’ – Donald Sutherland
‘The poor played almost no role in the national politics in 1789 or after. Fear of them was one of the complex elements in the Great Fear and the peasant revolts of the summer of 1789.’ – Donald Sutherland
‘This basic identity of interest [food] was to prove one of the most solid of the links that bound together the social groups forming the sans-culottes of the Revolution.’ – George Rudé
It was the rural population above all which underwrote the costs of the three pillars of authority and privilege in France: the Church, the Nobility and the Monarchy.’ – Peter McPhee
‘[The bourgeoisie] was a rising class, with a belief in progress, the bourgeoisie saw itself as representing the interest of all and carrying the burdens of the nation as a whole… they were thwarted by the aristocratic spirit that pervaded laws and institutions.’ – Albert Soboul

: IDEAS, INPUTS AND CAUSES

Very Short List of Causes of the Revolution:
Long term: * Poor governing (especially taxes) * Deeply divided structure of France * Spread of ideas to challenge authority

Short term: * Foreign policy * Financial crisis * Economic crisis

Four ways that pushed France from evolution into revolution: * Groups within aristocracy determined to abandon role for the citizen-leader * Crowds brought into the streets to stop royal absolutism would not go back * Government let open the issue of the composition of Estates General * King expressed wish that his people register grievances at the same time they elected their representatives connected social distress with political change

‘The disintegration of the old order occurred not when the outsides exasperated with their exclusion from privilege determined to destroy it by force. It came instead from insiders, enamored by D’Argenson’s vision of aristocrats-become-citizens, pulling down the walls of their own temple and proclaiming the advert of democratic monarchy in its debris.’ – Simon Schama
‘By the 1780’s however, the series of long term changes in French society was undermining some of the fundamental bases of authority and challenging a social order based on privilege and corporations. Deep-seated financial difficulties would further test the capacity for elites to respond to the imperatives of the change. An abrupt political crisis would then bring these tensions and problems to a surface.’ – Peter McPhee
‘By that time [14th July 1789] the old order was already in ruins, beyond reconstruction. This was the result of a chain of events that can be traced as far back as 20 August 1786 [when Calonne told Louis that finances were insolvent].’ – William Doyle
‘One of the many crises of the Old Regime was a crisis of social mobility [bourgeois moving up in social distinctions].’ – Donald Sutherland
‘The revolution was made in men’s minds before it became reality.’ – Alexis de Tocqueville
‘The constitutional crisis coincided with economic calamity.’ – Donald Sutherland
‘Though, in their outcome, these events left the outward appearance of Paris singularly untouched, they drastically disturbed the lives and properties of its citizens.’ – George Rudé
‘The cause of conflict had its roots deep in the old regime… capital investment and expansions of manufacture [bourgeois] were everywhere impeded by restrictions imposed by privileged corporations.’ – George Rudé

Shift to Sensibility: * “Roman Patriotism’ brought forth by lawyers who became orators, often quoting Romans such as Cicero * ‘Heart was to be preferred to head’, emotion to reason; nature to culture; spontaneity to calculation; simplicity to orate; innocence to experience; soul to intellect * ‘Virtuous statesmen before the clever politician’ – Mercier in 1787 * Rousseau’s Social Contract gave familiarity to formal works of political theory and with which virtue and freedom could be sustained

American Revolution Input: * Introduced ‘liberty’, ‘patriotism’, ‘the nation’ and ‘citizen’ * Influenced by Americans such as Benjamin Franklin and other French plays, articles and books * Widened gap between things natural (Humanity; Freedom; Patriotism) and those things artificial (Privilege; Despotism; the court) * Emptied Frances coffers

‘On their own they could no conceivably have constituted any kind of independent ‘revolutionary’ opposition to the crown. Once the money crisis of the monarchy was transformed into a political argument, the vocabulary of ‘liberty’ was apt to take on a life of its own’ – Simon Schama

The Liberal Economic Theory (Physiocracy): * Corporatism, regulations and protection was stifling the productivity and enterprise in France and should be abolished (laissez-faire) * Indirect taxes and property levies should be swept away and replaced by a SINGLE property tax * Agricultural sector was the only source of financial income for France * The end product would be the urban + rural sectors co-existing in ‘charmed reciprocity’

The Philosophes:

Voltaire: * Argued that the Church was corrupt and guilty of oppression and intolerance * Believed no ecclesiastical law should be legal without government approval * All ecclesiastics subject to the government * Magistrates, laborers and priests should be paid equally * Citizens should believe in reason and respect his country

Montesquieu: * Believed in a constitutional monarchy * End of absolutism, NOT monarchy * Three types of government: republic, monarchial and despotic * Despotic states can only grow corrupt as it is in their nature * Republics must avoid inequality and excess equality * Democracies and aristocracies are like water, growing corrupt when unmoved * Monarchial governments must have power split into the LEGISLATIVE, MAGISTRACY and the EXECUTIVE

Rousseau: * Believed in liberty, equality and democracy * All men are born equal * A law not ratified by the people is no law at all * General Will * System of laws, PROPERTY OWNERSHIP in civilized society lead to corruption and then to debasement and misery * Social Contract (General will) could be broken if ‘all citizens assembled and wished to break it’
Encyclopedie edited by Diderot and many other philosophes, distributed among France illegally.

Interpretation: * They DID NOT cause the revolution, they were but a voice expressing reform * They provided a vocabulary of dissent * The ‘citizen-nobles’ who fought in the War of Independence brought back with them the ‘Spirit of America’ and these ideas made them the ‘first revolutionaries’ in the struggle to limit the absolute powers of Louis XVI - Schama

‘It undermined the ideological foundations of the established order and strengthened the bourgeoisie’s consciousness of itself as class’ – Soboul
‘Every century has its own characteristic spirit. The spirit of ours seems to be liberty.’ – Diderot
‘The Enlightenment does appear as a class based ideology’ – Peter McPhee
‘The Enlightenment was not simply a self-conscious cultural movement: it was lived out subconsciously.’ – Peter McPhee
‘They advocated a change in outlook, a way of looking at the world less dependant on religion and tradition… It was only when the established order had collapsed… that the attitudes propagated by the Enlightenment were to lead Frenchmen into revolutionary directions.’ – William Doyle
‘No one thinks of dirty books [ie. Pornography of Antoinette etc.] as coded manifestos of the future or imagines how they could be linked to the Declaration of the Rights of Man,’ – Donald Sutherland
‘Became a huge archive of ideas about what to do once the Old Regime collapsed.’ – Donald Sutherland
‘The ideas of Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau and many others were widely disseminated and were absorbed by an eager reading public, both aristocratic and plebian.’ – George Rudé
‘…undermined the ideological foundations of the established order and strengthened the bourgeoisie’s consciousness of itself as a class.’ – Albert Soboul

: FINANCIAL CRISIS AND MANAGEMENT

Frances Financial Crisis: * By 1789, France had a debt of more than 1.3 Billion livres excluding interest * 91% of Frances money came from loans * Misleading to see privileged classes en block removed altogether from the revenue base of the sate – the nobles were subject to capitation and vingtieme * Registered triple vingtiéme in 1782, loan of 125 million in 1784 and another loan of 80 million in 1785

‘It was the domestic perception of financial problems, not their reality that propelled successive French governments from anxiety to alarm to outright panic’ – Simon Schama
‘It was the policies of the old regime rather than its operational structure that brought it close to bankruptcy and political disaster.’ – Simon Schama
‘At the root of its problems was a cest of armaments when coupled with political resistance to new taxes and a growing willingness to accept high interest tearing obligations…’ – Simon Schama
‘As the prices rose during the years of shortage, so did the tension between urban populations dependent on cheap and plentiful bread and the poorer sections of the rural community.’ – Peter McPhee
‘The French state lacked rational organization and uniform principles, and it was not enough to attempt to solve financial problems.’ – William Doyle

Frances Finance Ministers (Comptroller-General):
Jacques Necker – Director-General of the finances (he was a Protestant) * Compte Rendu * Loved by the nation * Advocated loans to finance French involvement in the American Revolution

Charles Alexandre de Calonne – * Proposed new land tax in proportion to the land owned and no social rank * Submitted financial reforms to Assembly of Notables * Lost popularity as his reforms halted in the Notables and he was found to have profited from a land proposal he gave to the King

de Brienne – Archbishop of Toulouse – * Originally in the Notables, attacked Calonne’s fiscal policies * Succeeded in persuading the parlement to register edicts regarding internal free trade, the establishment of provincial assemblies and the redemption of the corvée * Upon realizing France’s financial situation, he proposed a new land tax (similar to Calonne’s) and a new stamp duty, both rejected by Parlements * Persuaded King to exile Parlement * Recalled Parlements to accept edict for raising loans (120 million) and was rejected * Suggests for Estates-General to be called after the Parlement’s resistance

Compte Rendu:
February 1781 – Necker publishes Compte Rendu
What?
* Report that stated Frances 10 million livre surplus (did not account for the fact that Necker had already raised 520 million livres worth of loans) * To boost confidence among lenders and ordinary people

Effect? * Boosted Necker’s reputation * Created a feeling amongst the people of France that once Necker left office, France’s financial situation hit rock bottom very fast * People wanted Necker back to save France * His popularity would cause outrage when he was sacked on 11th June 1789

Parlements and Their Role: * 13 sovereign courts of law in Paris and provincial cities (Paris was the most important with the ability of administration and with jurisdiction spanning over 1/3 of France) * NO edicts could be made Laws without their consent, although a lit de justice could be help to force it * Believed that they were an intermediate body between King and people * Believed that they could not be brought down without bringing down the Constitution of France (there wasn’t one, ok?)

Assembly of Notables and Their Role: * Included royal princes, peers, archbishops, important judges and major town officials * Served as a consultative body only * Became known as the ‘first revolutionaries’ as they refused to register edicts and demanded the Estates-General to convene * Assisted the Parlement in creating provincial assemblies, the reestablishment of free trade in grain, the conversion of the public works corvée into a cash payment, and the short-term loans

: EVENTS PRECEEDING AND DURING EXILE AND RECALL OF PARLEMENTS

Ségur Ordinance:
22nd May 1781 * Ordinance stating that any officer above sublieutenant needed to prove he came from a family having four degrees (generations) of nobility * Was aimed to professionalize the army to prevent any nobles who had recently amassed a fortune in commerce or finance * Was taken by the bourgeois as an attempt to restrict that social distinctions even further

Diamond Necklace Affair:
1785
What happened? * Long story short, a man by the name of Cardinal de Rohan is tricked by a con artist (de Valois) and buys for the Queen an expensive diamond necklace * However, the Queen never wanted it and thus this issue of a 2 million livre necklace came to surface

Effect? * The real victim was Marie Antoinette * Many people thought that the Queen had used de Valois to satisfy her hatred against Rohan and labeled her as a spendthrift and a vindictive slut * Louis XVI had used much of his influence to get Rohan convicted, except he was acquitted – which showed that few paid attention to him * Led to renewed convictions of the Queen

‘[These accusations] represented the king as a passive victim of sexually powerful, not to say, domineering women. France itself had been debauched.’ – Donald Sutherland

Eden Treaty: * Signed in 1786 * Anglo-French treaty to reducing import tariffs on British products in France * Greatly weakened the textile industry (lead to unemployment, vagrancy and begging eg. 20,000 sacked in Lyons by 1789) * Partly contributed to unemployment and rise of bread prices during 1789

Calling of the Assembly of Notables:
20th August 1786 – Calonne informs Louis XVI that royal finances were insolvent. * ‘enough money for the government to function one afternoon’ - Schama
22nd February 1787 – Assembly of Notables Convene, last called in 1626 * Calonne’s answer to the crisis: * Fiscal Justice – New land tax on all subjects * Political consultation – Local assemblies elected in administration of the tax * Economic Liberty – corvée replaced by money tax and single stamp duty * Met with some approval but still heavily debated * Notables as ‘first revolutionaries’ * Calonne rapidly loses popularity as the opposition of the Notables halt his reforms

‘It was not because Calonne had shocked the Notables with his announcement of a new fiscal and political world; it was either because he had not gone far enough or because they disliked the operational methods build into the program’ – Simon Schama
‘They concluded that the disorder in the finances was the result of incompetent government; they asked for independent safeguards against further incompetence. They were offered none.’ – William Doyle
‘By opposing a single and proportional tax, they were protecting their own interests and at the same time gratifying public opinion’ – François Furet
‘Calonne became the personification of the deficit and a wasteful financial system.’ François Furet
‘After criticizing the planned tax, demanded a statement of the Treasury’s accounts. The resulting paralysis of the monarchy as a result of the quarrel between the King and then nobility led to revolution.’ – Albert Soboul
‘… intent on doing away with much of the old structure of France to being about a more liberal and economic regime.’ – Simon Schama
‘Politically, [the aristocratic reaction] referred to the undermining of the absolutism of Louis XVI.’

The Dutch Crisis (Spring 1787, September):
What was it? * Dutch revolutionary patriots had captured Princess Wilhelm and Prussia had declared war on her * The people of France believed that they must aid the Dutch in their path to ‘Freedom’ * Except, France was too poor to intervene and so they bluffed that they had an encampment of 30,000 soldiers at the southern border of the Dutch * It was found out to be a sham

Effects: * Traditional absolutism was ‘dead’, the King couldn’t even pass his decrees to enable France to recover its financial status and aid its allies

Options to save France: * Reform from above * Abdicate * Louis XVI did neither and instead tried to use coercion

‘What the Dutch Crisis had done was expose the loss of credibility of France power in the most brutally naked way’ – Simon Schama
‘France had been reduced by her own internal crisis to an international cipher.’ – William Doyle

Last Chance with the Notables (Brienne):
8th April 1787 – Calonne dismissed
30th April 1787 – de Brienne becomes new Comptroller General
Reforms already made: * Recognized Protestants * Provincial assemblies composed of Three Orders to move beside intendants and gradually replace them (about twenty began to operate by the end of the year)

New reforms included: * Instead of proportionate tax, a specific amount of money was determined by revenues each year * Tax extended to all sections of the population, not just those the corvéable * Notables were allowed to see government books, highlighting the deficit

Except the problems were: * Emancipation of Protestants had created civil unrest in pious areas * Provincial assemblies that had been introduced during 1787-8 had become stigmatized as ‘playthings’ of the government

Result: * Although agreeing to the reforms, the Notables now believed that the Estates General was the ONLY body with the jurisdiction to pass them * In demanding more economies in government expenditure it convinced the public that the source of the financial problem was tax privilege and this created the illusion that eliminating tax privilege would lower the liability for the non-privileged, this was not so * It proved that Montesquieu’s theory was correct, the Notables defended the nation against rampant fiscality

‘The French King’s government could not command the confidence of its most eminent subjects.’ – William Doyle
‘Thus a revolution had occurred before the Revolution, effected by the monarch which, by renouncing its nature, was making way for society [on topic of the new assemblies]’ – François Furet

Notables dissolved:
25th May 1787 – Notables dissolved

Options: * Convene Estates General * Prevail over opposition in Parlements through incentives and threats

‘To survive the French monarchy needed both determined reform and artful politics. From the government of de Brienne, it got a full measure of the former and absolutely none of the latter.’ – Simon Schama

Attempts to Pass Reforms at the Parlements:
The Parlement was mixed between two main groups: D’Eprémesnil’s Group (high rank magistrates): * Believed in a constitutional reconstruction with the Estates General responsible for creating new laws
Adrian Duport’s group (barristers, trial lawyers etc.): * Believed in a new sovereignty to be embodied in a national representation

2nd June 1787: Parlement rejects stamp duty (and then new land tax two weeks later)

6th August 1787: ‘Lit de justice’ held in Parlement. King disregards the debate and thanks the deputies for accepting the principles accepted by the Notables and orders the laws to be registered, citing ‘Le roi le veult’.

7th August 1787: D’Eprémesnil declares the enforcement of the edicts illegal

10th August 1787: Calonne is attacked by the Parlements with criminal proceedings, labeled as the fanatic-head of infamy and corruption. First time the prosecution of an individual was worked against a sitting administration.

‘The Parlements had the responsibility to guard the ‘fundamental laws’ of France against ministerial designs on the ‘liberties of the people’. – Simon Schama
‘1788 saw the culmination of the old struggle which had begun after Louis XIV’s death, absolutist administration and parlementaire resistance.’ – François Furet
‘Thought of it [Estates General] as augmenting their constitutional powers and consequently protecting their privileges.’ – Donald Sutherland

Exile and Recall of the Parlements:
15th August 1787 – Parlements exiled to Troyes and closure of all political clubs in Paris * Provincial Assemblies take over the role of intendants to undermine claims of the Parlements to represent the people

15th September 1787 – Brienne makes a compromise with the Parlements, rescinding the land tax and stamp duty and opting for a new vingtieme tax over 5 years, where at the end, the Estates-General would be called (1792). Parlements recalled.

19th November 1787 – Séance Royale held to register new loans becomes a lit de justice when the King calls off the voting and orders the edicts to be registered. The Duc D’Orleans objects, calling it illegal before Louis replies, “Oh well, I don’t care, you’re the master of course.”

‘The effect of this peculiar performance [that of Orleans] could not have been more damaging; despotism that failed to have the courage of its convictions.’ – Simon Schama
‘No reply could have bee more catastrophic… the King’s words turned what seemed destined to be a Government triumph into a disaster.’ –William Doyle

Society of Thirty: * Of the 55 members, fifty were nobles * Formed after political clubs were banned * Believed that there was not a fundamental constitution * Only fundamental law was the welfare of the people * Believed France should have a constitution * Wanted double representation for the Third Estate as the state and the people were one and the same * Believed that cahiers meant change * Concepts of enlightenment (General Will)

‘It was men like the members of the Society of Thirty whom the philosophes influenced most.’ – Donald Sutherland
‘… courtiers against the court, aristocrats against privilege, officers who wanted to replace dynastic with national patriotism.’ – Simon Schama

:
EVENTS PRECEEDING CALL OF ESTATES GENERAL

The Reduction of Parlement’s Rights:

5th May 1788 – Two leading parlementaires are arrested, D’Eprémesnil and de Goislard

8th May 1788 – May Edicts - Parlements are deprived of their right to oppose the King’s will * Minor courts given status of ‘grands baillages’ and given right to deal in majority of cases while the Parlements were restricted to noble and civil cases over 20,000 livres * Parlements are stripped of the right to register edicts before they become enforceable. Right transferred to one central ‘plenary court’ appointed by the government

Effects: * Loss of monopoly over justice in neighboring towns (as they fought for the new minor courts) * Pamphlet campaign against Lamoignon and Brienne * Riots appeared demanding the reinstatement of Parlements * Parlements had become the tribunes of the people

‘The sheer volume and audacity of the anti-government polemics guaranteed that whatever concessions to the ‘public good’ were embodied in Lamoignon’s reforms would be preempted by their political repercussions.’ – Simon Schama
‘Lamoignon’s coup was a classic case of over-reach.’ – Donald Sutherland

The Day of Tiles (Grenoble):

Prior to 7 June 1788, a large meeting at Grenoble decided to call together the old Estates of the province of Dauphiné. Troops are called to put down the movement.

7th June 1788 – Crowds converge to stop the troops from dispersing the parlementaires and hurl roof-tiles at the soldiers below them. Commander of the troops allows the meeting of Estates to converge at Vizille.

Effects: * Breakdown of royal authority and helplessness of military force in face of urban disorder * Warned beneficiaries of disorder that a price had to be paid for their encouragement * Delivered initiative for further political action

21st July 1788 – Assembly of Vizille convene and later issue its demands to the King, he accepts them on 2nd August 1788.
Demands included: * the convocation of the Estates-General of France * pledged the province to refuse to pay all taxes not voted by the States-General * abolition of letters de cachet

‘A national will was taking shape, behind anti-absolutist unanimity.’ – François Furet

The Famine of 1788:

15th July 1788 – Hailstorms bursts over central France followed by drought. Death follows in 1789 due to expensive supplies and lack of supplies due to frozen waters. * Many became homeless as they were consumers, not producers * Four pound loaf because 12-15 sous (14.5 sous was the legal maximum) * People believed that a new political institution could provide sustenance where old ones could not * However, people still believed that their King-Father had been nice enough to give them an opportunity to voice their opinions and expected reforms – people were still not discontented enough to revolt

‘It was the connection of anger and hunger that made the revolution possible. But it also programmed the revolution to explode from overinflated expectations.’ – Simon Schama

The Calling of the Estates-General:

8th August 1788 - Brienne sets May 1, 1789 as the date for the Estates-General in an attempt to restore confidence with his creditors.

16th August 1788 – All repayments on government loans stop, France is bankrupt

25th August 1788 – Brienne resigns and Necker takes over his position as Director-General of Finances

‘In September 1787, France had abandoned a foreign policy until she could afford one. In August 1788, she was abandoning a financial policy until she could agree on one.’ – Simon Schama
‘The calling of the Estates-General facilitated the expression of tensions at every level of French society, and revealed social divisions which challenged the idea of a society of orders.’ – Peter McPhee ‘In August 1788, the old monarchy collapsed. It was not overthrown by the opposition to its policies, much less by revolutionaries dedicated to its destruction. It fell because of its inner contradictions.’ – William Doyle
‘So the Estates-General came about through the nobles’ grand plan to regain control of the state.’ – François Furet
‘Absolutism had collapsed.’ – Donald Sutherland
‘… not to reinforce the powers of the Parlements but to revive the Estates-General.’ – Donald Sutherland

: ESTATES-GENERAL

Issues Before 5th May:

5th September 1787 – Parlement of Paris suggests that the Estates-General should be convened like that of 1614 – start of the revolt of Bourgeoisie according to Marxists * Calls by Duport to double representation in the Third Estate and for voting by Head * Duport rejected a ‘fundamental constitution’ that the Parlements had to conserve and urged a new one be made by the Estates General

6th November 1788 – Necker convenes second Assembly of Notables to discuss Estates-General

5th December 1788 – Parlements acknowledge that there is no constitutional precedent for the Estates General to follow but ‘reason, liberty and the General wish’

12th December 1788 – Second Assembly dissolved as it refuses to consider doubling of Third Estate

27th December 1788 –Necker announces that representation of the Third would be doubled

24th January 1789 - Estates-General is convoked for the first time (not the same as ‘meeting of Estates-General’) and in the bill regarding the Estates-General on the same day, watertight separation of orders and the Estates-General as an ‘advisory body’ only are emphasized – back to tradition even though the Monarchy already moved a step forward by allowing double representation

… served only to highlight the crucial issue of political power, because he [Louis] remained silent on how voting would occur.’ – Peter McPhee
‘At the end of 1788, it [the Third] put forward the quintessential revolutionary idea: going beyond liberal unanimity, it demanded equality.’ – François Furet
‘Through the intermediary of its minister, the monarchy itself set reason and justice against tradition. [making double representation]’ – François Furet
‘The royal government was on the other hand reinforcing its aristocratic character, falling back on its own tradition.’ – François Furet
‘Without which, there would have been no revolution of 1789.’ – George Rudé
‘The bourgeoisie, the leading element of the Third Estate, now took over. Its aim was revolutionary… Before long, however, it was carried forward by the pressure of the masses, the real motive force behind the revolution.’ – Albert Soboul

Abbé Sieyès: Qu'est-ce que le tiers état?:
January 1789

What Is The Third Estate? Everything.
What Has It Been Heretofore In The Political Order? Nothing.
What Does It Want To Be? Something.
What is it, what else can it be, this privilege, if not the ultimate corruption of the concept of law, since it forms categories of individuals who are strangers to what makes the community?
It was nothing, yet it was everything…

Arguments on why the Third was the MOST important: * Produced food for the population * Processed and manufactured * Were dealers and merchants * From scientific and liberal professions to domestic services – the privileged relied on the Third Estate to do all the work * Basically, society could thrive without the presence of these privileged orders

Desires and requests: * Political representation (vote by head) * End of privilege (established the aristocracy as an alien body acting outside of the general will) * Government responsibility to the people through regular meetings of Estates General * Personal liberties * Form a National Assembly if it is in a manner beneficial to the nations * Make a constitution

Sieyès addressed the issues that caused the dissatisfaction among the Estates-General and by doing so, created an inspirational voice that rallied the Third Estate to form as a political force. He was able to logically define society without the privileged and thus changed centuries of common principles and beliefs upside down. Sieyès pamphlet was distributed in their droves and was one of the prime influences of the actions taken by the Third Estate against the feudalistic traditions of the Ancien Régime. Main idea: excludes the nobility.

‘Sieyès issued a ringing declaration of commoner capacity.’ – Peter McPhee
‘Qu’est-ce que le Tiers Etat? Offers us the French Revolution’s biggest secret, which will form its deepest motivating force – hatred of the nobility.’ – François Furet

The Réveillon Riot:
28th April 1789 – Hundreds march the streets of Paris to bring down Réveillon and Henriot’s factory * Réveillon was rumoured to be lowering the wages of his workers (actually he was asking bread prices to be lowered so that people could afford it) * The workers, outraged, and concerned with food shortages, high unemployment and low wages took violent action against Réveillon * Réveillon’s factory was successfully guarded on the first day by the French Guard, so the crowd went to destroy Henriot’s factory where the same threat of lowering workers’ wages were made * Réveillon’s factory and manor were destroyed * Insurrectionary movement of wage-earners

Effects: * It was when the sans-culottes entered struggle against the government but were not yet allies with the bourgeoisie (Rudé) * Unmistakeable sign of things to come (save the obedience of the troops)
Two forms of revolutionary temper were apparent: * A constitution through the Assemblies and political means * Arm the citizens and banish the aristocrats

The Composition of the Estates-General:

* Turnout for voting of only about 25-30% in populated areas like Paris

First Estate: * Only 51 of the 291 deputies were bishops and the rest were priests * The most influenced by the Third Estate

Second Estate: * Majority were old noble families in the provinces, thus poor and conservative * Although about ¼ of them could be classified as liberals (90 of 182) * Liberal nobles had much in common with the Third as they were young, urban and hostile to privilege

Third Estate: * 43% Venal office holders * 35% lawyers, but 60% in the legal profession * Only 13% from trade in industry – one reason why it was not bourgeois

Stances Involved with the Estates-General: * Radicals (majority of Third Estate) * Moderates (Majority of First Estate) * Supporters of the Ancien Regime (majority of the Second Estate) * Those seeking a compromise (Majority)

‘The system of indirect elections then produced an embryonic political elite with remarkably similar ideas.’ – Donald Sutherland

Cahiers De Doléances:

Numbering some 25,000, the nobles and clergy could vote and submit these cahiers directly from 24th January 1789, while the Third Estate had to go through their local assemblies. The cahiers were safe from censorship and are thus a ‘reliable’ source [take note that most of the people in the countryside couldn’t write, and so relied on others to write it for them, normally someone of professional background] of information on what the citizens of France desired. The ‘national unanimity’ displayed was a revolution in itself (François Furet).

Two voices could be heard: * Political and legal matters * Survival (countryside)
Political:
* Assent to new taxes, liberty and abolition of letters de cachet (freedom from press and speech)
Financial:
* Liability of crown consolidated as national debt, published budgets, abolition of venal offices and if the nobility were to remain, they would only do so for honorific titles

Common: * Many of the First called for the end of plurality and absenteeism * Many nobles agreed for the abolition of its own exemptions (89% agreed), although provincial nobles regarded their rights too important to lose * Many expressed their hatred of the tax officers * Bourgeois spoke of ‘careers open to talent’ * Only main dispute was the issue of double representation and voting by head * Believed that the Estates-General would convene regularly * Ministers were ‘castigated for their fiscal inefficiency and arbitrary powers’ * Main disputes: power, wealth and privilege

Surprisingly: * Many of the peasants wanted traditional landowning rights again (equal partition for heirs), while artisans wanted economic regulation and control on grain trade * Many of the peasants and artisans wanted MORE government, to protect their animals and take over taxes and disputes * The peasants wanted to go backwards, not change… Artisans wanted no change

‘While the cahiers of the liberal nobility offered an alluring picture of a briskly modernizing France that would consummate the great alterations by shaking off restrictions like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis, those of the Third Estate wanted, very often, to return to the cocoon.’ – Simon Schama
‘Resentment of seigneurialism above all bonded rural communities together against their lords.’ – Peter McPhee
‘People were being consulted about reform proposals, not about whether they wanted a revolution… only later to become the focus of concerted action.’ – Peter McPhee
‘In Paris, revolution was already widely expected, but the French en masse still expected the reforms they considered essential to come from the king.’ – François Furet
‘The nobles trusted the institutions they controlled to curb the arbitrariness of the monarch, whereas skepticism was greater among the Third.’ - Donald Sutherland
‘The ‘aristocratic revolt’ was past and now it was time for the two other main contenders – the bourgeoisie and the common people… to make their own distinct contribution to the revolution that now took place.’ – George Rudé

Convening of the Estates-General:
5th May 1789 – Estates-General meets – Third Estate dissatisfied about the discriminatory protocols that lead them to seem inferior to the First and Second

6th May 1789 – King addresses Estates-General while Necker gives a long and boring speech – the matter of voting by head is not mentioned * Great Hat Fiasco as the King and Nobles put their hat on and the Third do so as well, a breach of protocol – it was the Third’s expectation that the Estates-General would be putting privilege aside

* The opening showed an extension of court ceremony, not patriotic duty * The image of Louis being the ‘New Augustus’ who would renew the age was instantly proven to be false * Nobility’s position had hardened due to violence in the countryside and were now uncertain as to whether to give up local seigneurial dues or make a General Assembly * Clergy was divided between the minority of Bishops and the majority of priests/cures

‘Not only did it bequeath democracy to the Revolution but, before expiring, offered it the means of forming itself into a national body politic against the aristocracy.’ – François Furet
‘The convening of the Estates-General had served to focus noble, bourgeois, and peasant images of a regenerated France with dramatic clarity.’ – Peter McPhee

: THE FORMING OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Credentials and Commons:

* The issue of verifying credentials (whether the elected deputy was eligible) sparked the beginning of a number of disputes within the Estates-General * Third Estate suggested that the verifying of credentials should be done in a common session * Other two Estates saw this as a precedent of whether the Estates-General should meet as one body (and vote by head) when discussing France’s matters * Both First and Second Estate declared themselves a separate Order (133 to 114 and 188 to 46 votes respectively) * The Third refused to proceed without having the other two Estates join them * First clash between bourgeoisie and privileged order (Rudé)

28th May 1789 – Frustrated at the inactiveness of the Estates-General, the Third Estate meets on its own to discuss matters and calls itself the Commune (Commons)

4th June 1789 – Necker proposed that the Estates should examine their own credentials. The Dauphin dies and the King goes into retreat!

10th June 1789 – Third would verify credentials of all deputies with or without them (suggested by Sieyès)

12th June 1789 – As per Sieyés suggestion, a roll is opened for those nobles and clergy willing to join the Third Estate

13th June 1789 – Some priests join the Third Estate (three curés)

17th June – Third Estate declares itself to be the National Assembly (490 to 90) * Invited tax riots if the Assembly was dissolved by force

‘Louis’ acquiescence in the nobility’s demand for voting to be in three separate orders galvanized the outrage of the bourgeois deputies.’ – Peter McPhee
‘What turned them from reformers to radicals was not the experience of the old regime but… that of the months of May, June and July 1789.’ – William Doyle
‘That long month of May 1789 was one of passive revolt.’ – François Furet
‘[The Third Estate] created a new power, independent of the king,’ – François Furet
‘The lawyers of the Third Estate had become revolutionaries.’ – Donald Sutherland
‘It was in the church, that the separation between rich and poor was most bitterly articulated.’ – Simon Schama
“was the founding act of the French Revolution. If the nation was sovereign, the king no longer was.” – William Doyle

Tennis Court Oath:

20th June 1789 – Finding the doors of their chamber locked, the deputies of the Third Estate converge at an indoor tennis court and take an oath. One member voted against the oath, (Martin Dauch). Was lead by Mirabeau and Sieyés.

‘Never to separate, and to reassemble wherever circumstances require, until the constitution of the realm is established and fixed upon solid foundations’ - Mounier

* First time citizens stood in defiance of the King * Sparked rioting across the French countryside and renewed calls for a written constitution * Proposed that the National Assembly was the supreme state power and not the King’s Divine Right * Majority of Clergy join the next day * Symbol of national unity

‘Wherever they gathered, was to be the National Assembly.’ – Simon Schama
‘It was one more assertion that they were subject to no other power in France.’ – William Doyle

Séance Royale:
23rd June 1789 – King holds a Séance Royale to give his concessions

* The King attempted to preserve the Estates-General and annul the illegal proceedings on the 17th * 35 reform proposals were issued by the King which included two main ones: * Freedom of press provided it did not harm religion, morals or ‘honour of citizens’ * Tax exemptions ‘could’ be void if the privileged agreed * The members of the National Assembly refuse to leave after the session and the King gives in saying, “Oh well, let them stay.” * The King had successfully shown his authority, but then immediately changed his mind straight after, showing the weakness of his character * ‘The assembled nation cannot take orders’ – Bailly * ‘You are today what you were yesterday’ – Sieyès * ‘We shall not leave our places save at bayonet point’ - Mirabeau

24th June 1789 - 48 nobles with the Duc D’Orleans leading them and numerous clergy join the Third Estate

27th June 1789 – Estate-General ‘dies’, as the King orders the other two Estates to unite with the Third to achieve his paternal goals, thus recognizing the National Assembly

30th June 1789 - Large crowd storms left bank prison and frees mutinous French Guards

9th July 1789 – National Assembly becomes the National Constituent Assembly

‘The King had thrown away his authority almost as soon as he had tried to reassert it.’ – William Doyle
‘From then on, the resistance of the privileged was broken down by successive defections.’ – François Furet
‘The royal program was nonetheless important because it represented the transformation of absolute to constitutional monarchy.’ – Donald Sutherland
‘The King offered nothing which would flaunt the desires of the privileged.’ – Donald Sutherland

: BASTILLE

Preceding Bastille: * Bread prices had reached levels symptomatic of famine (88% of income) * Custom barriers were frequently attacked * Bakers were forced to keep unsold loaves at the end of the day for discounts * Terme had just finished on the 7th, when bills and rent were paid, many were homeless * Fears of a plot to starve the people become more serious with the King’s troops surrounding Paris * By 11 June Louis surrounded Paris with 30000 troops * Public had support of Gardes Francaise who called themselves native patriots

11th July 1789 – Necker is dismissed, but not before he goes to reassure the Dutch the safety of their loans

12th July 1789 – News of Necker’s dismissal reaches Paris * Riots follow which are urged by Camille Desmoulins * 40 of the 50 Custom posts around Paris are sacked * Gunsmiths were robbed for weapons * Saint-Lazare monastery is sacked of grain (proving the conspiracy to starve the people)

13th July 1789 – Electors at the Hôtel de Ville organize citizen militias to regain control – Permanent Committee formed * Over 48,000 men were called to re-establish control * They were marked by ‘red and blue’, the colours of Paris with the red being the ‘blood shed for freedom’ and the blue being ‘the celestial constitution that would be the eventual blessing’ * Powder and weapons were stolen from the Tuileries and St. Nicolas to aid them for that nights patrol

‘Substantial enough to perform its twin duties of facing down any further attempt at military repression, and if necessary, punishing unlawful violence.’ – Simon Schama
‘The signal for popular action was the dismissal of Necker.’ – Peter McPhee
‘[The military concentration in Paris helped] unite the fears of both the Parisan mob and the deputies of Versailles.’ – François Furet
‘[Dismissal of Necker was] interpreted as a double unlucky omen: bankruptcy and counter-revolution.’ – François Furet

Storming of the Bastille:

How? * About 900 Parisians, mostly artisans and the majority having immigrated to Paris * Four-pound load reached a record high on the 14th

What happened? * Initial aim was to neutralize guns and take powder * The stubbornness of de Launay to give up his powder and at the same time refuse to fire at the crowds caused tensions to boil * The rope to the drawbridge was cut and the mobs march in and are fired upon and retaliate * Companies of Gardes Francaise and defected soldiers join the effort * A note of capitulation is rejected

Effect? * De Launay and his guards are decapitated and have their heads stuck on pikes * Seven prisoners were rescued * The symbol of Frances despotism was demolished in one day (symbol of arbitrary authority) * Demonstrated that the bourgeoisie relied on the ordinary people for support * Spurred similar risings throughout the country, decentralizing authority * A new government was formed for Paris, the Commune de Paris with Bailly as the mayor * Districts drew up their own conditions of enrollment to the militia but the large part of the wage earning population was excluded * Irregulars were to be disarmed (illustrates degree of authority quickly asserted by the electors) * Militia could now be relied on to protect the ‘people’ * The King had lost Paris, the towns and next he lost the peasants * The Great Fear had started as the rural areas went beyond destroyed the Monarchy’s authority * La Fayette becomes Commander of National Guard * Royal troops began with fraternize with citizens * National Assembly was saved * Revolutionary temper was given leadership (Rudé)

16th July 1789 – Necker is recalled and all royalist troops are pulled out of Paris

27th July 1789 – King Louis XVI accepts the tri-colour cockade (white was added by LaFayette for bourbons) from Bailly in Paris, thus accepting the change of power in France

‘It gave a shape and image to all the vices against which the Revolution define itself. Transfigured from a nearly empty, thinly manned anachronism into the seat of the Beast Despotism, it incorporated all those rejoicing at its capture as the members of the new community of the nation.’ – Simon Schama
‘During that single night of largely unobstructed riot and demolition. Paris was lost to the monarchy.’ – Simon Schama (I was get confused with this quote)
’The people of Paris [were] convinced that they alone had saved the National Assembly’ – William Doyle
‘Louis VXI, having taken resolve on 11 July, had effectively abdicated on 14 July.’ – François Furet
‘The real point of revolutionary outbreak was only reached when the separate and scattered actions of peasants, urban craftsmen and bourgeois journalists, lawyers, and deputies merged in common struggle in July 1789.’ – George Rudé

The Great Fear:
What was it? * Continuation of the riots in Spring directed against their landlords * Originally an organized resistance to fight ‘brigands in the pay of landlords’ who were rumoured to destroy their crops * Châteaux and many other symbols of privilege were destroyed, like the shooting of game (first heavy casualties of the Revolution were rabbits – Schama) * ‘revolution of the peasants’ * Louis accepted the tri-colour cockade was taken as an endorsement of popular rebellion

Effects? * Broke down level of command and lead to formation of new armed authorities to contain arrest * Created brutal distinctions: patriots-enemies, citizens-aristocrats * Louis’ title became ‘King of the French’ not ‘King of France’

‘The real significance of the Great Fear was the vacuum of authority it exposed at the heart of the French government. Although it created by default, a France of a myriad of communes, this armed decentralization was not as all what most people wanted.’ – Simon Schama
‘No longer should it be implied that the realm [France] was a kind of property.’ – Simon Schama
‘Like the menu people of Paris, peasants adopted the language of bourgeois revolt to their own ends.’ – Peter McPhee
‘Hunger, hope and fear were the main ingredients of the rural crisis of 1789.’ – William Doyle
‘It provided an excellent excuse to arm the people against royal power… and this reaction in the countryside gathered the peasants together to turn against the aristocracy… it allowed the peasantry to achieve a full realization of its strength and… played its part in the preparation for the night of August 4.’ – Georges Lefebvre

: AUGUST DECREES

August Decrees:
4th August: Members of the National Constituent Assembly abolish feudalism and all seigneurial rights of Second Estate and the tithes of the First
Abolished changes included: * Tithes * Venality * Financial and tax privileges related to land and persons * All citizens taxed equally * Special privileges (including tax exemption) for provinces etc. * All citizens were eligible for offices

Effect? * Encouraged a cult of dispossession * Sparked by a moment of frenzy and ‘drunkenness’ * Started process of dismantling Ancien Regime * Benefited bourgeoisie but the old society of orders and privilege had gone * Peasants became committed to the revolution as they didn’t want to return to the old taxes * A national, uniform system of administration could now be made as the old institutions were swept away * Careers open to talent

‘This was largely the achievement of one group who until now had no say in what happened – the peasants.’ – William Doyle
‘In terms if revenue, the clergy were the principle losers on 4 August.’ – François Furet
‘Was a way of escaping a parliamentary impasse, as well as a device to appease the peasantry.’ – Donald Sutherland
‘Seigneurialism abolished itself ‘from below’ in any case,’ – Donald Sutherland

: ETCETERA

Important Dates:

February 1781 – Necker publishes Compte Rendu
22nd May 1781 – Segur Ordinance
1785 – Diamond Necklace Affair
20th August 1786 – Calonne informs Louis XVI that royal finances were insolvent.
22nd February 1787 – Assembly of Notables Convene, last called in 1626
The Dutch Crisis (Spring 1787, September)
25th May 1787 – Notables dissolved
2nd June 1787: Parlement rejects stamp duty (and then new land tax two weeks later)
6th August 1787: ‘Lit de justice’ held in Parlement. King disregards the debate and thanks the deputies for accepting the principles accepted by the Notables and orders the laws to be registered, citing ‘Le roi le veult’.
10th August 1787: Calonne is attacked by the Parlements with criminal proceedings, labeled as the fanatic-head of infamy and corruption. First time the prosecution of an individual was worked against a sitting administration.
15th August 1787 – Parlements exiled to Troyes and closure of all political clubs in Paris
5th September 1787 – Parlement of Paris suggests that the Estates-General should be convened like that of 1614 – start of the revolt of Bourgeoisie according to Marxists
15th September 1787 – Brienne makes a compromise with the Parlements, rescinding the land tax and stamp duty and opting for a new vingtieme tax over 5 years, where at the end, the Estates-General would be called. Parlements recalled.
19th November 1787 – Séance Royale held to register new loans becomes a lit de justice when the King calls off the voting and orders the edicts to be registered. The Duc D’Orleans objects, calling it illegal before Louis replies, “Oh well, I don’t care, you’re the master of course.”
8th May 1788 – May Edicts - Parlements are deprived of their right to oppose the King’s will
7th June 1788 – Crowds converge to stop the troops from dispersing the parlementaires and hurl roof-tiles at the soldiers below them. Commander of the troops allows the meeting of Estates to converge at Vizille.
21st July 1788 – Assembly of Vizille convene and later issue its demands to the King, he accepts them on 2nd August 1788.
15th July 1788 – Hailstorms bursts over central France followed by drought. Death follows in 1789 due to expensive supplies and lack of supplies due to frozen waters.
8th August 1788 - Brienne sets May 1, 1789 as the date for the Estates-General in an attempt to restore confidence with his creditors.
16th August 1788 – All repayments on government loans stop, France is bankrupt
25th August 1788 – Brienne resigns and Necker takes over his position as Director-General of Finances
6th November 1788 – Necker convenes second Assembly of Notables to discuss Estates-General
5th December 1788 – Parlements acknowledge that there is no constitutional precedent for the Estates General to follow but ‘reason, liberty and the General wish’
12th December 1788 – Second Assembly dissolved as it refuses to consider doubling of Third Estate
27th December 1788 –Necker announces that representation of the Third would be doubled
28th April 1789 – Hundreds march the streets of Paris to bring down Réveillon and Henriot’s factory
5th May 1789 – Estates-General meets – Third Estate dissatisfied about the discriminatory protocols that lead them to seem inferior to the First and Second
6th May 1789 – King addresses Estates-General while Necker gives a long and boring speech – the matter of voting by head is not mentioned
28th May 1789 – Frustrated at the inactiveness of the Estates-General, the Third Estate meets on its own to discuss matters and calls itself the Commune (Commons)
4th June 1789 – Necker proposed that the Estates should examine their own credentials. The Dauphin dies and the King goes into retreat!
12th June 1789 – As per Sieyés suggestion, a roll is opened for those nobles and clergy willing to join the Third Estate
17th June – Third Estate declares itself to be the National Assembly (490 to 90)
20th June 1789 – Finding the doors of their chamber locked, the deputies of the Third Estate converge at an indoor tennis court and take an oath. One member voted against the oath, (Martin Dauch). Was lead by Mirabeau and Sieyés.
23rd June 1789 – King holds a Séance Royale to give his concessions
24th June 1789 - 48 nobles with the Duc D’Orleans leading them and numerous clergy join the Third Estate
27th June 1789 – Estate-General ‘dies’, as the King orders the other two Estates to unite with the Third to achieve his paternal goals, thus recognizing the National Assembly
9th July 1789 – National Assembly becomes the National Constituent Assembly
11th July 1789 – Necker is dismissed, but not before he goes to reassure the Dutch the safety of their loans
12th July 1789 – News of Necker’s dismissal reaches Paris
13th July 1789 – Electors at the Hôtel de Ville organize citizen militias to regain control
16th July 1789 – Necker is recalled and all royalist troops are pulled out of Paris
27th July 1789 – King Louis XVI accepts the tri-colour cockade (white was added by LaFayette for bourbons) from Bailly in Paris, thus accepting the change of power in France
4th August: Members of the National Constituent Assembly abolish feudalism and all seigneurial rights of Second Estate and the tithes of the First

Important People:

Marie Antoinette: * Diamond Necklace Affair * Cared little of court etiquette * Pornography and numerous slanderous productions were made of her * Named Marie Antoinette of Austria

King Louis XVI: * Family man * Great physical strength but lacked authority, was indecisive, hesitant and reserved * Listened to his ministers but more to his Wife
‘The constitution by which the King governed France was customary, not written.’ – McPhee
‘Courtiers commented on his awkwardness, his lumping gait, his absence of majesty, his irresolution, his lack of self confidence, even his impotence until that was fixed. But most of that mean spiritedness was kept within bounds.’ – Donald Sutherland

Sieyés – See his pamphlet

LaFayette: * Veteran of War * Took part in the Committee of Thirty * Promoted a constitutional monarchy * Became leader of the National Guard * Wanted peace and stability in France * Saved Louis multiple times * Liked by the people who thought of him as the champion of equal rights and the new civic spirit * Created the red, white and blue cockade * Loss his support after the Champ De Mars Massacre and later during the war where he spoke out against the sans-culottes and was later declared a traitor on 10 August

Mirabeau: * His rhetoric was unrivalled (well, sort of) * Leading figure in demanding conservatism and moderation while adopting a system more along of line of Britain’s bicameral system * Entered into a pact with the King in March 1790 where he would give his advice and support to the king * Mirabeau favored an absolute veto for Louis XVI during the making of the 1791 Constitution

‘Mirabeau, superior to all by virtue of his genius, but for that very reason and for what was known about his past, suspected by all.’ – François Furet

Historians Views:

Georges Lefebvre (four revolutions) * Aristocracy sought to defend and extend its privileges and so resisted attempts of the King to reduce tax privileges and demanded the calling of Estates-General * Bourgeoisie supported aristocracy in mistrial despotism until September 1788 and opposed the traditional Estates General. They sought equality and destroyed privileges of Church and nobility and demanded: promotion according to merit, all taxes paid on same basis and law the same for all * The Menu Peuple culminated in the fall of the Bastille which saved the National Assembly, they arose from the economic crisis * Peasants revolt began in Spring 1789 where they sought abolition of seigneural dues and labour services, the economic crisis and bad harvests caused them to do this

Georges Lefebvre and Albert Soboul (Marxists): * Bourgeois revolution * Bourgeois had become economically stronger than the nobility and felt that power was kept from them by the privileged * The class struggle began when the Parlements requested that the Estates General should be convened as it was in 1614, ruling out the Third Estate * Class struggle between rising bourgeois and declining nobility * Bourgeoisie won because the monarchy was bankrupt * The French Revolution was a struggle for equal rights * Soboul’s opinion on the lead up to August Decrees “the peasant revolution ruled out any possibility of compromise with the feudal aristocracy and forced the bourgeois revolution onwards” * Soboul called the ‘pressure of the masses’ as the real motive force

Alfred Cobban and François Furet (Revisionists) (François’ quotes included throughout): * Refuted Marxist interpretation (Furet was the first) * Alfred questioned bourgeois role and instead opted for the view that normal peasants overthrew the government – bourgeois were not hostile to feudalism since they were owners of land * Furet questioned the intellectual and cultural background of the revolution and believed that the ideas of the philosophes were the driving force (revolution of 1789 as an egalitarian one) * Furet: revolutionary ideology generated the violence of the revolution * ‘the revolutionary bourgeois was primarily the declining class of officers and lawyers and other professional men.’ – Alfred Cobban

J.H Shennan (Revisionist): * Believed that it was caused by long term problems and resentments that were brought to a head by events immediately preceding 1789 * Finance and government were the two most important problems * Involvement in the War of Independence and a series of bad harvests resulted in increases of the price of bread * Conservative social and political order prevented the rich land of France developing as it should, government was starved of income

Simon Schama (quotes included throughout, Conservative but can still be called Revisionist): * Violence was the motor of the revolution

William Doyle (Revisionist, quotes included throughout): * ‘turning point of the Revolution’ was when Louis’s indecisiveness caused him to choose against using force to restore order and reassert power

Peter Mcphee (quotes included throughout, Revisionist): * “Bourgeois revolution had only been secured by the active intervention of the working people of Paris”

Donald Sutherland (I don’t know, this guy looks like one of those random historians that popped up out of no where and it just so happens that his book is in the MGS library… safest bet would be Revisionist): * Refutes what he calls the ‘thesis of circumstances’, that revolutionaries did what they did because of outside forces that urged them to take extraordinary and violent solutions to their problems ie. Domestic counter-revolution, war etc. * Believed that the general people didn’t act on national politics but rather more to solve local problems or local enemies

Gwynne Lewis (Post-Revisionist): * Tried to reach a Post-Revisionist consensus * Points out that the Marxists focus too much on the social and economic aspects, while the Revisionists in political and cultural issues * Dislikes the Revisionists lack of recognizing the social causes

George Rudé –
‘’In a very real sense it may be claimed that the Paris Revolution of July 1789 was the work of a great part of the population as a whole.’

Books used/read / Bibliography * Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution – Simon Schama * The French Revolution: 1789 – 1799 – Peter McPhee * Revolutionary France: 1770-1880 – François Furet * Origins of the French Revolution – William Doyle * The French Revolution – Christopher Hibbert * France in Revolution – Dylan Rees and Duncan Townson * The Crowd in the French Revolution – George Rudé * The French Revolution and Empire: The Quest for a Civic Order – D.M.G Sutherland * The Social Interpretation of the French Revolution – Alfred Cobban * Revolution: France – Jill Fenwick and Judy Anderson * Revolution and Terror in France 1789-1795 – D.G Wright * The Spirit of Change: France in Revolution – Fielding and Morcombe * The Leading Edge: VCE Units 3&4 - Revolutions

French Revolution

AOS 2
Revs Revision Notes – Part II

AOS 2 – French Revolution

Index: 1. BACKGROUND a. The Clubs b. The Players c. The Thesis of Circumstances

2. IMPRISONMENT OF THE MONARCH d. August Decrees e. DOTROMAC f. Fundamental Principles of Government g. October Days

3. REFORMS, CHANGE AND EVENTS DURING IT h. Reforms of the Church i. Fête de la Fédération j. Reforms of the Early Years k. Flight to Varennes l. Champ de Mars Massacre m. Constitution of ‘91 n. Émigrés Laws

4. WAR AND DISILLUSIONMENT BEFORE THE REPUBLIC o. War with Austria and Prussia p. La Patrie en Danger q. Brunswick Manifesto r. Storming of the Tuileries s. September Massacres

5. THE REPUBLIC, EXECUTION AND WAR BEFORE THE TERROR t. Republic u. Louis Capet’s Trial v. War with other Foreign Powers w. Vendée Rebellion

6. BEFORE THE TERROR x. The Institutions of Terror y. Fall of the Girondins z. Assassination of Marat {. Federalist Revolts |. Other Events Before the Terror

7. TERROR }. The Law of Suspects ~. Making of a New France . Trial of Marie Antoinette . Executions and Death . The Law of Frimaire

8. THE FALL OF ROBESPIERRE . Ventôse Decrees . Festival of Supreme Being . Law of 22 Prairial . The Fall

9. THE THERMIDORIANS . The Thermidorian Reaction . The Death of Jacobinism . White Terror . Royalists . Germinal . Prairial . Constitution of Year III . Vendémiaire

10. THE END: THE HISTORIANS . Conglomeration of Ideas . Important Dates . Bibliography . Last words?

Chapter 1 : BACKGROUND

‘People became revolutionary after the Revolution.’ – DMG Sutherland

The Clubs:

Cordeliers Club (Society of the Friends of the Rights of Man): * Founded in April 1790 to ‘prevent the abuse of power and infractions of the rights of man’ which later transformed into more broader ideas: * Direct democracy * Justice for deputies wrongdoings * Right of insurrection * Objection to distinction of citizens (passive and active) * Originally led by Danton, Marat, Desmoulins and Brissot * Generally considered to be ‘more radical’ than the Jacobins as it had no membership fee (my cue card says the fee was 1 livre 4 sous?) and attracted the working radical classes (including sans culottes) * Events that shaped the Cordeliers: * Called for King’s deposition after his flight (June 1791) * Organized demonstration in Champ de Mars (June 17) which resulted in the temporary disbanding of the club * Schism occurred after the fall of Louis XVI (August 1792) and led to Hébert to take lead * Was a large force in overthrowing the Girondins * Dissolved after an unsuccessful insurrection by Hébert (1794)

Jacobin Club (Society of the Friends of the Constitution from 1789-92 and then the Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Liberty and Equality from 1792-4): * Originally the Club Breton in 1789 at the time of the Estates General, this group was later transformed into the Jacobin Club with its main aim to protect the Revolution against any possible counter-revolutionists (aristocrats at the time) * Hated privilege * Supported Republic * Anti-clerical * Maximum (tight controls on economy) * Favoured Centralization * Supported war but allowed concessions to menu peuple * Originally led by Sieyès, Pétion, Lameth, Duport, Barnave and Robespierre * Lameth, Duport and Barnave would move to the Feuillants while Pétion would align himself with the Girondins (1793) * Drew its members from the wealthier sectors, often filled with professionals, as the membership fee was high (24 livres) * Events that shaped the Jacobins: * July 1790 – 1200 members and 152 affiliate clubs * July 1791 – Schism which led to Feuillant club and Robespierre taking control * August 1792 – After overthrow of Louis XVI the Jacobins became one of the driving forces behind the revolution demanding the execution of the King (also changing their name too) * 1793 – During the Terror, the Jacobin clubs became the administrative machinery of the government * After the fall of Robespierre, the Jacobins closed on 27 July 1794 before reopening opposing the Thermidorians but later closed permanently on 11 November 1794

‘The Montagnards had a vision of themselves as pure and virtuous souls surrounded by debauched, self-interested flatterers who wore the mask of patriotism, but who underneath were evil counterrevolutionaries. The only defense was unrelenting suspicion and denunciation.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘For Vergniaud, ‘equality for man as a social being consists solely in the equality of his legal rights… whilst Brissot warned against the’ hydra of anarchy’, castigating Jacobins as ‘disorganizers who wish to level everything: property, leisure, the price of provisions, the various services to be rendered to society.’ – 1793

Girondins (although prior to 1793 they were mostly known as the Brissotins after Jacques Brissot): * Loose group of republicans originally from the départment of Gironde from October 1791, they were: * harsh critics of the court (hated privilege) * federalism * anti-clerical * supported war * helped the constitutional monarchy in times of trouble (not supported) * economic liberalism without government control (wanted to decentralize) * a selection of members opposed Louis XVI’s execution * Originally led by Brissot, Roland, Condorcet and Vergniaud * Pétion joined near March 1793 * They were socially indistinguishable to the Jacobins and it is often disputed about whether they were even a club at all or just a group who wined and dined * Events that shaped the Girondins: * October and November 1791 – Advocated measures against émigrés and refractory priests * End of 1791 – Advocated war * 1792 – Height of power, France declares war on Austria in April * 10 August 1792 – Did not participate in storming of Tuileries, marks the decline of the Girondins * September 1792 – National Convention convened, the Girondins oppose the Montagnards * 1793 – The Girondins are held responsible for the losses in the war * 31 May 1793 – popular uprisings are directed against them and by 2 June, 29 deputies are arrested * 24 October 1793 – Reign of Terror starts to be aimed at the Girondins * 1794 – After the fall of the Montagnards, many Girondins return to the political life

Feuillants (split from the Jacobins): * Founded after the Flight to Varennes (20 June 1791), they disliked the radicalization and feared that it would result in the loss of the monarchy and property * They wanted an end to the revolution * Primarily led by Barnave, Duport and Lameth * They were comprised of members who had the same idea that the revolution should end and wanted to preserve the constitutional monarch * Events that shaped the Feuillants: * March 1792 – The Feuillants are kicked out of the Legislative Assembly by the Girondins * August 1792 – 841 members are listed and are sent to prison to be charged for treason

Monarchiens (a slightly more broad movement rather than a ‘club’): * Established in August 1789 (although the ideas present preceded it) but quickly lost its stand and evaporated at the end of 1789 * Led by Jean-Joseph Mounier, along with Lally-Tollendal and Clermont-Tonerre * Basically “wanted a compromise between the old aristocracy and the new elite, based on an absolute veto for ordinary laws and a bicameral legislature” (Mounier)

‘Their [monarchists] vision was a joint sovereignty of the king and two chambers, breaking with absolutism but uniting with what a monarchy loyal to its origins ought to become.’ - François Furet

Hébertists (named after Jacques Hébert): * Arose somewhere in the year 1792 (probably after the attack in the Tuileries on 10 August 1792) * Led by Jacques Hébert * Supporters of the “Cult of Reason’ (secularism and atheism) and were against Robespierre’s ‘Cult of the Supreme Being’ * Wanted war * Pressured for radical measures to be put into place (Law of Suspects and Law of the Maximum) * Events that shaped the Hébertists: * June 1793 – One of the driving forces behind the fall of the Girondins * 24 March 1794 – Hébertists guillotined

The Players:

Danton – * Trained as a court lawyer (perfected his oratory skills) * Was the President of the Cordeliers Club, elected to the Paris Commune of 1790, member of the National Convention and member of the Committee of Public Safety * Many historians agree that he was one of the driving forces in the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of the Republic * He died at the hands of the revolution he had shaped and influenced -> ‘The Revolution is like Saturn, it devours its own children.’ - Georg Buchner

‘Danton seemed to offer a less bloody image than Robespierre.’ – François Furet ‘According to Alphonse Aulard, Danton did almost everything; according to Albert Mathiez, almost nothing.’ - François Furet

Marat – * Believed in popular violence, executions and having a dictatorship * Writer and editor of his own newspaper L’ami du people ( (The) Friend of the People) * Influence? * Called for the King’s execution after his Flight to Varennes (20 June 1791) * Called for the deputies who caused the Champ de Mars Massacre to be held responsible (17 June 1791) * Rejected the calls for War with Austria (1792) * Encouraged the September Massacres (1792) * Influenced the fall of the Girondins (1793) * Died at the hands of Charlotte Corday (17 July 1793) * Is considered the ‘catalyst’ to the Terror

‘Marat was the personification of the Revolution’s excesses.’ – Peter McPhee

Robespierre – * A man who had no private life and instead delved into public political affairs * Nicknamed ‘The Incorruptible’ because of his principles on integrity and virtue * Influence? * Republican * Advocated the power of the people (General Will) * Attacked the social distinctions between ‘active’ and ‘passive’ citizens * Elected assembly is inviolable (until he had to rely on the sans-culottes, where he changed to supporting popular movements in altering the nation’s development) * Condemned capital punishment (until the Terror) * Was against war (believed that instead France should focus on the enemy from within) * Nation of virtue * Pushed forward the idea that any sacrifice was to be made for political stability * Robespierre had believed that France could survive only if it allied with the sans-culottes and this forced him to make radical economic (Maximum) policies with radical enforcements (death penalty) * Robespierre’s constant paranoia at the ‘enemies’ that lurked at the doors of the Convention brought about his eventual downfall * 26 July 1794 – Robespierre attacks the deputies of the Convention, hinting that there was a widespread conspiracy against liberty but refusing to name anyone * 27 July 1794 – Deputies start attacking Robespierre, not allowing him to speak and arrest him

“Robespierre was one of the half-dozen major prophets of democracy.’ – Palmer
‘However, the French people Robespierre saw in the mirror were not a reflection of himself.’ – Peter McPhee
‘Only an alliance between the bourgeoisie and the people could save the Revolution [Robespierre].’ – François Furet
‘Robespierre is the exact opposite of Mirabeau and the counterpart of Sieyés.’ – François Furet
‘For Robespierre, the bloodiness was abstract, like the political system: the guillotine was fed by his moral preachings.’ – François Furet
‘The coupling of violence and regeneration had occurred early in the Revolution but Robespierre gave it a new and original twist.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘In Robespierre’s mind, revolutionary government aimed at utopia.’ – DMG Sutherland ‘In Robespierre’s mind, both the Indulgents and Hérbertists were the twin heads of the hydra of conspiracy.’ – DMG Sutherland

Thesis of Circumstances: * Term used by many revolutionaries AND historians in their battle to justify the Terror * Basically means that the revolutionaries had to do what they did because ‘outside forces forced them to institute extraordinary and violent solutions to the problems that faced them, namely foreign war and domestic counterrevolution (Sutherland).’ * Furet on the other hand, argues that the ‘internal needs of the revolutionary ideology generated the violence of the Revolution.’

: IMPRISONMENT OF THE MONARCH

‘The one thing the Constituent Assembly was manifestly not was bourgeois… They were all devotees of Reason and Virtue. Above all, they saw themselves as patriots.’ – Simon Schama

The August Decrees:
5-11 August 1789

What? * Decrees on the abolition of the Ancien Régime * Contents: * Feudal Regime abolished ‘in its entirety’ * All feudal rights relating to personal serfdom are abolished while the others will be compensated and any not mentioned will still be collected until it can be compensated * Seigneurial courts abolished * Tithe abolished * Venality abolished * Financial privileges abolished (all taxes will fall on all citizens and lands) * All citizens eligible for offices and dignities

Effect? * Reaffirmed that the Old Regime had gone and liberty, equality and popular sovereignty would replace it * Tithes would not be abolished till 1791 and many dues would still be in effect (harvest dues) * Quelled dissatisfaction in the countryside in the short term but nurtured revolutionary action as these promised actions didn’t happen (immediately)

‘They destroyed aristocratic society from top to bottom, along with its structure of dependencies and privileges…eliminated whatever remained to intra-social powers between the individual and the social body as a whole.’ – François Furet
‘It was this resentment of seigneurialism above all which bonded rural communities together against their lords.’ – Peter McPhee
‘The vacuum of authority caused by the collapse of the Bourbon state was temporarily filled in villages and small towns by popular militia and councils. This seizure of power was accompanied everywhere by generalized refusal of the claims of the state, seigneurs, and Church to the payment of taxes, dues and tithes; moreover, as royal troops openly fraternized with civilians, the judiciary was powerless to enforce the law.’ – Peter McPhee
‘Thus the laws of 11 August established what the property-owning society dreamed of by the monarchy’s enlightened reformers in the eighteenth century.’ – François Furet
‘As peasant rebellions were an essential context for anti-feudal legislation, anti-feudal legislation was an essential context for peasant action.’ – John Markoff

DOTROMAC:
26 August 1789 – Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen

What? * Intended function was to be the preamble before the actual Constitution was established * Prepared and proposed by Lafayette * Heavily influenced by the Enlightenment, American Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights (England) * Contents: * ‘social distinctions may be based only upon general usefulness’ * ‘The principle of any sovereignty resides essentially in the Nation. No body, no individual can exert authority which does not emanate expressly from it.’ * All citizens are equal and are equally admissible ‘to all public dignities, places, and employments… without distinction other than that of their virtues and of their talents.’ – refutes the nobility * liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression granted * Law to be established by ‘General Will’ * Guaranties that people who represent that nation are there for the ‘advantage of all and not for the personal benefit of those to whom it is entrusted’ * Calls for a new general tax that ‘ought to be equally apportioned among all citizens according to their means’ * Brought forward the ‘innocent until proven guilty’ (presumption of innocence), disallowing torture before trial * Freedom of speech, press, * and religion to some extent (does not trouble the public order established by the law) * Property is ‘an inviolable and sacred right’ and can only be taken away through ‘public necessity’ * However it does not address: * Rights of slaves * Rights of women * Freedom of assembly

Effect? * Introduced the end of absolutism (not the Monarchy) and the introduction of a new representative body * Outlined the principles of the new society with which it is now based upon * Preamble to the 1791 Constitution

‘The August Decrees and the D.O.T.R.O.M.A.C represented the end of the absolutist, seigneurial, and corporate structure of eighteenth-century France… a revolutionary proclamation of the principles of a new golden age… most powerful statements of liberalism and representative government.’ – Peter McPhee
‘The revolutionaries’ declaration of the principles of the new regime presupposed that every aspect of public life would be reshaped.’ – Peter McPhee
‘The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, was intended to be an educational device to enhance the nation’s love of liberty and a statement of principles against which the institutions and performance of government could be measured.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen and August 4 are what made the French Revolution revolutionary.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘The declaration had become the founding document of the Revolution and, as such, sacrosanct.’ – William Doyle

Fundamental Principles of Government:
1 October 1789 – Fundamental Principles of Government presented

What? * ‘All powers emanate from the nation’ * French Government is monarchial and there is no authority above the law, not even the King * The King is sacred and inviolable * Legislative power is in the National Assembly * Law can only become one if it is made by representatives of the nation and sanctioned by the King

Effect? * Reaffirmed that the King was no longer the supreme power * The National Assembly now had legislative power and could control the nation’s finances * Although the King could choose his ministers, they were not part of the Assembly and he could not propose laws (only make matters for consideration) * Judicial system was now totally split from the executive and legislative powers

October Days:
2 October 1789 – Flanders Regiment arrive in Versailles * Dussaulx makes declaration that the king must be brought to Paris, if need be by violence, in order to break the deadlock at the end of August

What? * The Flanders Regiment arrives in Versailles and a banquet is held for them at night * It was said that the drunken soldiers spurted Royalist sentiments and calls for the overthrow of the Revolution * Red and Blue cockades were thrown to the ground and trampled upon while White cockades were distributed

Effect? * Anger at the soldiers who insulted the Revolution * Gave the question of why the people of Versailles could feast and the people of Paris were left in hunger * Directly attributed to the Women’s March to Versailles

‘Though Barnave and his colleagues were prepared to compromise on the basis of a ‘suspensive’ veto, the Court, supported by the ‘moderates’ in the Assembly, had decided to break the deadlock by a new display of force. The Flanders Regiment was summoned to cope with possible disorders. It had the effect of driving the ‘patriots’ to resort to extreme measures and to rouse to a higher pitch the revolutionary movement in the capital. What finally decided the ‘patriots’ to act was the display of royalist arrogance.’ – George Rudé
‘In this dangerous situation, amid so many menaces, Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette provided the rioters with a cause (the Flanders banquet).’ – François Furet

5 October – The Women’s March to Versailles

What? * Originally fishwives, a crowd of over 6,000 women and men pretending to be women march over the Versailles handing out pamphlets with the title ‘When Will We Have Bread?’ * Lafayette and his guard follow them in an attempt to gain control (but arrive a few hours after) * A deputation of 20 women meet Louis XVI where he gave them reassurance * Louis agrees with Lafayette and the Commune delegates to ratify the August Decrees and the DOTROMAC but refrains from accepting to return to Paris * At about 2am in the morning, the women storm the palace, demanding the King return to Paris and murder numerous guards * Antoinette was brought out to the balcony with Lafayette while he kissed her on the hand – peace was restored (Huh? Well I guess there was some sort of women to woman connection) * Louis XVI agrees to go to Paris and does so the next day escorted by the National Guard followed by his ministers and deputies, then the Flanders regiment and household guards escorting wagons of grain and flour * The royal family is put into the Tuileries * Gui Target suggested the next day that the title of Louis XVI be changed to The ‘King of the French’ instead of ‘King of France and Navarre’

Effect? * Altered the balance of power * The royal family now became prisoners * The deputies also, as the people now believed that they had once more saved the Revolution * It can be said that the three powers of France were now: * The King * The Assembly * The people (menu peuple)

21 October 1789 – Declaration of Martial Law * First indication by deputies to end the revolution * Directly caused by the March to Versailles

‘The march to Versailles on 5 October, by ending in the king’s return to the capital, completed the Paris revolution of July. As long as court and king remained at Versailles and an active minority of deputies were able, in alliance with the court, to frustrate the constitutional program of the Assembly, effective power still remained divided between the revolutionary bourgeois (supported by the minority of liberal aristocrats) and the adherents of the old régime.’ – George Rudé
‘The October insurrection was to consolidate these gains.’ - George Rudé
‘The constitutional monarchists, who were clearly the immediate beneficiaries of the insurrection…’ – George Rudé
‘Bourgeoisie and peuple acted together in a common cause, the former were actuated solely by the desire to defeat the plots of the aristocracy, whereas the latter, while sharing this desire, were equally concerned with the scarcity of bread.’ – George Rudé
‘But the majority in the Assembly, having driven out the ‘moderates’ and established itself in the capital, had no further use for the insurrectionary energies of the menu peuple: these had served their purpose.’ – George Rudé
‘[October 5] In this event, more than in any other similar event in the Revolution, women played the leading part and held the centre stage throughout.’ – George Rudé
‘The key decrees sanctioned and the court party in disarray, the Revolution’s triumph seemed assured; to signify the magnitude of what they had achieved, people now began to refer to the ancien régime [after October Days].’ – Peter McPhee
‘As in July, it was the king’s defeat [return to Paris] which won him the people’s acclaim.’ – François Furet
‘Those two October days, as decisive as 14 July, marked the end of the sunlike solitude which Louis XVI had revealed his royal omnipotence to his subjects, the people.’ – François Furet
‘Unlike July, when the Parisian’s actions had been essentially defensive, the October Days represented the first and hardly the last occasion when direct Parisian intervention decisively affected national politics.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘The king’s part to resist the reform of France now came to an end.’ – William Doyle

: REFORMS, CHANGE AND EVENTS DURING IT

‘Those who moved to fill the power vacuum left by the collapse of the ancien régime and those who were among the major initial beneficiaries of the Revolution were bourgeois.’ – Peter McPhee
‘This huge effort [bombardment of the Constituent Assembly with petitions] devoured much of the provincial energy from the end of 1789 until early 1791 and beyond.’ –DMG Sutherland
‘In 1790, the French Revolution had achieved its goal. It had defeated despotism and it ha defeated privilege. This rupture was also definitive. A return to the Old Regime was simply out of the question.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘Monarchy as an institution in people’s minds could be eradicated only after the immense provocations that occurred after 1789, not before.’ – Donald Sutherland
‘With the momentous exception of the expropriation of the Church, between 1789 and 1792 the revolution produced no significant transfer of social power.’ – Simon Schama

Reforms of the Church:
2 November 1789 – Church property confiscated (called biens nationaux) by the nation and sold

‘All the beneficiaries [the buyers of biens nationaux], both large and small, were henceforth united, equally irreconcilable to the ancien régime.’ – François Furet

December 1789 – Protestants given civil rights

13 February 1790 – Monastic vows forbidden and religious orders were dissolved except those involved with teaching or charity

19 April 1790 – ALL property of the Church was transferred to state ownership and the clergy were now to be paid by the state

* Church had their financial and spiritual authority removed * Sale of church lands to: * Provide money * Guarantee support form those who bought the land * Hoped clergy would support it as their salaries depending upon it * Main beneficiaries were bourgeois

12 July 1790 – Civil Constitution of the Clergy

What? * There were now to be 83 bishops for each department (reduced from the original 135) * Bishops and priests were now to be elected * electors didn’t have to be Catholic though which meant that Protestants and Jews could vote for Catholic priests and bishops…irony * Authority was transferred from the Pope to the nation * Pope had no say in the appointment of his clergy * Bishops had to take an oath upon entering office, * ‘to guard with care the faithful of his diocese who are confided to him, to be loyal to the nation, the law, and the king, and to support with all his power the constitution decreed by the National Assembly and accepted by the king’

Effect? * Challenged most basic beliefs of the Catholic Church * Made the Church (organization) reflect that of the State * Pope was no longer the ‘head’, the state was * Created division among the clergy and citizens

‘Challenged the fundamental basis of community life; Paris, which was the heart of both social and religious life.’ – Timothy Tackett
‘Throughout rural France, however, the parish clergy were at the heart of the community; as a source of spiritual comfort and inspiration.’ – Peter McPhee
‘The Festival of Federation celebrated the unity of Church, monarchy and Revolution. Two days earlier, the Assembly had voted a reform which was to shatter all three [C.C.C].’ – Peter McPhee
‘The church was the greatest partner of the absolute monarchy, but for that reason, it was inevitably wounded in the destruction of the Ancien régime.’ – François Furet
‘The Civil Constitution of the Clergy marked the point at which the Revolution and the Church went their separate ways to become merciless adversaries.’ – François Furet
‘Once the effect of surprise had worn off, the firm and deep-rooted adherence of Catholic opinion had mean that the Civil Constitution of the Clergy would not withstand the test of time.’ – François Furet
‘The religious element was immediately transformed into a political problem.’ – François Furet
‘The government would no support ‘useless’ religious orders and ‘superfluous dioceses.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘The Civil Constitution of the Clergy gave the counterrevolution a popular base.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘The constitutional church became the church of the regime.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘The Civil Constitution split the ideal community and people dreamed of the day they could invert the existing order of things and expel the local republicans who had illegitimately imposed themselves.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘For the Church it represented the final subordination to profane authority… the Civil Constitution was not simply another piece of institutional legislation. It was the beginning of a holy war.’ – Simon Schama
‘The French revolution had many turning points; but the oath of the clergy was, if not the greatest, unquestionably one of them.’ – William Doyle

27 November 1790 – The Clerical Oath

What? * Prohibited absenteeism * Forced clergy to take the Oath or be deprived of salary, citizenship and office as a priest * Although any priest could not take the oath and retire from his duties * Any citizen who opposed the decree would be ‘pursued and punished for having disrupted public peace’

Effect? * Alienated loyal Catholics * Increased the gap between those who were loyal Catholics and those loyal to the State * Only seven bishops chose to take the oath while only 54% of the lower clergy took the oath and 36% chose not to * Created the distinction between refractory, non-juring priests and the juring, constitutional priests

‘It was clear that the refusal to take the oath was the first sign of popular resistance to the Revolution… the religious element was immediately transformed into a political issue because both the monarchy and the Revolution had turned the Catholic Church into an auxiliary of the state.’ – François Furet
‘The French Revolution had many turning points; but the oath of the clergy was, if not the greatest, unquestionably one of them. It forced the citizens to choose; to declare themselves publicly for or against the new order.’ – William Doyle
‘…crossed the narrow line separating spiritual and temporal life.’ – Peter McPhee
‘The refractory clergy saw themselves a servants of God, while the constitutional clergy saw themselves as servants of the people.’ – Peter McPhee
‘In rural France, the oath became a test of popular acceptance of the Revolution as a whole.’ – Peter McPhee
‘By uprooting the Catholic Church from society, depriving it of its stability and possessions, it had violently separated French democracy from Catholic tradition.’ – François Furet
‘This proved to be both the signal and the start of the schism [decree of 27 November].’ – François Furet
‘Many deputies shared the Voltairean assumption that without religion, the popular classes would have no morals.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘The map of oath-taking and refusals is also the map of popular attitudes to the Revolution.’ – DMG Sutherland

13 April 1791 – Papal Bull Charitas * Pope’s order to Catholics not to compromise with the state * Deepened the need to make a choice between religion and state

7 May 1791 – Permission given to refractory priests to officiate in their churches

‘[The decree of 7 May to allow refractory priests to celebrate mass in constitutional churches] froze the situation rather than sought to find a remedy for it.’ – François Furet
‘The refractories’ presence rendered the ecclesiastical settlement unworkable.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘For the men, religion was a pretext to carry on battles with rival groups that had begun years before.’ – DMG Sutherland

September 1791 – Civil Rights extended to Jews

‘Before mid-1790, the ancien régime had no popular banner. The religious affair provided them with one.’ – François Furet

Fête de la Fédération:
14 July 1790 – Festival of the Federation

* Days before, masses of people join in an effort to dig and construct the Champ de Mars ready for the festival (including Louis XVI) * On the day, in atrocious weather, 400,000 pack the Champ de Mars to celebrate * The King and Queen were loved by the cheering crowds * Lafayette became a true hero with his oath that was inaudible but nevertheless cheered upon * In the countryside: * Public meetings were held * Speeches were made * ‘tableux vivants’ were made (living pictures of the events in the Revolution) * Oaths were taken * Trees were planted

‘…a coming together of individual wills in a fresh sense of community. ‘ – Simon Schama
‘The Feast of the Federation which was observed in every commune as well as in Paris, was a celebration of that consensus.’ – William Doyle

Reforms of the Early Years:

‘The National Assembly had to address the urgent necessity of fundamental reform in three major areas: fiscal reforms to implement the Assembly’s commitment to the principle of uniform, proportional taxation; administrative reform to establish the practice of popular sovereignty within reformed institutional structures; and measures to resolve the ambiguities concerning feudalism within the August legislation.’ – Peter McPhee
‘Patriots increasingly referred to themselves as ‘democrats’.’ – Peter McPhee
‘The Constituent Assembly had destroyed corporate society and instituted civil equality in the old kingdom. It had not settled the questions of its government.’ – François Furet
‘Ultimately, this perpetual pull [between clubs] was to make the Revolution completely unworkable for it opposed impossible demands of political purity to the working needs of the state… It was the first time that a generation of revolutionary politicians had discovered the depressing dilemma that, in this sense, revolutionary liberty enacted revolutionary terror.’ – Simon Schama
‘Most of the reforms carried out or sanctioned by the Constituent Assembly were the product of the revolutionary process itself.’ – William Doyle

Local Government: * Aim? * To decentralize power from Paris to local authorities * To build a coherent structure * Democracy on all levels * Reason? * To make it more difficult for the king to recover power * Decrees of December 1789 and February 1790 establish 83 departments, 547 districts and 43,360 communes * Communes grouped into cantons where primary assemblies for elections were held along with courts * All administrative divisions apart from cantons were run by an elected council

‘Classic ground for this tension between philosophical abstractions and political realities was the redivision of national territory [the departments].’ – François Furet
‘Revolutionary France could not be, at the same time, a rejuvenated great power and a confederation of forth thousand elected communes.’ – Simon Schama

21 May 1790 – Paris divided into 48 Sections

Voting: * Deputies had not intended for people who held a role in popular protests to have one in the government * December 1789 – Active citizens * ‘Men’ over 25 with 3 days worth of labor in taxes could vote (4.3 million) * Elected: 10 days labor in taxes (50,000 could elect in cantons and department and could run there) * Mare d’argent (silver mark) – 54 days labor in taxes – could run for NA * Weighted in favor of the wealthy (even if 61% could have a say) * Although it was called a ‘Administrative Revolution’ * Peasants could now vote + run for office * Government officials ceased to exist and were replaced by elected councils

Control of new councils: * France’s south = bourgeois landowners * France’s north = laboureurs, small merchants and artisans * There was a large burden on the communes: * Tax * Law and order * Public works etc.

‘The seeds of later southern misgivings about the Revolution were sown in the domination of the Assembly from the outset by men from the north.’ – Peter McPhee
‘The creation of this new map of France was the work of urban elites with a distinctive vision of spatial organization and institutional hierarchy, it was designed to give reality in two of their keywords: to ‘regenerate’ the nation while cementing its ‘unity’.’ – Peter McPhee
‘The Abbé Grégoire’s inquiry of 1790 was sobering for the legislators who wrongly assumed that a facility in French was indispensable to be a patriot.’ – Peter McPhee

Tax and Finance:

* Problem: * Tax system could not be set up without considerable planning, but France needed money fast * Solution: * Use existing system of direct and indirect taxes until 1791 * Very unpopular * April 1790 – Paper money (assignats) to buy land

Reforming the Tax System: * Assembly abolished: * March 1790 – Gabelle abolished (along with all other indirect taxes except external customs tax within the year) * State monopoly on tobacco * Old direct taxes (taille, capitation and vingtième) * Tax farming * January 1791 – New financial system with 3 new taxes: * Contribution foncieré – land tax on all subjects * Contribution mobilière – movable goods like grain * Patente – commercial profits * Citizens to pay according to their ability * Problems: * No systematic valuation of land * Tax rolls base on Ancien Régime created regional variations * However: * Benefited poor as burden of taxation fell on producers not consumers * No more exceptions of privilege (fair)

‘For peasants, however, the 15-20 percent increase in state taxes was more than offset by the ending of tithes and ultimately, of seigneurial dues.’ – Peter McPhee
‘It now found itself [the nation] the proprietor of all those non-suppressed seigneurial dues belonging to former ecclesiastical seigneurs.’ – Peter McPhee
‘[The assignat] would be the Revolution’s great financial instrument.’ – François Furet
‘The Revolution had provided itself with a tremendous political instrument [assignat] to involve both bourgeois and peasants in its future, by the same act through which it ran the risk of ultimately alienating a large part of the Catholic population.’ – François Furet

Economic Reforms: * Why? * Social structures and internal barriers were viewed as inhibiting economic development * Laissez-faire * August 1789 – Free trade on grain and price control was abolished (extended to other products over the next two years) * Except the people wanted more control to prevent scarcity, high prices and starvation * October 1790 – Internal tariffs abolished, national market was created with a uniform set of weights and measures * Employer/worker relation: * Deputies determined to destroy organizations which had special privilege and restrictions regarding employment * 14 June 1791 – Trade Unions, employers organizations, collective bargaining, picketing and strikes abolished (Le Chapelier Law) * Poor and needy: * Church was relinquished from this function after 19 April 1790 * Committee was made in 1791 to aid the poor, except lack of money made it useless * Over 2 million in France could only support themselves by begging

‘[Cordeliers Club on 28 June] it justified the eventual closure of the ateliers in the interest of public security, while begging for a postponement. [letter by Desmoulins on 3 July] it demanded subsistence as a citizen’s right and suggested that the workshops be maintained from a portion of the profits accruing from the sale of Church lands].’ – George Rudé

Legal System: * 16 August 1790 – Judicial system reformed: * Uniform system of laws for North and South of France * Different types of law court abolished * Lettres de cachet abolished * Serious cases dealt in district courts * Jury for criminal courts in each department * Court of Appeal to be at the top * Judges to be elected (has to be a lawyer with 5 years experience) * Torture and mutilation abolished * March 1792 – Guillotine introduced

‘The radical decentralization of power created a situation where revolutionary legislation from Paris was interpreted and adapted to local needs.’ – Peter McPhee

Flight to Varennes:

28 February 1791 – Day of Daggers * Lafayette arrests 400 armed aristocrats that amassed to protect the monarchy outside the Tuileries * Was seen as an attempt to aid the family to escape

‘It was indeed the turning point of the French Revolution – the moment at which, less than two years after the opening of the Estates General, it licensed itself as a police state.’ – Simon Schama

18 April 1791 – Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette are prevented from going to Saint-Cloud for Easter by mobs (they were going to a refractory priest)
20 June 1791 – The royal family leaves Paris for Montmédy
21 June 1791 – The royal family is found at Varennes and taken back to Paris
25 June 1791 – The King is suspended

Why? * Louis XVI wanted to go to the fortress town of Montmédy where he would be in a position of power to negotiate terms, start a counter-revolution or enlist the help of foreign powers * Reasons why Louis XVI chose to do this is outlined in his memorandum that he left behind: * ‘today, when his sole recompense for so many sacrifices consists of seeing the monarchy destroyed, all powers disregarded, property violated, personal security everywhere endangered, crimes unpunished and total anarchy taking the place of law… the new Constitution is insufficient to repair a single one of the ills afflicting the kingdom.’ * ‘should cause our holy religion to be respected, the government to be established on a firm foundation and made useful by its functioning’

Effect? * Monarchy was doomed and never again had influence on affairs of France * 1791 Constitution obsolete before it was in motion * Assembly assumed full control of the government * Led to the ‘men of 89’’s downfall as they defended the King and were seen as monarchists and traitors (along with any sympathizers) * Led to the intervention of Austria and Prussia * Eroded the faith in the monarchy

15 July 1791 – Assembly declares that the King and his family had been kidnapped Decree Determining Abdication released: * The suspension of the King will hold until the Constitution is completed * Louis was ‘neither a constitutional monarchy nor a prisoner of the revolution but rather was held in his position by a fiction that no-one believed’ – Fenwick and Anderson

‘Louis had therefore become a symbol of stability [before the Flight] against the increasingly radical demands of ‘passive’ citizens and their supporters.’ – Peter McPhee
‘In reality [by writing a solemn declaration of his hostility towards the Revolution] Louis XVI made his own contribution to the death of the monarchy in public opinion,’ – François Furet
‘Louis XVI started to die on 21 June 1791. For his flight tore away the veil of that false constitutional monarchy and once more confronted the Patriot party with the whole problem of the Revolution’s future.’ – François Furet
‘The flight to Varennes would be a further step in defining issues and into propelling the anti-revolution into the counter revolution.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘The collapse of the post-Varennes settlement nudged the anti-revolution into the counterrevolution and led to the overthrow of the monarchy itself.’ – DMG Sutherland

Champ de Mars Massacre:
16 July 1791 – Champs de Mars Massacre

What? * Demonstration by about 50,000 people who signed a petition laid out on an alter (the same one from the Fête de la Fédération) which demanded Louis’ abdication * Organized by the Cordeliers and supported by the Jacobins (also the time when the Jacobins split into the Feuillants) * Martial Law was declared from fears of riot and about fifty demonstrators were killed with twelve injured (carried out by Lafayette)

Effect? * The established order had finally won against the popular crowds (sans culottes) * Martial Law was continued and newspapers that supported the sans-culottes were closed * Marked the division of power as the moderate deputies would later succumb to the growing demands of the sans-culottes

‘In Paris it [Champs de Mars Massacres] led directly to the eclipse of Bailly and Lafayette as the leaders of the city administrators; yet, in the National Assembly, the defeat of the ‘constitutionalists’ was delayed by the outbreak of war and was not completed until the fall of the monarchy in August 1792.’ – George Rudé
‘The petitioners and demonstrators of 17 July were typical of the menu peuple- tradesmen.’ – George Rudé
‘The Champ de Mars demonstration, on the other hand, although widely supported by the menu peuple in a majority of the Paris Sections, was, in many respects, the most purely political of the great Parisian journées.’ – George Rudé
‘[Sans culottes after Champ de Mars]With the split in the revolutionary bourgeoisie and the determined attempts of the democrats and Republicans to win a firm basis of support among the people, they are beginning to play a more independent part: not only are they voicing the particular program of the more radical section of the bourgeoisie, but they are beginning, however hesitatingly, to express their own social grievances in a political form.’ – George Rudé
‘For the first time, it was the result of open political conflict [Champ de Mars] within the Parisian Third Estate which had acted so decisively in 1789. The king’s flight and the Assembly’s response had divided the country.’ – Peter McPhee
‘In contrast with 1791, but as in 1789, it would be the street mobs who would deliver judgment: it was a sign of the times. The repression of July 1791 had merely been an isolated episode.’ – François Furet
‘It was a fragile victory [Champ de Mars] because it was so unstable. Because Louis XVI continued to play a double game, the arrangement was bound to collapse.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘Although the petitions at the Champ de mars were strictly political, the context in which they were signed indicated that the change to the ‘new executive power’ might have social consequences.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘In terms of principle, the conflict [between the Assembly and Communes] was one between representative theories of government and doctrines of direct democracy.’ – DMG Sutherland

Constitution of ’91:
13-14 September 1791 – Louis XVI officially accepts the Constitution

What? * To replace the Absolute Monarchy with a Constitutional one * Set the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly and paved the way for the Legislative Assembly * Comprised of 745 members with elections held every two years * Self-denying ordinance by Robespierre, no one in the Constituent Assembly could sit in the Legislative * The Assembly became filled with inexperienced deputies * Suspensive veto for Louis XVI * Right to appoint ministers and military commanders * Dependant on Assembly for foreign policy and declaration of war * Louis XVI was subject to the Assembly and its laws, even if his title was hereditary

Effect? * Louis XVI was no longer the absolute monarch (in a legal aspect) * Demands for removing Louis XVI were softened as the Constitution already made an alternative

‘From mid-1791 active democrats among the menu peuple commonly became known by this new term sans-culottes…It was at this time, too, that the use of ‘citizen’ and ‘citizeness’ became a mark of patriotic zeal.’ – Peter McPhee
‘The veto was a right given to the head of the executive to verify that representatives were faithful to the general will.’ – François Furet
‘The Revolution had avoided the risk of the atomization of individuals in society by reinventing a sovereignty as indivisible and inalienable as that of the former king; but even more powerful since it had nothing –not even God- above it.’ – François Furet
‘The veto left only force to resolve the emergency.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘The electoral system conferred the vote on a very substantial proportion of the population, but attempted to mitigate the ‘democratic’ element through a system of indirect elections…this was not in any sense a federalist system.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘If the Constitution was crumbling from below, so also did it also crumble from the top.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘The essence of the constitution was to keep the executive weak… despotism must have no opportunity ever to revive in France.’ – William Doyle

Émigrés Laws:

9 November 1791 – All émigrés ordered to return to France or be sentenced as a traitor and to death

Why? * Showed of fears that the émigrés were surrounding France and preparing to attack to restore the monarchy

: WAR AND DISILLUSIONMENT BEFORE THE REPUBLIC

War with Austria and Prussia:

27 August 1791 – Declaration of Pillnitz

What? * Declaration by Austria and Prussia that deemed the situation in France ‘an interest’ to all Foreign Powers as they hoped to restore the French crown with force if necessary * The catch was that all other major European powers had to go to war with France as well, except William Pitt from Great Britain already stated that he didn’t support war with France

Effect? * Although being intended as a ‘warning’ it was taken as a direct threat by France and lead to calls for war

‘[Declaration of Pillnitz] both served to unite the forces of counter-revolution at home and abroad by giving them a program, and provided the new Left within the Assembly, centered around Brissot and the deputies of the Gironde, with the necessary pretext to prepare the nation for an offensive crusade against the crowned heads of Europe.’ – George Rudé
‘The war marks one of the major turning points of the revolutionary period, influencing the internal history of France for twenty three years. It immediately raised the hopes and stakes of the counter-revolution.’ – Peter McPhee
‘The Constituent Assembly wanted to put an end to the Revolution: it had provided counter-revolution with its officers and troops.’ – François Furet

7 February 1792 – Austria and Prussia form an alliance
20 April 1792 - France goes to war with Austria (and Prussia)
Why?
* The royal family wanted war to restore the monarchy (either by taking hold of the military or foreign intervention) as they knew that France’s military was weak * Lafayette wanted to strengthen the authority of the King by being a General in the war and raising his prestige which would allow him to dictate terms to the King and Assembly * Brissotins (Girondins) wanted war to reveal where the King’s true sympathies lie and to seek out traitors * Robespierre and his followers opposed war with foreign powers and instead advocated an internal war as the real threat came from within * General paranoia from fears of plotters from Austria and foreigners * Pressure from Swiss and Dutch (Allobrogians and Batarians) to liberate their own respective homefront

Effect? * Immediate losses * Half of the 12,000 officers had emigrated * Desertion and revolutionary propaganda destroyed discipline (soldiers though officers were traitors) * Poorly trained and equipped * Created a situation of fear in France that lead to radical events and reforms

‘This state of revolutionary elation was further stimulated by military defeat, the effects of inflation, and the growing conviction that the court guided by the parti autrichien, was using the war to inveigle the enemy into destroying the Revolution by military force’ – George Rudé
‘The war revitalized the popular revolution; after the call for citizens to volunteer to fight at a time of worsening inflation, the political and social demands of working people became insistent and harder to deny.’ – Peter McPhee
‘In the march towards war, there was no technical calculations or territorial ambition on the French side; none of that Machiavellian and princely rationality, those diplomatic or military calculations which typified war under the ancien régime; no evaluation of chances and risks.’ – François Furet ‘From that date on [initiation of war], Parisian and more generally urban popular riots would find a new catalyst – defeat.’ – François Furet
‘It was war of a different kind, no longer for territory of commercial advantage, but for the defence of liberty which would not only undermined the Old Regime in Europe but the Constitution as well.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘In a phenomenon that became deplorably common later, some interpreted the failure to win an all out victory as treason.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘Before the national mobilization, property franchises and the Constitution itself were crumbling.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘When things went badly, the war had been the pretext for dictatorship. When it went well, it remained invisible from the Revolution.’ – François Furet
‘From the very outset, there had been a strain of nervous defiance in revolutionary utterance which often transformed itself at the popular level into paranoia.’ – Simon Schama
‘The course of war was destined to end only with the Revolution itself.’ – William Doyle

La Patrie en Danger:

20 June 1792 – Artisans and poor sections storm the Tuileries (NOT The Storming of the Tuileries)

What? * Artisans and people from the poorer sections were to plant a liberty tree at the Tuileries to protest and have a ritualized flag of conquest * They instead chose to storm the Tuileries and demand the King to drop his vetoes and restore the Brissotin/Girondin ministry * Louis XVI answers their questions, although still refusing to drop his veto, puts on a red cap and drinks to the health of the people of France * The crowds, content with Louis’ patriotism disperse in the evening

‘There were other, even more tangible, grounds for discontent and disquiet: the succession of military defeats; the King’s refusal to assent to the law providing for banishment of non-juring priests; and now, on 13 June, the dismissal of the ‘patriot’-Girondin-ministers whom he had been compelled, much against his will, to include in Dumouriez’s war government. This last act provided the pretext for the demonstrations of 20 June.’ – George Rudé
‘While the counter revolution could now also aim to be fighting a holy crusade to restore religion, inside France the war made the position of non-juring clergy intolerable.’ – Peter McPhee
‘This idea [of a new nation], which was the fount of revolutionary hatred for the aristocracy and the secret of its violence, would find a sort of natural confirmation in war.’ – François Furet
‘It was equally clear that with the humiliation of 20 June the last vestiges of the royal aura had been stripped away.’ – Simon Schama
‘While they could justify an attack on the clubs and sections, they could equally be used by those same elements to overthrow the government and assembly.’ – Simon Schama

5 July 1792 – The Assembly declares that ‘la patrie en danger’ (the fatherland is in danger)

What? * Call for citizens to sacrifice themselves for the defense * 1 August 1792 – Pikes distributed to citizens

Effect? * Fédérés enter Paris and rule the streets * The royal family and all who opposed the Revolution were now threatened * The Assembly could do nothing and this strengthened the sans-culottes * By the 13th public opinion had swung towards the radical leaders

‘The records of the formation of these battalions [volunteers] are eloquent testimony to the revolutionary change wrought in political culture.’ – Peter McPhee

Brunswick Manifesto:

25 July 1792 – Duke of Brunswick issues the Brunswick Manifesto

What? * ‘Rigors of war’ from Prussia to all resistors * Demanded Louis’ freedom and a if he wasn’t ‘at full liberty’, then all who were responsible for the Revolution would be ‘punished by military law’ * Issued as the King’s ministry was bereft of power and authority, the Assembly was at a fraction of its strength with no power, and the National Guard was divided and weakened

Effect? * Opposite effect to its intention as it proved to the masses that Louis XVI was helping to bring about the Revolution’s downfall * 16 August – Prussia moves into France * 19 August – Austrians move into France * 30 August - Longwy fortress surrenders in Verdun, 40 miles from Paris * Created fear and anger which caused the events of 10 August

‘As a declaration of war on an entire city [Paris] this was unprecedented, but far from intimidating the sections, it only made them bolder… as proof that the King was the centre of a vast conspiracy linking foreign tyrants, émigrés, counterrevolutionary generals and corrupt politicians.’ – D.M.G Sutherland
‘Threatened the Parisian Sections and National Guard with summary vengeance… [links back to ‘August Revolution’]’ – George Rudé
‘News of these threats, which reached Paris on 28 July, prompted the Assembly to authorize distribution of arms to all citizens, active or otherwise, and to declare all defenders of the country active. Thus the National Guard was opened to all, swamping the cautious men of property who had hitherto dominated its Parisian units. And one by one, the sections began to petition openly for the king’s immediate deposition.’ – William Doyle
‘As always the ‘day’ had benefited from an involuntary contribution from the foe: that was the Duke of Brunswick’s manifesto.’ – François Furet
‘The Brunswick Manifesto in effect told the Parisians and their provincial supporters among the fedéres that they had already committed acts for which they would be unsparingly punished; they had nothing to lose by going the whole distance.’ – Simon Schama
‘By the summer of 1792, the stakes being fought for in France and Western Europe were so high that a thorough purge of their enemies seemed to both sides the only way to secure or overturn the Revolution.’ – Peter McPhee
‘As a declaration of war on an entire city [Brunswick Manifesto] was unprecedented, but far from intimidating the sections, it made them bolder.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘The Brunswick Manifesto in effect told the Parisians and their provincial supporters among the fedéres that they had already committed acts for which they would be unsparingly punished; they had nothing to lose by going the whole distance.’ – Simon Schama

Storming of the Tuileries:

9 August 1792 – Revolutionary/Insurrectionary Commune established, lead by the 48 sections of Paris and to take control of the National Guard and fédéré soldiers

10 August 1792 – On the orders of the Commune, 20,000 sans-culottes along with the National Guard and fédéré soldiers storm the Tuileries

What? * The crowd rushes into the Tuileries and massacre 500 Swiss guards * The royal family had fled to the Assembly for shelter

Effect? * Louis XVI could no longer be a constitutional monarch if this violence was to occur * The Assembly had no power anymore and instead the Commune held it * Louis XVI is arrested and suspended from being King * The Feuillants and constitutional monarchists hide or are arrested, the Assembly us now dominated by 300 or so Brissotins/Girondins * 11 August 1792 – Legislative Assembly to be dissolved on 19 September and to pave the way for a National Convention based on universal male suffrage * 13 August – Assembly demands the Commune to dissolve but backs down after being accused of reversing the Revolution * 17 August – Tribunal for criminals of 10 August set up, over 1000 taken into custody between now and early September * 23 August – Refractory Priests ordered to leave France in seven days * 25 August – Seigneurialism finally abolished, lands of émigrés to be sold, divorce law passed

‘In this sense, then, the August Revolution, far from being the logical outcome of a consistently conceived and conducted plan of operations, was an act of self-defence against dangers, both real and imagined.’ – George Rudé
‘His [Louis’] downfall was also caused by the intransigence of most nobles and the logic of popular politicization at a time of dramatic change and crisis. The declaration of war, and subsequent military defeats had made his position impossible.’ – Peter McPhee
‘By overthrowing the monarchy, the popular movement had effectively issued the ultimate challenge to the whole of Europe; internally, the declaration of war and overthrow of the monarchy radicalized the Revolution.’ – Peter McPhee
‘Similarly, by assuming the distinctive long-term tenancies of the west to be only one more form of rental agreement, revolutionary governments made the rural middle class more vulnerable rather than recognizing them as de facto landowners.’ – Peter McPhee
‘Royalty, the stake in the battle, could not survive the victory of the people.’ – François Furet ‘The Constituent Assembly was broadly republican – it was the core of its nature: after 10 August the Revolution tended to disappear as a means of instituting a new order through the law; it existed increasingly as an end in itself.’ – François Furet
’10 August completed the great measures of 1789 and hastened seigneurial dispossession.’ – François Furet
‘The termination of fiscal privilege did not bring the solace that people expected. In fact, the principle of equality of taxation meant that the formerly un-privileged had to pay more.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘It was the most bloody journée of the Revolution [10 August].’ – DMG Sutherland
‘The peasantry destroyed the feudal regime, but consolidated the agrarian structure of France.’ – Georges Lefebvre
‘The law that abolished feudalism outright without compensation irrespective of titles was scarcely relevant to the peasants, although it did give legal recognition to existing practice.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘From 1789, perhaps even before that, it had been the willingness of politicians to exploit either the threat or the fact of violence that had given them the power to challenge constituted authority. Bloodshed was not the unfortunate by product of revolution, it was the source of energy.’ – Simon Schama
‘Power lay not with the Assembly but with the new Paris Commune.’ – William Doyle

September Massacres:

3-7 September 1792 – Prisoners are massacred by the mobs in Paris

What? * News reached Paris that the Prussians had invaded France and Verdun had fallen on 2 September, people were now scared of the ‘punishments’ that would be handed out by the Prussians listed in the Brunswick Manifesto * The tocsin was rung and 60,000 were to be enlisted to help fight back against the Prussians * There was fear however, of prisoners breaking out and causing havoc once they left for battle * Revolutionary leaders urged for a purge of prisoners and fear and hysteria added to this

Effect? * Over 1,200 prisoners were slaughtered by sans-culottes or sentenced to death in mock trials * No deputies (especially Danton and Roland) chose to intervene and stop the massacre * The deputies saw the sans-culottes as murderers, while they saw themselves as defenders of the Revolution – the sans culottes’ power was uncontrollable * Sometimes seen as the “Second Revolution’ and which characterized the Terror that was soon to occur

‘But once the moment of crisis was past, there was no party or faction that would justify or claim credit for the massacres [September]; and the charge of having them provoked or organized them – or even of having merely failed to put a stop to them-became an accepted weapon in the struggle between parties.’ – George Rudé
‘[September Massacres’] was the final proof for non juring clergy that the Revolution had become godless and anarchic.’ – Peter McPhee
‘By the autumn of 1792, the second revolution was now armed, democratic and republican.’ – Peter McPhee
‘’The intervention of direct democracy – insurrection in the name of the sovereign people – had occurred in the sense of support for national representation… it was a matter of taking to the streets to proclaim the end of royalty, and therefore of the Constitution and the Legislative Assembly. Direct democracy intervened against the representatives.’ – François Furet
‘The struggles of men and groups to gain power henceforth borrowed the language of terror from the sections.’ – François Furet
‘The end of 1792 marked the beginning of the withdrawal of public opinion, when people ‘went home’; fear had commenced its reign.’ – François Furet
‘The central truth of the Revolution.’ – Simon Schama
‘Emphasized millennarial ideologies rather than social conflict as the cause of the collapse of consensus.’ – Norman Hampson
‘The September Massacres was a pre-emptive strike that arose out of panic.’ – Pierre Caron
‘The event which more than almost any other exposed a central truth of the French Revolution: its dependence on organized killing to accomplish political ends.’ – Simon Schama
‘Suspicion bred credulity, and society’s reprobates could not be presumed unavailable for the purposes of prison plotters.’ – William Doyle

: THE REPUBLIC, EXECUTION AND WAR BEFORE THE TERROR

‘The historiography of 1792 that emphasizes a rising of the entire French people culminating in the ‘revolution of equality’ consistently underplays the fact that the mobilization of ‘the people’ evoked a powerful counter-mobilization of quite ordinary people too who were headed exactly in the opposite political direction.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘doomed to self destruct from over inflated expectations’ – Simon Schama
‘The Constituent’s actions prefigured those of the Convention. As in any national emergency, the politicians resorted to exceptional measures.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘Whatever the reasons, it would be a mistake to assume that low turnout meant a tacit rejection of 10 August.’ – Simon Schama
‘Much as many of the regulars mistrusted the Convention, their dissatisfaction stopped well short of treason.’ – Simon Schama
‘The Jacobin Republic wore two expressions: the bullying scowl of the terrorist and the severe countenance of its official icons.’ – Simon Schama

Republic:

19 September 1792 – Legislative Assembly dissolved
20 September 1792 – National Convention established, Battle of Valmy won (Prussian Army retreats)
21 September 1792 – National Convention meets for first time
22 September 1792 – Year I of French Republic
16 November 1792 – Jemappes taken by Dumouriez, Austria defeated with Belgium conquered * Jemappes marked the beginning of a crusade for universal liberty * ‘Tyrannicides’ a group made for assassinating kings and foreign army commanders was established
19 November 1792 – Decree of Fraternity * ‘to extend fraternal feelings and aid to all peoples who may wish to regain their liberty’ * Basically justified their now offensive war against foreign monarchs by taking over their lands

* Less than 6% of seven million entitled voted * 47% of elected assembly in the legal profession * Fifty-five members of the patriotic or juring clergy * Fifty one were public servants * New challenges: * War * Battle of Valmy created a boost of about 20,000 more men volunteering * Trial of Louis XVI * New principles of the Republic * Convention split between Girondins and Montagnards (Jacobins and Cordeliers) but both still didn’t have majority and had to convince the Plain (349 deputies)

‘Not only was the Republic proclaimed, but all citizens were, for the first time in modern history, granted equal political rights: the old distinctions between ‘active’ and ‘passive’ citizens- so dear to the ‘constitutionalists’ of 1789-91-was swept aside, and every adult male was henceforth eligible to vote in all local, departmental and national elections.’ – George Rudé
‘In its first phase down to 2 June 1793, the history of Convention is the history of the struggle between the Girondins, the Brissotins and Rolandists of the Legislative Assembly, and the Montagnards.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘The struggle was one between the patriotic Montagnards, who had a clear vision of the ruthlessness required to save the country from invasion and counterrevolution, on the one hand, and the Girondins who were muddle, self seeking careerist politicians too squeamish to save the country, on the other.’ – Albert Mathiez
‘Throughout the Revolution, there had been a gulf of class and politics between the individual advocates of women’s rights such as Olympe de Gouges and Etta Palm and the sans-jupon’s support for the subsistence and military goals of the popular movement as a whole.’ – Peter McPhee
‘The personnel of the second revolution needed to form an alliance with the lowly in order to win and exercise power, or what remained of it. This was also what would divide them.’ – François Furet
‘One avenue is to consider the division a sign of the fatal inability of the political class to come together to surmount the enemies of the Revolution.’ – DMG Sutherland

Louis Capet’s Trial:

11 December 1792 – Citizen Louis Capet indicted for ‘a multitude of crimes in the establishment of tyranny’ and having ‘violated the sovereignty of the people’ * ‘Armoire de fer’ was discovered in November containing all of Louis’ correspondence with Austria * Louis ‘had’ to be tried as any citizen who engaged with the enemy was a traitor along with: * His Flight to Varennes * Champ de Mars Massacre * Financing counter revolution * The inviolability set out in the Constitution could be withdrawn just as it was claimed * Girondins believed that the King’s fate should be decided by consulting the General Will and that the King should abdicate but not suffer death * Jacobins and Cordeliers demanded death * ‘If the King is not guilty, then those who have dethroned him are’ – Robespierre

15 January – Vital questions put forward and voted upon * Is Louis Capet guilty of conspiracy against the public liberty and of attacks on the general security of the state? * Yes (unanimously) * Will the judgement of the National Convention against Louis be submitted for public ratification? * No (Majority) * What penalty should be inflicted? * Verbal voting * 387 for execution * 334 against execution

20 January 1793 – Lepeletier assassinated by Royalists, put upon a Roman bed of death for four days
21 January 1793 – Louis Capet is executed * ‘I die innocent of all the crimes with which I am charged. I forgive all those who are guilty of my death and I pray God that the blood you are about to shed may never be required of France.’ – Louis

23 January 1793 – Proclamation to the French People * ‘Citizens, the tyrant is no more. For a long time the cries of victims, whom war and public dissension have spread over France and Europe, loudly protested his existence. He has paid his penalty and only acclamations for the Republic and for liberty have been heard from the people.’

‘By executing the king, they had severed France’s last ties with her past, and made the rupture with the ancien régime complete.’ – François Furet
‘All who had voted for the king’s death had been fully aware of it: there could be no royal restoration in France which would not turn them into criminals. They had burnt their boats. So had the Revolution.’ – François Furet
‘The trial of Louis XVI was a reversion to the most criticized aspects of the old Regime justice, the inquisitory system and judgment without appeal.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘The king’s death was the climax of the whole Revolution… this day, not 22 September 1792, founded the Republic, or at least sacralized it.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘However much they distrusted democracy and popular radicalism, they distrusted the King more.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘The king was stubbornly determined to play his weakness, to insist on his constitutional inviolability, but then defend his conduct as a conscientious citizen king.’ – Simon Schama
‘It was no so much a victory as a challenge… it satisfied the sans-culottes but it made the Revolution far more enemies than friends and also immeasurably strengthened those who were already its enemies.’ – William Doyle

War with other Foreign Powers:

15 December 1792 – Convention issues decree subjected all authority in Belgium to Convention representatives (although Dumouriez had originally aimed to protect traditional institutions to gain Belgium loyalty)

16 November 1792 – France open river Scheldt to navigation against the wishes of the British
1 December 1792 – Britain orders mobilization due to domestic order (calls for a National Convention of Britain) and against hostilities
28 January 1793 – Dumouriez tries to have peace talks with Great Britain

1 February 1793 – France declares war on Great Britain and the Dutch Republic * First Coalition was formed * Holland * Spain * Piedmont * Naples * Prussia * Russia * Austria * Portugal

24 February 1793 – Convention orders conscription of 300,00 extra men into the army – met with hostility and caused the Vendée Rebellion

23 March 1793 – Dumouriez retreats from Belgium after negotiations with Austrians that they will not be harmed but fails to convince his troops to march to Paris and dissolve the Convention
5 April 1793 – Dumouriez rides to Austrian lines with officers and Duc de Chartres, weakening the Girondins who supported him fiercely

8 September 1793 – British defeated at Hondschoote
16 October 1793 – Austrians defeated at Wattignies – helped by Lazare Carnot who helped reorganize the army and re-establish discipline, a bit of a random

Summer of 1793 – Allied army splits in two and fails to march on to Paris – Republic saved

‘Sympathy for economic hardship took second place to more pressing political considerations.’ – DMG Sutherland ‘They launched themselves into a daring foreign policy which linked up again with the Girondin dream of 1792, but changed its character.’ – François Furet
‘It was Girondin messianism [the natural frontier campaign] rewritten in Thermidorian language: a revolutionary heritage composed of ideas and interests, uniting the nation around its conquests and its glory, since it was unable to unite it in a civil consensus on the years it ha just lived through.’ – François Furet

Vendée Rebellion:

11 March 1793 – Macheaoul uprising, 500 citizens perished * Prisoners made to dig ditches and shot in their own graves

Similarities to September Massacres: * Began with uncontrollable spontaneous need to punish men who symbolized evil and threats * Public anger was directed, controlled and give a shot of legal form

How? * Region was undefended and vulnerable * Knowledge of land and guerilla tactics * Religious revolt, constitutional clergy labeled as ‘trutons’ – intruders along with events prior to 11 March * 6 March 1793 – All churches closed if there was no juring priest in place * Conscription created mass tensions as it would take young men away from farms * Assignat had fallen by 50% by February 1793, while bread was scarce and riots against grain stores and demands for price control and requisitioning were heard

What? * New local officials, constitutional priests and National Guards massacred

April – Nearly all of Vendée (except northern maritime area) was under rebellion

30 May 1793 – Revolt breaks out in Lyon

1 August 1793 – Orders to subdue rebellion in Vendée (later called ‘Avenged’, Vengé) made * 2/3 of 5000 rebels killed * 70% of all deaths in the Terror happened in Vendée and Provence * 40-50% peasants, 40-50 percent artisans and 5-10% bourgeois * Crops burnt and animals slaughtered

‘For the republican troops, the rebels were superstitious and cruel, manipulated in their ignorance by malevolent priests and nobles. For the rebels, the extent of the reprisals – which some historians continue to describe, quote incorrectly, as ‘genocide’ – reinforced a bloody image of Paris which was to be widely held in many rural areas for the next century.’ – Peter McPhee
‘They[non-juring priests] not only personified the difficulties faced by the Revolution but, at least for some of the men in the city, it seems as though they were also blamed for sexual frustrations’ – Peter McPhee
‘The creation of mass republican armies, with ‘line’ and volunteer unites now fused, had engendered a new military culture which was a microcosm of the ‘regenerated’ society the Convention anticipated.’ – Peter McPhee
‘The Revolutionary armies could not have triumphed – nor could the rising in Vendée have been so powerful- without the active support of women.’ – Peter McPhee
‘The Vendée revealed at the deepest level the dual nature of what had been attempted since 1789: the Revolution had founded the modern nation on the universality of citizens, but at the same time had torn history and society to pieces.’ – François Furet
‘Only a restoration of the old regime could revive the community. Thus the anti-revolution became the counterrevolution.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘By early August 1793, all thoughts of a federalist offensive were out of the question.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘Simon Schama, Norman Hampson, and François Furet: the escalation of punitive violence was the result of a revolutionary intolerance already discernible in 1789: the counter revolution was essentially a creation of revolutionary paranoia and popular bloodlust.’
‘In their passion for the defense of hearth and home, the Vendéan rebels were mirror images of the sans-culottes who came to fight them. Only, the two sideshad exactly opposing views of who the real foreigners were, whose extirpation was the precondition for freedom and peace.’ – Simon Schama

: BEFORE THE TERROR

‘In terms of fighting the civil war, the government wrote off huge sections of the nation in the interests of the war effort against foreign enemies. In terms of economic policy, it looks like they did the same thing. Government policy was also laying the groundwork for the economic catastrophe of late 1794.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘There was a terror in France in 1793-94 because there was an armed opposition against the republic, an opposition that the Jacobins were right to suspect was often treasonous.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘The radical Jacobins of the capital were often self-consciously moralistic.’ – Peter McPhee
‘All this was meant to be in deliberate contrast to, and of possible to correct, the atrocities of what was emphasized as ‘popular justice’, or in other words, spontaneous and summary lynchings and fatal beatings and stabbings.’ – Simon Schama
‘They wanted paternalism rather than economic liberation, the regulation of prices rather than a free market. And above all they wanted the public punishment of exploitation.’ – Simon Schama

The Institutions of Terror:
‘Let us be terrible, in order that the people are not so.’ – Danton

October 1792 – Committee of General Security established in response to September Massacres * ‘to replace the supreme tribunal of the people’s vengeance’ – Danton * Committee to find and bring traitors of the nation to justice

11 March 1793 – Revolutionary Tribunal established, ‘Representative-on-Mission’ sent to the provinces * To make trial and executions of suspects faster as it was separated from normal courts * Trials limited to 3 days in October 1793 to limit the defense * 82 representatives-on-mission sent by the Convention to make sure the decrees were being followed in full by the provinces * Later became agents for the Convention, enforcing the dictatorship of Paris

‘The prevotal courts of the old monarchy had many of the same powers as the revolutionary courts in that both could inflict capital penalties without appeal. The difference was one of scale.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘It was not the relatively few arrested but their essential arbitrariness and the fact there was no formal appeal against arrest that made the committees such effective agents of the Jacobin dictatorship.’ – DMG Sutherland

6 April 1793 – Committee of Public Safety and Committees of Surveillance established * Robespierre joined on 26 July 1793 * Committees of Surveillance set up in each province to find and denounce traitors * Committee of Public Safety to maintain supplies and take care of the war inside and outside of France (economy and political) * Originally made of 9 members which extended to 12 members (July) who issued orders to the representatives-on-mission

Mid July – July 10 1793 – Danton dropped from Committee of Public Safety, now the committee was turned into the ‘most concentrated state machine’ * Four elements to new state: * Return of economic regulation * Massive mobilization of military resources * Reabsorbtion into the state the powers of punitive violence * Replacement of spontaneous politics by a program of official ideology

5 September 1793 – ‘Let Terror be the order of the day’ * National Convention votes to implement terror measures to repress 'counter-revolutionary' activities * Population divided between loyal citizens and those who opposed or didn’t care, who were the traitors

‘These months (September 1793) were the pinnacle of popular involvement in the Revolution, and of popular opposition to it.’ – Peter McPhee
‘On 5-6 September thousands of sans-culottes, now at the peak of their power…’ – Peter McPhee
‘The massacres both in Paris and in the provinces were critical pivots in local municipal and national politics.’ - DMG Sutherland
‘One of the reasons the Terror was not embedded in the Revolution of 1789 was that the institutional basis was entirely absent.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘The institutional machinery for the revolutionary dictatorship was now set in place, so that the chaotic brutalities of the street mobs could be replaced by the systematic machinery of state punishment.’ – Simon Schama

Revolutionary Committees in Paris: * Soboul: * 9.9% wage earners * 63.8% shop keepers, small workshop masters and independent craftsmen * 26.3% rentiers, manufacturers, civil servants and liberal professions

Fall of the Girondins:

2 June 1793 – Decree passed to arrest twenty-two Girondins

Why? * The fleeing of General Dumouriez, whom the Girondins supported so passionately showed that the Girondins could be traitors as well * Linked Girondins to military defeats * Linked Girondins to anti-revolutionary behavior * 13 March 1793 – Vergniaud makes a speech attacking the radicals, demanding the Revolution to end and labeling the sans-culottes as ‘idlers, men without work… ignoramuses’ * Attacked the sans-culottes and Paris * The failed Trial of Marat * Marat had called people to attack the deputies of the Convention (more so at the Girondins) calling them traitors * The Girondins reacted to this by bringing Marat to trial where he was acquitted on 24 April 1793 * Marat was the leader of the sans-culottes and held influence over them * Originally there was an immunity to prosecution of a deputy in the Convention, but the Girondins ignored this and it would later haunt them * The Girondins ignored the sans-culottes demands for price control until the Commune threatened to revolt against the Convention * They made the majority of the Committee of Twelve which first met on 21 May 1793, and were give the task to investigate the Commune * They ordered the arrested Hébert and Varlet (leader of Enragés)

10 April 1793 – Petition made by the Paris sections for the Convention to arrest and execute Roland - Petition supported by 33 of 48 sections

15 April 1793 – Commune of Paris calls for Girondin deputies to be expelled from the Convention (Danton, Marat and Hébert)

31 May – 2 June 1793 – anti-Girondin riots crowd the streets as they are reinforced by 75,000 from the National Guard and demand a tax on the rich, a maximum, purging of 30 Girondin deputies and the creation of a sans-culottes army to fight traitors… the Convention had no choice

‘They had learned wisdom from past experience [Jacobins]; while, unlike their Girondin opponents, they were both willing and able to use the popular movement to promote their political ends, they had no intention of allowing its direction to pass into other hands-either to the Enragés or to Hébert.’ – George Rudé
‘[Food riots of 1793] spontaneous outbursts directed against provision merchants, particularly grocers, at times of steeply rising prices.’ – George Rudé
‘There was a tremendous scene[expulsion of Girondins], where for the first time there appeared, in razor sharp clarity, the confrontation between national representation and direct democracy personified in the brute force of the poorer classes and their guns.’ – François Furet
‘The Montagne had paid for its victory with a popular coup d’état against national representatives… the Convention was now merely a rump parliament sharing its sovereignty with the street mobs.’ – François Furet
‘After June 2 the Montagnards had not dared completely to go back on that democratic utopia.’ – François Furet
‘The passion for punishment and terror, nourished by a deep desire for revenge and the overturning of society, thus complemented direct democracy as practiced in the sections, which the sans-culottes wanted to extend to the Convention by permanent control of the deputies and through the old idea of imperative mandate, but by making elected members subject to removal.’ – François Furet ‘After all, the reasoning went, since a free people was invincible, only treason could defeat it. Thus the Girondins and their friends in the ministry became victims of the doctrine of the internal enemy, as others had in early crises... The Girondins were victims of their own moderation.’ – DMG Sutherland
’31 May – 2 June, like 10 August too, was an affair in which the leading Jacobins played a secondary role.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘The Girondins quarrel with Paris was paralyzing the entire course of public affairs, if not endangering the very existence of the convention.’ – William Doyle

Assassination of Marat:

13 July 1793 – Marat is assassinated by Charlotte Corday

Why? * Not to avenge Louis XVI but to help Girondins and federalists * ‘With this one dead, the others, perhaps, will be afraid.’ – Corday

Effect? * ‘We must cement liberty in the blood of the despot’ – Marat * Now his death was to bring about the Terror * Mass mourning (7,500 livres used to embalm him) * Used as a propaganda tool against the plots that had destroyed him

‘Amid the lurid ceremonies of Marat’s death, there was a clear lesson: if treason and assassins were everywhere, moderation was counterrevolutionary and unremitting suspicion and vigilance were patriotic duties.’ – DMG Sutherland

Federalist Revolts:
By the end of June 1793 – Bordeaux, Lyon, Toulouse, Toulon and Marseilles were rioting against the Convention, supporting the Girondins for an end to violence, sans-culottes and war

25 August 1793 – Marseilles army defeated, Marseille called ‘Town Without Name’ * 289 guillotined
9 October 1793 – Lyon retaken * 12 October 1793 – Committee of Public Safety declares that Lyon should be destroyed and called Liberated Town (Ville-Affranchie) * ‘Lyon made a war on liberty. Lyon is no more.’ * 26 people were guillotined per day * December 1793 – 360 people died by being tied in groups of sixty and being fired on by cannon * Rich houses demolished by workers paid from a tax on the rich
Bordeaux – 104 sent to guillotines
Toulon – Eight hundred killed and further 282 guillotined

* ‘war against commercial capitalism’ as commercial elites were associated with Federalism * Not a Marxist revolution? Bourgeois were the victims?

‘Though federalism attracted royalists, it was not on the whole counterrevolutionary or decentralizing. The federalist manifestos proclaimed their loyalty to the indivisibility of the nation and, in most places, to the Republic.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘Every major city where federalism triumphed in the late spring of 1793, had witnessed a ‘September Massacre’ the year before.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘The Jacobins had denounced too many people, rigged too many elections, defied public opinion too often and put out of business too many employers upon whom many ordinary people depended for a living. Federalism was popular because it seemed to be a way of stopping a cabal of uncontrollable fanatics.’ – DMG Sutherland

Other Events Before the Terror:

26 June 1793 – New Constitution ratified but not proclaimed * Slavery abolished * Universal male suffrage * Direct elections * Right of subsistence * RIGHT OF INSURRECTION * Meaningless: * Convention was dissolved before its completion * Terror superseded all provisions

‘The Constitution of 1793 added another fissure to the already rickety federalist apparatus.’ – DMG Sutherland

26 July 1793 – Death penalty for hoarders enacted

‘The sans-culottes, were inclined to see the merchants and the shopkeepers rather than the Government as the villains of the piece, and called upon the Government insistently to remedy the abuse by a more continuous and effective use of the organs of repression. It was, in fact, impossible to leave things as they were; either the Government must seek to enforce the existing law by intensifying the Terror, or it must try to win the more whole hearted co-operation of peasants and producers by relaxing the regulations and increasing the margins of profit. It decided on the second course.’ – George Rudé
‘Chaumette demanded a law against hoarding, a reduction in the number of assignats and a program of public works. Chaumette’s justification was significant: it was the only way to attach the poor to the Revolution. It was a theme more and more Jacobins began to espouse.’ – DMG Sutherland

10 August 1793 – Festival of Unity and Indivisibility

What? * Organized by Jacques-Louis David to celebrate anniversary of the overthrow of the monarchy * Tried to reaffirm that Paris was the Revolution * Slightly desperate and defensive – built on the systematic denial of revolutionary realities * Second station – October 1789 – authentic women replaced by prettified women who took the wife-mother role * Third station – Statue of Louis XV replaced by figure of enthroned Liberty with attributes of royalty (scepter, crowns) at its feet which were set alight with the freeing of 3,000 doves

23 August 1793 – Levée en masse * 15-25, no husbands, 300,000 in the first wave against the ‘anthropophagi’ (counter-revolutionaries of year III) * By Spring 1794, 5000 workers were making 700 guns/day and there were 6000 workshops making gun powder * About 40% never joined their battalion

About 250,000 people in 1793 read or hear readings of newspapers

: TERROR

* 2/3 of the victims of the Terror were workers and peasants * Only five departments were responsible for 70% of all deaths and thirteen for 90%.

‘In the eighteen months between August 1792 and early 1794, the political participation of Parisian working people reached its zenith.’ – Peter McPhee
‘A combination of radical Jacobin reforms such as these (August 1792-1794) and popular initiative created an extraordinary force for republican ‘regeneration’. This was one of those rare periods in history when huge numbers of people acted as if they had remade the world, a time of ‘cultural revolution.’ – Peter McPhee
‘The regime of Year II in effect constituted the application – paradoxical, but full and complete- of what was perhaps the French revolution’s supreme principle: the absolute and indivisible sovereignty of a single Assembly, deemed to represent the general will stemming from universal suffrage. It is a paradoxical application, because the Convention after 2 June was not the Convention of universal suffrage, and the revolutionary government, was a political concept cobbled together under pressure from supporters of direct democracy.’ – François Furet
‘The Terror was a regime where men in power designated those who were to be excluded in order to purify the body of the nation.’ – François Furet
‘The extraordinary dangers and the mentality of 1793 enhanced the corollary that moderation was more dangerous to the Republic than extremism, that evil, self serving elements had taken advantage of the muddled tolerance of those who tried to take an evenhanded approach.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘Federalism and the Vendée convinced them of what the extremists had been saying for a long time, that only the ‘people’ could save the Revolution and that ‘the rich’ were the enemy.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘Across the entire nation, there was no such thing as a typical terror or an untypical terror, a terror that was a police action as opposed to one sponsored by crazed fanatics. It is best to conceive of it, not as a duality, but as a range with a minimalist terror at one end and a maximalist at the other. The one terror where nothing much happened, the other was slaughter.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘In terms of historical background, the terror as repression was an episode of the dialectic of revolution-counterrevolution that was the theme of the entire peiod.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘The Enlightenment dominated the scene once the Old Regime collapsed and that since it was impossible to decree virtue, the Terror, the obsession to compel people to be good, was a logical and inevitable result.’ – François Furet
‘The mentality of the Terror was present at the very outset of the Revolution in May 1789 when patriots began stigmatizing the opponents as enemies of the new order of things rather than simply adherents of contrary points of view.’ – Patrice Gueniffey
‘Until the flight of the king in June 1791, and his fellow crowned heads’ noisy warnings after his capture, there was a little talk of conspiracy in the assemblies. It was the counter revolution and the mixed emotions of panic, outrage, and fear that it aroused which fostered a willingness to believe that enemies were omnipresent. The Terror cannot be understood simply as an expression of revolutionary paranoia.’ – Timothy Tackett
‘The Terror was a utopian project that forced people into ideal forms of behavior and that since this demanded too much of ordinary people, compulsion was the logical result.’ – Furet
‘Ideology did not cause the terror but there is a common feature in the radicalization of all the great Revolutions: ‘a common logic of a proliferation of competing discourses about the revolution that leads inexorably, in a spiral development, to massacre.’ – Patrice Gueniffey

Law of Suspects:

9 September 1793 – armée revolutionaire established (sans-culottes force)

‘However, the contempt which many deputies on mission and members of the armées révolutionaires expressed towards minority languages and cultures was to exacerbate mistrust of Paris.’ – Peter McPhee

11 September 1793 – Maximum on grain established

17 September 1793 – Law of Suspects

What? * Decree allowing all suspected people to be placed under custody * The people who could be suspected were * People who by conduct, associations, talk or writing were showed to be supporters of tyranny or federalism and enemies of liberty * Those unable to justify their means of existence and performance of civic duties * Those refused of certificates of revolutionary patriotism * Public officials who have been suspended of dismissed from the Convention * Former nobles along with their relatives who have not shown devotion to the Revolution * Émigrés * Watch Committees could now make lists of these traitors and then send them to the Committee of General Security where they would be arrested and await trial * You could be a suspect without having committed anything wrong

10 October 1793 – Decree on Revolutionary Government * Government must be ‘revolutionary until peace’ * New constitution suspended * All government organizations under the control of the Committee of Public Safety * Executive Committee, ministers, army etc. * Armée Revolutionaire to suppress counter revolution with a division installed in each city * Grain to be requisitioned according to the needs of a city

‘In such a situation the news spread by 1,000 newspaper street-sellers was embellished by word of mouth, creating a city crackling with a potent mixture of rumour, optimism, and suspicion. The Law of Suspects was designed to quell such insecurity.’ – Peter McPhee ‘Revolutionary government was inseparable from ideological orthodoxy, which forbade plurality of opinions.’ – François Furet
‘Popular movement was being bureaucratized (17 September and 4 December 1793)’ – DMG Sutherland
‘Revolutionary government was much broader than just repression., Revolutionary government captured the totality of the nation’s war effort and its efforts to subdue opposition at home and win the war abroad.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘Throughout the period of revolutionary government, the National Convention tried to balance two apparently contradictory principles of administration: the first one, inherited from the Constituent Assembly, showed a great deal of respect for local implementation of national laws and decrees; the second one was how to combine the first principle with the necessity to co-ordinate the war effort, to make the nation behave, as Robespierre put it, as if it had a single will.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘Practically anybody might fall foul of such a sweeping law.’ – William Doyle

Making of a New France:

22 September 1793 - Revolutionary Calendar introduced * Months to be named after changing weather and poetic avocations of the agricultural year * Each month divided into three 10 day units (decadis) named after objects of bucolic virtue for daily contemplation (crops, flowers, fruit) * Last five days of the year named sans-culottides devoted to festivals of talent, industry, heroic deeds and ideas * Every four years there would be a patriotic games and athletics

‘The new calendar combined the rationality of decimal measurement with a total repudiation of the Gregorian calendar.’ – Peter McPhee

29 September 1793 – General Maximum passed, prices of goods and services fixed

‘[On the Girondin/Montagnard fight for the Maximum on bread] And now, so often in the past, the party contending for power began to turn this movement to its own advantage and to guide it into channels that accorded with its own political interests.’ – George Rudé
‘While the wages of skilled journeyman may have doubled since the early days of the Revolution, the prices of food and other essentials tended to outstrip them.’ – George Rudé
‘It is evident that such a law [General Maximum], enacted in a country depending on the output of thousands of petty producers and confided, for its execution, to a government and to officials who believed basically in the sanctity of private property, would be impossible to operate…immediate consequences that both served to arrest inflation and to strengthen the government’s ties with the sans-culottes.’ – George Rudé
‘During these weeks the confidence of the people in the government appears to be based on a double hope that its policy will ensure the supply of cheap and adequate food to feed the citizens and of military victories overt the Republics’ enemies.’ – George Rudé

De-Christianisation * Less to principles but more to anti-clericalism * Churches stripped of sacerdotal objects * Bishops forced to abdicate * Notre Dame became Temple of Reason * 20 November 1793 – Persecution of non-juring priests * Danton and Robespierre opposed the immortality of the assault while Hébert and his ‘Ultras’ urged it on * General population felt alienated and remained Catholic and opposed these reforms

‘For many people, that central government now represented increasingly arbitrary repression, whatever its role in securing military victories.’ – Peter McPhee
‘Decrees passed by the Convention and Committee of Public Safety went well beyond national defence.’ – Peter McPhee
‘The revolutionary government had therefore generally suspended the rights of man in the name of reasons of state.’ – François Furet ‘Activists were minor actors and more often witnesses in repression; in dechristianization, they could act out their anti-clerical and anti-Christian fantasies without much limit.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘The constitutional church, because of its failure, was the target of the dechristianization campaign. This aspect of the terror was a product of circumstance, a desire to smite the counterrevolution, to undermine it totally by suppressing its religious expression; and also to create the new order.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘The dangerous chaos of dechristianization seems to have been one of the most important factors pushing the CPS towards taking a firmer grip on the government of the country.’ – William Doyle

Trial of Marie Antoinette:

16 October 1793 – Marie Antoinette guillotined

* Condemned before trial * ‘Those ho reign are the most deadly enemies of humanity’ – Hébert * Case: * Impure in body, thought and deed * Ungovernable wife * Greedy and prodigal with money * Didn’t bring her son to become a virtuous republican * Communication with Austria * Signed statement by Louis-Charles claiming he was taught masturbation and forced to have incest (… ew…)

30 October 1793 – All women’s clubs closed down

Executions and Death:

October – December 1793
Notable Executions: * Marie Antoinette – 16 October * Girondin leaders (Brissot, Vergniaud etc.) – 31 October * Duc D’Orleans – 7 November * Marie Roland – 8 November * Bailly – 11 November * Barnave – 29 November

March-July 1794 * Hérbertists – 24 March * Accused of being involved in a foreign plot * February 1794 – Hébert calls for a holy war against an oppressive faction * 4 February 1794 – Hébert calls for s popular uprising but fails * 13 March 1794 – Under Robespierre, the Decree on Conspiracies was passed and the Hébertists were placed under arrest and charged with planning a coup and plotting against the nation

‘The trial and execution of Hébert and his followers aroused confusion and apathy, rather than anger, among the sans-culottes.’ – George Rudé

* Dantonists – 5 April * Danton wanted an end to the revolution, peace, remove government controls and decentralization (indulgents), Robespierre wanted a Republic of Virtue and thus the Dantonists were his enemies * An affair involving Calot and Basire who held a monopoly in the Indies and bribed Fabre D’Egalntine was used to arrest the Dantonists (26 March) and put them on trial

‘Since the Indulgents were defending people who were obviously guilty, they were guilty too.’ – DMG Sutherland

* Robespierre – 28 July * Robespierrists – 29 July

Over 1,500 beheaded during the months

‘It then acted to meet the crisis of a nation in danger of internal collapse and external defeat [by purging the Convention].’ – Peter McPhee
‘Once it had endorsed their [the Enragés] program, it had removed the source of their strength.’ – François Furet
‘The guillotine simultaneously wiped out the ancien régime and the first years of the Revolution.’ – François Furet

The Law of Frimaire:

4 December 1793 – Law of Frimaire (Constitution of Terror) * Committee of General Security was now responsible for police and internal security along with the processing of traitors (Tribunal and Watch Committees) * Committee of Public Safety was now responsible for ministers, generals, foreign policy and local government * Departments and Communes were now limited to routine matters of administration * Marked the end of anarchy and diverted the power of the sans-culottes

‘The Commune of Paris, famous sans-culotte bastion, was neutralized by coming under its [CPS] control.’ – François Furet ‘The Convention was the prisoner of the Terror, which had just struck at national representatives; it obeyed the CPS, whose members it had elected and re-elected.’ – François Furet

: THE FALL OF ROBESPIERRE

‘The sans-culottes had developed a radically different vision of a society of small farms and workshops created by property redistribution and underpinned by free education, purges of old elites, and direct democracy. Ultimately, the political and social divisions, within the republican alliance were to prove irreconcilable and explain the deadly politics of 1794.’ – Peter McPhee
‘One year after the creation of the revolutionary tribunal, spring 1794 was the period when the Terror became institutionalized as an administration.’ – François Furet

10 January 1794 – Prostitution banned (moralistic nation)

Ventôse Decrees:
26 February and 3 March – Ventôse decrees passed * confiscation of property of enemies of the revolution and its distribution to needy patriots * to secure support of the lower classes

‘The Ventôse laws transformed an emergency government into a dictatorship whose results would be permanent. The confiscation of the property of enemies and their perpetual banishment even after the conclusion of peace implied that revolutionary government would have lasting social consequences.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘The laws introduced an administrative system of arrests and punishments whose results went far beyond the temporary deprivation of liberty envisaged by the Law of Suspects.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘They supported such populist measures only in order to outbid the Parisian radicals in a new political crisis which reached its climax.’ – William Doyle

Festival of Supreme Being:

3 May 1794 – Robespierre attacks atheists, calling them immoral and aristocrats

7 May 1794 (18 Floreal) – Robespierre and the Convention decree the recognition of a Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul

20 Prairial (June 8) – Festival of Supreme Being * To celebrate this ‘higher being’ (who was not God) * Attack on dechristianizers * Seen as an apotheosis of Robespierre

‘Robespierre’s followers were treading a narrowing path between their increasingly alienated supporters inside and outside the Convention, and resorted to attempts to mould public opinion in the name of a revolutionary will and morality they claimed to monopolize.’ – Peter McPhee
‘The direct involvement of the creative arts in the politics of the Terror was to have tragic consequences.’ –Peter McPhee
‘On the ruins of monarchy, aristocracy and Roman Catholicism would sprout a new natural religion, civic, domestic and patriotic.’ – Simon Schama
‘Even dechristianization was now being reversed.’ – William Doyle

Law of 22 Prairial:
10 June 1794 – Law of Prairial

What? * Law that declared that anyone denounced for ‘slandering patriotism’, ‘seeking to inspire discouragement’, ‘spreading dales news’, or even ‘depraving morals, corrupting the public conscience and impairing the purity and energy of the revolutionary government’ could be tried and sentenced

Why? * Followed assassination attempts on D’Herbois (May 25) and Robespierre (May 25)

Effect? * Ultimate cause of Robespierre’s overthrow * Many saw it as unnecessary with over 750,000 troops and the recent victory opening Holland

‘’22 Prairial, the notorious law that created a murder machine.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘Never was the Terror closer to being an instrument of social discrimination rather than one punishing specific counterrevolutionary acts than in these months.’ – William Doyle

His Fall:

Why? * Law of 22 Prairial * Created secret police bureau of surveillance under the Committee of Public Safety, undermining the General Security (April) * Fouché and others were threatened as criminals and D’Herbois and Billaud were afraid they were next * Failed attempt by Boriére on 4 Thermidor (22 July) to make a compromise by having Robespierre and Saint-Just accept Ventôse decrees for abandoning further purges * Speech on 8 Thermidor (26 July) * 27 July 1794 – 24 of 48 sections sent troops to act on orders of Commune against the Convention, but this later dispersed after troops from the central and western sections came under Barras against the Commune

7 May 1794 – Robespierre delivers a long speech to propose a decree to recognize the existence of a Supreme Being

23 July 1794 – New rates for wages set

‘This disastrous document [23 July: new rates of wages decided by Paris Commune] followed the provisions of the original law of the Maximum general to the letter, took no account of the recent increase in either wages or food prices, and faced the great majority of the working population with substantial reductions, sometimes amounting to one-half or more of their existing earnings.’ – George Rudé

24 July 1794 – Robespierre condemns both Committees of Public Safety and General Security

26 July 1794 – Robespierre accuses members of the Committees as being tyrants, but hints to many more

‘Robespierre’s speech to the Convention on 26 July with its vague threat to unnamed deputies provided the motivation for reaction.’ – Peter McPhee

27 July 1794 – Robespierre and his followers are accused as being tyrants during the convention meeting, they are arrested immediately

‘For all the chances and mischance’s in a tangled series of events, the essential fact remains that they had lost the support of the Parisian sans-culottes [9 Thermidor, Robespierre and Saint-Just]..less than one-fifth of all the civil authorities in the capital showed any inclination, however half-hearted, to rally to the side of the Commune… once the tide began to turn, Robespierre’s vocal defenders on that day were but a small and ineffectual body, whose opinions were quickly submerged in the growing flood of anti-Jacobin reaction..’ – George Rudé
It was also the end of a regime which had had the twin aims of saving the Revolution and creating a new society. It had achieved the former, at great cost, but the vision of the virtuous, self-abnegating civic warrior embodying the new society had palled.’ – Peter McPhee
‘Revolutionary expansion began, but victory abroad was a defeat at home for Robespierre and the Robespierrists.’ – François Furet
‘They had put Robespierre to death, but they had not overthrown the Revolution.’ – François Furet
‘Armed force, not parliamentary maneuvers, would decide the journée of 9 Thermidor.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘Men called him a dictator because they feared moral inflexibility in one who had power.’ – William Doyle
‘9 Thermidor marked not so much the overthrow of one man or group of men as the rejection of a form of government.’ – William Doyle

: THE THERMIDORIANS

‘The Revolution had lost its innocence, and the men who now ruled France were hardened pragmatists, driven above all else by the need to end the Revolution.’ – Peter McPhee
‘On 9 Thermidor the Convention had imposed its law, while on 31 May – 2 June it had capitulated.’ – François Furet
‘Starting from 9 Thermidor they had to shoulder that history, and allocate the parts to be remembered and those to be forgotten: a sign that the revolutionary concept had at last begun to lose whatever utopian content it had had since its formation.’ – François Furet
‘If Year II was the year of the sans-culottes, the Years III-V were the years of the popular counterrevolution. For that reason alone, the Revolution itself was not over.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘The Thermidorian reaction began with the best of intentions of restoring the rule of law; it ended by producing an extraordinarily weak government, incapable of defending itself against counterrevolution.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘The changes made by the Thermidorians opened the breach to counterrevolution.’ – Albert Mathiez
‘Yet, when all is said and done, the inescapable conclusion remains that the primary and most constant motive impelling revolutionary crowds during this period was the concern for the provision of cheap and plentiful food.’ – George Rudé
‘Only a minimalist justification of revolutionary government survived; gone were maximalist definitions like regeneration or mass extermination or resettlement.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘Those implementing repressive laws were themselves losing heart and another part of public opinion was demanding a relaxation.’ – DMG Sutherland

The Thermidorian Reaction:

28 July 1794 – 31 July 1794 (10 Thermidor – 13 Thermidor) – Robespierrists are executed and the all blame is put onto Robespierre

* Normal people celebrated at the death of Robespierre and the ‘end of the Terror’ * Although the Terror continued for about a month, although not as intense, it was a ‘slight disturbance which left the government untouched’ * Sans-culottes lost their power as their leaders were executed or dead (Danton, Marat etc.) * Montagnards were blamed along with Robespierre and lost their hold on power * Royalists, émigrés returned * Moderate deputies now became the new leaders

‘The sans-culottes had come to believe that the removal of Robespierre and his associates would mean the end of the hated maximum des salaries and clear the way for higher wages. In a sense they were right; but the outcome was neither what they hoped nor expected.’ – George Rudé
‘The Thermidorians hoped to persuade the nation that by forgetting most of the recent past and attempting to re-introduce the rule of law, the nation could make a fresh start.’ – DMG Sutherland

Groups in the Convention:

* Men of 9 Thermidor * D’Herbois, Billaud-Varenne and Fouché * Representatives-on-mission scared of punishment if the regime was demolished – Carrier, Tallien * Helped bring about Robespierre’s fall, wanted the Terror to continue * Lost influence rapidly * Indulgents * Thuriot, Legendre * Moderates * Lindet, Barére * Wanted the end to the Revolution, Terror, government control and the monopoly of power held by the Committees * Girondins (73 released by December 1794)

‘Thermidor had brought together the extreme terrorist left and a crowd of deputies whose desire was put to an end to the Terror.’ – François Furet

September 1795 – Church and State would co-exist * State would provide no financial support to religions * Freedom of worship * Oath to be taken to the Laws of the Republic * Laws against non-juring clergy * Church’s lands were to be kept and no compensation offered * Majority of clergy still protested against this as it still needed an Oath of loyalty to be declared * Church and State was still divided

‘The cultural revolution of year II was over.’ – Peter McPhee

7 September 1794 – Law of Maximum extended for another year

24 December 1794 – Law of Maximum lifted * Assignat fell drastically (100 worth 20 livres) * Inflation of food and lack of grain * Prices risen by 750% by April 1795 from 1790 levels

‘While the removal of economic controls permitted vengeful displays of wealth, the end of all fixed prices in December 1794 unleashed rampant inflation.’ – Peter McPhee
‘The Revolution was leaving the shores of utopia to discover the strength of personal interests.’ – François Furet
‘Like the clubs, the Law of Suspects merely withered away.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘The Convention’s attempts to meet this situation were desperate and ineffective. For the rest of its existence it fiddled with free market solutions and tempered them with political control. In reality, the Convention decreed two economies as far as food was concerned, a state controlled economy designed to help the poor and urban consumers generally, and a free market economy for everyone else.’ – DMG Sutherland

The Death of Jacobinism:

Month of Thermidor (July) * Committees’ members to change each month (six members per month) * Committee of Public Safety to handle Foreign Affairs and Army * Committee of General Security to handle the police * Interior Affairs and justice now went to the Legislative Committeee

29 July 1794 (11 Thermidor) – Jacobin Club reopened after two days closure * Traitors of Robespierre kicked out (Tallien etc) * 5 September (19 Fructidor) 1794 – Adopts petition to enforce Law of Suspects, restrict freedoms and restrict aristocrats and priests from freedom, supported by eight sections

30 July (12 Thermidor) 1794 – Crowds from the Section attack Watch Committees and demand the release of prisoners

1 August (14 Thermidor) 1794 – Law of Prairial removed

5 August (18 Thermidor) 1794 – All prisoners who were not under the Law of Suspects could be freed and Watch Committees and Representations-on-mission now had to give reasons for arrest – 3,500 set free by end of Thermidor

10 August (23 Thermidor) 1794 – Barére calls for the abolition of the Revolutionary Tribunal * Fouquier-Tinville is arrested (Prosecutor of the Tribunal) and condemned to death on 7 May 1795 * Tribunal reformed so suspects could prepare a defense case * Law of Suspects abolished by 1794 and Tribunal abolished on 31 May 1795

24 August (8 Fructidor) 1794 – Insurrectionary Commune of Paris abolished and administration of Paris given to a Committee responsible to the Convention – 48 sections grouped into 12 arrondissements with a Watch Committee in each

Jeunesse dorée (gilded youth) – * Youths who wore coats with padded shoulders, high brown cravats and had long hair caught up behind or in blond wigs * From the bourgeois community along with released prisoners, sans-culottes and anti-Jacobins * With their lead-tipped cudgels, they beat any Jacobin they could find to ‘destroy Robespierre’s tail and demanded that the Jacobin’s expel all friends of Robespierre and to cut connections with other Jacobin Clubs

12 November (22 Brumaire) 1794– Jacobin Club closed
16 December (26 Frimaire) 1794 – Carrier (leader of the Jacobins) is tried and executed for the massacres during the Terror

White Terror:

* Revenge for the excesses of the Terror * Death to anyone associated with the Terror * September 1794 – Religious Freedom extended to Catholics, as long as the worship was private – didn’t help calm the population and the White Terror continued * Figures estimate deaths to be around 2,000

‘The White Terror was a punitive response of political and social elites to the controls and fears they had undergone.’ – Peter McPhee
‘Thermidor began an era of score-settling in towns and villages while the state remained impotent.’ – François Furet
‘The White Terror was never institutional; it had no courts and no administration. In this respect, it was nearer to the massacres of September 1792 than to the Terror.’ – François Furet
’They [lawless, hungry men] calculated that poaching off their neighbors and robbing was a better way of surviving than flying to the defense of la patrie. Dissidence in many parts of the country, however, never went further than going to clandestine masses and observing Sundays.’ – DMG Sutherland

Royalists:

15 February 1795 – Peace of La Jaunaye (Truce in Vendée) – Royalists now had to find another alternative to reinstall Louis XVII

10 June 1795 – 4,000 émigré troops land on the coast of Brittany
21 July 1795 – Hoche’s troops overcome the émigrés at Penthiévre * 630 executed

28 July 1795 – Louis XVII, at ten years old, dies in the Temple prison – Comte de Provence becomes next heir to throne
Verona Declaration issued by the Comte: * Reject all changes after 1789 * Restore lands of Church and Nobility * Parlements * Death to the kills of Louis XVI * Hated by all citizens as they didn’t want to return back to the Ancien Regime, royalist plot failed
‘Louis’ declaration offered hope to only the most intransigent royalists dreaming of a return to the ancien régime.’ – Peter McPhee
‘After the Declaration of Verona, only the Convention could defend the land settlement and civic equality. Thus, however unpopular the politicians in the Convention had become, they were the lesser evil.’ – DMG Sutherland

Germinal:

1 April (12 Germinal) 1795 – Sans-culottes breaks into the Convention to demand ‘Bread and Constitution of 1793’ (universal male suffrage)

Why? * Hunger, lack of bread

What was demanded? * Cheaper bread * Suppression of jeunesse dorée * Resurrection of the Constitution of 1793 * Revolutionary Government be abolished * Jacobins and sans-culottes to be released

What happened? * National Guard was called and dispersed the crowd * State of emergency called and the army was sent to defend Paris * 26 Montagnards who created the demonstration were arrested with 40,000 Jacobins and sans-culottes * Barére, Billaud-Varenne, D’Herbois and Vadier were arrested * Barére escaped, Vadier did so too but got arrested again * D’Herboir and Billaud were sent to Guiana

‘The popular insurrections of 12th Germinal and 1st-4th Prairial of the Year III marked the final, and most considerable, effort of the Parisian sans culottes to impose their will on their rulers as an independent political force… to a lesser extent these movements are important as marking the final attempt of the remnants of the Mountain and the Jacobins to recapture their political ascendancy in the Convention and Paris Sections.’ – George Rudé
‘On April 2nd the Convention decreed that the bread ration, where insufficient, should be supplemented with rice and biscuits and that priority should be given in their distribution to ‘les ouvriers artisans et indigents… but the prevailing mood was one of resignation and despair, tempered by outbursts of militancy.’ – George Rudé
’12 Germinal was a copy, in minor key, of 31 May 1793.’ – François Furet
‘The insurrection of 12 Germinal was not properly a rising at all but a demonstration.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘The gesture was merely provocative.’ – William Doyle

Prairial:

20 May (1 Prairial) 1795 – Mobs of mainly women and a few battalions of Nation Guard storm the Tuileries where the Convention meet to demand ‘Bread and Constitution of 1793’ * National Guard called in again and dispersed the crowds * Over 10,000 along with Montagnards and Jacobins arrested * 1,700 stripped of civil rights * Arms and cannon seized from Saint-Antoine where the protest started * End of political influence of sans-culottes and the poor * ‘This date should mark the end of the Revolution; its mainspring had been broken’ – Lefebvre

4 Prairial – Military Commission set up for summary trial and execution of all persons captured with arms in their possession or wearing insignia of rebellion

‘1st Prairial – one of the most remarkable and stubborn popular revolts of the Revolution.’ – George Rudé
‘The police had some justice in considering the latter slogan (Bread and the Constitution of 1793) as ‘the soul of the coherence’… when all is said and done, however, it was not the political agitation but the economic hardship that was the primary cause of the movement… a sure indication that the bread-and-butter question lay uppermost in the minds of the insurgents was the outstanding part played by women in both Germinal and Prairial, which was second only to the part they played in October 1789.’ – George Rudé
‘Why were the Parisian sans-culottes defeated in May 1793?... lack of clear political program and plan of action… the weakness of the deputies of the Mountain… political inexperience and the failure to follow up an advantage once gained… greater skill and experience of the Convention and the Committees and the support that these were able to muster… above all, the sans culottes failed to secure and maintain the solid alliance of at least the radical wing of the bourgeoisie.’ – George Rudé
‘In this context of social and political reaction, and economic deprivation, the sans-culottes made a final desperate attempt to regain the initiative and return to the promises of Autumn 1793.’ – Peter McPhee
‘The two Acts of Germinal and Prairial sum up the mechanism of that bureaucratized Terror.’ – François Furet
‘Prairial was the conclusive end of the sans-culotte movement.’ – DMG Sutherland
‘This date should mark the end of the Revolution: its mainspring had been broken (Prairial) – Lefebvre

Constitution of Year III:

22 August 1795 – Constitution of Year III * 1,057,390 to 49,978 accepted the Constitution (four million abstained) * Two-Thirds Decree (two thirds of new Councils would be filled with deputies from the convention) – 205,000 to 108,000 aceepted

‘[The law of two-thirds] inflicted a congenital weakness on the institutions it had just developed, and destroyed what had been the very heart of its plan – a Republic founded on law.’ – François Furet

Content: * No promise of political equality or equality of rights * Indirect voting * All males over 21 who paid direct taxation could vote in primary assemblies and choose electors * Electors could choose deputies, they had to pay 150-200 days of labor equivalent in taxes (30,000 people, mostly those who suffered in the Terror) * Separation of Legislative and Executive: * Legislative (elections every year where 1/3 retired) * Council of Five Hundred (over 30 years old) – initiate legislation and pass onto the Council of Ancients * Council of Ancients – 250 men over 40 years old – approve or reject bills but not introduce or change them * Executive: * Directory of Five, from the Council of Ancients * Could not start or veto laws or declare war * Had control of diplomacy, military affairs and law (enforcement) * One of the Five in the Directory would retire each year

Weaknesses: * Instability from yearly elections (majorities easily overturned) * No way to resolve conflict between legislative and executive * Councils could paralyze Directory by not passing laws * Directory could no dissolve Councils or veto laws * Legislative could replace the Directory with one of its own members each year

‘To them [property owners] the ‘Republic of proprietors’ was being undermined and threatened, not by the rebellious Sections, but by the Convention itself. Every measure taken by the government to protect itself and the growing restiveness of the sans culottes served to develop a state of mind in many ways reminiscent of the defensive-offensive attitude of the Parisian bourgeoisie in the summer of 1789.’ – George Rudé
‘[September 1795] Henceforward, their agitation and the utterance of their grievances were once more confined to streets, workshops and markets.’ – George Rudé
‘Property was the basis of social order.’ – Peter McPhee
‘The price of social order was to limit democracy.’ – Peter McPhee
‘The constitution (of 1795) marks the end of the Revolution.’ – Peter McPhee
‘The directory sought to create a republican regime based on capacity.’ – Peter McPhee
‘The Convention had voted for a Constitution which was immediately invalidated by the sans-culottes then another, which was straight away suspended. Now, it was time for a third or at least one which would determine the feature’s of the Republic’s government until the coup d’état.’ – François Furet
‘The law of Two-Thirds was less the end of the Revolution than its continuity that was in question.’ – François Furet

Vendémiaire:

Changes in Society: * Prostitutes appeared again * Rich wore their respective clothes * Citizen and citizeness became Monsieur and Madame * Balls were held * Food and drink for the rich were catered * Crowds in a state of apathy * Rich were from stock market, army contracts or land speculation

4-6 October – Attempted coup of Vendémiaire (Royalist) * 4 October – 30,000 rise up against the Law of Two-Thirds (which would prevent the royalists taking back power) * 5 October – The crowds march to the Tuileries where 8,000 troops with cannon were waiting for them * The troops march in a column and are killed by Napoleon’s ‘whiff of grapeshot’ * 200-300 dead from both sides * Army now took control, it was directed against the people * Of 200 arrested, only 30 tried in courts

‘Ultimate aims of the insurrection [Vendémiaire] were to destroy the Republic and to open the way for the restoration of the monarchy… the sans culottes who, though crushd in Prairial, were still a factor to be reckoned with.’ – George Rudé
‘The Convention had no other resort but to call in the army… from October 1795 the military coup d’état already looms on the horizon as the ultimate arbiter of political disputes.’ – George Rudé
‘The government was anxious not to drive too deep a wedge between itself and the Sections which had nourished it… in short the rebels of Vendémiaire were treated with far greater leniency than those of Prairial-a fact which did not escape public notice and comment.’ – George Rudé
‘’The army, brought in to the capital by the Convention, stayed in occupation under the Directory and paved the way for the military dictatorship of Bonaparte. The days of ‘revolutionary crowds’, whether composed of sans culottes or of dissident bourgeois, were over for many a year.’ – George Rudé
‘This combination of a narrow social base and internal instability made the regime vacillate between political alliances to the right and left to broaden its appeal and forced it to resort to draconian repression of opposition and to the use of military force.’ – Peter McPhee
‘The thwarted aspirations of the working people by 1795, and the potency of the revolutionary tradition they had created, meant that the new regime would not be uncontested.’ – Peter McPhee

: THE END: THE HISTORIANS

Conglomeration of Ideas:

George Rudé (Marxist): * ‘At every important stage of the Revolution, the sans culottes intervened, not to renovate society or to remodel it after a new pattern, but to reclaim traditional rights and to uphold standards which they believed to be imperiled by the innovations of ministers, capitalists, speculators, agricultural ‘improvers’, or city authorities.’ * ‘It is evident, of course, that popular opinion - the opinion of those whom as individuals, formed the main body of revolutionary crowds - was, in the large part, molded by the direct experience of the sans culottes themselves.’ * Argued against: * ‘Taine and his followers, while not denying the presence of revolutionary crowds of tradesmen, wage-earners and city poor, insisted, nevertheless, that the dominate element among them were vagabonds, criminels, and gens sans aveu.’ * ‘Taine and historians of his school insist that bribery and corruption, and the quest for loot, were among the major factors stimulating revolutionary activity… the market women who marched to Versailles in October 1789 had, according to Taine, been hired for the purpose.’

Peter McPhee (Revisionist): * ‘While this had been a revolution for civil equality, it had not fundamentally altered the vulnerable position of the wage-earning majority of the population. * ‘The social changes wrought by the Revolution endured because they ‘corresponded to some of the deepest grievances of the bourgeoisie and peasantry in their cahiers.’ * ‘Peasants who owned their own land were among the direct and most substantial beneficiaries of the Revolution.’ * ‘The gains for the peasantry went beyond tangible economic benefits. The abolition of seigneurialism underpinned a revolutionary change in rural social relations.’

François Furet (Revisionist): * ‘The civil Revolution was thus almost a natural product of the Ancien régime, a simple updating of history, conceded as a necessity even by the privileged.’ * ‘In actual fact, the authority of the ‘nation’ tended to be exercised by two oligarchies: that of the representatives and that of the Parisian activists.’ * ‘The principles of 1789 caused the Terror, the Terror was embedded in this principles and scripted the Terror... The Terror was an integral part of revolutionary ideology.’ * ‘Enlightened society was a revolution of occupations.’ * ‘The Revolution slipped rapidly towards the government of minorities.’ * Sutherland speaking on Furet: * ‘The Revolution derived from pre-conceived ideas; if popular movements imposed themselves on the polity, ideology drove the Revolution; if there was a good Revolution that a bad Revolution overwhelmed, this bad Revolution was implicit from the beginning; 1793 was embedded in 1789; the Declaration of the Rights of Man was an illusion, it enshrined a single totalizing national will; nothing that happened between 1789 and 1793 really mattered; each revolution was the same, the one telescoped the other…the inner need of Jacobinism to create enemies, its propensity to attribute any reverse to largely imaginary conspiracies.’

DMG Sutherland (Revisionist?): * ‘The revolutionaries drove very large numbers of women and men to a profound revulsion against them and all their words when they stripped away the markers that gave their lives meaning.’ * ‘At the level of the department and the district, the overwhelming victors in the elections of 1790 were the small town lawyers.’ * ‘Woman always had an important role in riot and disturbance during the Revolution.’ * ‘France is a country where the past never disappears but only fades to the side of the stage.’

Georges Lefebvre (Marxist): * The three Revolutions: * ‘Firstly, the great mass of working people in town and country continued to work and survive in the same ways as they had before 1789.’ * ‘Secondly, whatever the grand schemes of the Jacobins in 1793-4, the destitute continued to constitute a major urban and rural underclass swollen in times of crisis by unemployed rural laborers and urban workers.’ * ‘Thirdly, France remained a sharply inegalitarian, hierarchical society, even if the new hierarchy was to be one in which wealth rather than the family name was seen as the best gauge of personal merit.’

Albert Soboul (Marxist): * ‘Revolution was profoundly revolutionary in its short and long term outcomes. A classic bourgeois revolution, its uncompromising abolition of the feudal system and the seigneurial regime make it the starting-point for capitalist society and the liberal representative system in the history of France.’ * ‘The intellectual origins of the Revolution are to be found in the philosophical ideals which the middle class had been propounding.’

Simon Schama (Revisionist): * ‘The ‘bourgeois’ which Marxist history long believed to be the essential beneficiaries of the Revolution was, in fact, its principal victim.’ * ‘The exterminations practiced were, in fact, the logical outcome of an ideology that progressively dehumanized its adversaries and that had become incapable of seeing any middle ground between total triumph and utter eclipse.’

Random: * ‘There was no Parisian bourgeoisie in the eighteenth century.’ – David Garrioch * ‘Bourgeois who emerged were far more powerful and self conscious.’ – David Garrioch * ‘Historians have agreed that, before 1789 and after 1792, issues of foreign policy and military strategy dominated the domestic reform agenda… on the contrary, as Jeremy Whiteman has argued, a major impulse for this revolutionary reform was in fact the desire to ‘regenerate’ as well France’s capacity to act as the key military and commercial player in Europe.’ * ‘Conspiracy was the central organizing principle of French revolutionary rhetoric. The narrative of Revolution was dominated by plots.’ – Lynn Hunt * ‘There was a tension between liberty and equality, the French demanded more and more equality and therefore lost liberty.’ – Tocqueville * ‘Revolutionaries competed among themselves to invent the most outré language, and partly because the language became more extreme as the perceived peril increased.’ –Patrice Gueniffey * ‘The history of the Revolution cannot be understood without an adequate theory of emotions, that these extremely sentimental people of the time lived out in public their feeling of grief, fear and envy. Such ‘over-sentimentality’ might, as he suggests, explain the particular obsession revolutionaries had with mostly imaginary conspiracies.’ – William Reddy

Important Dates:

5-11 August 1789 – August Decrees
26 August 1789 – Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
1 October 1789 – Fundamental Principles of Government presented
2 October 1789 – Flanders Regiment arrive in Versailles
5 October – The Women’s March to Versailles
2 November 1789 – Church property confiscated (called biens nationaux) by the nation and sold
12 July 1790 – Civil Constitution of the Clergy
27 November 1790 – The Clerical Oath
14 July 1790 – Festival of the Federation
28 February 1791 – Day of Daggers
21 June 1791 – The royal family is found at Varennes and taken back to Paris
25 June 1791 – The King is suspended
16 July 1791 – Champs de Mars Massacre
13-14 September 1791 – Louis XVI officially accepts the Constitution
9 November 1791 – All émigrés ordered to return to France or be sentenced as a traitor and to death
13-14 September 1791 – Louis XVI officially accepts the Constitution
27 August 1791 – Declaration of Pillnitz
20 April 1792 - France goes to war with Austria (and Prussia)
20 June 1792 – Artisans and poor sections storm the Tuileries (NOT The Storming of the Tuileries)
5 July 1792 – The Assembly declares that ‘la patrie en danger’ (the fatherland is in danger)
25 July 1792 – Duke of Brunswick issues the Brunswick Manifesto
9 August 1792 – Revolutionary/Insurrectionary Commune established, lead by the 48 sections of Paris and to take control of the National Guard and fédéré soldiers
10 August 1792 – On the orders of the Commune, 20,000 sans-culottes along with the National Guard and fédéré soldiers storm the Tuileries
25 August – Seigneurialism finally abolished, lands of émigrés to be sold, divorce law passed
3-7 September 1792 – Prisoners are massacred by the mobs in Paris
21 September 1792 – National Convention meets for first time
22 September 1792 – Year I of French Republic
11 December 1792 – Citizen Louis Capet indicted for ‘a multitude of crimes in the establishment of tyranny’ and having ‘violated the sovereignty of the people’
21 January 1793 – Louis Capet is executed
1 February 1793 – France declares war on Great Britain and the Dutch Republic
24 February 1793 – Convention orders conscription of 300,00 extra men into the army – met with hostility and caused the Vendée Rebellion
23 March 1793 – Dumouriez retreats from Belgium after negotiations with Austrians that they will not be harmed but fails to convince his troops to march to Paris and dissolve the Convention
11 March 1793 – Macheaoul uprising, 500 citizens perished
October 1792 – Committee of General Security established in response to September Massacres
11 March 1793 – Revolutionary Tribunal established, ‘Representative-on-Mission’ sent to the provinces
6 April 1793 – Committee of Public Safety and Committees of Surveillance established
5 September 1793 – ‘Let Terror be the order of the day’
2 June 1793 – Decree passed to arrest twenty-two Girondins
31 May – 2 June 1793 – anti-Girondin riots crowd the streets as they are reinforced by 75,000 from the National Guard and demand a tax on the rich, a maximum, purging of 30 Girondin deputies and the creation of a sans-culottes army to fight traitors… the Convention had no choice
13 July 1793 – Marat is assassinated by Charlotte Corday
By the end of June 1793 – Bordeaux, Lyon, Toulouse, Toulon and Marseilles were rioting against the Convention, supporting the Girondins for an end to violence, sans-culottes and war
26 June 1793 – New Constitution ratified but not proclaimed
10 August 1793 – Festival of Unity and Indivisibility
23 August 1793 – Levée en masse
9 September 1793 – armée revolutionaire established (sans-culottes force)
11 September 1793 – Maximum on grain established
17 September 1793 – Law of Suspects
10 October 1793 – Decree on Revolutionary Government
29 September 1793 – General Maximum passed, prices of goods and services fixed
16 October 1793 – Marie Antoinette guillotined
30 October 1793 – All women’s clubs closed down
4 December 1793 – Law of Frimaire (Constitution of Terror)
26 February and 3 March – Ventôse decrees passed
20 Prairial (June 8) – Festival of Supreme Being
3 May 1794 – Robespierre attacks atheists, calling them immoral and aristocrats
10 June 1794 – Law of Prairial
23 July 1794 – New rates for wages set
24 July 1794 – Robespierre condemns both Committees of Public Safety and General Security
26 July 1794 – Robespierre accuses members of the Committees as being tyrants, but hints to many more
27 July 1794 – Robespierre and his followers are accused as being tyrants during the convention meeting, they are arrested immediately
28 July 1794 – 31 July 1794 (10 Thermidor – 13 Thermidor) – Robespierrists are executed and the all blame is put onto Robespierre
September 1795 – Church and State would co-exist
24 December 1794 – Law of Maximum lifted
1 August (14 Thermidor) 1794 – Law of Prairial removed
24 August (8 Fructidor) 1794 – Insurrectionary Commune of Paris abolished and administration of Paris given to a Committee responsible to the Convention – 48 sections grouped into 12 arrondissements with a Watch Committee in each
12 November (22 Brumaire) 1794– Jacobin Club closed
16 December (26 Frimaire) 1794 – Carrier (leader of the Jacobins) is tried and executed for the massacres during the Terror
21 July 1795 – Hoche’s troops overcome the émigrés at Penthiévre
10 June 1795 – 4,000 émigré troops land on the coast of Brittany
1 April (12 Germinal) 1795 – Sans-culottes breaks into the Convention to demand ‘Bread and Constitution of 1793’ (universal male suffrage)
20 May (1 Prairial) 1795 – Mobs of mainly women and a few battalions of Nation Guard storm the Tuileries where the Convention meet to demand ‘Bread and Constitution of 1793’
22 August 1795 – Constitution of Year III
4-6 October – Attempted coup of Vendémiaire (Royalist)

Bibliography:

* Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution – Simon Schama * The French Revolution: 1789 – 1799 – Peter McPhee * Revolutionary France: 1770-1880 – François Furet * The Oxford History of the French Revolution – William Doyle * The French Revolution – Christopher Hibbert * France in Revolution – Dylan Rees and Duncan Townson * The Crowd in the French Revolution – George Rudé * The French Revolution and Empire: The Quest for a Civic Order – D.M.G Sutherland * Revolution: France – Jill Fenwick and Judy Anderson * Revolution and Terror in France 1789-1795 – D.G Wright * The Spirit of Change: France in Revolution – Fielding and Morcombe * The Leading Edge: VCE Units 3&4 - Revolutions