Paper 3: The end of the monarchy

Jacobin Club

• supported centralisation and rejected the idea of monarchy

• supporters were wealthy radicals

• high membership fee

• 1200 members by July 1790

• 2000+ clubs across france by 1793

• robespierre was a key figure

• split into Girondins (liberal republicans) and Montagnards (radical, left-wing faction)

Cordeliers Club

• direct democracy

• more radical party

• working class majority but bourgeois leaders

• no membership fee

• Danton, Brissot, Marat

• dantonists were a faction of the Montagnards → in favour of more moderate rulings than Robespierre

• herbetists were also radical left-wing subgroup of the Montagnards, executed during the the reign of terror

October days

• Louis was seen summoning troops back to Paris → fears the National Assembly would be shut down soared again

• 5th October: a mob marched to Versailles forcing the king to accept the august decrees and the declaration

• 6th October: king and family forced to reside in Paris under house arrest

attempt to flee

• June 1791: Louis found his situation intolerable

• he was a prisoner at Tuileries

• emigrated nobles wanted Louis to assert his authority

• Leopold (Marie’s little brother) guaranteed Austrian help for the royal family to cross the border

• 20-21st June: they were recognised at Varennes

• national assembly suspended Louis until the new constitution was ready

• the clubs began to call for his abdication and trial

champs de mars

• 17th July

• cordeliers club and others organised a meeting to sign a petition for the establishment of a republic

• 6,000 people made their way

• Paris commune send Lafayette and national guards to ensure order

• stones were thrown at the guards after Lafayette tried to disperse mobs, the guards fired warning shots which were not heeded and began to fire into the crowd

• Moderates split from Jacobins and became irrelevant

• fears of Austrian intervention (not entirely wrong)

• new constitution drafted 1791 - the king could appoint ministers and conduct foreign policy, still maintained a suspension veto and received an annual income of 25 mil livres

• Jacobins went into hiding following the violence

• election were held 29th August → 5th September: low participation and power in the legislative assembly shifted to Jacobin duties known as girondins

war with Austria

• girondins began to make the cause for war with Austria

• Brissot claimed revolutionary armies would be welcomes

• Robespeirre disagreed and wanted to focus on solving domestic problems

• royal family hoped a French defeat would lead to them being rescued and reinstated

• December 1791: publicly asked his brother’s forced at coblenz to disperse, securely asked them to stay

• April 1792: Louis appointed a girondin ministry and declared war on Austria

• 20th April: the army was poorly prepared and whole units deserted retreating to Lille

• girondins blamed the king for the defeat and there was fear of a counter-revolution or coup led by Lafayette

Royal Vetoes

• May → June 1792: Louis vetoed assemblies votes for deportation of refractory priests, disbanding of the kings guard and decree to set up camp of 20,000 volunteer soldiers to expand the national guards

• he dismissed his entire ministry on 13th June 1792 when Roland pleaded with him to give way

collapse of the possibility of a constitutional monarchy

• 20th June 1792

• anniversary of tennis court oath mob of 8,000 sans-culottes marched to the Tuileries and demanded Louis withdrew his vetoes - Louis met them and they left

• 29th July: Robespierre gave a speech to the assembly calling for a republic

• 10 August: second march on Tuileries and 2 hour battle resulted in the king being suspended and Danton made minister of justice

• 600 kings swiss guard, 300 Parisians killed

• the laws that had been vetoed would come into effect

September massacres

• 1st September 1792: news of Austrian forces in Verdun and royalist uprising in Vendee where 200 were killed reached Paris

• Danton authorised searches for hidden weapons - 3,000 were taken to prison

• and 2nd September launched conscription on pain of death causing explosive atmosphere and frenzied killing

• 1,000 → 1,500 prisoners were killed

National Convention

• replaced the national assembly after being discredited

• turnout for elections was under 6% due to intimidation

• Montagnards right wing - Danton, Robespierre, Marat - supporters of republic and favoured central gov in Paris → champions of the sans-culottes

• girondins left wing - Brissot, Condorcet - supporters of republic but favoured federalism → power to the provinces

• 20th spetmeber 1792: met for the first time

• voted to abolish the monarchy the next day

• 3rd December: vote to trial Louis

• Battle of Valmy saw a reversal in the war and news reached Paris after the proclamation of the new republic - seen as a good omen

Louis executed

• 21st Jan 1793

• stripped of his royal title and tried as an ordinary citizen

• documents discovered at the Tuileries showed he had been in contact with the Austrians without the knowledge of of the National Assembly and convention

• 692/721 deputed voted for the king’s guilt

• girondins argued it would be provocative to execute the king and accused the Montagnards of giving in to the blood lust of the Sans-Culottes

• 361:319 in favour of killing the king

• Saint-Just “ not for what he had done, but for what he was; a menace to the republic”