Examples Of William Doyle's Understanding Of Resistance

William Doyle writes in his book that the reason of the revolution being violent is resistance. The understanding of resistance could go two ways. There was the resistance of the king, Louis XVI, where he thought that he should be the absolute monarch and where he believes that he is the one to be ruling over France and no one else. On the other hand, there also was the resistance of the common people that had enough of the king’s and queen’s poor ruling over them. They wanted a change. The king was not a good monarch in the eyes of the common people. He was not looking over France and making sure it runs well. He was too isolated to notice the bad state of the country. The poverty of France was on such a bad level that the common people
Then, to take France back and restore the absolute monarchy with the help of Marie Antoinette’s brother, Leopold. However, Leopold did not want to have anything to do with them until in 1791, Leopold, the king of the Austrian Empire, finally agreed and promised the French royalty that he is going to give them a full support by money and troops so they can take France back. Axel von Fersen, Swedish ambassador, started meeting with royal family, especially with the queen, to plan their escape to Varennes. Fersen was thought to be the queen’s lover. Without Fersen the royal family would not be able to get anywhere; they would stay locked in as hostages until the king would sign the constitution. Axel von Fersen created the plan with the help of De Bouille who had a massive army right by the French border and that is where the king would be safe so he could figure out how to take France back. They moved the date of the escape many times until in June 21st, 1791, they finally left Paris. The flight to Varennes where Bouille’s the army was supposed to be waiting for the royal family to protect them, did not work out. Bouille’s army left the meeting point because they thought that the king probably changed the date of the flight again. However, the royal family was just late. They got caught in Varennes because they were recognized in a few cities right before they got to Varennes like Sainte-Menehould and Clemont. They were kept in Varennes before it was decided that they were going to be sent back to Paris. The king was trying to make the people of Varennes to do whatever he said but the two years of revolution changed their view of the absolute monarchy. They saw that the country could be ran better without the absolute monarchy so they obeyed the word of the National Assembly instead of the king’s word. The state of the country and the people’s mentality was absolutely changed. No one trusted the king anymore.