The Downfall of the Constitutional Monarchy Flashcards
What was the meeting place of the Constituent/National Assembly after the October Days?
The Dall du Manége (riding school) alongside the Tuileries gardens.
How were the origins of the modern political ‘left/right’ divide created at this time?
Deputies arranged themselves on right/left of president’s platform (hence LW/RW).
Deputies not ‘party-members’, but formed distinct groups.
On right, the noirs (aristocrats and monarchists).
Also, the constitutional monarchists (Fayettists, after champion Lafayette).
On left, more radical group, following Antoine Barnarve and tiny ‘far left’ clique, of whom Maximilian Robespierre the most vociferous.
Who was Barnarve?
Barnarve (1761-93) a lawyer who had become a deputy in 1789.
Gained a reputation as a radical in the National Assembly, became president October 1790.
Member of Jacobin club, but opposed growing republicanism.
Broke off to help found the Feuillants.
‘Retired’ in September 1791.
During terror, in 1793 tried and executed as a monarchist.
Who was Robespierre?
Maximilian-Francois de Robespierre (1758-1794) lawyer from Arras.
Elected to EG in 1789.
Prominent speaker in both Assembly and Jacobin Club, earned reputation as radical.
Given nickname ‘the incorruptible’ for honesty and commitment to revolutionary principles.
Opposed declaration of war in April 1792.
In July, however, he joined the CPS which supervised the war effort.
Name associated with Terror, but in July 1794 he himself was arrested and guillotined.
Who were the Noble Faction?
Noble faction met at ‘Salon Francais’. Produced Les Actes des Apotres, a satirical pamphlet which defended the monarchy and, from 1st publication in Nov 1789, soon offered around 3 issues a week. L’Ami du Roi, first issued June 1790, another royalist publication.
Who were the ‘Society of 89’?
The Société de 89, founded by Sieyes, meeting place of constitutional monarchists.
Met at Palais-Royal and charged high entry fee, so membership came from wealthy moderates like Lafayette, Bailly, Mirabeau and Condorcet.
Who were the Jacobins?
The Jacobins (LW) heirs to the Breton Club, first set up in Versailles in May 1789 as meeting place for deputies from Brittany.
Who was De Caritat?
Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicolas de Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet (1743-1794) leading enlightenment philosopher and mathematician.
Elected to National Convention, supported Girondins.
Imprisoned in 1794, but died a mysterious death in prison, possibly taking poison.
Why were the Jacobins given that name, despite formally changing their name in January 1790 to ‘Friends of the Constitution’?
Jacobins changed name in January 1790 to ‘Friends of the Constitution’ but soon acquired nickname ‘Jacobins’ because its new home was the library of an ex-Dominican (otherwise known as Jacobin) monastery on the rue-Saint-Honoré.
How many Jacobin clubs were there in France by August 1790, and then by the end of 1790?
Club met daily, after assembly proceedings finished, and by August 1790 there were 152 affiliated ‘Jacobin’ Clubs across France.
Initially all members deputies, but club rapidly expanded (to over 1,000 by the end of 1790).
Who made up most of their membership initially, and why?
Members predominantly bourgeoisie, as fees high.
Why did this change from October 1791?
However, club adopted more radical position after 1791 (leading to Feuillant break-away in July).
Fees reduced, and from October 1791, artisans and shopkeepers joined in large numbers.
Where did the Cordeliers Club meet, and from where did it get its name?
The Cordeliers Club (LW) began as the société des Amis des Droits de L’Homme et du Citoyen, in April 1790.
Took nickname too from place where it met: a former Franciscan monastery on the rue de cordeliers.
Where did it move to?
Relocated in May 1791 to Sall du Musée on rue Dauphine, but kept old name.
What did the Cordelier Club wish to do, and what was its’ membership?
Claimed to protect citizen’s rights and keep a watch on the activities of the assembly.
The entry fee minimal, membership open to all, including women and passive citizens.
Why did it become such an influential club?
Georges Danton and Camille Desmoulins founders, Jean-Paul Marat a member.
The club became the home of radical democratic and republican ideas.
The Cordeliers linked itself to a number of local clubs in Paris in 1790.
These included the Société Fraternelle (Fraternal Society), founded in February 1790, where artisans and shopkeepers met to have the Assembly’s decrees explained to them in language they could understand.
The Cordelier Club was a highly influential force in Parisian politics in 1792 and became the hone of ultra-revolutionary factions, particularly the Hébertists who supported extending the terror.
What factionalism divided the Cordeliers late in 1793-1794 during the terror?
Desmoulins tried to disassociate it from these extremists in his journal, the Vieux Cordelier (Old Cordelier), from December 1793.
However, despite arrest of Hébertists, Desmoulins, Danton and the ‘Old Cordeliers’ followed them to the guillotine in 1794, and the club collapsed.
Who was Danton?
George-Jacques Danton (1759-1794) a lawyer of enlightenment ideas who joined the new national guard in July 1789 and in 1790 helped found the Cordeliers Club.
Served in the Paris Commune, elected to the legislative assembly.
Became Minister for Justice in 1792, popular spokesman at Cordelier and Jacobin Clubs.
Urged overthrow of monarchy.
Encouraged insurrections and the September Massacres in 1792.
As a Parisian Deputy to the National Convention, tried to mediate between Girondin and Jacobin Factions.
Became the first President of the Committee of Public Safety in 1793.
Growing opposition to the terror led to his trial and execution in 1794.
Who was Marat?
Jean-Paul Marat (1743-1793) had been a well-known doctor and scientific writer before revolution.
In September 1789, became editors of newspaper L’Ami du Peuple, in which he criticised moderate revolutionary leaders such as Lafayette, Mirabeau and Bailly and supported radical change.
He became a Montagnard Deputy in National Convention (1792) and favoured establishment of a temporary dictatorship to deal with the emergency of the war.
His radical views were popular with the sans-culottes and he survived an attack by the Girondins in April 1793.
However, after Girondins had been expelled from the Convention, he was assassinated by Charlotte Corday, a young Girondin Conservative.
Why did these political clubs become so influential?
These clubs were influential, both because of the membership of the clubs, which ranged from prominent members of the assembly to humble Parisian workers, and because of the ideas emerging from them.
They provided a platform for propaganda.
They often delivered their views in the form of petitions to the assembly.
This allowed them to influence decisions.
They produced revolutionary pamphlets which reached out to ordinary people, through public readings, extracts pasted on walls or proclaimed in streets, and copies spread around cafés.
Which three newspapers were most influential in Paris at this time, and who created these?
The three dominant political-journalists, all who founded own papers, were:
Camille Desmoulins: editor of Les Révolutions de France et de Brabant (November 1789=July 1791), fairly low-cost nationwide newspaper which strongly attacked the monarchy.
Jean-Paul Marat: author of L’Ami du Peuple (September 1789-July 1793), a popular and influential paper amongst the working people of Paris. It contained a long editorial and letters through which Marat addressed his readers.
Jacques-René Hébert: author of Le Pére Duchesne (January 1791-March 1794). This was a humourous and rather coarse publication, popular with workers, but with a ‘cult following’ among some of the higher classes who wanted to be seen as true to the revolution. The ‘hero’ of the paper was ‘Pére Duchense’ – a fictitious pipe-smoking ‘man of the people’.
Who was Hébert?
Jacques-René Hébert (1757-1794) a journalist of bourgeoisie background who wrote the satirical ‘Pére Duchesne’.
Influential member of Cordeliers Club and Jacobin Club, and member of Commune.
Helps plan the sans-culottes insurrections and participated in turning Notre Dame into a ‘temple of reason’.
At height of influence during first months of terror, but CPS came to regard him and his followers as dangerous.
Arrested and executed in 1794.
Who was Villeneuve?
Jérome Pétion de Villeneuve (1756-1794) lawyer, had been elected to EG.
Associated with Robespierre, acquired reputation as radical.
Elected Mayor for Paris in November 1791.
Elected first President of the National Convention in September 1792.
Supported Girondins, in June 1794 expelled from Convention along with other Girondins.
Escaped and committed suicide.
Why was power fragmented in France by 1791?
By 1791, authority in France fragmented.
Executive power remained with King (Necker remained in office until October 1790).
But royal authority continually undermined by the assembly.
It itself was divided among centre, left and right.
Lafayette (commander of the NG) and Bailly (Paris Mayor until November 1791, when Jérome Pétion elected) both had influence on the capital.
Also influential were the Paris Commune.
This was, to some extent, under the control of the ‘assemblies’ (Sections), established in July 1790 as electoral districts, some of which were quite radical.
In the rest of the country, disorder continued and only form of authority in many districts was the use of force.
Why had the king been in such a difficult position since the formation of the National Assembly?
King in difficult position ever since establishment of the National Assembly.
Authority questioned, lost support of army, Divine Right challenged and subjects showed increasing lack of respect.
Why, by June 1791, did Louis find his situation almost intolerable?
He was a prisoner in the Tuileries.
The CCC had challenged his deepest convictions, though he had accepted it in December 1790.
Political clubs blossoming with increasingly radical sentiment.
2nd April 1791, his courtier Count Mirabeau has died. Mirabeau had been a member of the national assembly, favouring constitutional monarchy, and had acted as a ‘go-between’.
18th April 1791, Louis and his family has planned to spend their Easter at their nearby palace of Saint-Cloud, where they would have taken Mass, given by a refractory priest. They were prevented from leaving the Tuileries by a mob flanked by national guardsmen, whose actions were in defiance of their commander, Lafayette.
Louis’ wife and sister (Madame Elizabeth) urged the king to take action to resist the revolutionary movement.
Why did Émigré nobles and Marie-Antoinette suggest for the king to flee to near the Austrian border?
The King and Queen were in contact with the growing band of émigré nobles who wanted Louis to assert his authority.
Maria-Antoinette had the assurances of her younger brother, Leopold (who has succeeded Joseph II in 1790) that he would help the royal family.
He had troops along the French border in parts of the Austrian Netherlands.
Who led the Empire of Austria during the French Revolution, and when?
Joseph II HRE and Archduke of Austria until 1790, ruling jointly with mother, Maria-Theresa, until April 1780.
Leopold, his brother too, ruled from 1790—1792.
Francis II (1768-1835) last HRE, ruling from 1792 to August 1806, when Napoleon dissolved empire after Austerlitz.
Remained Emperor of Austria, from 1804-1835.
