Constitutional Monarchy Flashcards
August Decrees (date)
5-11 August 1789
August Decrees (terms) - 4 key ideas
END OF FEUDALISM
Tithes, venal offices, privileges abolished
Equal taxation
All citizens would be eligible for all offices
One thing that angered the peasants about the August Decrees
Had to pay compensation for the loss of feudal dues (however, this was never really enforced and was actually abolished in 1793 anyway)
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (date)
26 August 1789
Article 1 of DRMC
All men are born free and equal
Article 2 of DRMC
Every man has the right to liberty, property, safety and resistance to oppression
Article 3 of DRMC
Sovereignty lies with the people
Article 17 of DRMC
Freedom to own property
Article 10 of DRMC
Freedom of religious belief
Article 13 of DRMC
Taxation = proportional to one’s means
Article 11 of DRMC
Freedom of speech
Article 6 of DRMC
Equality before the law
France was divided into administrative departments
83 departments, subdivided into 547 districts
Local government into Paris was divided into Sections
48 Sections
Active and Passive Citizens introduced
December 1789
Passive Citizens
Had the rights of the DRMC but could not vote as they did not pay sufficient tax
Active Citizen (level 1)
People who could vote - over 25 years and paid more than 3 days worth of labour in local taxes
Active Citizen (level 2)
Electors - paid over 10 days
Active Citizen (level 3)
NA deputies - paid a marc d’argent = 54 days
% of French who could now vote in some way
61% (compared to 4% in England)
Three new direct taxes introduced
January 1791
- contribution foncière - land tax with NO EXEMPTIONS
- contribution mobilière - tax on movable goods
- patente - tax on commercial profits
Free grain trade introduced
August 1789
Internal tariffs abolished
October 1790
Guilds abolished
1791
Le Chapelier Law
June 1791 - forbade trade unions
Number of Parisian workers
80,000
Committee for the Poor and Needy
Est. 1791 - recognised there were 2 million beggars but did nothing to help them
New legal system
Justice of Peace in each canton (act as a mediator or a judge in minor civil cases)
District Court - serious civil cases
Criminal Court in each department - trial in public with a jury
Court of Appeal - highest court
New Penal Code
Torture and mutilation abolished - punishments were made more humane
Number of capital crimes vastly reduced
LA approved use of the guillotine
March 1792
System of judicial appointments
Judges were elected by active citizens who had been lawyers for at least 5 years
Loyal Flanders regiment banquet at Versailles
1 October 1789
October Days
5-6 October 1789
Crowd of 6/7000 women stormed the Hotel de Ville demanding bread
Then marched 5km to Versailles
20,000 NG followed these women
Bread prices had risen
4 sous by the October Days
Impact of the October Days
Louis was forced to agree to providing Paris with bread
Louis was forced to accept the DRMC and August Decrees
Louis was forced to come to Paris (6 October)
Nationalisation of Church Land
2 November 1789
Sale of biens nationaux raised…
400 million livres
Civil Constitution of the Clergy (date)
12 July 1790
CCC - 4 main terms
- Each department would form a single diocese (number of dioceses thus reduced from 135 to 83)
- Bishops that had not been approved by the French state would not be recognised
- Priests and bishops would be elected
- Priests would be paid by the state
Reaction of the Church to the CCC
Generally accepting (except the idea of elections) Asked the Pope for his advice (which took ages)
La Fête de la Fédération
14 July 1790 - celebrations, huge show of public unity throughout France
La Fête de la Fédération celebration in Paris
Champ de Mars - Bishop of Autun (Talleyrand) gave a mass with 300 priests
Louis and MA swore that they would uphold the Constitution
Delegates from Anjou and Brittany declared themselves…
‘citizens of one and the same community’ (ideas of fraternité and federations)
Oath of Loyalty
27 November 1790 - forced the clergy to take an oath of loyalty to the CCC
% of people who took oath of loyalty
55% of priests and 7 bishops
Pope condemned CCC
March and April 1791
Many retracted their oaths
Church in France became split
Juring Church - tied to the Revolution
Non-juring Church - still tied to Rome (also known as refractory priests)
LA passes a decree against refractory priests
27 May 1792 - refractory priests could be deported if 20 people denounced them
Louis’ explanation for the Flight to Varennes
‘Declaration to all Frenchmen’ - given to NA upon his return
- Scared for his and his family’s safety (October Days, Day of Daggers)
- Many others had already fled
Flight to Varennes
20 June 1791 (two years after Tennis Court Oath)
Day of Daggers
28 February 1791 - nobles with daggers tried to free Louis from the Tuileries
Number of emigres
1791, 20,000 had fled to Austrian Netherlands or Holy Roman Empire
Cordeliers petition for the King’s dismissal (march on NA)
24 June 1791
30,000 sans-culottes
NA votes to suspend the King
16 July 1791
King reinstated
When he signs the Constitution (14 September 1791)
Jacobin club splits following FTV
Constitutional monarchists = Feuillants
Robespierre remained in charge of a smaller group of radicals (Jacobins/Montagnards)
Champ de Mars Massacre
17 July 1791
50,000 san-culottes to sign a republican petition (which 6000 others had already signed) on the altar of the fatherland
NG fired on this peaceful, unarmed guard and killed 50
Effect of the Champ de Mars
Commune declared martial law
Some popular leaders were arrested, others went into hiding (Danton and Marat)
Primacy of the Moderates - could now reach a compromise with the King without the threat of mob-violence (sans-culottes had been subdued for now)
Constitution of 1791 - LA
14 September 1791
Replaced the NA with LA (745 deputies, elected every 2 years)
LA controlled foreign policy
King’s power under the 1791 Constitution
King had a suspensive veto (up to 4 years but not on financial matters)
King was subject to the LA’s laws
Became ‘King of the French’ rather than ‘King of France and Navarre’ - important symbolic change
Appointed his own ministers and military commanders
MA reaction to the constitution of 1791
‘so monstrous that it cannot survive for long’
First meeting of the LA
1 October 1791
Elections to the LA
29 August - 5 September 1791
Under 1/4 of active citizens voted
Breakdown of the LA (745 deputies overall)
264 constitutional monarchists 345 independents (the Plain) 136 Jacobins and Girondins
LA laws on counter-revolution
9 November 1791 - emigres who did not return to France by 1792 would forfeit their property and be regarded as traitors
29 November 1791 - all non-juring priests were to be seen as suspects
France declared war on Austria
20 April 1792
Declaration of Pillnitz
27 August 1791 - stated Austria and Prussia were prepared to use force to restore Louis to his rightful throne
Austria/Prussia alliance
7 February 1792
Impact of Pillnitz
LA did not debate it
Mainly ignored in newspapers
MA wrote to her brother (Leopold II) about war
September 1791 - ‘only armed forces can put things right’
Louis replaced his ministers with more radical and pro-war ones
March 1792 - dismisses Feuillant ministers and replaced them with Girondin ones who support war
Austrian Committee
Fears that MA’s advisors were controlling the countries’ policies and making counter-revolutionary plots - made people want war even more
Brissot began campaigning for war
October 1791 (wanted to export the Revolution and test Louis’ loyalty)
Number of LA deputies who voted against war
Only 7 out of 745
Lafayette and Dumouriez
Military men who wanted to use a war to bring about the stability that the Revolution had not thus far
Wanted to get personal recognition as well
Lafayette defects
17 August 1792
Dumouriez defects
April 1793
Cordeliers founded
April 1790
Supported measures favoured by the sans-culottes (right to insurrection, direct democracy, more radical change)
Marat’s newspaper
L’Ami du Peuple
Cordeliers = lots of sans-culottes petitions
After FTV (24 June 1791, 30,000) Champ de Mars (17 July 1791)
Number of Jacobins by July 1790
1200 members in Paris
152 affiliated clubs across France
Jacobins lowered their entrance fees
October 1791 - meant that ordinary Parisians joined (influx of artisans and shopkeepers)
Number of speeches made by Robespierre in the Jacobin Club
June 1791 - August 1792, around 100 speeches
Robespierre made a speech in which he stated that now was the time to dismiss the King and abandon the Constitution of 1791
29 July 1792 (helped cause the 10 August journée)
Manifesto left by Louis during FTV
Stated that he did not believe the NA was suitable to govern France - made people see Louis as a counter-revolutionary
Louis vetoed LA’s new decrees
19 June 1792
Refused a camp for 20,000 federes
Refused to accept deportation of non-juring priests
Louis dismissed his Girondin ministers
13 June 1792 - refused to reinstate them, even after the last peaceful journée on 20 June 1792
20 June journée
Last peaceful journée
8000 poured into the Tuileries but the King refused to revoke his vetoes
10 August journée
Storming of the Tuileries
Then went to the LA
Storming of the Tuileries (10 August journée)
NG defending the King defected
300 Parisians were killed/wounded
Only 282 LA deputies were left (rest fled)
Sugar price inflation
3 livres for a pound of sugar, people were demanding 25 sous
Demands of the sans-culottes during the 10 August journée
Forced LA to recognise revolutionary Commune
Hand over the King (who was then imprisoned in the Temple)
Accept the election of a National Convention by universal male suffrage and a new constitution
King was suspended by LA
10 August 1792 (as a result of the journée)
Revolutionary Commune set up by the sans-culottes in the Hotel de Ville
9 August 1792 (day before the journée)
NC meets for the first time
20 September 1792
Monarchy abolished by NC and France is declared a republic
21 September 1792
September Massacres
September 1792
Marat called on sans-culottes to kill counter-revolutionaries in the prisons
Victims of the September Massacres
1100-1400 of the 2600 prisoners in Paris prisons
Only 1/4 of those killed were priests or nobles (most were common criminals)
Impact of the September Massacres on tensions in the NC
Exacerbated Girondin hatred of the Jacobins/Cordeliers/sans-culottes (saw them as buveurs de sang)
Enemy army was 60 miles from Paris at Verdun
August 1792
Number of men in the army in 1791
150,000 men
Impact of emigres/desertions on the army
French army had lost 6000 officers (as they fled as emigres)
Instability and mutiny in the army
French troops invaded Austrian Netherlands but then retreated to Lille and killed their commanders
Brunswick Manifesto
Drafted by Count Fersen (who helped FTV) and Commander-in-Chief of the Austro-Prussian armies
Published in Paris on 1 August 1792
Stated that ‘exemplary violence’ would be inflicted on Paris if the royal family were harmed
MA betrayal of France
Sent French military plans to the Austrians
‘La patrie en danger’
11 July 1792
Set up a camp for NGs
July 1792 - camp for 20,000 NG/federes at Soissons created
NG was also opened up to passive citizens in this month (making the militant power of the sans-culottes unavoidable)
Pétion (Major of Paris) demanded the abolition of the monarchy
3 August 1792, on behalf of 47 of 48 Paris Sections
LA declaration on 10 August 1792
‘The head of the executive authority is temporarily suspended from his duties’
Number of federes in Paris
July 1792, 5000 - power pressure group calling for the King’s removal
Number of federes helping in the Storming of the Tuileries/10 August journée
2000 federes
Camille Desmoulins’ newspaper
Les Révolutions de France et de Brabant
November 1789-July 1791
Strongly attacked the monarchy
