Knowt
French Revolution terms and events 1774-1797
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The French Revolution Timeline
Key: Blue; Economic event
Red; Political events
Green; Religious events
Yellow; Social events
Black; International, military and imperial events
Event | Date | Overview | Facts |
King Louis XV dies, succeeded by grandson Louis XVI and the initial state of France Absolutism and the structure of the Ancien Regime | 1774 | Louis XV died on the 10th of May 1774, Louis XVI inherited the throne immediately at the age of 20. During the reign of Louis XIV, ‘Sun King’, France had become one of Europe’s most dominant powers; with an established global trading empire. France was the most populated country in Europe, standing 29 million by 1774. Ports such as Bordeaux, Nates and Marseille, thrived in the years leading up to Louis XVI inheritance, thanks to the French colonial empire and its trade in items such as coffee, tobacco and sugar. Although France was, however, primarily an agricultural society. Most Frenchmen and women in 1774 were peasants and this meant that they were at the mercy of the weather. Summer days with some rain promised a good harvest, though, damp conditions with thunderstorms could ruin a year’s hard work in the fields. Meaning that the Catholic-dominated French peasantry looked to their King, appointed by God, for good harvests. Harvests, therefore, were viewed as a reflection of the strength of the monarchy. The Second Estate consisted of the French nobility. At the top were families like the Montmorency-Luxembourg; Noailles, Ayen and Poix, all of whom were related to the crown. The wealthy and ancient families were chiefly known as ‘Noblesse du d’epee’ (Nobles of the sword). Most served in the King’s army as generals or officers. These nobles were given privileges and land as a reward for their loyalty to the crown, much in the way the Normans Barons were given lands and titles following the Norman conquest in 1066. Not all actively supported the King ; the Duc de Orleans, rivals to the throne and in the 1770’s-80’s Louis-Phillipe was both Duc de Orleans and Premier Prince du Sang (First Prince of the Blood) and thus first in line after Louis XVI’s male heirs. He actively sought to challenge Louis and later voted for regicide in 1793. Other families, however, were ‘new money’ and used it to purchase their nobility through one of the venal officers available. Venality of office had emerged during the sixteenth century when the French monarchy was strapped for cash. This made these families exempt from taxation. In addition, the hereditary nature of these postings meant that these titles extended to their children. These nobles were called ‘Noblesse du Robe’ (Nobles of the robe). The Fronde, although suppressed, drove Louis XIV to Versaille in order to have more control of the nobility, as his excessive frivolity was a power play, and to safeguard himself. Access to the monarch was carefully stage managed, whilst royal patronage was highly sought after. Thus, absolutism was not absolute in the 20th century, instead there was the sense of totalitarian rule. As a result of Louis XVI being far less adept, this is arguably what led to the revolution as an absolutist monarch was underpinned by divine right and being a political chess player. Other than military force (in the form of foreign regiments e.g. the Swiss Guard) the King would use Lettres de Cachet. This gave him the power to send people to gaol without trial. By the 1780’s, as many as thirty prisons including the Bastille were used for this purpose. One of the greatest critics of this system was Honore Gabriel Riqueti Comte de Mirabeau, arguing it was despotic. The revolutionaries later adopted similar draconian measures during the Terror. The First Estate under the Bourbons was the Church who looked to the Pope as well as the divine right of Kings. As a result the French Church was given greater autonomy and privileges, but was later deemed treacherous due to its foreign influence. They were all exempt from taxation, like the Second Estate, but unlike the Second Estate they were even exempt from vingtieme. They did pay a voluntary sum, known as the don gratuit, to the crown, but this doesn’t class as taxation. Clergy were also tried in Church courts and were thus liable to be given lesser punishments than local courts. France under the Bourbons was a state on the verge of change, with Europe set to be convulsed with political, social and industrial upheaval. However, it maintained characteristics which by no means were modern. This duality would be one of the reasons why the French Revolution would act as a political earthquake, the aftershocks of which would be felt long after the lifetimes of those who lived through it. |
The Third Estate
The Second Estate
The First Estate
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The ideas of the Enlightened philosophers | 1740-80 | The Enlightenment philosophes questioned political, social and other established traditions. Philosophes believed that the Catholic Church was a block to progress, however, their attempts to critique the Church, indirectly critiqued the Crown. By the end of the Enlightenment the public had developed political conscience. The movement encouraged debate about freedom, opportunity, and behaviour towards others: philosophies that were later to be summed up in the French Revolutionary slogan,‘liberté égalité fraternité’. The dissemination of such ideas was largely limited to the educated and there was no concrete political programme for reform. Nevertheless, the intellectual atmosphere generated in the academies and salons (Madame Necker), and stimulated by the American War of Independence, encouraged criticism of absolute government and the institutions associated with it. Polymaths were masters of all trades, e.g. Da Vinci, Rousseau and Newton.
The American War of Independence was incredibly influential on the Enlightenment ideas and ultimately the French Revolution. The war began in 1776 and the French joined the Americans in 1778, as revenge against the British for the Seven Year War (1756-63). This liberation from the British inspired liberation from within France as Enlightened Nobles returned as ‘Politicised Warriors’. |
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Economic context | 1770-80 | The French economy was predominantly agricultural: only 15% of the population lived in localities of more than 2000 inhabitants. However, due to seigneurial arrangements and the rise in population, farming families were dividing land between sons. This reduced the size of holdings to below the level of self-sufficiency. In comparison to Britain and the United Provinces, France can be considered backwards in its way of operation. The yield from French farms was very low, there was rural overpopulation and the highly-taxed peasantry persisted with backward agricultural practices. Food production could not keep up with the population growth. The state imposed many regulations, including internal trade barriers, thus, making the transport of goods more expensive and consequently driving up the prices of said goods as a result of the scarcity and expenses. There were variations in weights and measures across the country. It had been estimated that there were 25,000 different units of measure in use in France before 1789. They varied between towns and trades, which offered ample opportunity for fraud. In 1780 there was a decline in France’s textile industry in the face of British competition. The French industry was less mechanised than that of the British. The banking system in France was untrustworthy, as a borrowing scheme using paper money had been introduced by John Law at the beginning of the 18th century, but it collapsed. Leaving businessmen and traders to fear paper notes. This is important context to emphasise the popularity of Necker, as when he tried to re-introduce credit through notes people were much more willing to follow him than they were with Brienne. Government was financed by direct and indirect taxation, supplemented by ‘temporary expendants’ such as loans or sales of offices to meet the shortfall between income and expenditure. Traditionally, the main direct tax was the taille personnel (paid on the estimated value of annual possessions), but in some areas this was calculated differently and was known as the taille reelle. The capitation and vigtieme were used by kings to fund wars, which theoretically everyone had to pay. The privileges of the first two estates however, had these taxes considerably reduced. Government was increasingly forced to rely upon loans and as interest had to be paid on these loans, a substantial royal debt had been run up. When Louis XIV, the sun king, died in 1715, France already had a national debt of 2 billion livres. The annual interest on this payment was 165 million livres, which was more than the government collected in taxes; producing a severe balance of payments crisis (deficit). A number of ill-advised financial manoeuvres in the late 1700s worsened the financial situation of the already desperate French government. The War of the Austrian Succession (1756-63) was closely followed by France’s prolonged involvement in the Seven Years’ War of 1756–1763 which cost around 1.3 billion livres and ended with the disastrous economic loss of all French colonial possessions in North America. Thus, by the time Louis XVI came to the throne in 1774 France was already in an economic state of crisis. So, the country’s participation in the American Revolution of 1775–1783 aggravated the situation further and due to the government having a sizable army and navy to maintain, which was an expenditure of particular importance during those volatile times, an environment by in which France was digging itself a larger whole to climb out of was created. By 1783 the national debt stood at 3.3 billion livres. Moreover, in the typical indulgent fashion associated with the upkeep of King Louis XVI’s extravagant palace at Versailles and the frivolous spending of the queen, Marie-Antoinette, did little to relieve the growing debt. These decades of fiscal irresponsibility were one of the primary factors that led to the French Revolution. |
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Turgot appointed | 1774-76 | Turgot was appointed finance minister in 1774 but was dismissed two years later. Turgot was a physiocrat (science and economics) who believed in a free market to stimulate demand and create taxable wealth. Turgot tried to weed out useless officers and expensive tax farmers by putting the collection of some taxes in the hands of government agents called regisseurs. His attempts to introduce free trade with grain were poorly timed, as a bad harvest in 1774 sent prices rocketing and the rioting that followed in northern France (known as the 'Flour War') put Turgot in a vulnerable position. In 1776 Turgot introduced the Six Edicts, in the hopes of building a fairer society. This was an enlightened attempt to shift the brunt of the tax burden from the poorer sections of society to the more wealthy. In response, the Paris Parlement defended its privilege from attack by condemning the Edicts as an ‘inadmissible system of equality’. Although Louis XVI and his chief minister, Maurepas, had been persuaded by Turgot that the Edicts were a good thing, in the end their nerve failed. Marking the failure of Turgot’s attempts to reform the constitution. Parlement’s protest was significant but ultimately, Turgot was undermined by a lack of support at Court. Historian E.N. Williams argues that with the fall of Turgot, the crown went past the point of no return. The ministers that followed made the situation worse as they could not face trying to reform the system, as Turgot had tried, or agitated the situation by attempting other financial reforms. |
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Necker | 1777-81 | Necker’s appointment coincided with the AWOI, which was an expensive venture. Necker attempted to introduce financial reforms to the system hoping to reduce the deficit problem; he did this by attempting to abolish offices, cut royal extravagance and recognise public accounts. He made plans to introduce provincial assemblies, this was halted by the intendants. The most significant to reforming the system was the introduction of a Central Treasury to control spending. Necker’s greatest talent was raising loans from investors, this avoided increasing taxation and as a result, any hostility from the Paris Parlement. Necker raised 520 million livres between 1777 and 1781, the interest rate however, stood at 6-10%. These efforts paid for the American War but in order to prove his credit worthiness, he published the compte rendu in 1781. The compte rendu showed 10 million livres in credit; but not the 200 million livres spent on the war, it had a limited lifespan. By the influence of Marie-Antoinette and Ministers Necker was dismissed in 1781. Necker’s strategy was short term and could not be sustained. |
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Calonne | 1783-87 | Calonne reinstated the practice of selling offices, many of which Necker had abolished. He also borrowed heavily, which could only be sustained for a short time and by 1785, credit was drying up. The Paris Parlement refused to register any further loans, forcing Calonne to come up with a scheme to reform the tax system of France. It was radical, ambitious and consisted of three parts: 1. Replace the capitiation and the vingtieme with a single land tax; everyone would have to pay and there would be no exemptions considered. 2. Internal customs barriers and price controls in grain trading would be abandoned; this would hopefully stimulate the economy and allow the free movement of grain from one part of France to another. 3. National confidence would be restored, enabling Calonne to raise loans in the short term to resolve the most immediate problems. On 20th of August 1786, Calonne informed Louis that the state was on the verge of financial collapse. For 1786, there would be a shortfall of over 100 million livres. The shock of this should not be underestimated as the compte rendu of 1781 presented the crown's financial situation in a much more positive way; this was, of course, totally misleading and made Calonne's job of convincing the king of the need for reform harder. |
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Brienne | 1787-88 | Brienne replaced Calonne although the Notables were no more cooperative with him than they were with Calonne. This was the moment in which the parlement emerged as the focus of political dissent. Brienne retained Calonne's land tax and introduced further reform. He ended further venal offices, reformed education, established a central treasury, codified laws, reformed the army and introduced religious toleration. He also took out new loans at very high rates of interest. The parlement blocked these reforms and stated that the Estates-General were the only body who could consent to new taxes. Additionally, crowds were assembling on the streets calling for the Estates-General; Louis reacted by exiling parlement to Troyes. In the end, by September, Louis had to relent and allowed the parlement back to Paris. This did not stop the demonstration which was made up of nobles and middle class citizens, who supported the parlement, and who argued that they were defending the rights of the people against a despotic regime. In May 1788, the Paris Parlement sued the 'Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom' in which it argued that only the Estates-General could sanction new taxes. This was countered by the Crown who issued the 'May Edicts' which deprived the parlements of their right to register and protest against royal decrees. Worst of all, the clergy-the group most loyal to the Crown - began to support the parlement. They condemned the reforms and granted a don gratuit of less than a quarter the size the Crown had requested. This shows that the protests were led by the First and Second Estate rather than the Third. The reason the protests kept up momentum was the collapse of the Crown's finances. On 16th August, payments from the treasure were suspended and Brienne resigned. Necker was brought back in after Brienne’s resignation in 1788, despite Louis’ reluctance as many were demanding his reinstatement, but even the popular Necker could not halt the continuing financial crisis, which led to the declaration of bankruptcy in August 1788. However, with the old reform package abandoned, minds focussed on the promise of an Estates General, which was to be held on the 5th of May 1789. |
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Louis XVI declares war on England in support of American Revolution | 1778 | The liberation in America from the British inspired liberation within France. Generals, enlightened and of the Second Estate, went over to America and became politicised. France joined this fight as retribution for the Seven Year War they lost in 1763. Lafayette was a general in the AWOI, an enlightened noble of the Second Estate who returned as a ‘politicised warrior’, he later became a prominent figure in the early revolution; before he was deemed a traitor. France joining the AWI was detrimental to France’s already struggling economy. Jacques Necker raised loans to cover cost, adding to the national debt, but this ‘tinkering at the margins’ is what contemporaries praised him for, as Necker hadn’t raised taxes, but this created a long-term problem which caused the need to call an Estates General. |
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Assembly of Notables; Parlement remonstrates against land tax and is exiled | 1787 Feb | The Assembly consisted of 144 members- nobles, bishops and princes- who would theoretically support the crown’s proposals. However, they were immediately hostile towards Calonne’s proposals, citing the compte rendu as evidence for Calonne’s incompétence. The attempt to obtain consent for a land tax in the Assembly of Notables failed and, as a result, Parlement proved even more hostile to the registration of such a measure. Parlement claimed to champion the ‘fundamental rights’ of the nation, while the King tried to curb its powers in the May Edicts. The clash led to Louis banishing the Parlement to Troyes. In April of 1787, Calonne directly appealed to the public stating that the Assembly were only interested in their own privileges. This further provoked criticism of Calonne and Louis XVI dismissed him in April. |
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The Paris Parlement | May 1787 | Brienne now called the Paris Parlement, trying to force the Parlement to accept the tax changes using the Lit de Justice. The Parlement refused, calling for an Estates General instead. Regional Parlements also opposed the King’s plans and rioting occurred across France. The King was forced to back peddle and the Paris Parlement returned in September 1787. |
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Royal Session | Nov 1787 | At a Royal Session of the organisation, the Duc D’Orleans critisied Louis’ actions and was removed by the King’s use of Lettres du Cachet. Thus, only through negotiation did any change occur- the Parlement accepted the vingtieme but on the condition that an Estates General be called ‘by 1792’. | |
Paris Parlement | May 1788 | In May of 1788, the Paris Parlement issued the ‘Fundamental Laws of the Rights of the Kingdom’ which they argued could not be changed, even by the King. They furthered their call for an Estates General sooner than the King wanted. The King in turn issued the May Edicts which limited the power of the Paris Parlement. The May Edicts were forced through by a Lit de Justice. The Paris Parlement then staged an all night protest which was stopped with the use of royal troops. Popular protest flooded the pamphlets (‘Friend of the People’, savaging the monarchy) in the aftermath of this and the provincial parlements sent hundreds of remonstrances to the royal court. | |
Day of Tiles in Grenoble | 7th June 1788 | The Revolt of Grenoble (Day of Tiles) is considered the event which pushed Louis XVI to calling an Estates General. This is greatly significant when reflecting on the impact the common people had on the origins of the French Revolution. Tensions that had been rising due to poor harvests and the high cost of bread, which were then being exacerbated by the refusal of the First and Second Estate to relinquish the right to collect feudal and seignorial royalties from their peasants. This is crucial context as on the 20th of 1788 the Parlement of Dauphiné joined the rebellion of the other regional Parlements in open opposition of the Crown. To suppress this, Lettres De Cachet were issued against the Nobles on the 7th of June to the judges. The significance of the aforementioned context is that the 7th was a Saturday, and Saturday was market day. This meant the peasants were densely gathered and they disliked the proposed judicial reforms because of the impacts on the local economy. If the Parlement of Dauphiné lost its regional monopoly on justice, many customers could be lost. On the morning of the 7th, rumours that the judges would be forcefully removed by the government swirled paranoia and uncertainty, as a result the people began to mobilise. The commander of the troops, Duc de Clemont-Tonnerre, responded by sending troops to the area in small detachments, instead of pacification the troops presence aggravated the peasants and the fault of sending small detachments meant that they were outnumbered by the peasants. The people took to the roof tops to hurl roof tiles at the troops. |
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France is declared bankrupt | August 1788 | The reasons the aforementioned protests kept momentum was the collapse of the Crown's finances. Bankruptcy had been stalled, but by August 1788, it could be avoided no longer. On 16th of August, payments from the treasury were suspended and Brienne resigned. Necker returned to office with the oversight of Marie-Antoinette. Bankruptcy in conjunction with the ‘Day of Tiles’, the Estates General would now meet on the 5th of May 1789. Following this, provinces were called to create Cahiers (lists of grievances), to inform debate when the Estates General met at Versailles. |
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Cahiers de doleances | 1789 | The cahiers, drawn up in 1789, in accordance with an ancient custom by the three orders of the realm, form one of the most extraordinary historical documents of all time.The conditions under which they were drafted were, on the whole, favourable to a frank and general expression on the part of all classes of the French people of their suggestions for reform. | |
Reveillon Riots | 26th-29th Apr 1789 | There were riots over wages and the cost of bread, such as the Réveillon riots between 26 and 29 April 1789 in the St. Antoine district of Paris. Rioting was not new in French political culture, indeed in 1775 grain riots had spread across France in what became known as the Flour Wars This event led to riots outside Versailles itself on 2-3 May 1775. Eventually the riots across France were stopped but only with the aid of 25,000 royalist troops. This provides context for the fear of starvation felt across France. |
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Sieyes published ‘What is the Third Estate?’ | January 1789 | The pamphlet, ‘What is the Third Estate?’ was tremendous as it evaluated the structure of the Ancien Regime and advocated for a political voice amongst the overlooked masses. |
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Opening of the Estates General and the consequences in Paris | 5th May 1789 | Elected deputies went to represent an area at the Estates General. The deputies were predominantly lawyers to represent the bourgeoisie. The fact that they were lawyers was crucial as it meant that the representatives were educated, thus, could critique the laws of the land. Despite the air of enthusiasm, Necker’s address failed to confront the most pressing issues: voting by head and a new constitution. The death of Dauphin on the 4th of June caused the King to go into mourning, postponing the issues that the Estates General had been called for, this aggravated many of the third Estate representatives. On the 3rd of June the Third Estate escalated things by insisting that the credentials of those who claimed to have been elected should be verified in a common session of all the deputies of the three estates. The Third Estate refused to do anything until the other two joined them. This meant weeks of inaction followed and the government did..On the 10th of June the Third Estate began verifying the deputies credentials without the approved authority. They became agents of their own change. Much of what was happening at Versailles was being fed back to Paris. The centre of political debate was the Palais Royal, owned by the Duc D’Orleans, who opened the Palais to the public in 1780; the writings from this encouraged the Third Estate to rise up, creating an atmosphere of sedition. The ‘talk’ that was generated here from authors and pamphleteers in Versaille was then fed back to Versailles where it entered into the debates. |
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The Third Estate declares itself the National Assembly | 19th June 1789 | Now a political force, the Third Estate voted on naming themselves the National Assembly and by June 19th, the Clergy had voted to join the Third Estate. Now that they were no longer just the Third Estate, the unifying name presented them as a more holistic representation of the people. This is a key defining moment as the title gave the group greater legitimacy; which in the early days of the revolution was a large question on who the legitimate authority laid with. Louis' response to this was that it was ‘just a phrase’, severely underestimating the significance of this event. |
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Tennis Court Oath and the King’s Olive Branch | 20th June 1789 | Louis decided to hold a seance royale (a session of the Estates General in the presence of the Monarch) where he would propose a series of reforms. The date was set for 23rd of June. On 20th of June, the deputies of the Third Estate found that the hall in which they met had been closed to prepare for the meeting. None of the three orders had actually been informed of the seance royale, thus, were paranoid that a plot to silence them was afoot. The assembled deputies were consequently furious. They found an empty tennis court and took the infamous Tennis Court Oath. It declared: “Nothing can prevent (the assembly) from continuing its discussions”. Necker advised the King that a seance royale was now essential. He advised Louis to accept the notion of voting in common. The Queen and his brothers protested and Louis bowed to this pressure. On 23rd of June, Louis decided to ignore the events of 10th-17th of June and said that the privileges of the nobles and clergy could not be discussed. The King was prepared to accept reforms however, including restrictions on his authority. The Third Estate would probably have accepted the reforms Louis presented back in May but now the mood had changed; they did not go far enough. The King only urged the clergy and nobility to give up their financial privileges. It was additionally declared that the three estates were sacrosanct and that spectators were excluded from future sessions. The King ended the session with a clear threat. Nothing the Estates did was valid without his approval. If they refused to cooperate, he would assume the role of sole decision-maker on behalf of the people as the only 'true representative' of the people. |
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Storming of the Bastille Not finished, the is just lead up | 14th July 1789 | Whilst Louis compromised, he also had soldiers surrounding Paris to contain the reaction of the people from the ‘political revolution’, Louis didn’t use normal soldiers as they would have more loyalty to the French people than the King. This use of foreign troops created tensions and suspicions within Paris (The foreign units caused consternation amongst the people and the representatives as many thought that Marie Antoinette was behind their arrival). By doing this Louis exacerbated the issue which was already present. Louis had ordered troops to move into Versailles and Paris on 22nd of June. By the end of June, 4,000 troops were stationed around Paris. Many of these troops were elite army units whose loyalty Louis believed to be unbreakable. Crucially, large numbers of officers and men of the regular French Army (Guardes-Francaise) were on the verge of mutiny and were unlikely to fire on the crowds. The government claimed it was merely to maintain order and this was believable until the last days of June. On 26th of June, 4,800 extra troops were ordered into Paris and then on 1st of July, another 11,500 were moved in. It seemed the National Assembly was to be dissolved by force. In the end, the Assembly was saved by the people of Paris. |
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The Paris Commune | 10th-17th July 1789 | The Bourgeoisie of Paris feared for their private property and also the King's intentions. So, on the 9th of July, the National Assembly became the 'National Constituent Assembly'. On the 10th the Paris Committee created a citizens militia to safeguard Paris.Then on the 15th the Paris-electors voted to create a new civic body - the commune with Sylvain Bailly as its head. The militia became 'The National Guard' and was placed under Lafayette's command. On the 17th of July, Louis visited the Hotel-de-Ville and officially recognised the revolution and donned the revolutionary cockade. This point onwards has a potential significance towards legitimacy. There is an open ended answer to control and legitimate groups. The N.C.A desperately cling to this notion. |
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Great Fear | Late July 1789 | The peasants in the countryside heard rumours of what was happening in Paris, this miscommunication sparked violence from the peasants towards the Nobility in the respective provinces. The Great Fear, in summary, was a wave of riots that swept through France in July/August of 1789. These riots arose from economic suffering, the potential developments at Versailles and the fear of outsiders. In mid July the peasants heard rumours that the King and his aristocrats hired gangs of mercenaries (or brigands) to destroy their crops and property, as a means of imposing political control. They took up arms to defend themselves in an offensive way. The Great Fear not only exposed the depth of peasant feelings about feudal dues, it also caused some consternation amongst the Second Estate and deputies of the N.C.A. | |
August Decrees | 6th Aug 1789 | The August Decrees: Tithes, venality and all privileges were all abolished, additionally, equality of taxation for all citizens and meritocracy were introduced. By morning, noble, clergy and commoner deputies had voted to ‘abolish the feudal system entirely’. The details of this became the primary focus of the Assembly for the next two years. This was partly done so rapidly in order to assert legitimacy |
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Declaration of the Rights of Man | Aug 1789 | Déclaration des droits de l’homme et du citoyen was passed by the N.C.A in August of 1789. The declaration was directly influenced by Thomas Jefferson working with Lafayette. Additionally influenced by the doctrine of ‘natural right’ (and Thomas Paine), the rights of man are held to be universal to everyone, always. (Didn’t apply to women, children, slaves or foreigners. So, ex-finance minister, Necker, would not have received these rights. Thus, still repressive.) Those who were deemed to hold these political rights were called ‘active citizens’. 4.3 million Frenchmen out of a population of 29 million gained the vote. Thus, ‘passive citizens’: 24.7 million. This was revolutionary, yet limited. |
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October Days | Oct 1789 | Female sans-culottes stormed Versailles with the hopes of confronting Marie-Antoinette with knives; in response to a disgraceful feast despite the agricultural crisis France was facing. The aim was to get Louis to accept the August Decrees. Lafayette and the National Guard turned up at the last minute to save Marie-Antoinette. |
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Church property seized | 2nd Nov 1789 | Church lands were nationalised on 2nd November, 1789. A huge amount of land was sold in 1791-2. The main beneficiaries were the bourgeoisie as they had the money to buy the land. The Biens nationaux (nationalised land) was sold off in large plots and the bourgeoisie bought the land that surrounded the towns. Peasants fared better the further away from towns they were. Many peasants who bought land were first-time land owners and even where the bourgeoisie bought most of the land they resold it to peasants in smaller parcels. The nationalisation of church land meant a significant increase in the number of small-scale landowners. It also meant that the state now paid the clergy's salaries. |
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Assignant issued | Dec 1789 | Assignats were introduced: these were paper money printed by the government from April 1790. They were bonds to be exchanged for church lands. | |
The Civil Constitution of the Clergy | 12th July 1790 | Despite fairly radical reforms, there was little conflict between Church and state until the Civil Constitution of the Clergy was approved on 12th July 1790. The sale of Church land forged a link between the revolution and the landed proprietors who had bought the land. In order to extend the reforming principles applied to other aspects of French society to the Church, measures were introduced between August 1789 and February 1790: Tithes, pluralism and annates were all abolished, the don gratuit was abolished. Contemplative monastic orders (those that did not undertake any charity work or community work) were abolished. Protestants were to receive equal civil rights (Jews were given these in September 1791). The Civil Constitution of the Clergy tied the Church to the administrative system that had been brought in: All except parish priests and bishops were abolished. All bishops had to be approved by the French State - appointments by the Pope alone would not be recognized. All priests and bishops were to be elected by ballot and by absolute majority of those who voted. Absenteeism was to be banned. Priests were to be paid by the State year. Quite surprisingly, the Church was willing to accept the changes in order to avoid a split in the French Church. It requested that the proposals be discussed in a National Synod. This was a fair request in many respects but the Assembly did not want to give the Church a separate platform to discuss these changes - it was seen as bestowing on the Church a privileged position - something the Assembly had just abolished. As a Church Assembly was not allowed, the verdict of the Pope was eagerly awaited by the clergy. The Pope was involved in delicate negotiations over Avignon (territory in Southern France controlled by the Pope). Tired of waiting for a decision, the Assembly decreed that the clergy had to take an oath to the Constitution. |
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Oath to the Civil Constitution is introduced | Nov 1790 | A forced oath for all clergy members to pledge allegiance to the revolution, denouncing foreign influence. |
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Political clubs | Jacobins: The Jacobin Club included both prominent parliamentary factions of the early 1790s, the Mountain and the Girondins (deputies from the Gironde region of Bordeaux). The name Jacobins, given in France to the Dominicans (because their first house in Paris was in the Rue Saint-Jacques), was first applied to the club in ridicule by its enemies but was reclaimed by the members. Feuillants: It consisted of monarchists and reactionaries who sat on the right of the Legislative Assembly of 1791. It came into existence on 16 July 1791 when the left-wing Jacobins split between moderates (Feuillants), who sought to preserve the position of the king and radicals (Jacobins), who wished to press for a continuation of direct democratic action. Cordeliers: These radicals all hailed from the Cordeliers district in Paris and had played key roles in the storming of the Bastille. The society held its meetings in the Cordeliers Convent and quickly became known as the Club des Cordeliers. The Cordeliers leadership were mostly bourgeoisie but they had a loyal following from the Sans-Culottes. |
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The Affaire de Vincennes and the ‘Day of Daggers’ | 28th Feb 1791 |
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The Royal family’s flight to Varennes | 20th June 1791 | The Flight to Varennes, during the night of 20th-21st of June 1791, was a bungled attempt by the Royal Family to escape Paris. Despite best laid plans, the Royal carriage escaped only as far as the small town of Varennes, where they were arrested after having been recognized at their previous stop in Sainte-Menehould. The plot was thwarted by the postmaster of Sainte-Menehould, who recognized the king from his portrait printed on an assignant. Detachments of Royalist cavalry, posted along the intended route, had been withdrawn or neutralised by suspicious crowds before the large and slow moving coach being used by the royal party had reached them. The intended goal of the unsuccessful flight was to provide the king with greater freedom of action and personal security than was possible in Paris. The troops under his command included two Swiss and four German mercenary regiments. When the royal family returned under guard to Paris, the crowd Silent. The King was supposed to be seen as a unifying symbol for France but was now instead a cowardly traitor. This created the debate on the abolition of the monarchy and the potential establishment of a republic. Ultimately, it caused Louis' suspension from office in July of 1791. |
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Champ de Mars | 16th-17th July 1791 | After the Constituent Assembly declared that Louis would remain King after the flight to Varennes and retain his suspensory veto, Brissot created a petition calling for the removal of the King. From 6,000 people, the crowd swelled to 50,000 along the march to Champs de Mars, in support of the petition. This crowd included the radicals, Danton and Desmoulins. The site was supposed to be symbolic (field of war), but peaceful. However, it turned into a massacre where 50 people were shot on the command of Lafayette by the National Guard. His reputation turned tyrannical and Bailly, mayor of Paris, was later executed for his role in the event. |
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Declaration of Pillnitz | Aug 1791 | The declaration was so significant because it appeared to be a threat to interfere with French internal affairs. Enemies of the King considered that the declaration justified their opposition and mistrust of the monarchy. However, it wasn’t truly a threat as other powers, such as Britain, wouldn’t have joined the Austrians. | |
Constitution of 1791 | Sep 1791 | The constitution consisted of the King’s right to appoint his ministers (although they could not be members of the Assembly) and military commanders. His veto could not be applied to financial or constitutional matters such as taxation. The King needed the consent of the Assembly to declare war and that the King was subject to law, thus, could not rule without the consent of the Assembly. The new system was underpinned by the bourgeoisie, it was a slightly fairer system but disproportionately benefited the bourgeoisie as they bought up most of the Church lands and were the only ones wealthy enough to become national deputies. |
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Legislative Assembly meets | 1st Oct 1791 |
The optimism of 1789 had disappeared because:
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Decrees against emigres and refractory priests | Nov 1791 | All refractory clergy were suspected; their property was to be confiscated. All emigres still out of France on Jan 1st 1792, would forfeit their property and be regarded as traitors. |
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Declaration of war on Austria | 20th April 1792 | Leopold’s death in 1792 led to the ascension of young and ambitious Francis II of Austria, who accelerated war plans. France declared war on the 20th of April. Prussia then joined in June of that year, under the leadership of the vastly experienced Duke of Brunswick. | |
Dismissal of Girondin ministers | 13th June 1792 | After Louis' refusal of the laws passed on the 27th May; 1. Deportation of refractory priests, 2. Disbandment of the King’s Guard, 3. The establishment of a camp for 20,000 National Guards (federes), the Girondin protested. Louis promptly dismissed them on the 13th of June. Here, Louis fell into Brissot’s trap to expose Louis' treachery against the French people. |
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Sans-culottes’ first journee to the Tuileries | 20th June 1792 | Leaders of the Paris sections led an armed demonstration on the Tuileries in response to the King’s actions. Louis responded by toasting to the health of the Nation whilst wearing the bonnet rouge. This action calmed some turmoil. The Girodins moved towards helping the King in a hope for a united governmental effort to prevent imminent uprisings planned by the federes and section leaders. The Girodins' ministers warned Louis that future uprisings would be worse than what happened on the 20th of June. This support was conditional on the reinstatement of the dismissed ministers on the 13th of June. Louis refused. |
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Déclaration La patrie en danger | 11th July 1792 | The issuance of this decree called on every Frenchman to fight. The Sans-culottes demanded the admission of passive citizens into sectional assemblies and the National Guard in exchange. Their requests were granted by the end of July. The Bourgeoisie's grip on power was loosening and the Sans-culottes growing. The deputies' need for soldiers put them in a position where they could be pressured. |
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Publication of Brunswick Manifesto | 25th July 1792 | The Brunswick Manifesto outlined demands; liberty to Louis and his family, if Louis was harmed by the parisians then the Austrians and Prussians would burn Paris to the ground, finally, the manifesto claimed that the revolution was forced upon France by the radicals by appealing to the Frenchmen outside of Paris to insinuate divisions in the cause. The Parisians mocked the manifesto. |
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Sans-culottes’ second journee to the Tuileries | 10th Aug 1792 | The anger over Louis’ traitorous behaviour resulted in a storming of the Tuileries which was defended by the Swiss Guard. Half-way through the Swiss surrendered, however, as the emblem of the monarchy, as the built up anger was directed towards them. Thus, were butchered whilst defenceless. |
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Suspension of the King | 10th Aug 1792 | King Louis XVI was suspended as a result of the second journee to the Tuileries. | |
Invasion of France | 19th Aug 1792 | Lafayette fled to Austria and France was invaded by Coalition troops led by the Duke of Brunswick. | |
Royalist Riots | 22nd Aug 1792 | Royalist riots broke out across France in areas such as Brittany, La Vendee and Dauphine. Demonstrating that there was not a united France which was crucial in a time of war. | |
September massacres | Sep 1792 | The September Massacres were a wave of killings in Paris (2nd-7th Sep 1792) and other cities during the French Revolution. There was fear that whilst the National Guardsmen were fighting the Coalition, inmates of the city’s prisons, who were thought to be royalist sympathisers, would rise up against the Revolution and attack Paris from within. Those who were left to fight in the war had little experience, there was a lack of trust in them which was amplified by their losses. With the abandonment of Lafayette, many people lost faith in their side and a conspiracy of a royalist army forming caused the September Massacres. Nost of the prisoners were being held on crimes like petty theft, thus, were innocent against who the sans-culottes perceived them to be. Some were put on trial, but it was summary justice (mob justice). |
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Meeting of the National Convention | 20th Sep 1792 | These elections were held just after the September massacres, where all male citizens could vote (no active or passive). The Girondins tried to exploit the massacres by emphasising a need for stability but this had the opposite effect in Paris- due to their hostility towards the sans-culottes and the Commune. The widening of the electorate had very little impact as the vote turnout was so low- fear of being labelled a traitor? Only people who actually wanted the radicals voted. Robespierre, Marat, Danton and Desmoulins were all elected. 83/749 deputies had been in the National Constituent Assembly, including Robespierre. Convention also contained a new radical element- some genuinely ordinary people has been elected eg. Louis Legendre who was a butcher. Effects of these elections: abolishment of the monarchy, republic proclaimed. The monarchists were disenfranchised (made passive so couldn't vote) |
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Victory at Valmy | 20th Sep 1792 | The Battle of Valmy was the first French win of the war as slowly the army had been reforming itself (organising itself, becoming unified in purpose). This was a clash of willpower- the French were fighting for freedom/revolution so motivated to win at all cost to save the revolution. The Prussians were fighting for their King- no real incentive. Valmy saves the revolution but then the revolutionaries turn their attention to the King. |
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Monarchy is abolished and France becomes a republic | 21st and 22nd Sep 1792 | The Convention declared the abolishment of the monarchy on the 21st September and proclaimed France a republic the next day. Robespierre had been encouraging a republic for a while as he deemed it was necessary for the revolution to live. |
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Armoire de fer | Dec 1792 | Mirabeau had sent letters to the King, providing information about the revolution because he still wanted a constitutional monarch. However, as Mirabeau was a hero of the early revolution; ‘letters to my constituents’, the Tennis Court Oath, and famously stood up at the Assembly and said “we will not move but for the force of bassinets”, this destroyed Mirabeau’s memory and sealed the fate of the king. | |
King’s trial and execution | Jan 1793 | The Convention needed to decide what to do with Louis. The Jacobins wanted a trial to look fair/just, the opposite of absolutism. They spent from 1st Nov -17th Jan debating this, and read out their verdict on the 20th Jan (The trial took place on 11th December and was arguably a trial of the monarchy, not just Louis). Within 24hrs, Louis was executed. Trial: Robespierre and the Jacobins wanted him executed. Stop him being a figurehead for counter-revolutionaries, therefore he was always a threat.The Girondins feared this would increase unease and provoke civil war. Difference in opinion hence long debating time. Louis defended himself at his trial under the rules of the constitutional monarchy, to show the convention they had undermined previous revolutionaries. The Convention acted as his judge and jury controversial as could be argued to be invalid/sham trial. Louis supposedly approached his death with dignity and grace, before being executed by Sanson. Killing Louis further divided the revolution, increasing the violence. It also intensified the war, as Britain joined the war due to the threat to their monarchy, which globalised the war. |
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French declaration of war on Britain and the United Provinces | Feb 1793 | The foreground for the inclusion of Britain and the United Provinces in the war was the issuement of ‘the edict of fraternity’ by the French Republic on the 19th of Nov 1792. This created the ideological war (pitts republicanism and absolutism abroad). These ideological expansions of war fall under the ‘War of the First Coalition’. In 1793 the war went global; due to the British slave trade intrest and the intervention of William Pitts (Pitts Gold; to fund the emigres to form a counter revolution), the British blockaded the French to prevent trade. Alongside these developments inflation rose and due to the cost of war this became an increasingly larger problem. The peasants in Brittany (chouans) were rising up against the revolutionaries. | |
Creation of Revolutionary Tribunal and watch committees Formation of CPS and representants-en-mission | March 1793 April 1793 | To combat the aforementioned developments a new committee with Seiyes, Danton, Thomas Paine and Concordet were put in charge of the internal and external conflict. This committee was called the CGS (committee of general security). The Revolutionary Tribunal combatted counter-revolutionaries and was the main instrument of enacting Terror. Created in April and reformed by Robespierre in July, the CPS (Committee of Public Safety) was a 12 man committee formed to monitor and speed up the work of the ministers by executing executive authority. |
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First Law of Maximum | 4th May 1793 | Fixed grain prices. (Don’t use this example for economic or governmental intervention; a far stronger example for all themes this event is applicable to is the Law of General Maximum) | |
Expulsions of Girondins federalist revolts | 2nd June 1793 | On the 26th of May Robespierre came down on the side of the sans-culottes when he invited ‘the people to place themselves in insurrection against corrupt Girondin deputies. On the 31st of May a rising began which spread rapidly when news of the overthrow of the Jacobins in Lyon reached Paris on the 1st of June. Then on the 2nd of June 80,000 National Guardsmen surrounded the \convention and directed their cannon at it. They demanded the expulsion of the Girondins from the Assembly and a maximum price imposed for all essential goods. When deputies tried to leave they were forced back. For the first time armed forces were being used against an elected assembly.To avoid a massacre or a seizure of power by the revolutionary commune, the Convention agreed to arrest 29 Girondin deputies and 2 ministers. |
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Assassination of Marat | July 1793 | Following the purge of the Girondins a young royalist, Charlotte Corday, assassinated Marat in the vain belief that it would end the revolution. |
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Levee en masse | 23rd Aug 1793 | This marked the appearance of total war. It stated that until the enemies of France were expelled from the Republic, then all Frenchmen were in a state of permanent requisition for the army. Nearly half a million conscripts; unmarried men between the ages of 18 and 25. They had to be fed, armed and trained. Thus, all resources of the nation were put at the government's disposal. | |
Sans-culottes’ journée | 5th Sep 1793 | On the 4th of Sep a crowd surrounded the Hotel de Ville to demand bread and higher wages. The following day (5th), urged on by Roux, it marched on the Convention, forcing it to accept a series of radical measures. The Sections imposed the proclamation ‘Terror as the order of the day’. The Convention immediately authorised the formation of the armee revolutionnaire consisting mainly of sans-culottes. The purpose being to confront counter-revolutionary activity and organise the defence of the Republic. |
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Law of suspects | 17th Sep 1793 | The Law of Suspects was a decree passed by the French National Convention on 17th September 1793, during the French Revolution. Some historians consider this decree the start of the Reign of Terror; they argue that the decree marked a significant weakening of individual freedoms that led to "revolutionary paranoia" that swept the nation The law ordered the arrest of all avowed enemies and suspected enemies of the Revolution, and specifically aimed at unsubmissive former nobles, émigrés, officials removed or suspended from office, officers suspected of treason, and hoarders of goods. The following year, the decree was expanded and became more strict. Implementation of the law and arrests were entrusted to oversight committees, and not to the legal authorities. The decree also introduced the maxim that subjects had to prove their innocence, which was later extended by the Law of 22 Prairial (10th June 1794). The Law of Suspects, actually a decree rather than a law, was based on a proposal by Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai and Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès, approved by the National Convention of the French First Republic. It supplemented an earlier law of 10 March 1793, which created the revolutionary tribunals but contained a much narrower definition of suspects. |
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Law of General Maximum | 29th Sep 1793 | The Law of the General Maximum was instituted on 29th September 1793, setting price limits to attempt to ensure the continued supply of food to the French capital. It was enacted as an extension of the Law of Suspects of 17 September, and succeeded the Law of the Maximum of 4th May 1793, which served a similar purpose. The General Maximum's economic impact was largely negative, as its efforts at price control led to an overall decrease in food supply and prolonged famines in parts of the country. The British blockade was driving inflation, thus, This was an attempt to regulate food supplies in France by imposing strict price controls. It was made chiefly to satisfy and placate the sans culottes who were starving, as the peasants in areas of federalist revolts couldn’t harvest. The policy proved disastrous, causing food production and availability to fall even further. |
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Declaration of revolutionary government | Oct 1793 | This is a combination of the Laws declared surrounding this time. The most significant one being the Law of Frimaire which is also known as the ‘Law of Revolutionary Government’. This is a pivotal point in the consequences of Terror policy. | |
Law of Frimaire | 4th Dec 1793 | On December 4th, 1793, a law was passed, taking as its name the date in the Revolutionary Calendar: 14 Frimaire. This law was designed to give the Committee of Public Safety even more control over the whole of France by providing a structured 'chain of authority' under the revolutionary government and to keep everything highly centralised. It stopped representatives-en-mission from taking 'action' without the authority of the committee. This was an attempt to bring order to the Reign of Terror and make the representatives more accountable, especially following the events in Lyon in October 1793. Events in Nantes were even cruller: during this period, anyone arrested and jailed for not consistently supporting the Revolution, or suspected of being a royalist sympathiser, especially Catholic priests and nuns, was cast into the river Loire and drowned on the orders of Jean- Baptiste Carrier, the representative-on-mission. Before the drownings ceased, innocent families with women and children died in what Carrier himself called "the national bathtub". . The Committee was now the supreme executive and nobody further down the chain was supposed to alter the decrees in any way, including the deputies on a mission who became increasingly sidelined as local district and commune bodies took over the job of applying the law. In effect, the law of 14 Frimaire aimed to institute a uniform administration with no resistance, the opposite of that to the constitution of 1791. It marked the end of the first phase of the terror, a 'chaotic' regime, and an end to the campaigning of the revolutionary armies who first came under central control and were then closed on March 27th, 1794. Meanwhile, factional infighting in Paris saw more groups go to the guillotine and sansculotte power began to wane, partly as a result of exhaustion, partly because of the success of their measures (there was little left to agitate for) and partly as a purging of the Paris Commune took hold. |
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Arrest and execution of Hebertists | March 1794 | The Hébertistes were followers of Jacques Hebert, a left-wing former supporter of the revolutionary government, who demanded that hoarders be executed and property redistributed (this was very popular with the sans-culottes). They had little support in the Convention but not in the Cordeliers Club, the Commune or other popular Paris societies. Robespierre disliked their polItical extremism, particularly their leading part in the dechristianisation campaign, turning Catholics against the revolution. When Hebert called for an insurrection at the beginning of March 1974, he was arrested along with eighteen supporters. They were accused of being foreign agents who wanted a military dictatorship that would then prepare the way for restored monarchy. |
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Arrest and execution of Dantonists | Mar-Apr 1794 | Danton, a former colleague of Robespierre, was a greater threat from the Right due to his high profile and stance with the Jacobins. The Indulgents wanted to halt the Terror and centralisation imposed in December. To do this. Danton argued the war would have to come to an end as it was largely responsible for the Terror. Desmoulins supported his desire to end the Terror and in his newspaper ‘Le Vieux Cordelier’ in December 1793 called for the release of ‘200,000 citizens who are called suspects’. Danton, unlike Hebert, had a large following in the Convention. However, his aims were felt by the CPS to leave the door open for a return of monarchy. He was therefore brought before the Revolutionary Tribunal on charges based on his political record and on the 5th of April 1794 was executed with many of his followers, including Desmoulins. |
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Festival of the Supreme Being | 8th June 1794 | Robespierre loathed the dechristianisation campaign as he himself was religious but also because it made Catholics an enemy of the Revolution. Thus, he wanted to unite all Frenchmen under a new religion; the Cult of the Supreme Being, which he convinced the Convention to accept in a decree on the 7th May 1794. On the 8th of June 1794 Robespierre organised a large ‘Festival of the Supreme Being’ in Paris. This pleased no one. |
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Law of the 22 Prairial | 10th June 1794 | The Law of 22 Prairial, also known as the Law of the Great Terror, was enacted on 10 June 1794. The immediate background to the introduction of the Prairial Law was the attempted assassinations of Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois on 23 May and of Maximilien Robespierre on 25 May. Introducing the decree at the Convention, Georges Couthon, who had drafted it, argued that political crimes were far worse than common crimes because in the latter 'only individuals are wounded' whereas in the former 'the existence of free society is threatened'. The law was an extension of the centralisation and organisation of the Terror, following the decrees of 16 April and 8 May which had suspended the revolutionary court in the provinces and brought all political cases for trial in the capital. The result of these laws was that by June 1794 Paris was full of suspects awaiting trial. The law was also prompted by the idea that members of the Convention who had supported Georges Danton were politically unreliable, a view shared by Robespierre, Couthon, Saint-Just and others. They felt that these people needed to be brought swiftly to Justice without a full debate by the Convention itself. |
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Overthrow of Robespierre | July (9 Thermidor) | Also known as the Coup of Thermidor, Robespierre was overthrown on the 27th of July (9 Thermidor). Previously, he had taken a month off due to exhaustion. He only showed up at the CPS two or three times. When he did reappear, it was to address the Convention not the CPS. On the 26th of July (8 Thermidor) Robespierre attacked the members of the Convention, who he claimed were plotting against the government. When asked to name them he declined. This was his undoing as many felt threatened. Moderates like Carnot and terrorists like Fouche and Collot alike. Thus, when Robespierre tried to speak at the Convention the very next day, he was shouted down and the Convention voted for the arrest of Robespierre and his associates (his brother Augustine, ect.). They were taken to prisons controlled by the Commune and as Robespierre was still popular in the Commune, its leaders ordered gaolers to refuse accepting the prisoners and instead called for an insurrection with their support. Following their release they called upon the National Guard of the Sections (still in their control) to mobilise. However, due to the dictatorship of the two committees, neither the Jacobin nor Commune could inspire these militants as they had done so on the 5th Sep 1792. The CGS now controlled the revolutionary committees and dissolved popular societies. As both the Convention and Commune called upon the National Guard of the Sections, there was great confusion. Only 17 out of 48 Sections sent troops to support the Commune. Hanriot had the Convention at his mercy, but failure of nerve on his part and a reluctance of action on Robespierre’s saved the Convention. Robespierre, who had tried to shoot himself, was then arrested for a second time along with his associates. This was ultimately a rejection of Terror by the government, however, the violence clearly carried over. |
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Journee of Germinal in Paris | 1st April 1795 | The hungry people of Paris turned their fury to the Convention, where a large crowd marched on the Convention. Many gained access to the main hall where they disrupted debates with demands of bread, the constitution of 1793 and release of the former members of the CPS: Barere, Collot and Billaud. The demonstrators expected support from the Montagnards in the Assembly but received none. When loyal National Guardsmen appeared, the insurgents withdrew without resisting. As a consequence, to demonstrate their authority, the Convention sentenced Barere, Collot and Billaud to be deported to Devil’s Island in the French colony of Guiana. To safeguard security, other activists during the Terror were disarmed. During the Spring of 1795 disillusionment with the Conventions inability to resolve the famine led to sporadic outbursts of violence in the provinces, some were organised by royalists. |
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White Terror | Apr-May 1795 | The White Terror was an attack on ex-terrorists and all who had done well out of the Revolution by those who had suffered under it. White was the colour of the Bourbons, thus, ‘White Terror’ implies that it was a royalist reaction. This was only partly true as the emigres and non-juring priests did take advantage of the anti-Jacobin revulsion at the persecution of the Year II. In Nimes, ‘Companies of the Sun’ were formed by royalists to attack former terrorists. However, most of those who participated in the White Terror had no interest in restoring any aspect of the Ancien Regime. Their main concern had been vengeance on all those who had been a part of popular societies and watch communities. The Whites had been victims of the Revolutionary Tribunals. In Paris: The White Terror did not cover the whole of France. It was confined to departments North and West of Loire and Lyon. In Paris it was limited to the activities of the jeunesse doree (Muscadins). These were middle class youths: bankers’ and lawyers’ clerks, actors/musicians, army deserters, sons of suspects or of those executed. Their attire reflected their intentions (e.g. hair tied back like those who were guillotined and extravagant garments to champion the class which was mistreated). They formed gangs to intimidate Jacobins and sans-culottes. Although there was some violence it wasn’t on the same level as the Terror. In Vendee: The White Terror in the north-west and south-east of France was much more violent. Guerrilla warfare was revived in the Vendée in 1794 after the brutal repression of Year II. In the spring, a movement known as Chouan, opposed to conscription, began in Brittany under the leadership of Jean Cottereau. From the summer of 1794 to the spring of 1796 the Chouans controlled most of Brittany and, under royalist leaders, sought English support. The government decided that the Chouan had to be eradicated, and sent Hoche with a huge army of 140,000 to wipe out the Chouan and Vendée rebels. Highly mobile flying columns of soldiers swept across the area north and south of the Loire and by the summer of 1796 they had restored government authority once again to this part of France. The murder gangs of the White Terror in the south were not considered a threat to the Republic. |
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Journee of Prairial- invasion of the convention | 20th May 1795 | A large crowd of housewives, workers and some National Guard units marched on the Convention to demand bread. In the ensuing chaos, a deputy was killed and the mood of the crowd became increasingly hostile. Those loyal to the Convention gathered to confront the crowd in the following days. The Convention’s gunners went over to the rebels and aimed their cannon at the Assembly, but no one was prepared to fire. The crisis was resolved when the Convention agreed to accept a petition from the insurgents and to set up a food commission. Loyal National Guards arrived in the evening and cleared the Assembly. On the 22nd May the Convention took the offensive. The rebel suburbs were surrounded by 20,000 troops of the regular army who forced them to give up their arms and cannon. This time the repression was severe. Prairial marked the end of the sans-culottes as a political and military force. The significance of Prairial was that the defeat of the popular movement marked the end of the radical phase of the Revolution. No longer would the sans-culottes be able to threaten and intimidate an elected assembly. In Year IV (1795-6) economic conditions were equally as bad as in Year III (1794-5), yet there was no rising. Demoralised, without arms and without leaders, the sans-culottes were a spent force. There were a number of reasons why the uprising of Prairial failed. The key factor, however, was the role of the army. The regular army was used against the citizens of Paris for the first time since the Réveillon riots in the spring of 1789. Its intervention was decisive and made clear just how dependent the new regime was on the military. This would prove to be the first of many instances when the army would interfere in France's internal politics. |
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Constitution of Year III | 22nd Aug 1795 | The Thermidorians wanted a new constitution, which would guarantee the main feature of the Revolution of 1789: the abolition of privilege, freedom of the individual, and the control of local and national affairs by an elected assembly and elected officials. They also wanted to ensure that a dictatorship like the CPS, would be impossible in the future and that there would be no return to monarchy or popular sovereignty (of the sans-culottes model). A new constitution was agreed upon on the 22nd of Aug 1795, whose main features followed:
Weaknesses of the new constitution include:
The new constitution enforced quite rigidly the separation of powers. If a hostile majority dominated the legislature then the constitution allowed it to paralyse the Directory. As the Directory was unable to dissolve the legislature or veto their laws, it came to rely on unconstitutional methods such as cancelling election returns and calling in the army to resolve any disputes. Having drawn up the new constitution, the Convention, knowing that it was unpopular as an elected chamber, feared that free elections might produce a royalist majority. In order to avoid this it decreed that two-thirds of the deputies to the new councils must be chosen from among the existing deputies of the Convention. This was then submitted to a plebiscite for approval: 1,057,390 were in favour of the constitution, against 49,978 who opposed it. Four million voters did not vote. The two-thirds decree was accepted by only 205,000 to 108,000. |
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Royalist risings of Vendemiaire in Paris | 5th Oct 1795 | The Verona Declaration failed to attract mass support for the royalist cause. Although work on the new constitution was proceeding well, news of the two-thirds law came as a shock to many Parisians who had hoped that the Convention would soon be replaced. Its inability to deal with food shortages and inflation turned many ordinary people against the Convention, yet it now appeared that most of its deputies would be returned to the new assembly. Royalists in particular felt that the prospect of any restoration of the monarchy was unlikely given the known hostility of the Convention. Frustration and anger spilled over into rebellion. On 5th October 1795 (13 Vendémiaire), a large royalist crowd of 25,000 gathered to march on the Convention and seize power. They greatly outnumbered the 7800 government troops but the latter had cannon, under the command of General Bonaparte. The devastating artillery fire- Bonaparte's famous ‘Whiff of grapeshot’, crushed the rebellion. It marked another watershed: the people of Paris would not again attempt to intimidate an elected assembly until 1830. The divisions among the royalists and the unpopularity of the Verona Declaration all make the rising of Vendémiaire appear rather mysterious. It is usually presented as a royalist rising against the two-thirds decree. Yet, the largest groups of rebels were artisans and apprentices: ⅓ of those arrested were manual workers. The rising was not simply against the two-thirds decree but had economic origins too. Many people, including rentiers, small proprietors and government employees, had been badly hit by inflation. These people who were among the rebels, had supported the Thermidorians and defended the Convention in the risings of Germinal and Prairial. Only two people were executed, although steps were taken to prevent further risings. The Sectional Assemblies were abolished and the National Guard was put under the control of the new General of the Army of the Interior, Napoleon Bonaparte. For the second time in six months the army had saved the Thermidorian Republic. |
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The Constitution of the Directory | Nov 1795 | The new constitution of the Directory had been drawn up by the Thermidorians in Aug 1795 and was ratified by plebiscite in September. It reflected a desire for stability and moderation. | ||
Babeuf conspiracy | May 1796 | The first real challenge to the Directory came from Gracchus Babeuf, a radical pamphleteer and editor of ‘Tribun du Peuple’. Babeuf disliked the constitution of Year III because it gave power to the wealthy. He believed that the aim of society should be 'the common happiness', and that the Revolution should secure the equal enjoyment of life's blessings for all. He thought that as private property produced inequality, the only way to establish real equality was 'to establish the communal management of property and abolish private possession'. These ideas were much more radical than those put forward in Year II and have led many historians to regard Babeuf as the first communist, a forerunner of Karl Marx (1818-83). From March 1796 Babeuf organised a plan to overthrow the Directory by means of a coup. He saw what he called his ‘Conspiracy of Equals’ as a popular rising. Babeuf realised, however, that this would not come about spontaneously but must be prepared by a small group of dedicated revolutionaries. Through propaganda and agitation, they would persuade key institutions, like the army and police, who would provide the armed force to seize power. After seizing power, the revolutionary leaders would establish a dictatorship, in order to make fundamental changes in the organisation of society. Babeuf received no support from the sans-culottes and little from former Jacobins. He was arrested in May 1796, after being betrayed to the authorities by a fellow conspirator and was executed the following year. Marxist historians such as Albert Soboul consider Babeuf's theories to be extremely influential, however, Babeuf's importance to the French Revolution itself, however, was minimal. |
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The 1797 ellections | 1797 | The elections of 1797 revealed a growing popular shift towards the monarchists. Tiresome of the war abroad and religious conflict at home, monarchy became increasingly attractive as it offered peace and stability. The wealthy, northern populous returned the largest portion of monarchists, suggesting that the Directory was losing the support of the richer bourgeoisie. Some departments didn’t follow this trend and thus, the Directory could only count on the support of a third of the deputies. Logically, once more of the conventionnels had to give up their seats, more monarchist would be voted in (following the 1797 election pattern) and they would have the majority. Their aim was to then restore monarchy legally |
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18 Frunctidor coup against royalist deputies | Sep 1797 | The royalists showed their strength when the councils appointed three of their supporters to important positions. One was elected president of the Five Hundred and another president of the Ancients. Barthélemy, the new director, was regarded as sympathetic to the monarchists, as was Carnot, who was becoming steadily more conservative. Carnot was prepared to give up conquered territory to make a lasting peace and so was disliked by the generals. Of the remaining directors, two were committed republicans. They were determined to prevent a restoration of the monarchy and sought help from the army. Bonaparte had already sent General Augereau to Paris with some troops to support the republican directors. Troops were ordered to seize all the strong points in Paris and surround the council chambers. They then arrested two directors, Carnot and Barthélemy, and 53 deputies. Some of the remaining deputies who attended the councils clearly felt intimidated, and they approved two decrees demanded by the remaining directors. The directors also cancelled the local government elections and made appointments themselves. It was clear to all that the coup was the end of parliamentary government and of the constitution of Year III, and that the executive had won an important victory over the legislature. The revival of monarchism had been dealt a significant blow. It also meant that the Directory could now govern without facing hostile councils. |
-One cancelled the elections in 49 departments, removing 177 deputies without providing for their replacement. Normandy, Brittany, the Paris area and the north now had no parliamentary representation at all. -The second provided for the deportation to the penal settlements in Guiana of Carnot (absentia) Barthélemy, the 53 deputies arrested, and some leading royalists.
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