Revolution 1789-Bastille Day

The common view [by the liberal establishment] of the French Revolution is that it was a justified rebellion of oppressed lower classes against a tyrannical king, corrupt nobilities, and an insensitive church. Some try to portray the French Revolution as similar to the American Revolution--a blow for freedom and self-government struck against tyranny.

The high middle age kingdom of Louis IX was destroyed by the wars of religion, by the absolutism created by Cardinal Richelieu, by the extravagance of Louis XIV, and by the corruption of Louis XV. The results for France were the creation of a parasitical nobility, which contributed little to society and lived on taxes levied on the lower and middle classes.

The worst consequences were felt in the cities, especially Paris, where there was massive unemployment and poverty. When Louis XV died in 1774, there is no question that conditions in France were very bad.

Louis XV was succeeded by Louis XVI, who was married to Marie Antoinette. In the minds of most people who know nothing about them, Antoinette is pictured as foolish immoral and irresponsible, and Louis is pictured as stupid, dull, dictatorial, and totally unconcerned with the welfare of the people. The most often repeated condemnation is the legend that Marie Antoinette said, "Let the eat cake," when confronted with the hunger of the poor, who had no bread. The statement was actually made by the wife of Louis XV.

Louis and Antoinette had the misfortune to rule France during the worst period in its history. They have been blamed for all of the evils of the time. But a study of the facts of the second half of the 18th century in France will show that Louis and Antoinette were not the causes of evil, but the victims.

Louis was not a brilliant man, but he knew right from wrong. His maxim was "Everything unjust is impossible." His government had inherited huge debts, so he chose not to lower taxes, but he also ordered that no taxes be increased. He greatly reduced expenditures at Versailles and stopped paying noblemen who did nothing. He ended the government control of the grain trade, thereby reducing the prices. He made the court system more just, improved prison conditions, and abolished the torture of accused prisoners. He ended the custom of the corvee, which required all the peasants to work two weeks a year without pay on public roads. He reestablished parliaments--local judicial bodies-- thereby reducing the absolute power of the king and returning the governmental authority to the localities.

Antoinette paid for and guided the education of destitute children and served poor people in her own kitchens. She encouraged the opera and ballet. She changed fashions in dress from overly elaborate and expensive styles to simplicity and naturalness. Her main weakness was gambling for high stakes, but she eventually overcame the habit. She was devoted to Louis and their children.

They were so popular, that in 1784, the Parisians built statues of them and presented with "best and warmest wishes." With time, France could have been reformed and a new age of peace and prosperity begun. But Louis and Antoinette were to be denied the time their country needed.

Two very powerful forces were working against Louis and Antoinette. The first was the wealthy noblemen of France, who had grown accustomed to living in luxury while rarely being accounted for it. Louis denied them these things. He reduced their expenditures and insisted that they pay their debts. The noblemen began to write vicious pamphlets about them, accusing them of all the evils of which the themselves were guilty.

The other force was the liberals. They hated the king and queen because they hated all authority. They joined forces with the noblemen, condemning Louis and Antoinette, and spreading lies about them. Gradually this propaganda began to be read by the ordinary people who assumed at least some of it were true. And the tide began to turn against the king and queen.

Problems began when Louis proposed an adjustment to the tax code, increasing the total amount paid, but lowering the amount paid my the poorest citizens, to pay off some of the debt incurred for aiding the United States in its war for Independence. Louis enemies stirred up rebellions around the country and demanded that Louis call into session the Estates General, France's equivalent of Parliament, which hadn't met since 1614. Louis issued a call for the three estates: noblemen, clergy, and ordinary citizens to meet in Paris.

The Estates General opened on May 4, 1789. From the beginning the Third Estate [who unfortunately was dominated by lawyers--360 out of 621 delegates] demanded a change in voting procedures. The traditional method of voting in the Estates General was that each state vote separately, and then cast its vote as a group. Thus the first and second Estates could outvote the third estate, even though the Third estate actually had more members. In 1789 the Third Estate insisted that all Estates meet as a mass, with each person's vote counting individually. Such a procedure would enable the liberals to dominate.

Louis should have done two things. He could have invited the Third Estate leaders to meet with him privately to work out an agreement for the benefit of France. Or he could have ordered them to work within the traditions of the country, forcibly removing them from Paris if they did not cooperate. But he was not strong enough to do either. Further, one of his sons died on June 4 and he went into mourning and seclusion at a crucial time.

The Third Estate, believing that nothing in France could stop them, broke away from the other two Estates and set themselves up as the official legislative body of France. They called themselves the National Assembly.

From this point on, events in France moved with breakneck speed. From a condition where the people were somewhat discontented, but willing to obey the laws, France plunged into chaos and terror.

July 12-14: Paris at this time was crowded with high unemployment. Many people were hungry because hail had destroyed the wheat harvest in 1788. Though huge sums had been spent on importing wheat, it still wasn't enough. The unsettled conditions in Paris, plus Louis' calling in troops, gave the liberals the chance to agitate the people of Paris. Mobs ran wild in the streets and burned police headquarters.

July 14: Men armed with hatchets broke down the chains of the drawstring bridge of the old prison known as Bastille, and the mob rushed in, massacring the 120 guards. The mob found only seven prisoners: four forgers, a young man who had been put under guard by his family, and two insane men. But the storming of the Bastille became a symbol of freedom, and to this day July 14 is celebrated as France's Independence Day. Louis tried to reason with the assemble, but they would not listen.

August: There was violence throughout the country side, known as The Great Fear. The anarchy in Paris caused a breakdown of food distribution with consequent famine and plunder There were wild rumors about "brigands." The cry would go up "the brigands are coming," but no one knew exactly who the brigands were or if they were really coming, but people were in a state of terror. Armed men would gather to repel the supposed brigands, but would soon be stirred up by liberal leaders to attack the local chateaux. Many chateaux were burned and innocent people murdered.

August 26: The Assembly issued The Declaration for the Rights of Man. A major debate in the Assembly was whether the king should have rights to veto acts of the assembly. The Assembly split into two parts on the issue: the "right" or more conservative part wanted to leave some powers to the king, and the "left" or the more radical part, which did not.

October 5-6: The Flanders Regiment had demonstrated for the king calling for their old uniforms and his colors, and rejecting the Assembly. The Paris liberals heard of this action and organized a mob of women (and some men dressed as women) to march on Versailles, demanding the queen's head and dismemberment. In an incredibly foolish action Louis dismissed the Flanders Regiment and called upon the disloyal National Guard for protection. The Marquis de Lafayette (who had fought in the American Revolution) arrived at Versailles with the National Guard of Paris about 10:00 PM, but proceeded to go to sleep, leaving the gates inadequately guarded. Their chief officers head was cut off and put on a pike; other defenders were killed.

The mob screamed for the king and Antoinette, threatening to "cut her pretty throat." Antoinette fled to Louis' apartment just before the mob broke into her room and slashed her bed. The king and queen fled to Paris, followed by a howling mob, carrying heads of the officers of Louis' guards on pikes. Louis and Antoinette took up residence in the Tuileries palace. The Palace at Versailles was never inhabited again.

Revolution 1790-1791

February 1790: Monastic vows were prohibited and religious orders suppressed.

July 1790: The Assembly passed the "Civil Constitution of the Clergy." Pastors and Bishops were to be elected, with even non-Catholics voting. Priests and Bishops who didn't take an oath to the constitution could no longer serve. A liberal bishop named Tallyrand was one of the chief authors of the civil constitution. To their credit, only seven bishops and less than half the priests took the oath. The others served people in secret. Louis signed it because he was afraid of more bloodshed. He became ill from the strain and guilt.

Autumn 1790: France was in chaos. Laws were not enforced and people had no protection. Louis and Antoinette were virtual prisoners in Tuileries, surrounded by armed guards.

June 20-25: The flight of Varennes. The royal family, fearing for their lives, decided to escape from Paris. The attempted escape was primarily planned by Axel Ferson, a Swedish nobleman. His basic plan was sensible. Louis and Antoinette would secretly leave Tuileries and then be taken out of Paris by carriage, at night. Loyal troops would await them in three different towns which were safely away from the influence of Paris. Gradually their escort of loyal troops would increase until they reached the border, where they would rendezvous with a loyal army.

Though the plan was a good one, a number of mistakes were made in arranging the details. The Royal party (which consisted of Louis, Antoinette, their two children, and Louis' sister Elisabeth) decided to travel in a huge cumbersome, slow carriage called a berline, instead of two light fast carriages. There was room for a sixth person in the berline, but instead of taking an armed man, they took the Dauphin's governess. Ferson first presented this plan to the king and queen in early 1791, but instead of acting on it, Louis procrastinated all through the winter and spring. Antoinette used her hairdresser to carry messages, he later panicked at a crucial time.

On the night of June 20, Louis left the Tuileries in disguise. A man who bore a slight resemblance to the king had been coming into the Tuileries every day for several weeks and leaving about the time Louis planned to make his escape. On the chosen night, he exchanged clothes with the king, and the king easily walked out of the palace grounds. Antoinette, meanwhile, left separately with the children. On her way out, she almost ran into a guard. She ducked into a corner in the shadows and was so frightened that when it was safe to leave she took a wrong turn and got lost, thus losing a valuable half an hour. Once she rejoined the king, they couldn't find the berline where it had been hidden outside of Paris so that they didn't actually leave the city until 2:00 AM, at a time of year when it becomes light very early.

Once the party was finally underway, they didn't travel at maximum speed and were then further delayed by a broken wheel. The first rendezvous with troops was to be at Pont-Sommevelle at 2:30 PM. But the berline was running three hours late. The troops were frightened; A hostile mob had gathered because they thought the troops were there to collect rents. About 4:30 the troops couldn't take much more of the tension. Leonard, the hairdresser, panicked and rushed on to the next town, Ste. Menehould, and told the troops to disperse because the king had been captured and wasn't coming. The troops in this town had also encountered hostility. A man named Drouet, who owned an inn, was furious because the troops had stayed the previous night at the inn of his rival. Some of the troops were drunk. So at 5:30 they dispersed.

Louis meanwhile had come to Pont-Sommevelle and found no troops so he ordered the berline to go on. He arrived at Ste. Menehould at 6:00, again finding no troops. Again, he had no choice but to go on. The next rendezvous was at Varennes, which was just 30 miles to their final destination.

Meanwhile, Drouet recognized Louis and Antoinette and realized that they were escaping. He decided to rush on to Varennes to rouse out the National Guard there to halt the escape. Varennes was divided into an upper and lower town, with a key bridge across the river between. The loyal troops were waiting in the lower town, but Louis entered the upper town. He could find neither the troops, nor the fresh horses he expected. Drouet arrived and immediately drove his cart across the bridge to block the way between Louis and the troops. Soon, 6,000 national guardsmen had arrived. Louis had to agree to return to Paris. The flight to freedom became a flight to failure.

The trip back to Paris was a Via Dolorosa for the royal family, as liberal mobs spat on them and jeered at them at every stop. On the return trip, Antoinette's hair turned completely white. In the coach rode the liberal Barnave, appointed by the assembly to guard the royal family. He tried to help Antoinette later and was eventually guillotined for it.

July: Parish churches stood empty as people flocked in secret to the non-juring priests.

September 14: The new constitution was finally adopted. The king had only one real power left: to veto laws.

October: The paper money printed by the assembly rapidly declined in value and prices rose. A poor harvest resulted in a famine. The revolutionary government was extremely unpopular.

December 19: Louis vetoed a decree ordering the arrest of non-juring priests because he realized that hatred of God and Church was at the center of the revolution. The propaganda against him became more vicious.

Revolution: 1792

June 20: A mob came to Tuileries demanding that Louis retract his veto of the law against priests. Louis put on a red "liberty cap" and calmed the mob down.

July: The Jacobins under the leadership of Robespierre, leader of the Paris Commune (revolutionary city government of Paris), wanted to get rid of the king altogether. The Jacobins called upon the Jacobin Mayor Mouraille of Marsailles for "600 who know how to die." The call was answered, and a mob marched from Marsailles to Paris singing the revolutionary song, "Marseillaise (which is now France's national anthem).

August 10: At sunrise Paris City hall was seized and took was taken over by the Commune. Then Tuileries was attacked. Louis decided to seek refuge in the assembly. Louis, Antoinette, and the children went to the assembly and were placed in the stenographer's box.

Meanwhile, the Marseillaise-led mob called on Tuileries to surrender. The kings Swiss guard refused. The Guard had not been issued enough cartridges, the excuse given that all ammunition was needed for the war. When the sound of battle reached Louis, the assembly pressured him to order the Swiss to cease firing on French citizens.

Louis issued the fatal order. The heroic Swiss ceased firing and were massacred to the last man, along with everyone in the palace, including the cooks and the Dauphin's tutor--800 killed in all. In the evening, little boys rolled human heads along the streets.

The mob then came to the assembly where they demanded Louis' suspension. The Assembly agreed, and Louis and his family spent the next two days in the stenographer's box and the nights in a nearby convent with hardly anything to eat. On August 12 the king was thrown into prison. Georges Jacques Danton became dictator of France.

September: The arrest of the king apparently galvanized the allied armies, and the Prussians crossed the frontier under the leadership of the Duke of Brunswick. The allied successes frightened Jacobin leaders, who declared that the only reason the French army had lost was because of traitors in Paris. The assembly decreed the imprisonment of all fathers, mothers, wives and children of the emigres (those who had fled France because of the revolution) and all non-juring priests. Then, under the leadership of Danton and Marat (a half mad, militant atheist, so diseased that he had to spend part of each day in a special bath), 150 murderers were hired and sent into the prisons where 1400 prisoners were massacred--including many priests and girls down to ten years of age. In many cases the bodies were torn to pieces. This is remembered as the September Massacres, which lasted from September 2-7.

September 20: Meanwhile the allied army under Brunswick stood at Valmy. The allies had every advantage, but Brunswick finally persuaded the king of Prussia, who was present at the battle to call off the attack. The Prussians retreated.

Why did Brunswick retreat? In the treasury in Paris was an enormous diamond (part of it later became the hope diamond) known as the blue diamond of the golden fleece. Thieves broke into the treasury and stole this diamond along with some other treasures. The suspected thief was a man named Carra, a fervent Jacobin. A few days later he appeared at the camp of the Prussian army--with the blue diamond.

September 5-21: The Legislative Assembly dissolved itself and called for election of a new body to be called the National convention. On the first day of the convention the French Monarchy was abolished.

December: An illegal trial by the Assembly found Louis guilty of "conspiring against the general security of the state" and sentenced him to death.

Reign of Terror

January 21, 1793: As he mounted the scaffold to be executed, Louis proclaimed "I die innocent of all the crimes laid to my charge; I pardon those who have occasioned my death; and I pray to God that the blood you are now going to shed may never be visited on France. And you, unfortunate people..." No one could hear his last words because the officer in charge ordered a drum roll drowning out Louis' voice. The guillotine fell and France's king was dead.

The execution began the reign of terror, as the committee of public Safety, dominated by Robespierre, assumed absolute dictatorship of France. Antoinette, Elisabeth, and the children were imprisoned in the temple tower. Francois Adrian Toulon was assigned as guard, but like Barnave was won over by Antoinette. He devised a plan whereby the royal family would escape disguised in men's clothes. But the man who was to get them passports so they could escape Paris backed out at the last minute. Furthermore, other guards became suspicious. The plan had to be canceled. Like Barnave, Toulon eventually paid with his life for his change of heart.

March: The killing of the king led to the "Rising in the Vendee," a strongly Catholic farming region in the west of France. The two main leaders were a nobleman, the Marquis de Rochejacquilein, and a commoner, the coachman Cathelineau. Priests, nobles, and peasants were united in their opposition to the evils of the revolution. With the battle cry of "Church and Crown," they won a series of victories, until worn down by the full strength of the French Army.

July 3: Antoinette was separated from her seven year old son, in an attempt to break the wills of both of them. She was moved to the Concierge, a damp, gloomy, filthy prison. Louis was forced to sign documents accusing his mother of immoral acts.

Late July: In Caen in Normandy a young woman named Charlotte Corday decided to take matters into her own hands. She had been a Girondin (another groups who fought for power against the Jacobins) and in favor of the revolution in its early days because she believed in liberal values. But she became increasingly disillusioned as the revolution became more and more bloodthirsty and began devouring those who had spearheaded it. She convinced herself that Marat was single-handedly responsible for the attacks on her fellow Girondins, and she made up her mid to assassinate him, so she could bring the revolution to an end. So on July 5, 1793 she bought a one-way ticket to Paris.

After she arrived she bought a sharp knife and tried to obtain an appointment to see Marat. She was refused, so she finally forced her way into his apartment. She walked into his room, where he was soaking his diseased skin in his bath. Charlotte told Marat that she had a list of Girondins in Caen. Maret was delighted and told her that they would soon be dead. As soon as he pronounced their death sentence, Charlotte pulled out her knife and stabbed Maray to death. She then calmly surrendered herself and went to her own execution convinced that she had saved France.

But France was not saved. Mobs demanded more executions, and one of the delegates of the convention, referring to the guillotine, announced: "Let us go to the foot of the great altar and attend the celebration of the red mass."

September: A communist economy was set up. Wages and Prices were set by the government, but they had no relationship to what things were really worth; men were told what work to do. No one would cooperate so more executions were ordered. Many necessary items became hard to find.

October: Antoinette was interrogated by the assembly. Though she was ill and exhausted, she didn't fall into any of the traps which the questioners had prepared for her, and answered with bravery. Nevertheless she was found guilty and guillotined.

November: The worship of God was forbidden, to be replaced by the "goddess of reason" Anew calendar was ordered, with the year 1 of liberty beginning September 22, 1792 (the first day of the abolition of the monarchy). The months were given new names, and the week was made ten days long so as to abolish Sunday.

December: The army of Vendee, fighting for Church and crown was finally crushed. In reprisal, more than 1500 prisoners were killed by loading them aboard barges and sinking them in the river when the revolutionaries decided that their guillotines didn't work fast enough.

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