Paper 3: Monarchy to Republic (up to not inc Thermidorian reaction)

Jacobin Club

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

Cordeliers Club

• direct democracy

• more radical party

• working class majority but bourgeois leaders

• no membership fee

• Danton, Brissot, Marat

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

• April 1972: 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

• 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

• 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

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

emergence of terror

• Robespierre and Marat believed girondins were in conspiracy with enemies of the revolution → girondin downfall June 1793

• March 1973: Vendee Rising began as protest

• June: rebels had seized many bridges and began to march to Paris, same time spread of federalist revolts

• 1 August: convention decreed the destruction of Vendee

• December: core of Vendean army had been destroyed

Revolutionary Tribunal

• 10 march 1793: revolutionary tribunal established → by June the next year 1,251 death sentences were handed out in Paris

• when the number of cases rose in October, the right of the defendant were limited and less proof was required

• law of march 19th 1793: suspects found with arms were killed

Committee of Public Safety

• 6th April 1793

• determined foreign policy, military, issued arrest warrants and sanctioned decrees

• power had to be renewed by the convention every month

• appointed Judes and jurors to the revolutionary tribunal

• committee of General Security felt under it

• July 1793: Danton lost his place and was replaced by Robespierre

• deputies and representatives were sent to restore public order and replace military commanders and arrest individuals responsible for the defeat at Menin

• September 1793: Law of suspects gave watch committees the right to arrest supporters of tyranny, federalism or enemies of liberty with circumstantial evidence

  • summer 1794 there were around 300,000 detainees across france

Robespierre

• speeches provided the intellectual substance to sustain the terror

• advocated for harsh measures to eliminate enemies and establish a purer, more unified and coherent nation

• maintained favour of moderate deputies and sans-culottes

• 1 of 12 members who required the cooperation of the army and other committees

economic pressures

• failing assigats - worth 51% of January 1973 value

• bread diversion to the army lead to rising prices

• inflation reduced the farmers sell incentive

• Parisian sections called for maximum price on commodities which was opposed the the girondins who argued fro free trade

• writers like Marat were criticised for stirring up radical discontent

• he was impeached and trialed by the girondins

• he was acquitted on 24th April

• girondins were now seen as the enemy

• 1st may: sans-culottes surrounded the convention demanding a maximum which was voted through 4th may

saving the republic

1793-4

• finances were failing: tax revenues collapsed as did the asignats

• national unity was extremely low

• national convention argued about everything

• growing threat of foreign invasion

• radicalism in Paris

Federalist’ revolts

• summer 1793

• wanted to break domination of the sans-culottes and gain some decision making power for themselves

• after being found to be cooperating with royalists federalists were denounced as traitors

• in Caen 50 leaders were arrested

• Charlotte Corday assassinated Marat 13th July 1793 hoping to bring down Jacobins but it did the opposite and Marat became a martyr

• measures against federalists varied area to area depending on the individual representatives

enrages

• members of sans-culottes vital in domonstrations in may that led to passing of the maximum and purging girondins

• Jacobins were uneasy at the violence and force

• they controlled the national guard

• championed by Herbert they closed churches, destroyed religious icons

• became an increasing concern for the CPS who were set on a more organised and unified administration

Constitution of 1793

• most radical

• drawn up in June

• 1/3 participation in national referendum

• because the rights could not be made available it was suspended and never fully implemented

Festival of unity of the republic

• august 1793

• fountain of the Bastille remains and louvre opened

• meanwhile army in a bad state despite conscription of 300,000 men

Fall of Toulon

• royalist group seized control

• 29th august: opened port to British fleet

• key navy arsenal and bas for about 1/3 French army

• recaptured by Bonaparte December 1793 and 800 rebels executed without trial

• 4th September: huge demonstration of sans-culottes in Paris demanding laws against hoarding and price controls and stringent measures towards counter-revolutionaries

Dechristianisation

• church were closed and the commune stopped paying clerical salaries

• 1794: 6,000 → 20,000 priests had been forced to renounce their vocation

cult of reason

• October 1793: new calendar and religious holidays replaced with republican ones

• Notre Dame renamed temple of reason

• radical action could cause radical reaction the gov was trying to avoid so

• trial and execution of 22 Girondin deputies (brissot etc)

Terror in Lyon and Vendee

lyon

• harsh measures due to prolonged resistance → sans-culottes demanded exemplary justice

• Couthon was replaced and nearly 2,000 executions ensued

Vendee

• 1793: 8,7000 people executed

• noyades → thousands killed

• Robespierre ordered the recall of Carrier fearing his actions would strengthen other than eliminate resistance in the Vendee

law of Frimaire

• December 1793

• full executive power into the hand to the CPS (and CGS)

• all agents and representatives were directly answerable to the CPS

• revolutionary armies and unofficial local bodies set up since march 1793 were abolished

• argument that the constitution could not come into place until the war was won

• attacks on the terror and Robespierre by the sans-culottes, Herbert and Desmoulins + Danton

  • D+D were saying the terror had served its purpose and ran the risk of being counterproductive

• desmoulins newspaper criticised the radicalism of herbertists and the terror asking Robespierre to release 200,000 suspects and show mercy

Purge of the Herbetists and Indulgents

Herbetists

• 24th march 1794 Herbert and 18 close supporters were brought before the tribunal and sent to the guillotine for trying to call a new insurrection to purge the convention

Indulgents

• Danton was accused of poring to displace the CPS and install himself as head of the national convention

• 30th March the indulgents were arrested

Dictatorship?

• 16th April 1794: Law of Germinal → banned nobles and foreigners from living in ports and frontier towns

  • General Police Bureau wet up to gather intelligence on counter-revolutionary activity

  • Robespierre took over from Saint-Just and sent thousands to the tribunal

• Robespierre was terrified of assassination

  • attempt in may and five days later Cecile Renault called on him at his lodgings with a fruit knife “curious to see what a dictator looked like”

• 10th June 1794: 22 Prarial → drafted by Robespierre and Couthon without consulting other CPS members, acquittal or death in any court

  • judges were encouraged to base impressions on defendants moral character

  • June → July saw 1,594 death sentences and the guillotine was moved from Place de la Revolution as residents were complaining about overflowing blood and smell

  • the law heightened the atmosphere of fear and suspicion in Paris