FTE 4: The collapse of the constitutional monarchy

Question 1

The Jacobin Club was a popular and influential force in French politics.

Answer 1

• The Jacobin Club in Paris had 1,200 members by July 1790 and 152 affiliated clubs across Paris.
• Some of the most influential deputies in the National Assembly, including Lafayette, Barnave, Mirabeau and Robespierre, were members of the Jacobin Club.
• When the club split in 1791, those that left to form the Feuillants Club lost political influence, whilst the Jacobins remained a dominant force until 1794.

Question 2

The Jacobin Club was seriously divided between 1790 and 1793.

Answer 2

• The Jacobin club split in 1791 following the flight to Varennes: the more moderate Feuillants (e.g. Lafayette, Bailly, Barnave) split off, favouring a constitutional monarchy, whereas the remaining Jacobins (e.g. Robespierre, Brissot) took the club far more radical direction.
• The Jacobin Club split again in 1792 over the issue of the war, with Robespierre and his supporters including the Girondins of endangering the revolution by arguing for war. This culminated in the expulsion of the Girondins from the Jacobin Club in 1793.

Question 3

Support for republicanism grew in France following the arrest of the royal family at Varennes.

Answer 3

• The Jacobin Club, which had largely favoured a constitutional monarchy before the flight to Varennes developed a republican agenda in its aftermath under the leadership of Robespierre
• On 24 June 1791, a crowd of about 30,000 people, organised by the Cordeliers Club, marched on the National Assembly calling for the dismissal of the king.
• On 16 July 1791, the National Assembly voted to suspend the King until the new constitution had been adopted. Governing without a Head of State further encouraged supporters of republicanism.
• A crowd of 50,000 demonstrators gathered on the Champ de Mars on 17 July calling for the abdication of the king and the creation of a republic.

Question 4

There was a successful counter-revolution following the Champs de Mars massacre in July 1791.

Answer 4

• The Paris Commune, under Bailly, declared martial law and the National Guard dispersed the protestors with gunfire, killing around 50 demonstrators and arresting 200.
• Freedom of the press was curtailed as the Paris Commune declared martial law, presses were closed and radical journalists like Marat and Desmoulins went into hiding. Danton also fled.
• The Cordeliers and the radical press were suppressed.

Question 5

The Émigrés and refractory priests were a focus of patriotic suspicion in France between 1791 and 1792.

Answer 5

• On 27 November 1790, the National Assembly required all priests to take an oath of allegiance to the constitution, indicating that by this point they had become objects of suspicion.
• Only around 50% of parish priests, and just seven out of 83 bishops, had taken the oath by 1791. Those who refused to swear the oath were denounced as ‘refractory’.
• The Legislative Assembly passed laws in November 1791 stating that all refractory priests were suspects and that émigrés who failed to return would forfeit their property. The king refused to ratify these laws.
• The declaration of war on Austria, (20 April 1792) can be seen as a pre-emptive attack against the émigrés.
• On 27 May, the Legislative Assembly passed a law for the deportation of refractory priests. When the king rejected this on 19 June, protestors stormed the Tuileries.

Question 6

Robespierre was right to argue that France was not prepared for war, and that the motives of the royal family in supporting the war were suspect.

Answer 6

• France had lost the support of much of its aristocratic officer corps had fled France (around 3,000 officers) and its army numbered only 140,000 soldiers who were mostly inexperienced volunteers.
• The campaign against Austria began disastrously, as the commanders of the French army within one month were advocating peace and regiments deserted en masse.
• Robespierre argued that the French army could be used against the revolutionary state, which Lafayette certainly attempted to do in July 1792.
• The Royal family were guilty of passing France’s war secrets to the Austrian enemy.
• Louis XVI also vetoed several laws intended to strengthen the French state, including ones to disband his guard and one to call up 20,000 fédérés to defend Paris.

Question 7

Brissot was right to argue that war had the capacity to strengthen the revolutionary state.

Answer 7

• War could be used to unify the state and justify action against internal enemies of the revolution.

Question 8

Louis XVI’s authority had collapsed by June 1792.

Answer 8

• A Journée to the Tuileries on 20 June 1792 was organised and protestors called for the king’s vetoes to be cancelled, and forced him to wear a liberty cap – undermining his personal authority.
• Despite Louis XVI’s refusal to withdraw his vetoes on the war legislation, the Legislative Assembly passed these laws anyway, indicating that Louis had lost his only remaining legislative power.

Question 9

The Journée of 10 August 1792 was directed against the Legislative Assembly as well as the King.

Answer 9

• The Journée was organised in response to the failure of the Legislative Assembly’s failure to meet the demand of the Paris Sections for the abolition of monarchy.
• The Journée also provoked many of the more moderate deputies of the Assembly to flee.

Question 10

The military crisis of 1792 strengthened the political influence of the sans-culottes.

Answer 10

• The war crisis made the state dependent on the sans-culottes for military defence. As a result, passive citizens gained admittance to the National Guard and the Sections.
• The sans-culottes forced the Legislative Assembly to allow the creation of the fédérés camp in Paris, which ultimately led to the overthrow of the monarchy on 10 August.
• The sans-culottes dominated the Sections, who instructed Mayor Pétion to petition the Legislative Assembly for the removal of the king.
• The sans-culottes were also able to install a more favourable and radical Paris commune, as moderates were expelled during the 10 August Journee.
• The sans-culottes forced the Legislative Assembly to pass laws deporting refractory priests and completely abolishing all feudal dues without compensation.