La Révolution française et l'affirmation de la souveraineté nationale (1789-1792)

Background to the Crisis of 1789

• State of the Monarchy in 1788:

  • In 1788, the French monarchy was severely weakened by a cumulative economic, social, and fiscal crisis.
  • The fiscal crisis was characterized by a severe budget deficit (déficit budgétaire), wherein state expenditures significantly exceeded state revenues.
  • Social and political tensions were already intense across the kingdom, as demonstrated by pre-revolutionary violent events such as the "Journée des Tuiles" (Day of the Tiles) in Grenoble.

• Convocation of the Estates General (États Généraux):

  • On May 5, 1789, King Louis XVI (who had been reigning as King of France since 1774) officially convened the Estates General.
  • Historical Origins: The Estates General was an institution created in the 14th century (XIVe siècle) that met periodically when summoned by the King to provide counsel and propose solutions to severe national crises.
  • Historical Gap: Prior to May 5, 1789, the Estates General had not been summoned by a monarch since 1614.
  • Outcome: This final political attempt by the Crown to reach a compromise proved to be an absolute failure and was highly counter-productive, ultimately serving as the catalyst for the French Revolution.

• Long-term Consequences:

  • The failure of the Estates General initiated a 15-year period of severe political tensions and profound upheavals throughout France and Europe.
  • This era was characterized by multiple revolutionary movements and the eventual installation of entirely new political regimes, including the First French Empire.

Historical Foundation of the French Nation and the Ancien Régime Society

• Monarchical Origins and National Unification:

  • France is historically recognized as one of the oldest kingdoms in Europe, tracing its political founding to King Clovis, who was crowned in 481 as the first King.
  • The history of the French nation was long centered on the history of its ruling kings, who systematically contributed to national unification, particularly from the 16th century (XVIe siècle) onward.
  • Ordonnance de Villers-Cotterêts (1539): Issued under the reign of King François Ier, this royal ordinance officially mandated French as the sole language of state administration (supplanting Latin and regional dialects). It also established the mandatory parish registration of births, marriages, and deaths.
  • Instruments of Centralization: Unification was further reinforced by the creation of a permanent royal army, as well as progressive standardization of legal codes and tax systems.

• Social Structure of the Ancien Régime:

  • Despite administrative centralization, the French nation remained a deeply divided society of orders (société d'ordres), hierarchically partitioned into three distinct social estates:
    • Clergy (Clergé): Occupied the supreme hierarchical position due to its spiritual proximity to God.
    • Nobility (Noblesse): Held extensive social privileges and legal exemptions.
    • Third Estate (Tiers-État): Composed of the vast majority of the population (bourgeoisie, urban workers, peasants).
  • Inequalities and Privileges: The orders were divided by major legal disparities, including personal tax exemptions and exclusive rights such as the right to wear a sword (port de l'épée).
  • Social Immobility: Marked financial and status disparities existed within each order, and possibilities for social mobility were extremely limited both between orders and within the orders themselves.

• Enlightenment Influence (Les Lumières):

  • During the second half of the 18th century, intellectual ideas from the Enlightenment challenged absolute monarchy (absolutisme)—the political concentration of all state power in one individual through divine right (droit divin).
  • Feudal privileges and royal absolutism faced mounting opposition from a broad coalition including bourgeois elites, the common populace, and liberal members of the nobility.

The Revolutionary Upheaval of 1789

• Elections and Grievance Books:

  • Following Louis XVI's convocation of the Estates General in May 1789, French voters elected representatives within each respective order.
  • In every parish, citizens compiled grievance books (cahiers de doléances) to formally record their complaints, wishes, and political demands.

• Proclamation of the National Assembly:

  • The high political expectations surrounding the Estates General were quickly unfulfilled.
  • On June 17, 1789, deputies of the Third Estate, joined by a small number of reform-minded deputies from the clergy and nobility, declared themselves the National Assembly (Assemblée nationale).

• The Tennis Court Oath (Serment du Jeu de Paume):

  • On June 20, 1789, the newly self-proclaimed Assembly met at an indoor tennis court and swore a solemn oath not to disband until they had drafted and established a written constitution for France.

• Fall of Absolute Monarchy:

  • Faced with political determination, King Louis XVI conceded.
  • On July 9, 1789, the National Assembly formally declared itself the National Constituent Assembly (Assemblée nationale constituante), effectively ending the absolute monarchy in France.

• Popular Revolts in Paris and the Countryside:

  • Storming of the Bastille: On July 14, 1789, alarmed by royal military troop movements surrounding Paris, Parisian citizens stormed and captured the Bastille fortress.
  • The Great Fear (Grande Peur): During the summer of 1789, an intense rural panic swept through the French countryside; peasants revolted, attacking aristocratic châteaux and burning legal deeds and documents containing seigneurial rights.

• Dismantling of the Ancien Régime:

  • Abolition of Privileges: To quell widespread rural violence and build a new social order, deputies voted during the night of August 4, 1789, to completely abolish feudal rights and special privileges, terminating the society of the Ancien Régime.
  • Adoption of the DDHC: On August 26, 1789, the Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (Déclaration des Droits de l'Homme et du Citoyen), creating a social order of citizens equal in rights.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (August 26, 1789)

• Legal Nature and Context:

  • The DDHC is a foundational legal text drafted urgently during the summer of 1789.
  • It followed the Third Estate deputies' self-proclamation as a National Assembly and their Tennis Court Oath of June 20, 1789.

• Primary Objectives of the Authors:

  • To formally proclaim fundamental universal principles.
  • To establish a clear working foundation prior to drafting the new constitution.
  • To soothe popular revolutionary unrest and diminish acute social tensions.

• Target Audiences and Scope:

  • French Populace: Addressed to all members of French society as a proclamation of rights, calling on revolutionaries to restore public order.
  • The Crown and Privileged Classes: Served as an explicit warning to the King and the nobility regarding the irrevocable termination of aristocratic privileges.
  • Universal Scope: Written intentionally as a declaration of the rights of "Man" (droits de l'homme) rather than strictly the rights of "French citizens" (droits des Français), inviting all foreign nations and peoples to follow the French revolutionary model.

Key Historical Definitions and Terminology

• Cahier de doléances: A formal registry in which elected representatives to the Estates General documented the complaints, wishes, and demands of the French population in every parish.

• Etats-généraux (Estates General): A representative assembly convened by the King, bringing together representatives from the three traditional orders of the realm: Clergy, Nobility, and Third Estate.

• Déficit budgétaire (Budget Deficit): A financial state of the state budget wherein total government expenditures exceed total revenues.

• Assemblée nationale (National Assembly): A parliamentary assembly representing the collective nation as a whole rather than separate social orders.

• Assemblée nationale constituante (National Constituent Assembly): A national representative body specifically tasked with drafting and enacting a national constitution.

• Grande Peur (Great Fear): A widespread peasant revolt across the French countryside during the summer of 1789, characterized by the destruction of castles and land deeds granting seigneurial rights.

• Nation: A community of individuals bound together by a shared sense of collective belonging, including history, language, and culture. In the 18th century, it was defined as a community of free citizens sharing collective political aspirations.

• Souveraineté nationale (National Sovereignty): The political principle establishing that ultimate political authority resides in the collective nation rather than solely in the monarch.

• Absolutisme (Absolutism): A political regime in which all sovereign power (executive, legislative, judicial) is concentrated in a single monarch by divine right.

• Sans-culotte: Originally a pejorative term used to identify working-class Parisian revolutionaries. The name derives from their wearing of long trousers (pantalon) instead of the knee-breeches (culotte) and silk stockings worn by nobles and wealthy bourgeois. They strongly advocated for radical social equality.

Politization of Society and the Constitution of 1791

• Expansion of Public Political Engagement:

  • Beginning in 1789, the French population—particularly in Paris—developed an intense passion for political debates and state affairs.
  • Political societies and political clubs multiplied rapidly across the territory.
  • Newspapers proliferated, becoming widely read, publicly shared, and debated.
  • Citizens submitted numerous petitions directly to the Assembly.

• Formation of Factions inside the Assembly:

  • Deputies within the National Assembly began grouping themselves according to political affinities and ideological alignments (such as Monarchists and Jacobins).
  • In the streets of Paris, the sans-culottes directly exerted pressure on national political decisions.

• The Constitutional Monarchy (1791):

  • The National Assembly took approximately $2$ years to write and enact the new constitution.
  • The Constitution formally established the principle of national sovereignty.
  • Electoral System: Established a system of indirect censitary suffrage (suffrage censitaire), which politically favored wealthy citizens. Male citizens aged over $25$ years old who paid a specific direct tax threshold called the cens were granted the right to vote for the Legislative Assembly (Assemblée législative).
  • Powers of the King:
    • The King was granted executive power and was explicitly subordinated to the nation, from which his delegated authority derived.
    • The King was restricted from making laws; he could only propose war or peace and execute laws passed by the Legislative Assembly.
    • He was required to swear a formal oath of loyalty to the terms of the Constitution.
    • Royal Veto: The King was granted a suspensive veto right (droit de véto), enabling him to delay the implementation of any legislative act for up to $4$ years.
    • Status: The royal persona remained hereditary and legally irremovable (inamovible).

Religious Friction, Counter-Revolution, and the Breakdown Between King and Nation

• Opposition to the New Regime:

  • The constitutional order faced immediate domestic and foreign opposition.
  • Beginning in 1789, aristocrats emigrated abroad (émigrés), actively plotting to convince foreign monarchs to launch a military intervention to restore the Ancien Régime in France.

• Religious Schism (1790):

  • In 1790, the Pope officially condemned the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (Constitution civile du clergé).
  • This papal condemnation led many Catholic priests to refuse to take the constitutional oath, creating a faction of non-juring priests known as refractory priests (prêtres réfractaires).

• The Flight to Varennes (June 20–21, 1791):

  • Opposed to revolutionary developments, Louis XVI fled Paris with his family on the night of June 20 to June 21, 1791.
  • His goal was to reach the northeastern border to unite with royalist émigrés and stationed foreign troops.
  • The King was recognized and arrested at Varennes in Lorraine, then escorted back to Paris under guard.
  • Political Fallout: The attempt to escape destroyed the trust of Parisians in Louis XVI and ignited early popular political calls for his removal and the establishment of a Republic.

The Path to War, the Fall of the Monarchy, and the Proclamation of the Republic (1792)

• Outbreak of Foreign War (April 20, 1792):

  • European monarchies grew increasingly hostile due to fears of revolutionary ideas spreading across Europe.
  • On April 20, 1792, the Assembly declared war against Austria (which was allied with Prussia), under suspicion that foreign powers were actively preparing to restore absolute monarchy in France.
  • Armed revolutionary volunteers, known as fédérés, traveled from the provinces to defend Paris.
  • The fédérés arriving from Marseille popularized the patriotic war song La Marseillaise.

• Accusations of Royal Treason:

  • Following early military defeats suffered by French forces, widespread public suspicion grew that Louis XVI was secretly betraying the nation and intentionally causing military setbacks.
  • The Brunswick Manifesto (July 25, 1792): The Duke of Brunswick, commander of the combined Austrian and Prussian military forces, issued a public declaration threatening Paris with total destruction if the royal family suffered any physical harm. This threat confirmed citizens' suspicions of royal collusion and enraged the population.

• Insurrection of August 10, 1792:

  • Sans-culottes and fédérés launched an armed assault on the royal residence at the Tuileries Palace (château des Tuileries) in Paris.
  • Under intense popular pressure, the Assembly suspended the King and imprisoned Louis XVI and his family in the Temple prison (prison du Temple).
  • The Assembly decreed the election of a new representative body, the National Convention (Convention), to be chosen through universal male suffrage.

• Victory at Valmy and Proclamation of the Republic:

  • Battle of Valmy (September 20, 1792): Revolutionary France won its first major military victory against the foreign coalition of European monarchies at Valmy.
  • Proclamation of the Republic (September 22, 1792): Two days after the victory at Valmy, the newly convened National Convention officially abolished the monarchy and proclaimed the First French Republic.

The Trial of Louis XVI ("Citizen Louis Capet")

• Shift in Political Roles and Hierarchies:

  • The Populace: Emerged as a direct and decisive political force capable of driving state policy through physical insurrections (such as the insurrection of August 10, 1792).
  • The National Convention: Held total political legitimacy derived directly from the sovereign nation, empowering representatives to try the monarch.
  • Louis XVI: Suffered complete political degradation, stripped of his monarchical title ("King of France") and renamed "Citizen Louis Capet" (citoyen Louis Capet), legally placed beneath the authority of the Nation.
  • Hierarchical Inversion: The traditional political structure was reversed; the King, previously the absolute head of state above the law, became a regular citizen accountable to national justice.

• Formal Charges and Accusations against Louis XVI:

  • "Attenté à la souveraineté du peuple" (Attacked the sovereignty of the people).
  • "Voulu dicter des lois à la nation" (Sought to dictate laws to the nation).
  • "Fait marcher une armée contre les citoyens de Paris" (Marched an army against the citizens of Paris).
  • "Votre tyrannie" (Explicit reference to his tyrannical governance).
  • "Vous avez fui de Paris" (Fled Paris during the Flight to Varennes).
  • These formulations framed the monarch as an explicit adversary of the Revolution who sought to dismantle national sovereignty and forcibly re-establish royal absolutism.

• Transformation of the Source of Sovereignty:

  • The legal vocabulary employed during the trial ("souveraineté du peuple", "nation", "représentants") illustrated a complete structural rupture with the divine right monarchy of the Ancien Régime.
  • Political legitimacy no longer originated from God or the King, but exclusively from the sovereign Nation, authorizing national representatives to formally indict, try, and condemn the former monarch.